PlayStation 3 gets naked
New console launches are a big deal for the gamers of the world. Sitting outside in the cold waiting in line to buy one, arguing till red-faced about the relative superiority of unreleased products, sighing a little at the lack of kick-arse games in a bundle deal. It’s been this way for a long time now, but the combination of the internet and the PC-like nature of Microsoft’s original Xbox have spawned a new phenomena - the race to be the first to get a new console and pull it to tiny pieces.
In the wake of the PS3 launch in Japan over the weekend, the hardware obsessives at PCWatch in Japan (imagery after the link) have done just that. Taken the hottest piece of electronics on the market today, opened it, tossed the cabling aside and grabbed the screwdriver. While the words on the page are beyond me, the pictures tell an interesting story about what’s under the PS3’s shell.
Firstly there is confirmation of the apparent ease with which the hard drive can be accessed. Much like the not too common PlayStation 2 hard drive, it is externally accessible and appears to be a standard OEM Seagate 5,400rpm SATA drive. I’m betting it won’t take long for people to start tinkering around with upgrading the drive, and from what Sony has said about this being a computer not a games console, odds are upgrading shouldn’t be too complex.
The shots also highlight the extensive use of heat pipes to cool the system, something Sony first employed in the PlayStation 2. The heat pipes are used to spread heat away from the processors and are combined with extensive rear venting to allow the heat to escape. This system helps the console achieve the quiet operation that has been noted so far by users.
Just like Sony used a PSX on a chip to provide backwards compatibility on the PlayStation 2, the PS3 has an ‘Emotion Engine + Graphics Synthesiser’ chip. These are the main two components of the PS2, and are obviously there for backwards compatibility. One might think this is overkill, but Sony has a habit of making radical architectural changes between generations that mean emulation is incredibly difficult.
The two chips in the centre of the motherboard are the Cell CPU and Nvidia RSX graphics chip. PC Watch has removed the heatsink on the RSX to reveal a package that pairs the GPU with GDDR3 chips in a design similar to that used in notebook PCs.
There is something just plain beautiful about how the internals fit together. Say what you will about the gaming side of the equation, from a hardware fetish standpoint this is one gorgeous piece of kit. It’s just a pity us Aussies have to keep the screwdrivers in the drawer until the PS3 finally launches here in March next year.
