By golly it's loud!

An update on the new orientation of my ps3- upright facing the broadside (so that wonderful chrome ps3 lettering is facing me amongst that enigmatically black background) closer to the carpeted floor, but not on the carpet. This seems to make a considerable difference in the fan noise characteristics, even at full blast running FaH. At this point, there is only a faint whir, and even then you got to be trying to hear it on purpose while the tv is playing and a silent moment occurs between show and commercial. At idle, I would not even be able to tell it is on.

So I'm pretty convinced that the upright and broadside position is a very favorable position, from a noise (and looks) standpoint. That way, both sources of noise leakage (the front intake and right side exhaust) are facing away from you. Being near carpet will additionally be helpful to absorb the broadband signature of air noise (as opposed to bouncing off a hard surface such as a bare floor or wall). This position will also be below ear level which provides further attenuation (as opposed to being put in an equipment rack in a mid level shelf that also happens to be close to ear level).

The only drawback, so far, of this position is that the power and video plugs are not exactly "low profile" designs. So additional clearance on the left side is needed for these cables to feed away from the unit (plus they are also visible).

 

Not only is the PS3 silent (inaudible for 3 foot. Last night there was no display and two of us said 'you need to turn it on' when the third replied 'it is' and pointed to the LED on the front that we hadn't seen from our positions!) but it's danged cool too. The exhaust temperature from the side vents, after gaming for ~3.5 hours and during some XMB use to see what videos would play and to grab preview clips, was ambient temperature. No warmer at all. I didn't check in game which'll be my next test, but even my Athlon 2500 PC exhausts notable heat without doing anything strenuous.

The build of this console is awesome!

 

I have been saying that since launch.

I am glad I own a 60Gb. I think it's a steal when it was 499.

Random lockups might be due to software bugs though.

 

That's very true. I'd only question the health of my console if it had lock-ups in OS use and not games, and where those OS lock-ups aren't attributable to a new firmware or similar. These machines are getting very complex and there's quite a lot of parameters to worry about, including multitasking other functions. Unless you get loads of crash outs in all uses, it could just be normal software failure, and a mistrust of your machine that puts the blame in the hardware. Not that that really helps. I know what it's like to not trust the machine (or software) and then worry that it isn't working right or you're not using it right.

 

Now why don't you just send it back and say that it is unbearably loud to you? Add "random lockups" to that and I'm sure they will send you another one - after all, who are they to question your taste in loudness? They prolly won't even open the package but send you a new one right away.

Dunno if it will work, but I think the chances are rather good.

 

Did you try to return it at the store you bought it instead of trying Sony directly? Because they can't possibly charge you. If the returned article was bought less than 6 months ago, they have to prove it's faulty, not you.
Moreover, lock-ups after prolonged gaming are definitely an indication of an underlying heat issue. So don't let yourself get cheated out of your rightful guarantee!

 

Run it on FaH for a day or more. If there is something awry in the heat management area, that is definitely going to shake it out.

 

Didn't know Shifty got his PS3! I hope I get one later next year. In comparison to 360 I expect it has no noise.

How is heating like? Overheating?

 

PS3 is pretty good at cooling/dissipating heat. So while the air around the hardware can be warm, the unit runs fine. Before upgrading to a 60Gb, my 20Gb PS3 ran 24/7 for 7 months straight (Only rebooted a few times for firmware upgrade and freeze resolution).

I think Shifty's friend has a PS3.

 

Yep. I'm a next-gen gamer by proxy PS3 is an eternal temptation, and I keep watching the price (now £270 in the UK) but it's highly improbable I'll buy for ages as I don't have a suitable display which'll add £30+ to get a VGA adaptor, and I won't do that unless it can show widescreen with borders on a 4:3 monitor, and I don't really have enough time either. Not enough for £300 worth of hardware sans games.

 

Well, you should get a widescreen monitor or telly if you are not to be disappointed with the experience. Which adds even more to your costs. I am waiting to get a really good one because I simply can't tolerate 16:9 to 16:10 stretching.

 

didn't you post the same question on another forum? different username, but exactly the same post

 

I did on purchase forum long time ago. I was looking for a monitor that will serve my 360.

In the end I got 1280x1024 panel because I thought it had good support by the 360, but it turned out to be worst resolution on 360 because a lot of devs make games look really jaggy. some games are virtually unplayable to me.