Discussion on:

PlayStation 3 without case top - Side (Cracking open the Sony PlayStation 3)

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I was assuming their would be a couple of hundred dollar bills inside this thing, because it's certainly not worth the price.

why would anyone put money into the console it would be dumb

u get some of your money back dont u

you do realize that was sarcasm??

but it WAS funny/cute!

Try $999 here

Unfortunetly it's very expensive hardware, and not everyone is going to appreciate it or be able to afford it. Personally, I am really enjoying the PS3, and being that I wanted a BlueRay player, it was the best deal on the market. I had already invested over $4K into HD compatible components and a new entertainment cabinet, so the purchase made sense to me. XBox 360 elite with HD-DVD player is more expensive than PS3 and still not as well integrated or presentable (They have a big lead on next gen games though-I love Gears!). To each their own.

Anyway, it was pretty cool to see the PS3 component breakdown.

Paul

I cant verify it but I have heard that Sony take a loss on each console they sell. So to your point; it's worth more than the sticker price.

i can..... sony do make a loss on every console they sell and the reason for this is that the circut on the blueray drive sony buy for 500 GBP

If I remember correctly the Commodore 64, when it first came out cost about the same as the PS3 does now.

Note also:
The Commodore had 64k memory, used MS Basic and had no hard drive.

almo

I was comletely captivated with your article. It allowed my imagination to work overtime to ponder how difficult it must have been to design all these components to work together and function adequately under who knows how many constraints and parameters.

Give Sony a lot more credit for what they have accomplished.

Money insn't the only consideration when evaluating a product's value.

Heck, my 1st computer cost $1895 - the Osborne 1 with 64K memory and dual 180K floppies. No hard drive either.

We probably need to consider how far technology has advanced to appreciate any new product.

almo

I cannot for the life of me get that torx screw out. I have the right size bit but that pin is hampering my efforts. are there torx bits available that have a hole for the pin or should I drill a hole in the bit with a press? Let me know what you think.
Cheers

Yes, there is a set of torx with a hole in the shaft. You might try drilling it if you can't find a set, but the drill press is your only hope of not injuring yourself when doing this. Most tool dealers now have the one you need.

Oh yeah! Now I can justify getting a PS3 for my next web page development system. Yes, honey, it also plays games but I really needed it for web page development. Thank you very kindly for pointing that out, Frank

Are you showing PC novices how to make repairs and up grades to their soon to be outdated PS3 gaming systems, or is this just something that you feel IT pros really need to know.

that's the name of the game here.

With the ease of replacing the HDD with one larger or smaller than the ones in both the 20 & 60 Gb versions, you aren't limited to what the manufacturer has to offer.

Also, in images 78-80, the cooling unit, with its copper tubing winding over both the CPU & GPU, is designed in a way that will introduce the possibility of water-cooling to the PS3. Don't be suprised if someone decides to build one as an experiment, and it touches-off a spree of similar units.

It's quite possible - and would be typical - that the drive parameters are coded into the ROM.

This would make upgrades less than feasible.

Bix

The user manual tells you how to replace the hard drive with any 2.5" SATA HD. Doing so does _not_ void your warranty. They also explicitly support external USB devices like storage, mouse/keyboard, headsets, etc.

Sony also provides instructions on installing a 3rd party OS (particularly Linux) and provides the necessary bootloader utilities. The necessary drivers are open source and on track to be included in the mainstream Linux kernel.

Oh yeah! Now I can justify getting a PS3 for my next web page development system. Yes, honey, it also plays games but I really needed it for web page development. Thank you very kindly for pointing that out, Frank!

Why the two+ year old Seagate HD? I would not be happy if I didn't get something current. Maybe an upgrade to a newer HD is doable but I would think some of the "newer" features on a current HD may be a waste of time and money if the system can't take advantage of them.

Doing all the work of dissection and photographs kind of justifies the need for the PS3 and that it was used for business purposes, right?

Since most techs game to relieve stress, and inevitably end up modding or experimenting with their consoles, I think this is an excellent post. In addition it highlights some key points when disassembling a device and those of use that work with manufacturing equipment notes on dissembling a PS/3 could very well come in handy as similar hardware is often used.

Furthermore? Do you really think the forum should only be about ?Standard? computer related issues?

This forum should include random topics, even if your only responce is "hmmmmm". I need to know that there is something out there past microslop short comings and end user fouls ups. I enjoy that someone has the time to produce this sort of thing.

I for one found this article very interesting.

I doubt if I will ever take a PS3 apart, but I still enjoyed finding out what is inside one.

Can't say that I "needed to know", but thanks to TechRepublic for the learning experience - and I'm glad it still worked in the end!

This is an excellent post. I can't believe someone involved with computers in any way would find it anything but informative and well worth the read. Thanks for taking the time doing it. I would have never thought the HD would be of an older vintage.

I quite enjoyed see the guts of PS3. Thanks for taking th time to do that.

Like most of us [engineers], I think they just like to take things apart and see what's in them. It probably seems a bit odd to a manager but don't worry, I am sure they won't hurt themselves (thus incurring an insurance event). I imagine it's how a lot of young folks get started down the engineering path (although now I advise most of them to seek educations in various medical fields since engineering seems to be headed overseas).

Medical procedures are going overseas too. You need a kidney or heart or whatever and are not going to live until your name comes up on the waiting list you go to China.

In '72 I built the first Pong machine on the block from 45 military surplus transistors (anyone remember Poly Packs?) and a several dozen other parts. Total cost was about $15 or so.

Not on the block, actually, as I lived on a dirt road in the San Bernardino mountains and the nearest neighbour was a quarter mile (and three turns) away.

No RF - I ran cables from inside the TV - from the tuner and the main chassis - and put a toggle switch on the TV case to select tuner or external input.

Maybe this was the first TV with an external video input...

This was a tube set made in the early sixties, and I was 10.

Shall I see if I still have this Pong machine lying about (I actually may) and post pictures?

Now, as to my first computer...

Bix

Go for it, old school was the best!!

Bix,

If you would be willing to send me photographs (with descriptions) of your Pong machine, I would like to publish them.

Send me a private message if you're interested.

The initial hype about the PS/3 was that 'twould consist of four or six interconected PPC chips, each provided with an attached vector processor.

In other words, a small supercomputer.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on one so as to start porting Linux or BSD.

Ah, well...

Bix

...calling the main board a motherboard?

There aren't any daughterboards; a motherboard has sockets to which other boards directly conect.

"tis right up with calling /'s "backslashes." Freakin' ignorance.

You may think this overly nit-pickey on my part, but standardised, precise terminology is not optional in the technical fields.

Bix

Bix,

You know, I actually debated whether to stick with "motherboard" - the more common PC term or go with a more technically accurate term -- main board, main PCB, etc.

I stuck with motherboard as I felt it was the more familiar term. And, it appears mistakenly so. I will endeavor to be more accurate in the future.

For the record, I don't think I've ever called a / and backslash.

I apologize bit snapping at you.

You know you've been doing too much support when you start spelling loser with a "u," and you inadvertently stepped on one of my pet peeves. (Good little peeve; here's a Scooby snack!)

BTW, I'll see if I can dig up that oh-so-long-ago project.

Later,

Bix

This article was interesting for me to know how the PS3 was inside.

Finding out the techspecs by myself was usefull and my less IT educated friends, but "addicted" PS players, were all very interested in this small report.

Either you want it or not, you cannot find an article like this in any PS official website, and I congratulate Bill for having the guts to "almost" destroy his highly expensive toy so he can share with us his interests.

Also this was a nice way to advertise TechRepublic's Website to my non IT friends.

Joao

I would like to give author a credit for doing something that probably none of us would do i.e. buying an expensive piece of a hardware and immediately taking it apart. It is really interesting to look inside the guts of this shiny box and follow the logic of its
designers. Although the future of PS3 is not clear, I think it does not deserve such a bad press and overall negative reaction of those who judge too hard too soon.

What the **** is that? You can get SATA DVD-ROM drives, HD Drives. The Blueray player doesn't use SATA.

I might have missed it while looking at the pics of the motherboard , but is'nt this thing supposed to have an really powerful graphic card? i thought that's was one of the things that made it priced so high in the first place. (here's an example of desktop version of the card: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_Series )

That's because it has an integrated graphic processor, not a video card, similar to that of the Wii & the Xbox 360.

made by Foxconn (Hong Hai) in ShenZhen, Guangzhou China. We supply some of the components to Foxconn. I've visited the factory "town" of about 5 city blocks, like a university campus. Interestingly, full of high school aged kids running around working there. No cameras, no mobile phones, nothing electronic can be brought into the facilities.
the entire PS3 probably costs less than $150US to make.

this little piece of gadgetry is not worth what youre paying for.