PS3 Optimizing cooling of PS3 Super Slim

[GalacticBatman]

Summer is getting hot and i was wondering if there is anything I can do to optimize the cooling on my PS3. The console is running fine, so this is mostly about optimizing, not fixing any real issue. It's a CECH-42 has a 28nm RSX, and it's still running pretty quietly on the syscon preset, but I decided to slightly lower the temp limit to 65°C. While gaming the fan increases to 35%, which is becoming more audible. Would also like to hear what temps you guys are running your consoles at and if there is a general consensus on that topic.

I keep my consoles clean and I currently use MX-4 paste. I looked up some recent comparisons for thermal compound and it seems like I could probably get a 1-2 degree improvement (or maybe a couple percentage points on the fan setting) with a better paste or try out those phase change pads that seemingly perform very close to liquid metal, without having to deal with the problems associated with liquid metal.

Does anyone know if the VRAM of the RSX benefits from cooling. On the 28nm chip the RAM doesn't seem to make any contact with the shield, since there is only a tiny heatpipe making contact with the RSX die directly. I was wondering whether putting some thermal putty between the 2 memory chips and the metal shielding would make sense or are there other components that get hot and would benefit from something like this?

Other than that I'd like to know if there are any replacement fans or heatsinks that would perform better than the stock ones. Probably better chances with the fan, since there isn't much of an incentive to go throught the trouble of producing such a highly specialized heatsink. A full copper heatsink would be nice though, but a fan that runs a little quieter while keeping the console at the same temperature would be great as well.

Anything else I'm missing? I know some people drill holes in the case, but that not necessarily something I want to do. At least not the extreme version where there's just a huge hole on top of the case. With that said, the air intake of the Super Slim is clearly not ideal, so if there are any less extreme versions of this, I'd be willing to consider them.

Would be happy to hear any ideas I haven't considered.

 

[Luisile]

Install hen and ramp the fan a little bit. Nothing more. change paste to something like thermall grizly kryonaut and be happy. everything else is absolutely not neccesary. By driling holes you will do more harm than you thing. the airflow inside is optimized to cool all parts necesary.

 

[blckbear_]

I drilled a massive hole on top of the fan, temperatures dropped significantly but on the other hand, airflow on the rest of the inside was ruined. I don't know if this was product of my drilling, but my Bluetooth IC died and the Wi-Fi IC sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't, maybe because of the ruined airflow for the other components, so yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.
I REPEAT, I DON'T RECOMMEND IT!

Here's a video I made showing how I did it and comparing temperatures:

 

[Raidmax]

Drilling holes in cases are worthless and ruin the already properly engineered cooling most PS3s have. Just use webMAN if you're on CFW, set the fan to 30% and a 71*C temp limit (72 if you plan on doing Crysis) and that's it.

 

[Luisile]

I drilled a massive hole on top of the fan, temperatures dropped significantly but on the other hand, airflow on the rest of the inside was ruined. I don't know if this was product of my drilling, but my Bluetooth IC died and the Wi-Fi IC sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't, maybe because of the ruined airflow for the other components, so yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.
I REPEAT, I DON'T RECOMMEND IT!

Here's a video I made showing how I did it and comparing temperatures:

Driling holes in eenginered inside airflow is stupid and it ruin airflow.

 

[GalacticBatman]

Yeah, I'm not surprised that this mod is causing problems. If I was ever gonna experiment with increasing the air intake I'd be very careful not to alter the path of the airflow too much. Ideally one would have a before and after test with a bunch of thermocouples placed in different areas (on different ICs) to know how the mod has impacted temperatures across the board, not just the CPU/GPU. It'd be a lot of effort for a console that doesn't have any overheating issues to begin with.

But I'm more focused on the lower hanging fruit for now anyway. I think I'm gonna buy some Noctua NT-H2 and compare it to my current temps on MX-4 then use those as a against the Thermalright Heilos phase change thermal compound (or maybe the Gelid alternative). If the pads don't work out I can still go back to the NT-H2. Thermal compound comparison: https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/best-thermal-paste

I don't know if this was product of my drilling, but my Bluetooth IC died and the Wi-Fi IC sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't, maybe because of the ruined airflow for the other components, so yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.

This is interesting. I'll check it out and see if there is room to put some tiny heatsinks or at least make contact to the metal shield with some thermal putty on these ICs and the memory chips. Unfortunately the shield is not a great heatsink, so I don't know how much that alone would even help. Maybe it would actually be worth it to check the temps on various ICs after all. Has anyone done this by any chance?

As for the fan it seems like 2 different fan variations exist in super slims. It's either the Delta KSB0812HE or the Nidec G75P12NS1ZN-56J14. Not sure if it'd be worth hunting down the one I don't have to check the difference in performance, since they both seem extremely similar. Seems like the options are fairly limited for the super slim.

 

[Luisile]

The fans are similar just another producer. not worth even try

 

[ashura]

also try to use artic mx-6 thermal paste, for my end i got good temps with that one i have a slim 2101B and temps afre on around 66C aon a 40% fan speed or 35% up to 69C which is technically good for my console model

 

[GalacticBatman]

I'm currently trying to collect a good amount of baseline measurements so I can compare a before and after. I'll probably do both iso fanspeed, and iso temperature as well as syscon setting. Unfortunately I can't control ambient temperature so I'll have to log that seperately and hope that the delta to ambient will still give me a good idea of how much the cooling improved with the better paste/phase change pad and thermal putty.

I'm trying to find some reproducable testing benchmarks for demanding games like Gran Turismo 6, GTA V, God of War 3 and God of War Ascension (Maybe I'll add some more like Uncharted 2/3 and LA Noire).

Here's an image of the mb I took from ps3devwiki. In red I"ve marked the parts that I believe might benefit from thermal putty. I hope the distance form the mosfets to the shield isn't too large, although it looks like it might be, in which case I might need to glue some heatsinks on instead. The yellow ones, I'm 50/50 on. I also need to verify whether this is the exact board in my PS3. If the Wireless controller is open I'll probably put some putty on that one as well. I doubt the Nand flash needs cooling and I don't even know if it's used at all, since I have an HDD. The cyan ones I'll leave as is, since they are either not used, or won't get very hot. Not sure about the ICs on the top right. I think the big one is the Blu-ray controller and the small one might be the syscon??

I'll need to check the other side of the board as well, but the image on PS3devwiki isn't high-res enough. The only reason I'm even wary of just putting the thermal putty on everything is because I don't want the heat dumped from the hotter parts to be absorbed by ICs that don't get very hot on their own. I also wonder if the additional heat dumped into the shield might even outweigh the benefit I might get from a better thermal interface material on the CPU and GPU. Guess there's only one way to find out. But even if temps on the GPU and CPU don't improve as much as I'd like, I still think it's preferrable to have a cooler overall system, than just focus on CPU and GPU temps.

Update: Ok so the games that are commonly suggested for stress testing don't seem to make my PS3 sweat a lot. I tried the lake in GTA V for example and it didn't get syscon profile to increase from 25% fan speed at 70°C on the Cell and 72°C on the RSX (at 24°C ambient).

Unfortunately I'll have to wait for the thermal putty for 2 weeks since it's kinda hard to find in Germany. Seems like I'll have to use tiny heatsinks on the Mosfets and VRAM, which is not ideal since they might come loose and potentially cause a short. I'll try them out and if they perform well, I might opt to use thermal glue to make them stick permanently. The putty will probably work on the Cell's XDR memory.

Update 2: For the mosfets, I might just use putty on the back side of the board instead. It probably won't be as potent in cooling the Mosfets, but I won't have to deal with gluing metal heatsinks on them and it should be enough to at least improve the temps of the mosfets.

 

[Luisile]

The mosfets are so eficient than they dont need heatsinsk at all. the air circulating inside is enough. The other chips are also fine i i have not seen them failing ever..