PlayStation 3 Slim Teardown

iFixit: "A first look inside Sony's dramatically redesigned, cooler, sleeker PlayStation 3 Slim!"

[PirateThom]

"Sony is really taking quite cooling seriously."

Yeah, it looks it. It's another feat of engineering, like its bigger brother.

[gamesR4fun]

yeh that fans serious cooling power no doubt they take overheating seriously.

n the power supply is so small you could fit ten of em in a 360 power brick.

wonder how much they saved on the b/r drive now that their making it themselves...

[jack_burt0n]

That big fan will be pure quiet win.

[PirateThom]

The Blu-ray drive does look to be around the same size as the phat's dive, that basically explains the height of the unit, the logic board seems to be dictating the footprint.

The slim is cheaper, it looks cheaper on the outside, but on the inside... it's quite something. Very impressed, was not expecting that.

[Pandamobile]

How is a large fan a 'feat of engineering'?

(Don't sh1t all over me, I'm just wondering)

[PirateThom]

Not just the fan, the whole package they've managed to reduce into such a relatively small form factor and will, hopefully, maintain a low failure rate.

[Pandamobile]

Ah. Yeah, it's pretty amazing how they got all that into that small package.

[Sarcasm]

Good job Sony. Not only have you kept the design of high quality, but also managed to make the console smaller. HOW DEW YOU DEW IT?

And everything looks more organized and clean. I like the capacitor placements. (I work with capacitors alllllll day) and it looks like they're using what we call 0303 caps. The highest quality available right now.

It looks light years ahead of this
http://pc.watch.impress.co....

[jack_burt0n]

@panda

The psu is a great bit of design and the fan is still going to be capable of serious temps while everyday use will be a whisper to get a 10cm fan in there is great. How many matx htpc's have u got with a fan that big in it?

[MNicholas]

This machine virtually drips with the quality and engineering for which Japanese manufacturers renowned.

The Japanese are still number one at this kind of hardware engineering. Sony, Lexus, Citizen, etc... They're all cut from the same cloth.

Apple is the only American company that is truly committed to quality and design. Even Dell has given up quality to compete on price. Microsoft ... well, let's leave that discussion for another day.

[killax3563]

That's geek porn right there.

[Sarcasm]

"Apple is the only American company that is truly committed to quality and design"

LMAO, you really don't know how true that statement is.

Agreed of course.

I work for a company that sells stuff to Elpida, Sony, Intel, Toshiba, Infineon, etc. etc.

And I can tell you, quality is not the Priority of an american ran company. However, the bulk of quality comes from the Design group. It doesn't matter how good or bad we make the product if it's poorly designed.

[No FanS Land]

go and watch the dissassembly of either macbook model. You won't believe how much their laptops are so ergonomic in every aspect.

I don't know if they have a MacPro dissassembly (the Mac Pro is the huga ass metal rig that can connect 32GB of Ram, etc) but if they do, just count the wires that connect the equipment (HDD's GPU every component like a standard PC) it's scarily low!

[Maddens Raiders]

Flip the PS3 over.
*

Wait for it, wait for it...
*

MEGA FAN revealed!
*

This 12V, 1.3A monster rivals the best fans found in desktop PC machines. Sony spared no expense.

[TheReaper42]

"Dual Elpida 512Mbit RAM chips (there are four total on the board)"

what's this all about? so.. how many ram on the ps3 total?

[Ju]

512Mb(it) * 4 = 2048Mb /8 (bit) = 256MB(ytes) as always. (same for XDR and GDR) Two chips on either side of the board each, 4 chips each in total for both, XDR and GDR.

[Real Gambler]

Luckily, the new cell can likely survive with lousy thermal transfer anyway. When I look at something like that, I'd probably wait for the warranty to be over, then, take it apart, dust it off, and surely replace the thermal paste with Artic 5 or better, and definitively do a better job applying it. The thing is such a beauty, but I guess they had to fill the market too quickly.

Still too many screws as far as I'm concerned too. But again, what the heck, you don't need to open a PS3 too often : ) (Though I like to take mine apart and dust them every now and then)

Dang, I got a disagree for saying the obvious??? Well, I could not beleive that they did such a lousy job applying thermal paste, so I dug around and found another take down, where the job was beautifully done:
http://www.ps3news.com/foru...

[gaffyh]

Wow that fan looks massive, almost as big as the one in the original PS3. It's crazy how Sony packs soo much into the PS3, because there is almost no empty space left!

[cryymoar]

but i've always wanted the Cell PPU on a necklace.
I've tried calling IBM and Sony but they don't tell me where i can buy one by itself.
:(

but anyway,
Sony are engineering GODS with the PS3.
And I laughed so hard at Sarcasm's post. That was epic.

[zok310]

At one of my jobs the fans we use to cool some of the units are as big and heavy as the power supply in the same units, in some of the units the engineers go as far as designing their own heat-sinks for their products.

[Guido]

Take notes!

[RememberThe357]

What did they do?! That's like tearing apart a Ferrari! You just don't do that!

Damn... That thing is pretty inside...

[Nitrowolf2]

im pretty sure they know how to put it back together the right way.
if not then
http://farm1.static.flickr....

[NEWSWATCHERS]

Cool...I guess

[N4GAddict]

Should be interesting to see the size comparison with the fat models.

[SuperSaiyan4]

When it comes down to it I will admit that Sony have impressed in regards to being able to put that hardware in the PS3 in the first place the most impressive part of the original PS3 was the powersupply. Given the heat generated it worked, with this new slimmer one its soo nice and neatly put together, also again with the powersupply internal.

It's a shame given the amount of money Microsoft have they did not invest in better tech i.e. quality of components and without cutting back here and there to save money on the small things instead Sony went all out made tons of losses and can still impress its just a shame Sony took out a few things but its still by far very impressive.

[commodore64]

I agree about the power supply.

It is a great achievement to have the Slim with an internal power supply.
Didn't the ps2 have an external psu?

In any case, the ps3 slim looks very well engineered on the inside.

[Gambit07]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[MagicAccent]

wat

[cmrbe]

Sony have elfs working in their engineering department. I am still amazed they were able to redesigned it smaller with no power brick.

[JonnyBigBoss]

Wow, what a electronic marvel. Sony does it again!

[Kevin McCallister]

Can anyone whose played their Slim for a few hours comment on the heat output? I know it's using smaller chips which output less heat, but it's also in a more confined space. My room isn't exactly small, but the 60GB PS3 and the 360 turn my room into a sauna after a few hours of gameplay/Blu-ray viewing. I'm likely going to pick up a Slim this weekend and I'm hoping it solves this minor issue.

[Sarcasm]

"My room isn't exactly small, but the 60GB PS3 and the 360 turn my room into a sauna after a few hours of gameplay/Blu-ray viewing. I'm likely going to pick up a Slim this weekend and I'm hoping it solves this minor issue."

I agree with this. My fiance hates it. Heck, I'm starting to hate it. And it doesn't help that my HDTV puts out some heat too. Not as much as the PS3 or 360, but it still adds to the heat.

If the Slim can produce less heat while playing at full throttle, I might just be converting to a Slim for this reason.

[Saaking]

MS could learn a thing or two from Sony about hardware design especially cooling.

[PandemicPrawn0]

Yes I agree with you on that.

I don't think it would hurt MS to look at how the other console makers do things as far as hardware goes.

They are still the new kids on the block as far as consoles go, they still have lots to learn.

[Pandamobile]

agreed

[Doton07]

IDK what the hell happen to the 360.

[LoydX-mas]

It's called not enough R & D!!!!

[54percent]

I wish I was a PS3 slim

[Pandamobile]

They could have made it even smaller if they made the PSU external like the PS2 Slim.

[kws1065]

The real PS3 Slim (or Mini....whatever)

[Raf1k1]

True but I personally prefer not having a seperate power brick. I'd much rather have the power supply inside it.

[Ju]

Not sure if there is much room left, TBH. Don't just look at the chips, look at the wires. Those tracks are a marvel of any router out there. At these frequencies condensing those even further is very very challenging I suppose, if not impossible. The peripheral could be moved closer maybe, so can the video logic. But I guess it has a reason why that is "spread" out a bit, I'd guess. If they manage to get power consumption down even further, they could use a smaller fan and PSU, too. But compare that with a PS2 and then imagine how much more tech is squeezed in here.

[Funky Town_TX]

I like the big shinny model better but this is cool. Kudos to Sony for a redesign and a price drop. If I did not get a panasonic BR player last month for $200 I would pick this up. Great job Sony.

[air1]

i think ibm screwed micro with the 360. read the book.

[Saaking]

What book?

[air1]

i forgot the name, i know n4g had a short version post about it. let me see if i can "bing" it ;)

here it goes..

http://venturebeat.com/2009...

i didnt read the whole thing but the first few paragraphs looked familiar..

edit...................

im not sayig its a fact obama. im just sayin..

[Obama]

360: The Truth about RROD?

[cryymoar]

Microsoft was two years behind Sony.
And on top of that, Sony took another year back to polish on their console.

Thus, the robust design of the PS3 was born.

And the failure of the xbox360's hardware began.

[clevernickname]

The slim model looks to be quite a bit easier to disassemble with a large reduction in the number of parts.

[FantasyStar]

That's what I noticed right away. The PS3 is a pain to take apart because of the small parts. PS3 slim looks like it has a more streamlined hardware system. I'm very impressed by how they re-designed their PSU. Instead of shrinking it, they spread it out to avoid the power-brick. That's most impressive.

The BT/RF board looks like it's now integrated onto the mainboard itself.

This is my favorite picture in that article =)

[gamingisnotacrime]

The fan is perfect, everything is tihgt and clean.

PS3 Slim welcome to my home (fatso will be honorably discharged

[super x]

boo ps3 slim bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbooooooooooooo oooooooooo

[mirroredderorrim]

Que 80's saxophone porn music.

[cmrbe]

80's porn ftw.

[Sarcasm]

Bom Chicka WoW Wow

[TheBand1t]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[FantasyStar]

The cooling looks debatable to me. They took a step back from the metal fins to a funnel-system. I'm not against that, but I would like to see some tests concerning temperature. Funnel systems are used in stuff like auto-cars, but it all depends on how it was designed. It looks like it's all funneled towards one direction. Mind you guys, the original cooling system was set up so that one powerful fan spreads the heat out from all-directions. Metal also is a much better conductive than plastic.

I would like to get my hands on a PS3 Slim just to dissect it.

[MNicholas]

It takes the air in through the middle and kicks it out at high velocity through the "funnel." Looks like the bulk of that air is being pushed straight through the power supply. Like all the other components, it just reeks of quality. Superb.

[FantasyStar]

The original PS3 had a centrifugal fan too, but that's not what worries me. The PS3 blew out air in all directions. While the PS3 slim looks to only push it in one direction. Depending on the material used, the plastic can act as an insulator and make matters worst. I don't doubt Sony's hardware engineers, but there's a difference between design and execution. For all I know, they could take plastic from a scrap yard in Malaysia and use that: which is very unsafe.

http://forums.techpowerup.c...

And even then, what kind of plastic is used? It looks like the PS3 shoves all the heat to the side of the PS3 judging by how the mobo and fan are placed. One can never be too careful. If someone has a PS3 Slim, dissect it! Void the warranty! LOL.

[MNicholas]

the components are placed differently. The biggest change is the placement of the HDD. The areas that are most sensitive to heat are the motherboard and power-supply so that's where the bulk of the fan's airflow capacity is concentrated. If you look at the dissection to see whats where it makes a lot of sense.

What's important here is not just where the air goes out but where it comes from. Just like a jet engine, the airflow created by the suction of the fan in is just as important as the exhaust. A centrifugal fan is very efficient at creating air movement with the suction of it's intake.

[FantasyStar]

In theory and purpose, the centrifugal fan does work out in terms of creating a vacuum to suck out hot air. But the bigger picture is always going to be how much air can be pushed in a single revolution, assuming the heat-fins are as fine as ever. No point in claiming anything if the cooling efficiency comes at the price of a PS3 that has audible noise that's more than the original PS3. The best solution here would be to find someone with a PS3 and some smarts, give them a portable temperature sensor (none of that IR stuff) and lay the numbers down.

If it's any credit to Sony, I like where they placed the CBE/RSX more close to the outside.

[techie]

But the Slim doesn't need as much cooling...that's the point. That's why they go for the cheaper option.

[TheTruth89]

No...

DVD CAPABLE 360°C MINI-FURNACE, the Real Conspiracy

[Doton07]

*blinks* ._. *leaves*

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

WOW! it looks so super duper clean on the inside and I really like that black covering on the main power block it looks awesome.

[No FanS Land]

Anyone noticed how it's panasonic that is manifacturing the HDMI components?

this is a piece of art seriously it reminds me of the Slim PS2.

What's nice with the PSU, is that whichever the position of the console, there's no possibility for the PSU heat to warm other components.

[Gue1]

Look at the motherboard, I see that there's plenty of space to allow hardware backward compatibility or at least to add up-scaling.

Why I say this? Because Sony once said that the motherboard was too small to add the hardware for BC again but now I see it and that's almost empty!

[mirroredderorrim]

That fan being 'plastic' has advantages over the metal design. Little to no heat retention.

[jams_shop]

just beautiful.

[meatnormous]

The only thing I wish they included was a usb for the back.

[vccd321delete]

Just looks awesome

I wish if my gaming pc had a fan like that, would be so quiet.

[likedamaster]

No wonder that badboy stays cool, its got a HUGE fan. Not bad.

Xbox only has fans blowing out hot air, nothing like this where the fan cools the sink on the processors.

[likedamaster]

Now, to make your hardware less complicated to work with would be a bigger feat.

[Ju]

Stupid statement and so outdated (and OT BTW). UE3 is now on par with the 360 version (see Batman). If you want to do quick and dirty games that still look like a 360 game, use UE. Done. If you want more, well, yeah, do some homework, damn.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

But does it make me a geek because I get a semi from seeing that fan and heatsink?

[W S K]

that´s a really funny coincidence....
because yesterday i searched "teh interwebz" ;-) for some pictures of it (since i would´ve liked to know what they actually changed/shrinked)

nice article!!! that´s all the info i needed

[CertifiedGamer]

Seriously how can you expect a slim system to get slimmer specially with the hard drive the 360 requires, the ps3 anyone can understand why it went slimmer alot of features my ps3 has aren't in the new ones I actually have the launch 60 gig ps3 and in my opinion even the current 80 gig version is better than the slim, Think about it the current ps3 is piano black while the slim is ps2 black, another thing even on the current version the power and blu-ray disc insert is touch sensitive and Now they are buttons I'm sorry but I recommend buying a ps3 now instead of waiting for the slim.
What I do like is that the ps3 slim is going to become the only ps3 available and they aren't going to have that bullshit about one version being stronger than the next and the price cut is the reason I'm going to play online with more people by the time modern warfare 2 is out.