The Playstation 3 is a very powerful machine. So powerful that it needs a lot of electricity to run, and that means it produces lots of heat. It has a very efficient built-in fan to keep it from melting down, but when it gets too hot, the fan starts to run very fast, making a noise something like a small jet taking off.
My PS3 is in a cabinet with a glass door, and I use mostly for watching DVDs. If the door is closed, then the PS3 will overheat in about 30 minutes which makes it hard to hear, but if I leave the door open, then all is cool, except you can now hear the normal fan noise from the PS3. I did not like this state of affairs - for one thing I would forget, and half-way through watching a DVD I would hear this horrible high-pitched roar coming from the cabinet, and I’d have to either ignore it and hope it did not explode, or open the door and listen to it at full volume until it cooled down.
I could move the PS3, but there is really nowhere for it to go in a way that my wife would find aesthetically pleasing, so it’s kind of stuck there. Adding an aftermarket PS3 fan such as the “intercooler” is pointless, since the problem is the air inside the cabinet getting too hot, and having nowhere to go. The PS3 is quite capable of cooling itself, so long as it is “well ventilated”. So I decided what I needed to do was mod the cabinet by adding a cooling fan that would blow in cold air.
At first I was thinking some kind of PC fan, with an external power supply, but then I found the ideal solution: a USB powered fan. If it’s powered off the PS3’s USB port, then it would automatically switch on and off with the PS3.
A little searching led to the ideal fan, the Thermaltake Mobilefan II, a USB powered fan, with speed control, for the stunningly cheap price of $9.30 (plus shipping). (Note: don’t get the II+ version, as it has bright blue LEDs).
Here’s what my cabinet looks like, I’ve removed the top shelf, but you can see it’s pretty cramped. The PS3 has an intake on the back, and the hot air blows out the right side. So I keep it pushed against the left side of the cabinet, with as much space on the right as possible. It’s hardly surprising it overheats.
So first I plug the fan into the PS3, and switch it on. The fan starts and stops with the PS3, great! I note which way the air blows. I’d read somewhere that it’s better to blow cool air IN to a cabinet than to suck hot air out. Apparently this stops dust gathering in every air inlet hole as well. So I figure I’ll mount the fan in the back, pointing at the PS3’s air inlet. (But see later)
The fan is intended to be external, and so it comes with grill covers on both sides, and a little stand. The first thing I did was remove these, and then use the grill cover as a handy template to mark the mounting holes, and the circular outline of the fan.
I then drill those mounting holes, and drill holes around the edge of the fan outline, and punch out the middle. Not the neatest job, but it’s going to be covered by the fan. One thing to be careful here is cleaning up the edges. Excessively protruding pieces can mess with the fan blades. Just give it a spin manually to make sure nothing catches. This photo shows what it looked like just before I removed the middle piece.
I then mount the fan using the nuts and long bolts that came with the fan (that were holding on the covers). This was rather fiddly, and if the back of your cabinet is thicker then you might have to use screws.
I clean up the dust, put the PS3 back, connect the fan’s supplied USB cable, and we are good to go!
The fan’s cable is actually very small and neat, being flat it can go underneath the PS3. The big cable above is the USB cable for charging the controllers. Note the position of the fan relative to the PS3. It’s blowing cold air right at it.
Results? It works! We watched three episodes of “Lost” with the door closed. I had the fan on the lowest setting at first, and it did seem to still be getting hot, so I turned it up at bit. The fan itself is silent at the lowest setting, but does get noisier at full power. But a fairly low power setting seems to work fine (I think the positioning of the fan relative to the PS3 is important here). With the door closed, the fan noise is not noticeable, and my PS3 can run forever.
[UPDATE] Since PS360 pointed out that the vents on the back are actually exhausts and not intakes, I’ve reversed the direction of the fan, so it now blows the air out of the cabinet. This seems to work very well, sucking out the hot air. While the blowing in cool air did work, I think it’s better this way around. You really have to consider the overall flow of air here, as PS360 says the intakes are actually on the front, with the exhausts on the side and back.
[UPDATE2 - after constructive feedback from the Playstation 3 forum] There was a photo that was not showing up in IE, which might explain the mixed opinions. I know it looks like it’s really cramped in there, but there are actually a couple of inches on the right, enough for the exhaust, and the vents at the back feed directly into the fan. I know it also looks dusty as well, that’s mostly from the flash, and it’s been cleaned since. The fan being bright orange is not an issue, as it sits at the back of the cabinet, and you can’t see it with the shelves in. Here’s what it actually looks like now (normally the door would be closed):
That’s some very clever problem solving. I wish we would have thought of it before we blew through 2 PS2’s. I had heard people say just to not use it as a DVD player at all because of the overheating problem.
The vents in the back aren’t intakes they, just like the top ( or right side in your case) are exhaust vents. the PS3’s active cooling “intakes” from the vents in the front,and through the vents on its under-front side.So in actuality you’re forcing it’s exhaust back at it. you would be better off sucking the hot air out rather than force cold air at its exhaust.but if your solution works more power too you. but just adding my 0.02$
Darn! You are correct, I was simply not paying attention. I’ve flipped the fan now, and I think it will work better this way, allowing me to have the fan on a lower power setting, and so be even quieter.
Curious…have you upgraded your PS3 to software 2.01 and if so have you experienced the fan running much more frequently regardless of the fan installation you did or does it still run quiet?
that’s so cool!
How much room is behind your entertainment center? I am trying to figure out how to do something very similar. I would like to know how much space is behind the cabinet because I don’t have much space behind mine. I am not sure this will work with my set up.
There’s quite a lot of room. I’m not sure how important it is though. The important thing is to create airflow, and if you are pushing hot air out the back, then cool air should get sucked in elsewhere.
I did something similar for my Xbox 360 which is in an entertainment center.
The problem with the 360 is that the USB ports are constantly powered even with the system “off”.
So, naturally.. I opened it up and soldered onto the motherboard!
Required mounting a little pin connector on the back so I can remove the 360 from the cabinet without problems, and now the fan only runs when the system is on.
Great solution. I burned up my PS2 because I did not take venting into consideration. I think your solution should work nicely. The bad thing is, I just put my 360 in the same place as the PS2 without thinking about the venting problem. Thanks for the post, I think you just saved me some money.
Very helpful solution - just ordered a USB Cooling Fan like yours.
Do you have any problems with the wireless network connection with the PS3 enclosed inside the cabinet?
I have a similar setup and the PS3 does not connect to my wirless network any more.
Not really. It seemed to connect fine. However, I’ve replaced my wireless network with:
http://mickwest.com/2008/03/24/homepna-ethernet-over-catv-coax/
Since I was actually having problems with the XBox 360, which was on top of the cabinet, behind the TV. This also makes the network much faster for stuff like streaming photos and movies from my desktop PC.
Absolutely, stellar, this is what the web is about, collective thinking and information distribution, will be adopting ASAP. One thought did come to mind, as hot air rises it should , in theory cool the entire cabinet, av receiver etc as well if placed towards the top of the cabinet. Also have you looked at the flow rates of this fan? do you know if it is strong enough to handle more, and a gasket of some type should dampen the sound from the cabinet somewhat, my 2 cents
The key to cooling the PS3 is to have a ready supply of cold air. The ideal solution would be to blow cold air at the front intakes, but that’s general not practical, so the next best thing is to suck hot air directly from the outtakes at the side and back.
Putting the fan at the top of the cabinet might not work, as you wold not then have the direct air flow over the PS3. You would then be relying more on convection for cooling. My PS3 is in an isolated part of the cabinet, under a shelf, so really the fan needs to be in that section. Theoretically you could have TWO fans, one blowing air in, and one sucking it out, which would give you much more control over the air flow path. That’s what most large PC cases do.
This little fan can blow a lot more air than I use it for. It’s adjustable, and I think I have it around 30% power. It gets a little loud at higher settings - but as you say, dampening materials might help there.