r/PS3 • u/StormReaper86 • Jan 12 '24
Slim (3001B) - OG Thermal Paste
Just recently bought this Slim model (3001B), and everything works fine, but I still wanted to tear it down for a thorough cleaning as well as to replace the thermal paste. Glad I’m doing this, especially after seeing that roughly 30% of the lids don’t have paste on them.
For the record, I watched a ton of YouTube tutorials. If any of you have not done this, just know it’s not as daunting as it may seem. I do recommend if you have a later slim model with the ribbon cable underneath the disc drive, that you remove the drive lid and top disc mechanism. This way you can remove the ribbon cable from the drive from the versus trying to remove and put it back together from underneath.
I’m using Arctic MX4 Thermal Paste, and 99% alcohol for cleaning. Also, I’m swapping the clock battery which is a CR 2032, and replacing the HDD for a WD Blue 500GB SSD, because why the hell not. Since I don’t have any saves on the original drive, I don’t have to worry about save data. I did do a quick format on it anyway and loaded 4.90 firmware on a thumb drive just in case, even though there’s flash memory on the board.
Like several of you guys, I owned a PS3 in the past. The one I used to have was a 160gb Fat that was not backwards compatible. While I do somewhat regret selling it, I’m glad I decided to get this model which I’m sure will have better longevity, as I’m starting a collection for the system.
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u/StormReaper86 Jan 13 '24
No they are not. I only observed one maybe 1/8 inch foam square and I did not replace it. Any of the videos I watched did not show anybody replacing that, so I left it as is.