Project Heavy Water: liquid cooling a PS3

[mmntech]

Thought I'd start a thread on my latest project. Over the fall, I'll be building a water cooled Playstation 3 60gb. The idea goes back a couple of years when my original PS3 died. I repaired it by reflowing but heat build up eventually kills it after a few months. Obviously, we need beefier cooling.

I've made a couple observations about how the fat PS3s are cooled. First of all, the stock heatsinks don't seem quite adequate. It's got a giant fan but the cooling fins themselves look they were designed for a laptop. Unlike a PC cooler which has a lot of smaller fins, this has fewer, bigger ones. I don't think it can get rid of heat fast enough. Lets the chips overheat.

The second problem is the power supply, which is internally mounted and passively cooled. It gets very hot. The motherboard is mounted upside down so the chips are getting cooked from the back and the front. So that's the second thing to deal with.

The water cooling bit is actually the easy part. I'm sticking with a kit since I don't have much experience with it to buy my own parts.

I'll be using the Larkooler iSky Water 300, which comes with just about everything. I think I can modify the stock block to fit the mounting holes. For the second block, I'll be using a Koolance GPU-200. It has a universal bracket that fits the PS3's stock holes.

To cool the other components, I'll be using dual 80mm fans. With the stock cooler gone, there's plenty of room. The focus is not on a quiet system, but a cool one. The problem is cooling the PSU, as there's not a lot of venting at the top of the case. Nor is the room for an internally mounted fan.

The design is based on the original PS3 water mod.
http://www.ps3news.com/ps3-hacks-jailbreak/ps3-water-cooling-mod-solutions-available/

I've already cut the holes for the water lines. Pics will be coming up soon. I'll keep updating this thread as I make progress. Tips and suggestions welcome!

 

[Agent11]

Good luck

I've never heard of that brand of water cooling btw,if I were you I would stick to swiftech, danger den, EK, Aquacomputer, XSPC, and koolance. They have been around for a long time and have a history of reliability.

 

[mmntech]

Good luck

I've never heard of that brand of water cooling btw,if I were you I would stick to swiftech, danger den, EK, Aquacomputer, XSPC, and koolance. They have been around for a long time and have a history of reliability.

http://www.xoxide.com/iskywater300.html

They've been used on a few of these builds. It's not a high end kit but enough when you're on a budget. It's gotten good reviews considering the price. Compared to Koolance's PS3 specific blocks that were apparently rubbish. There are still a few PS3 blocks floating around but they're all for the Slim. Lord knows why anyone would want to watercool that.

 

[aigomorla]

i dont see how you can call koolance rubish when that kit you linked me to cant use the standards set by our hobby?

Also koolance blocks are all high quality nickle plated, which means corrosion protection in most cases.

Anyhow i know your work mmn... u do awesome work, but if your going to use that kit, please chug that radiator.... its crap, beyond crap, eyesorish crap.
Also that pump... oh dear.. dont get me started with that pump.

It looks like a TT knockoff, and well, you know my saying with TT watercooling parts...

Friends dont let friends use ThermalTake....

 

[mmntech]

i dont see how you can call koolance rubish when that kit you linked me to cant use the standards set by our hobby?

Also koolance blocks are all high quality nickle plated, which means corrosion protection in most cases.

Anyhow i know your work mmn... u do awesome work, but if your going to use that kit, please chug that radiator.... its crap, beyond crap, eyesorish crap.
Also that pump... oh dear.. dont get me started with that pump.

It looks like a TT knockoff, and well, you know my saying with TT watercooling parts...

Friends dont let friends use ThermalTake....

Umm, ok then. What should I be using that's not going to blow my budget? Anyway, you're right on the Koolance blocks. They were GPU-200s in that kit. I was confusing it with the Innovitek ones, which were aluminum.

 

[aigomorla]

Umm, ok then. What should I be using that's not going to blow my budget? Anyway, you're right on the Koolance blocks. They were GPU-200s in that kit. I was confusing it with the Innovitek ones, which were aluminum.

thats the problem.. lolol...
watercooling and cheap dont go together unless the words headache / pitfa comes after it.

I just have problems with that radiator, and pump.
Well mostly at pump.

I and many others have had those pumps fail on us.

 

[mmntech]

thats the problem.. lolol...
watercooling and cheap dont go together unless the words headache / pitfa comes after it.

I just have problems with that radiator, and pump.
Well mostly at pump.

I and many others have had those pumps fail on us.

Nobody said it would be an easy build. Though resurrecting the dead never is. If it's just the pump, it would be simple enough just not to use it. Things have changed a bit in the LC world since it's peak back in the old P4 days. Swiftech and Danger Den used to be the big players.

Remember this isn't an overclocking, performance PC build. How are XSPC and EK? Couple of reasonably priced kits there. Or should I just scrap it and go with a DD or Swiftech setup with the Koolance GPU-200 blocks?

 

[aigomorla]

Remember this isn't an overclocking, performance PC build. How are XSPC and EK? Couple of reasonably priced kits there. Or should I just scrap it and go with a DD or Swiftech setup with the Koolance GPU-200 blocks?

Well if u dont mind swaping that pump out to something else then yea, u can keep that kit.

Also that radiator was not intended to be used with slow and quiet fans.
So if you dont mind the louder fans you will introduce, then thats another route.


However if u were to get a nice thick rad, with wide fan spacing on flat tubes instead of the round tubes, as well as a good pump, you could have a SOLID system which u could always take to the PC, once ur PS3 offically kicked the can.

And all you would need is blocks for your PC.


A good pump paired with a good radiator can travel with you on many many upgrades...

Infact i even made a fish filter with one of my DDC setups..