how good is the 80gb thermal paste on ps3?

[melodicmizery]

i lucked out and got a 80gb ps3 without the seal broken. guy said it had no video, turns out he didnt have it in hd mode lol

anyways ive taken apart alot of 40s, 60s and 20s and always re did the thermal paste because there was barely any on it, but never a 80

did the thermal paste change at all? im cleaning the dust out and im wondering if i should put some arctic silver on it while its open, or if they put better paste on it by the 80 by any chance? i wont be using this system much, prob almost not at all since i have 7 others

[DaivRules]

If you’ve got it open and have the stuff, change the paste. It’ll be pretty old at this point and was likely the same stuff as the other OG PS3s. 

[melodicmizery]

9 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

If you’ve got it open and have the stuff, change the paste. It’ll be pretty old at this point and was likely the same stuff as the other OG PS3s. 

thanks your right, i didnt even think of the age

[Helyx]

Thermal paste isn't the main issue to be concerned about, but it's certainly worth replacing while it's open (at least 10 W/mK).

 

The big issue is the lead-free solder Sony used after the original PS3s. A full reball is pretty hard to do yourself, and is quite costly from a repair shop.

[DaivRules]

32 minutes ago, Helyx said:

The big issue is the lead-free solder Sony used after the original PS3s.

The more research I have done into this, the less I think that the solder was/is a problem and there are a couple other chips (I need to look up which ones) that were probably the biggest contributor to all the YLODs. 

[melodicmizery]

yah it was pretty bad, felt like cement lol. i pretty much had to do it anyways to get to the fan i realized. 

the ylods were a combination of either the sodder, or the token chips. if a reball dont work it seems like token replacement chips work. but apaprently the more you heat the board you can warp it or make other parts loose. ive tried heat guns with no success. never tried a reball or token chip replacement nobody does it near me and not worth sending out.

i have quite a bit of ps3 consoles

-my main 60gb chrome launch, main ps3 i use. still going strong. clean it yearly. had to replace power unit once. fully upgraded the hard drive

-super slim, bought brand new. i use this as my other main to save on the wear and tear of my 60gb. 
- slim, bought this when buybacks was going out of business for $70. i use it for netflix, music, movies in my bedroom

-40gb. my friend got this at a garage sale for me. was still sealed and only had cod on it. minimum use. put it in my spare bedroom for guests

-80gb, the one i was talking about today, got it off ebay

-40gb bricked ylod, bought this refurbished at gamestop. bricked in 2 years on minimal use. only bought it because of the ps3 shortage at the time

-20gb bricked ylod, a friend gave this to me to fix. temp had it running for 3 days then bricked. he let me keep it for parts

-40gb bricked ylod, something i bought off ebay for parts. tried to fix, no success.

also got launch ps4, ps4 pro and psvr

and i wont get into the older consoles. ps3 really has a place in my soul because it got me through alot of depression when i was younger. and i like the media capabilities. 

Edited November 1, 2020 by melodicmizery