Sony’s original PS3 consoles were built to do everything. With built in support for PS1, PS2, and PS3 games, in addition to a Blu-ray player, the launch PS3 models were very versatile. Last November I bought a CECHA01 system, the original 60GB fat model, from eBay for a little over $50, less than 9% of what the original MSRP was back in 2006.

While I did know that the original Xbox 360s had reliability issues, I didn’t know that the original PS3s were also so prone to failure. In an effort to keep my PS3 running for a long time I’m modding the system to run as cool and quietly as possible. This is the introduction to a series of blog posts documenting my experiences restoring and modifying my original PS3.

Topics

Here’s a short list of topics, in no particular order, that I’m planning to cover:

• Console teardown, and reassembly.
• Downgrading the console to 3.55 official firmware.
• Custom firmware installation.
• Playing online with custom firmware.
• Case cooling mods.
• Delidding the PS3’s CPU and GPU to reapply thermal paste.
• Thermal pad replacement.
• Powering the PS3 with an external ATX computer power supply.
• Manual hardware fan speed control.
• External temperature display.
• Mounting inside of a computer case.
• Water cooling.

For an up to date listing of topics that I have covered, see my projects page.

• Category: CECHA01 PS3 project, Consoles, PlayStation 3