Old Console Upgrades - How to accidentally, your console.

[Dialtone]

PS TRIPLE:

Spoiler: PS Triple

Spoiler: FAT PS3 DISASSEMBLY

Spoiler: SLIM PS3 DISASSEMBLY

"

Spoiler: SSD INSTALL

1. Thermal Paste
2. SSD
3. CLEAN THAT SHIT

The PS3 is over a decade old, and if you still have yours, chances are that thermal paste is dried up and there's an assload of dust in it. You're going to want to disassemble it using the video above (this is what I used for disassembly), and either using canned air that you haven't yet huffed, an air compressor, and a rag to un-dust-ify it. re-apply the thermal paste, reassemble it, and install an SSD.

Tips:
You will need a torx bit to remove the first screw on disassembly, like many consoles, it's a security torx screw. You may think "Well gosh I don't have a security torx bit", no prob, we're going to just need a really small flathead screwdriver. Use the small flathead screwdriver to leverage a grove in the torx screw against that center post and snap it off thereby making it a normal torx screw so that you can either use a proper torx bit or just jam a flathead large enough to fit between opposing grooves and turn it, unsophisticated, but effective.

You can use whatever thermal paste you have lying around, but chances are you don't want to have to disassemble it again and reapply the paste, so use something that's proven, I have a giant tube of Arctic Silver 5 I use on everything; it's cheap and works well enough but you need to run it for 200 hours for initial "break-in". You can use isopropyl alcohol to clean off old paste, I don't recommend acetone, unless you want to remove all the lacquer from your PCB.

For the SSD part, you are gonna need to remember your PSN account details to back it all up, and ideally a large flash drive or an external drive with an independent power source, as the PS3 USB ports don't put out enough power to run most external drives I've found unless you have one of those double USB power cables, but feel free to try it. The SSD Upgrade works well if you have games that install to the PS3 (ex. Armored Core 4/4A Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 4)

This should allow your consoles to last at least another decade. If anyone else has any upgrades they've heard about or done themselves, feel free to post them.

Spoiler: Extras

I've posted a few tips on PS2 Upgrades in this thread if you want to look into them or try them out yourself. https://kiwifarms.net/threads/game-disk-problems.74058/

Here's another where the dude upgraded his XBOX, I've never personally done it, but it would be a cool project if you have one lying around, maybe even install a linux distro on it so you can read e-mails and watch Inuyasha if you're a maniac https://kiwifarms.net/threads/console-modding.9878/

INSTALL GENTOO (on your XBOX) https://gentoox.shallax.com/

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

There is a HDMI enhancement for the Nintendo 64 that looks promising; though it is expensive if you can't fabricate the extra boards and do the work yourself.

And for older consoles (see: good consoles) there are always a/v upgrades that are pretty straightforward to accomplish.

https://www.retrorgb.com/ultrahdmi.html

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Well since at least three of you are reasonably interested in this stuff, check this out as well if you're interested in Famicom tomfoolery: https://famicomworld.com/workshop/

It is a crying shame that ASSEMbler Games closed down. Faggot Admin being a faggot and all that. But here's the archive: https://www.assembler-games.com/ (this is a god-tier resource unless you're Ben Heck)

 

[Dialtone]

There is a HDMI enhancement for the Nintendo 64 that looks promising; though it is expensive if you can't fabricate the extra boards and do the work yourself.

And for older consoles (see: good consoles) there are always a/v upgrades that are pretty straightforward to accomplish.

https://www.retrorgb.com/ultrahdmi.html

Very cool, I didn't know the N64 could be made to output that resolution, makes me wish I still had my N64 so I could give it a try. There's some backlight mods and rechargeable battery pack mods for the GBA I've been considering doing, but it's just expensive enough that I don't think it's worth it when the GBA SP and Micro exist, as well as the numerous emulators that can be installed on other portable systems like the PSP,and even the Raspberry Pi cases and operating systems that achieve the same result.

 

[FuckedUp]

RGB mod your NES you dumbfucks lol

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Very cool, I didn't know the N64 could be made to output that resolution, makes me wish I still had my N64 so I could give it a try. There's some backlight mods and rechargeable battery pack mods for the GBA I've been considering doing, but it's just expensive enough that I don't think it's worth it when the GBA SP and Micro exist, as well as the numerous emulators that can be installed on other portable systems like the PSP,and even the Raspberry Pi cases and operating systems that achieve the same result.

I've done the backlight mods for both the GameBoy and the SP variant. Very much worth your time and they are a reasonably simple way to work on your skills. You should definitely attempt them.

 

[Dialtone]

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

These are cool. Look into the guy I mentioned earlier (Ben Heck) if you are into this kind of thing. He's got a ton of experience fabricating portable systems from existing consoles. It is very impressive work.

I've always wanted to build a portable SNES that I could plug my own cartridges into. It doesn't seem too difficult, just time consuming.

 

[Dialtone]

These are cool. Look into the guy I mentioned earlier (Ben Heck) if you are into this kind of thing. He's got a ton of experience fabricating portable systems from existing consoles. It is very impressive work.

I've always wanted to build a portable SNES that I could plug my own cartridges into. It doesn't seem too difficult, just time consuming.

Yeah, I think there's still a market for this kind of thing, since single board computers still aren't quite up to the task of emulating 6th gen consoles like the GC/Wii or the Dreamcast, and a portable system with appropriate hardware would be cool, at least for a conversation piece and/or a project in industrial design.

 

[Kosher Dill]

There is a HDMI enhancement for the Nintendo 64 that looks promising; though it is expensive if you can't fabricate the extra boards and do the work yourself.

I have it, I can recommend it. Make sure you get the latest version though, old ones need a wire drilled out (!) to fix some HDMI issues. And yes, it is on the expensive side if you don't have soldering skill to rival Hephaestus.

RGB mod your NES you dumbfucks lol

RGB is obsolete now that there's an HDMI mod, with the exception of the Twin Famicom. I wish someone would get that working but there doesn't seem to be much demand.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

RGB mod your NES you dumbfucks lol

No. Part of the appeal is keeping all the other old gear running. Even the old tube tv so you can play duck hunt.

 

[Dialtone]

No. Part of the appeal is keeping all the other old gear running. Even the old tube tv so you can play duck hunt.

It will be a sad day when all the CRTs are gone.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

It will be a sad day when all the CRTs are gone.

With the curved screen. None of that early-00's Sony Vega flat tube crap. Duck Hunt requires it old school au naturale.

Good news is that CRTs are interesting enough that the vacuum-tube hobbyist nerds will keep it alive. Bless their analog autist hearts.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

I remeber this video from like 10 years ago where some guy took the parts from an NES, a sega and a SNES, hollowed out the head of some old vacuum and built himself an awesome combination system. He even wired it to work with component cables for better picture quality.

I haven't been able to find this video since, but I remember being very impressed with it. Stuff like that is cool.

 

[Pissmaster]

RGB mod your NES you dumbfucks lol

I remember reading something about people taking apart PlayChoice 10s, a fairly uncommon arcade machine, to RGB mod their NESes and its very frowned upon because it destroys the PlayChoice 10 in the process

and I want a PlayChoice 10, I would eat a nigga who destroys one

 

[Basil II]

So you be saying the N64 is able to output at pure 480-1080p with zero performance hit?

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

So you be saying the N64 is able to output at pure 480-1080p with zero performance hit?

It's a post process scaler or something that can also add effects like scanlines. I think the idea is that by pre-scaling the output the TVs own and probably slow scaler won't get involved.

 

[FuckedUp]

I remember reading something about people taking apart PlayChoice 10s, a fairly uncommon arcade machine, to RGB mod their NESes and its very frowned upon because it destroys the PlayChoice 10 in the process

and I want a PlayChoice 10, I would eat a nigga who destroys one

They stopped doing that years ago, it was only a thing before the NESRGB existed.

 

[Kosher Dill]

I remember reading something about people taking apart PlayChoice 10s, a fairly uncommon arcade machine, to RGB mod their NESes

Famicom Titlers met the same fate - not that anyone ever knew what to do with a Famicom Titler.

 

[Jean Lafitte 1812]

Regarding PS3s: After you tear it down, clean it, replace the thermal material, and install a nice big HDD or SSD you also might want to softmod it. Even if piracy or homebrew holds no interest for you it still had 2 big advantages. First you can load your legitimately ripped ISOs to reduce the wear on your Blu-Ray drive. The drive is paired to the system so you have to do a board swap if it needs replacing. Second is that the custom firmware is much more aggressive about running the fans and you can customize the fan curves and manage temperatures better.

Use PSNPatch and there's very little risk of being banned from the PSN, although I still use a throwaway account myself.

Here is the /r/ps3homebrew hack guide. Early slims are the best for hacking, model number 20XX or 21XX. More reliable than the fats but still fully hackable like them.

Using my PS3 I can play games like Scott Pilgrim and Shovel Knight on a CRT, but it unfortunately has the 480i shimmer compared to real retro consoles' chad 240p.