PS3 Help a noob with a PHAT PS3 90nm

[polyscracker]

Hi. First post here. I've been reading the forum for the last 3 days and could not come with an answer to my question. So I thought creating a thread would be the best option.

I bought a PS3 model CECHB01 and It's in pretty good condition. 93 days of use as SYSCON log says. Not a single error related to YLOD or anything wrong with power delivery, and that's good.

I was having high temperature readings on CELL even at idle on the XMB. 77ºC with the fan at 40%!
So I opened it up and it was basicaly clean of dust, but it had a very poor thermal paste applied to both CELL and RSX, so I cleaned it up and repasted it with not the best but still a decent compound that I had laying around.

Everything went well and I got better temps, 70ºC with fan at 30% (ambient temperature is 35ºC), but I still don't know if it's good enough. I cannot delid so changing the thermal paste and adjusting the fan on webman MOD is the best I can do.

After watching that amazing documentary from RIP Felix about the YLOD on youtube, I now know for a fact that the 90nm RSX should stay below 68ºC to prevent issues and prolong the life of the console.

But what about Cell? I found a post on this forum from RIP Felix saying that Cell is reliable even at 90nm lithography, and I assume it doesn't suffer from the same issues the RSX 90nm has. But I couldn't find an objective answer about how high 90nm CELL's temp can go.

So my question is: how high is safe? I use this PS3 only to play PS2 via backwards compatibility (for PS3 games, I use my SLIM), so RSX temps are not an issue for me. The RSX temp stays below 68ºC no matter what. Infact it stays at 61ºC with the recommended 40% fan for PS2 mode. CELL goes up to 70ºC at that fan speed in PS2 mode, which is fine.

BUT THE NOISE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY! Can I aim for a 72ºC or 73ºC temp target on CELL while playing PS2 games? How high can I let CELL go without hurting the CPU?

 

[CrazyRati0n]

I don't think there is any evidence about "destructive" temperatures for CELL - don't forget this processor is a server-side solution, which was designed to work in harder conditions under heavy load. I think that reasonable temperatures for CELL should be under 75 degrees, but don't forget that the lower temperatures, the better, because whole cooling system (heatsink, fan) is shared also with the RSX, which is prone to failure. So if the heatsink has to dissipate lots of heat from CELL, then the heatsink will be warmer/hotter and eventually it will also have an impact on RSX temperature and other components like SB, BD, PSU, Tokin capacitors etc.
What about the fan? Which model do you have? As far as I am concerned, Nidec D14F-12BS1 01H1 is considered as a superior one (but tbh differences are not that big, biggest difference is that 19-blade fan models are perceived more bearable when ramping on higher RPMs).
Also don't forget that you've got extremely high ambient temperature (35 C deg), which also results in significantly higher temperatures of console.

 

[GuilloteTesla]

Everything went well and I got better temps, 70ºC with fan at 30% (ambient temperature is 35ºC)

35ºC of ambient temperature is too much. Try to vent your room if you can, or it will affect your console.

But what about Cell? I found a post on this forum from RIP Felix saying that Cell is reliable even at 90nm lithography, and I assume it doesn't suffer from the same issues the RSX 90nm has. But I couldn't find an objective answer about how high 90nm CELL's temp can go.

The CELL and the RSX can handle high temps (they were design to shutdown before reaching damaging temps). The problem comes with the solder joints between the processors and the motherboard. Sony used a very cheap solder material, which can crack under high temperatures or by warping of the motherboard's PCB, breaking the connection between them.

That's why it's important to keep the PS3 cool in general, more so with the earlier models because the 90nm lithography still generates too much heat.

The CELL can go to 75ºC or more and still work, but it will start throttleling or even hang if the temps don't cool down quickly (that's a hardware safety meassure implemented on the PS3, if I'm not mistaken).

BUT THE NOISE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY! Can I aim for a 72ºC or 73ºC temp target on CELL while playing PS2 games? How high can I let CELL go without hurting the CPU?

Reduce the ambient temperature as soon as possible, and move your console to a more open space if needed. The PS2 emulation on PS3 generates more heat than normal PS3 gaming.

 

[polyscracker]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Reducing my ambient temperature is impossible. I live in a tropical country and it's summer. Fortunelly 35ºC is the highest it usually gets in here in my city even on summer.

I was not aware that CELL was a server-side solution processor. Good to know. I will try to keep it under 75ºC, even though RIP Felix also told me on social media that, as long the RSX stays below 68ºC, I shouldn't worry about CELL too much as long as it's within the specification by SONY.

While playing PS2 on this console, the temperatures of RSX doesn't get too hot as I've said. I was worried about CELL only. Even with 35ºC ambient temp is not difficult to keep CELL under 75ºC. So now I can sleep at night.

Anyway, thank you again for the help.

 

[CrazyRati0n]

Don't you have in such tropical areas AC at your home? I wouldn't stand such high temperatures and probably also high humidity of air Anyway, I believe even simple fan directed on PS3 vents could help in reducing temperatures. In the day-zero models, console intakes fresh air mostly from the front grill of console

 

[polyscracker]

I know that air conditioning is not uncommon in the US and other parts of the world. But in my country, air conditioning is a luxury. Only people with money can afford to pay the electricity bill for it. It's too expensive. Air conditioning is a dream I will probably never make come true. The best we can have is a fan. I have one in my bedroom. It's on the ceiling.

Don't you have in such tropical areas AC at your home? I wouldn't stand such high temperatures and probably also high humidity of air Anyway, I believe even simple fan directed on PS3 vents could help in reducing temperatures. In the day-zero models, console intakes fresh air mostly from the front grill of console

 

[CrazyRati0n]

I understand. Neither have I air conditioning. I live in Poland and in the summer time we are experiencing temperatures even up to 40ºC, so inside it can be even up to 28-29 degrees. Well, I think the temperature itself is not that bad, but combined with high humidity of air makes hardly bearable, you are instantly covered in sweat.
Anyway, I think if you a fan nearby your console, it should help in decreasing temperatures. Also if you increase the fan speed of internal fan obviously it will help. But you must experience which fan percentage values are fitting you.

 

[polyscracker]

Regarding the fan percentage, I think I will have to keep it at the recommended 40%.
I was conducting a lot of tests with PS2 games, both in hardware and software mode, and decided to do a longer test with PS2emu so I could monitor temperatures in real-time.

After one hour of playing Shadow of the Colossus in a spot where the game runs at 16 FPS, stressing the CPU and RSX to the max, I recorded 75°C on the CELL and 65°C on the RSX, which remained very stable.

That's when I realized that if I need to run the fan at 38% to maintain 65°C on the RSX after an hour, I might as well run it at a fixed 40%, since the noise is almost the same.

There's no escaping hot weather, I guess, unless you can afford an AC or get someone to make a 40nm RSX Frankie for you.

Thanks again for all the support. I'm actually very happy that I got this CECHB01 in such good condition. If it has survived this long, it's probably a good egg and should serve me well for many more years.

 

[CrazyRati0n]

In recent months there is ongoing R&D concerning undevolting CELL and RSX. First results are very promising - most-likely there will be a possibility to undervolt both CPU and GPU noticeably without any stability issues. This will play its part in significant temperature decrease of processors, capacitors supplying processors with current, PSU etc. Currently it's possible via soldering some cables to SYSCON, intercepting VID bit tables and manually changing them, but I believe there will be easier methods in adjusting voltage cores in the future, who knows - maybe directly from the CFW.
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/has-anybody-discovered-how-to-undervolt-cell-or-rsx.38940/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PS3/commen...olting_has_made_this_stock_a01_see/?rdt=42350

 

[polyscracker]

In recent months there is ongoing R&D concerning undevolting CELL and RSX. First results are very promising - most-likely there will be a possibility to undervolt both CPU and GPU noticeably without any stability issues. This will play its part in significant temperature decrease of processors, capacitors supplying processors with current, PSU etc. Currently it's possible via soldering some cables to SYSCON, intercepting VID bit tables and manually changing them, but I believe there will be easier methods in adjusting voltage cores in the future, who knows - maybe directly from the CFW.
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/has-anybody-discovered-how-to-undervolt-cell-or-rsx.38940/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PS3/commen...olting_has_made_this_stock_a01_see/?rdt=42350

Undervolting via software without having to solder anything would be a godsend. Let's hope it comes true. Thanks for letting me know

I've researched and read about the undervolt process, and it seems not so risky as trying to delid the CPU. I'm waiting for a reply on that thread about a thing related to default settings, but I have to wait for a few hours because every single post I make, goes to a mod queue due to the fact that I'm a new user, and the forum has some restrictions that I was not aware of to prevent spam.

Oh, I did some testings while it's raining (FINALLY!!) and ambient temperature went down to 21ºC. As expected, I got lower temps both on idle and in-game. But not enough to make me happy about it because my country is too hot most of the time, so the "cold" weather will not last for long.

EDIT: Hey @CrazyRati0n I would like to thank you again. I did it! The undervolt solved my problem. Check here: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/h...ndervolt-cell-or-rsx.38940/page-4#post-407623