Best replacement fan and thermal paste

G

gqsafgag

Forum Noob
I need some advice. I have a CECH-2501B and want to buy a new fan for it, as well as redo the thermal paste on it. What's the best replacement fan and thermal paste to order off Amazon or somewhere online though for that model?
 
Hi @gqsafgag, I have the same model and did some maintenance on it as well, but only changed the thermal paste (here in Argentina it's practically impossible to get replacement parts for consoles).

The thermal paste that I've used is Arctic MX-5. I know it is a bit overkill for a PS3, and the recommended one is MX-4, but there wasn't much difference on the price between the two and I wanted my Slim to last the longest.

Hope some other members of the forums can give you advice on the fan replacement.
 
The heatsink matters too, there are (at least) 5 different heatsink for PS3 slim models CECH-20xx, CECH-21xx, CECH-25xx
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Type_5
I never seen a comparison of performance, neither i made myself, but by looking at the design my guess is the first model that appears in that list (with the fins in horizontal, and vertical columns soldered to the fins) is the best

And i never seen a comparison of performance for the fans either (10cm diameter) but my guess is the performance is similar, after all what sony does is to send a list of requirements to the fan manufacturer and the fan manufacturer does whatever they want... later sony decides is the design is approved or not... and the fact all them was approved means that the performance is aceptable
Sure... probably there is one a bit better than the others but in the practise the difference of temperatures could be very small
There are 5 fan models documented: 2 made by DELTA, 2 made by NIDEC, and 1 by NMB-MAT
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Cooling

My personal oppinion incase of choosing NIDEC and DELTA is to get the second revision... this is a blind shoot but as a general rule the newer revisions used to have some improvement over the first revisions... and so on
This rule is valid for most PS3 components until CECH-30xx or so, when they started being more aggresive reducing manufacturing costs
 
Thanks everyone. I never really thought about replacing the heat sink, just figured by now the paste has got to be bad after reading a lot of posts here saying it dries out and makes the fan run more to keep it cool. My PS3 is super loud so thought if some new paste and a new fan would help I'd try it since I can't afford a new system.
Do the heat sinks usually need to be replaced?
I will see if Amazon has those model number fans on Amazon too.
 
gqsafgag said:
Thanks everyone. I never really thought about replacing the heat sink, just figured by now the paste has got to be bad after reading a lot of posts here saying it dries out and makes the fan run more to keep it cool. My PS3 is super loud so thought if some new paste and a new fan would help I'd try it since I can't afford a new system.
Do the heat sinks usually need to be replaced?
I will see if Amazon has those model number fans on Amazon too.
Click to expand...
The most important thing you need to check in your heatsink is the flatness of the 2 surfaces at its bottom
Im mentioning this because one (or more, im not sure) of the heatsinks models used in PS3 slims have a bad finishing in that surfaces, it have scratches in paralell
The best way to check this is by "scratchng" the surface with your nail (after cleaning the thermal paste, of course, lol), it can be seen visually in the photos in wiki, but the trick scratching it with the nail gives you a better "feeling" of how deepth the scratches are
You know... that surfaces should be very flat... if your heatsink have scratches then you could consider buying a different one... or doing a "lapping" to flaten the surfaces but this is tricky

I said the heatsink design i like most is the one with the fins in horizontal, because this way the air "escapes" out of the power supply easyer, in the other models with the fins in vertical the air needs to do a curve that obstructs the airflow a bit
But i dont know the differences in temperatures, most of this small details doesnt makes much difference, it could be 2ºC as most... is the cummulation of several of them what becomes notable - 2ºC here -1ºC there -3ºC over there, etc...

There are 2 layers of thermal paste, one of them is between the heatsink and the IHS (the metal pieces sticked on top of CELL and RSX), this is the layer you was planning to change, yeah maybe is dry, most people uses Arctic cooling MX4 or MX5 (because are easy to find locally and good quality/price)... and for "pro" performance the thermal grizzly kryonaut (the most expensive)
The other layer of thermal paste is under IHS but the only way to replace it by by "unsticking" the IHS, this process is named "delidding" and there are many ways to do it, some can kill your PS3 and others are more safe, if you decide to delid your PS3 read about it before choosing a method
For curiosity sake, take a read at this talk, we was talking about how to delid the CELL by using a high strengh wire to cut the silicone

My suggestion is to start by buying one of the 3 thermal pastes i mentioned, and just replace the top layer of thermal paste, assemble the PS3 and see at which point you are
Right now you are not sure where is the problem, but if your temperatures (and noise level from the fan) are aceptables at that point there is no need to delid or buy any replacement part
Maybe it just needs an easy/cheap manteinance
 
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