Video: water-cooled PS3 laptop mod

E

Emil

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PS3Hax member Pirate has finished his water-cooled laptop mod of the Sony PlayStation 3. It took him three years to design and build because he did not follow any tutorials (nor will he be providing one).

This is Pirate's second PS3 portable, which he has officially dubbed "Pirate's PS3 Water-cooled Portable/Laptop." The water cooling system replaces the stock heatsinks in his first mod, allowing for a slimmer design that can fit in a smaller case, as you can see in the video below. The case, which is made of an aluminum base plate and sintra/komatex, was constructed from scratch. It was routed via CNC machines with designs created in Adobe Illustrator. Here are the mod's features, according to Pirate:

  • Water-cooled with easy accessible reservoir
  • HD: 720p/1080i screen (via HDMI)
  • Four USB ports
  • 500GB HDD
  • External PSU
  • Built-in keyboard
  • Built-in speakers with volume controls and a 2.5mm headphone jack
  • The stock PS3 is a 40GB SKU (there was no PS3 slim when the project was started)
  • Dimensions are 16.75" x 13" x 2.5" (16.75" x 13" x 3.5" with lid closed)
  • Weighs about 15lbs

A small quirk is that the PS3 game disc has to go in backwards. This was the only way to get the drive to fit inside the case without having to manually extend the PS3 Blu-ray ribbon cable.

The mod has been posted on eBay with an asking price of $0.99. Multiple bids have already placed it in the hundreds, unsurprisingly higher than the PS3's retail price.

Pirate is not looking to make a profit – he is promising that after accounting for costs, a portion of the selling price will go to server expenses at PS3Hax, with another portion dedicated to tornado relief efforts in Joplin, Missouri. Because of this, I'm tempted to bid up the price myself, even though I'm not sure what I would do with it if I accidentally ended up being the winning bidder.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/43996-video-water-cooled-ps3-laptop-mod.html

 
Is there any point to it? It looks like a 10-15 year old laptop with the graphics to match.

Grab a $1K laptop and a gamepad. Done.
 
Good one, would be a ton better if not for all of Sony's PR disasters.

Compliments to the modder, impecable work.
 
st1ckm4n said:
Is there any point to it? It looks like a 10-15 year old laptop with the graphics to match.

Grab a $1K laptop and a gamepad. Done.
Click to expand...

I think this was a better idea 3 years ago when he started. Novelty is also a factor... I've built plenty of useless things to simply see if I CAN build them and learn from building them. I'm impressed even though this is useless, good job ^^
 
Idk, I mean firstly 3 years? I'm pretty sure I can build a T2000 with empty soda cans in 3 years.

Why is the PSU external?
Why did he use those ugly screws with the HUGE heads instead of smooth rivets or flat head screws?

The time it took him just killed it I guess, maybe 3y ago this would have been more interesting.

Also very biased since I despise consoles.
 
hello ...

i know what you can do if you win it. give it to me, it will be at least 1 Pirate thingy in my collection .. anyway i'm sure you won't ... who would!

i dare you give it to me :p

& yes Ben Heck had 1 that really rules, when i'll get the required money I shall hire the guy to build 1 for me :p

cheers!
 
treetops said:
You realize he built a game console ps3 from scratch right?
Click to expand...

Unlikely. Repackaged a PS3, used standard existing connection for monitor, used bluetooth for the keyboard and rewired some switches. Yes, its unique. Yes, it's kinda cool. But no not built it from scratch from what I can see from the shots at the end of the video.

Is there any point, No. A "portable" PS3 with water cooling and an external PSU. Not what I'd consider the most portable device. I used to carry a Shuttle PC and small monitor to a friends house in a backpack for gaming, but still wouldn't consider it portable. If it had a battery and could run without being plugged into a wall socket then it would have been more impressive.

Hats off to the creator, probably more than I'd be able to do myself (without killing at least half a dozen perfectly good PS3s), but still wonder why bother :)
 
Wow, the price is $1.5k with still 9 days to go...

Have to say it doesn't look very portable, it has the thickness and look of a brick. Still, props to the guy for originality though.
 
lipe123 said:
Idk, I mean firstly 3 years? I'm pretty sure I can build a T2000 with empty soda cans in 3 years.

Why is the PSU external?
Why did he use those ugly screws with the HUGE heads instead of smooth rivets or flat head screws?

The time it took him just killed it I guess, maybe 3y ago this would have been more interesting.

Also very biased since I despise consoles.
Click to expand...

I don't see you building one of these...don't think that gives you much room for talk :p
 
He built it from a 40GB PS3 it implied so above. "The stock PS3 is a 40GB SKU (there was no PS3 slim when the project was started)" I mean it's a cool idea but I don't like the external HD, and it looks really heavy. The ps4 is already in development so I would think it would be better to use the grand or so on a really powerful laptop or desktop, than play awesome games like skyrum and BF3 in style.
 
I'm going to have to agree with the notion of investing in a Gaming Laptop and calling it a day.
 
They used a ribbon cable for the BD drive in the PS3? I assume that's IDE. Why would they not use SATA?
 
I think it looks cool and thumps up to this guy for building it.

Dont be affraid to complement other ppl for doing things u might not see worthy spending your precious time with, but undoubtly has a degree of excellence....
 
I built a computer into my nightstand, just so there would be no 'box' in the room anywhere, but I would have the power and flexibility of desktop vesus laptop. I have a small monitor that just looks like a picture frame on the nightstand, so even the computer monitor is unobtrusive.

It took me a while because I have other things going on in my life. It was an interesting adventure, and I learned a few things.

If you have a good idea, go for it. Ppl are doing lots of cool things with the Atom processors/motherboards.
 
If you have a set of crafting-eyes, you can see how sloppy he has gotten to his ps3-portable, Nothing compared with someone's clean-modded xbox360 laptop.
 
Well at least he's getting good money for this.

And trolls are getting nothing for trolling, LOL.

PS: I would NOT give a penny for it tho.
 
@Lipe123 You do realize most if not all laptops have external power supplies right? Its the little black box (or white square for apple) that plugs into the wall.
 
Not impressed... why not show us whats inside, a little how you did it? I'm not saying give away all the secrets, but this proves nothing really. And this thematic/climactic music is really over-playing the whole video, making it appear more lame than it is.

My opinion... take it with a grain of salt.
 
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