How can I identify a 65nm PS3 with the "good fan"

d1sc0veryy

Newcomer
I in another forum that it is possible to identify a PS3 - to determine if it is the new 65nm CPU and which factory it is made in so that you can get one with the good 19 blade quiet fan.

Read post #55
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=12010&page=3
"You can tell from the model number at the back of your PS3 unit."

I have hunted high and low but I can't find anything.

Does anyone here know anything about this?

Thanks
 
A/V forums are completely out of touch with the fan noise issue - disregard everything you hear. There is no one 'true' fanspeed; environmental conditions, some chips simply running hotter than others, etc etc... all contribute to the end result.

As to 65nm console revisions, read the second to last paragraph here:

http://www.beyond3d.com/content/news/375

The 80GB units will not feature 65nm Cell chips, at least not initially.
 
The fan noise is being blown considerably out of proportion. Consoles are loud, they make noise, and I'd much rather it be coming from a fan that keeps my console alive. Any average TV volume will drown out the fan noise, so it should be of no concern to you, unless you like to play with your TV on mute...:p

As for the 65nm processor, as already stated, it's not in production consoles yet.
 
The fan noise is being blown considerably out of proportion. Consoles are loud, they make noise, and I'd much rather it be coming from a fan that keeps my console alive. Any average TV volume will drown out the fan noise, so it should be of no concern to you, unless you like to play with your TV on mute...:p

As for the 65nm processor, as already stated, it's not in production consoles yet.

That's not completely correct, some PS3's were at least at first having serious issues with fan making loud noise, some described it like "after few hours on, it sounded like one action more and it would take off from the table"
 
That's not completely correct, some PS3's were at least at first having serious issues with fan making loud noise, some described it like "after few hours on, it sounded like one action more and it would take off from the table"

The real question is did the fan fail?, did the console die and forced you to call for a replacement?

One of my friend's has a PS3 that gets the most constant abuse as far as I know of people I know personally...

Basically every weekend his three kids pull nearly non-stop turns or shifts and the PS3 is being played all friday afternoon, friday night up till 4 to 6 AM, where it starts getting used around 8 to 9 am to almost all day between the three and thats not including when my friend breaks their flow to use it himself, this goes on all weekend until sunday night around 8 or 9 when it gets shut off and btw I am talking about back in Feb, March and May, I shudder to think how much its being used in the summer no school season as I have not asked him but he still has not had the console fail or die on him.

So far I think that the best way to get a PS3 console to fail is to toss the boxes from some feet in the air before being brought out to the retail store floor
 
That's not completely correct, some PS3's were at least at first having serious issues with fan making loud noise, some described it like "after few hours on, it sounded like one action more and it would take off from the table"

My PS3 is as quiet as anything :???:
 
My PS3 is as quiet as anything :???:

Like I said, some of them, not all.

Don't know how widely spread the problem was, but it did exist, I'm not sure if they got their consoles switched for it, but some reported it got better over time (weeks)
 
There are some loud ones but they seem to be a rare minority. I had one myself that was fairly loud even just playing standard DVDs. But my current one is very quiet even in this summer heat.

Pretty sure it has very little do with the type of fan (assuming there even is 2 variations). I expect it's just a result of the fact that not all chips are created equal. Some run hotter than others. And the fan speed goes to into higher RPMs as the system gets hotter.
 
Mine is fairly loud (audible gentle hum), but not intrusively so.

Quieter than my HP DX5150 PC was before I changed cases and added a bunch of fans and a new ATI graphics card.
 
Don't know how widely spread the problem was, but it did exist, I'm not sure if they got their consoles switched for it, but some reported it got better over time (weeks)

Again though, it's not a "problem" - just an issue of some consoles not having as cool running a chip, or how they're kept, etc etc...

Just like with overclocking CPUs, you don't say the chip is defective when it doesn't overclock as much as some others of the same model, right? You just simply did not get as lucky as the other owners of said chip. And it's really the same thing here... different Cell production dates, steppings, fab runs... all the stuff that plays in on the PC side. It's the fact that the console is known generally to be fairly quiet that makes people who get "loud" ones upset. But... "quietness" is not guaranteed on the box as being a part of the purchase, rather it's a design element.
 
Ppl complaining about the PS3 fan noise are usully comparing the PS3 to stand-alones players (that have no fan). I see the same thing on avsforum.

The PS3 is a computer, it's got a powerful CPU which demands a fan. As a computer, it is extremely quiet, IMO.
 
What they are talking about is a press release that appeared six months before the Japanese launch:

Los Angeles, May 8, 2006 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that it would launch PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3) in “Clear Black” in Japan on November 11, 2006, as part of a worldwide simultaneous launch ... For use in living rooms, maximum heat and noise reduction has been achieved with noise level equivalent to that of the current slim-line PlayStation 2. – SCEI

By "noise level" Sony are probably talking about disc access, not cooling fan acoustics. Given its LSI, to expect PS3 to be as quiet as a (fan-less) PS2 is ludicrous.
 
By "noise level" Sony are probably talking about disc access, not cooling fan acoustics. Given its LSI, to expect PS3 to be as quiet as a (fan-less) PS2 is ludicrous.

Given its LSIs, perhaps so. But it is equally valid to look at what the machine is supposed to do - living room gaming, video watching, and music listening. A device wishing to serve these purposes should be completely silent, or at least quiet enough to never bring attention to itself, and it is reasonable as a consumer to expect that level of performance from an expensive CE device from a respected manufacturer.

Now, if you are intimate with the individual LSIs that go into the innards of the PS3, and you have a fair grasp of cooling possibilities at reasonable cost, you can see that this is not a trivial task, but to some extent I don't feel that a consumer should have to care about that.

The only person I know who bought a PS3 gave back three samples before giving up, and waiting for the 65nm version. In his case, just remaining in the console was enough to cause the fans to spin up one level, and that was unacceptable for his intended use. YMMV, obviously.

But consumers expecting a purported audio/video device to be silent is pretty reasonable, I'd say.
 
The only person I know who bought a PS3 gave back three samples before giving up, and waiting for the 65nm version. In his case, just remaining in the console was enough to cause the fans to spin up one level, and that was unacceptable for his intended use. YMMV, obviously.

But consumers expecting a purported audio/video device to be silent is pretty reasonable, I'd say.

Before the PS3's release, it was summarily dismissed for A/V purposes by the enthusiast crowd as a 'game console.' Now - after its release it has been generally hailed as excellent, and this weird reversal has occurred where folk forget that it is/was ever a game console at all... yet it still is. I doubt there's anyone that purchases it for BD playback that is at least not cognizant of the fact that it is not silent - or at least a different class of device than what they're used to.

In your friends case... it makes me cringe a little to know that he went through three perfectly functional units before deciding the device wasn't for him; this weird mentality in the A/V space of defective units I alluded to above in this case likely cost SCE hundreds of dollars in inventory write-down, and for what?
 
Given its LSIs, perhaps so. But it is equally valid to look at what the machine is supposed to do - living room gaming, video watching, and music listening. A device wishing to serve these purposes should be completely silent, or at least quiet enough to never bring attention to itself, and it is reasonable as a consumer to expect that level of performance from an expensive CE device from a respected manufacturer.

Now, if you are intimate with the individual LSIs that go into the innards of the PS3, and you have a fair grasp of cooling possibilities at reasonable cost, you can see that this is not a trivial task, but to some extent I don't feel that a consumer should have to care about that.

The only person I know who bought a PS3 gave back three samples before giving up, and waiting for the 65nm version. In his case, just remaining in the console was enough to cause the fans to spin up one level, and that was unacceptable for his intended use. YMMV, obviously.

I have a PJ, the AX100 from Panasonic, like the A300 and A500 it has a fan that absolutely isn´t silent (though considered quiet). I use it for Movies, Games and just idle running when i´m surfing, whatever. The PS3 is placed left to my seating, above ear level (on the top of a big tower of HiFi stuff). The AX100 is behind me some meters, and it´s making just as much noise as the PS3 is. Both noise levels are not intruding or annoying, unlike my PC´s :)-)).

My point is that anyone who can live with a PJ should have no problem living with a PS3, and little care when placing it will help ever more. For example place the PS3 away from the seating position :)

Audio Playback from the PS3 is something else, absolute HiFi freaks that need dead silence during quiet classic pieces may have a problem. But most others wont and yes, indeed they will have access to a very fine CD and SACD player. In my case i still rely on my old CD player as i´m sure most SACD freaks will rely on theirs. For me the HQ Audio is a bonus that i might take advantage off when i get a proper HDMI reciever.


But consumers expecting a purported audio/video device to be silent is pretty reasonable, I'd say.
In no way can i agree to this it was NEVER promised to be silent. 2 HDMI ports, 234 controllers and your own Nuclear Weapon maybe, but never noiseless, not even INQ could translate a Ken interview and find that promise.
 
The only person I know who bought a PS3 gave back three samples before giving up, and waiting for the 65nm version. In his case, just remaining in the console was enough to cause the fans to spin up one level, and that was unacceptable for his intended use. YMMV, obviously.

I'm sure Xbox will bring your friend back to reality. ;)
 
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