Hardware Preserving your ps3

[OfficialFBomb]

Could also install a ssd, no spinning disc means less heat, then remove the psu and mod a pc psu and use that, again less heat.

 

[Captain_N]

Slims dont ylod as much, if ever if treated right. Reballing while it's still working sounds overkill and probably would ruin more than it fixes. Never touch a running system

Im with him. As a way of preserving, learn how to fix them and get multiple ps3's. If one goes down you can use another ps3 till you fix your main one. I have multiple of ally my consoles cept for the wii U, waiting till thenprice drops and the switch cuse its new. You could also invest in multiple optical drives as they are most likely to fail before anything else besides the HDD.

 

[DinohScene]

The same best thermal paste which is used for PC CPUs. I think it was Arctic Silver 2

Arctic MX-2 is a hell of a lot better.
I wouldn't touch that conductive rubbish even if I got paid for it.

 

[Deleted member 42501]

Arctic MX-2 is a hell of a lot better.
I wouldn't touch that conductive rubbish even if I got paid for it.

Any particular reason? I've only done the whole thermal paste thing a handful of times before and generally dislike doing it but am considering it for my PS3 now. How's the job and any tuts?

 

[DinohScene]

Replacing the paste from underneath the IHS is tricky and you can kill your RSX and CPU really quickly if you're not careful.
Replacing the paste on top is incredibly easy.
Do note that your heatsinks could be stuck to the RSX/CPU.

I wish they had copper replacements for the heatsinks in all honesty ;/

As for the reason, silver is conductive.
It shouldn't pose an issue but smearing conductive paste onto electronics should be a no brainer.

 

[Deleted member 42501]

Replacing the paste from underneath the IHS is tricky and you can kill your RSX and CPU really quickly if you're not careful.
Replacing the paste on top is incredibly easy.
Do note that your heatsinks could be stuck to the RSX/CPU.

I wish they had copper replacements for the heatsinks in all honesty ;/

As for the reason, silver is conductive.
It shouldn't pose an issue but smearing conductive paste onto electronics should be a no brainer.

True. That's why I was looking at Arctic Alumina which is a ceramic based thermal paste.

The removal of the IHS is the main area of concern with me as well as it seems to be an essential part of the cooling process. May just scoop up a cheap old slim to practice on first as my main machine is spot on as it is, just fancy it running a bit cooler.

What are folks average temps?

 

[DinohScene]

CPU or RSX ~55-65c and CPU/RSX 80+.
One of two is the main source of heat which makes the fan rev up.
Already replaced it with a slightly noisier 19 blade fan (from a launch PS3)

Tbh, I haven't turned it on for 6 months orso.

 

[GearCross]

I'm still using a good old phat model, an 80GB version (CECHLxx). I can say that the heatsinks on these SKUs are a joke. Laptop heatsinks have a larger surface area than the RSX and CELL heatsinks combined...

I'm using webman mod to manage the fan speed to keep it under 68C as I found that setting any lower will make it needlessly loud. The consoles default fan management is also horrible, found out that the CPU would easily go over 80C. In my case the CPU is the main source of heat, the GPU usually sits roughly 10C cooler.

 

[Burnt Lasagna]

One other thing to emphasize.
Slim models are 100% more reliable then the old Fat models. I've never seen one (personally) get a YLOD due to overheating (though I know it does happen).

If you were trying to preserve an original backwards compatible model, then I can understand your concern. However, Slims aren't valuable (can be found for $70-$80 used) and don't really need extra fuss with cooling.
Set your fan speeds to around 36%-40% and you should be rockin' 65c in gaming. Wasting money on expensive copper heat sinks/water blocks/solid gold thermal compound is overkill.