Tried thermal paste spreading vs pea method on a PS3 last night

After 3 tries with the spread method giving me temps over 70C, the pea method dropped it to 58C idle, anyone else finding the same thing with their old fat consoles?

2 comments

2 Comments

ross.angela1mo ago

After 3 tries with the spread method giving me temps over 70C" - man, I gotta say I've had the exact opposite experience lol. I've been messing with old 360s and PS3s for years and the spread method always works better for me, especially on those fat models with the big IHS. The pea method often ends up with hotspots cause the paste doesn't spread evenly on that big die. Maybe your spread was just too thick or thin? I usually put a tiny line across the whole chip and smooth it out with a plastic card, never had issues over 65C idle. Could also be a mounting pressure thing with your specific console though, these old units are all different at this point.

jessicaw111mo ago

Actually I think there's a small mix-up with the IHS thing. The older fat PS3s and 360s don't have an integrated heat spreader like modern CPUs, they have the actual die exposed. So when you spread paste on that bare die you gotta be really careful not to get it on the edges or the little resistors around it. I learned that the hard way on my first Jasper 360 when I got paste on some caps and had to clean it with isopropyl for like 20 minutes. The line method you're doing works but I actually prefer a thin cross pattern on the die itself, keeps it more even without worrying about air bubbles.