Nyko PlayStation 3 Intercooler 2008 Manufactured  by: Nyko   Buy It Now

My PlayStation 3 has problems. It’s nothing that’s horrible, but recently it’s been getting extremely hot while playing. At first, I thought maybe it was just an issue with the discs, but this has been happening even while playing downloaded games leading me to believe that the heat sink fan is struggling. I know what most are thinking; is the unit in a well ventilated area, is it free of dust, all the things that the customer service reps at Sony would ask me, and the answer is yes. In fact, the PlayStation 3 is sitting in an area that has more space than the kiosks that you would find them in at any retail outlet.

Calls to Sony have resulted in finding out that the unit probably should be sent in, but of course at this point, it’s well out of warranty. I’ve been asked if I still have my receipt which I do not. I pre-booked the unit some six months before it was even released and since then, I’d be lucky to find the original box let along the sales slip. So, in order to send in my PS3, I need to make a mere payment of $150. It’s a bit steep, and the first rep wasn’t very clear on what this was covering. My thought was $150 to fix a fan issue was steep until I found from a more helpful rep that I would actually be getting a new, factory certified unit, and I’m fine with that. However, before shelling out from my Japan fund, it’s important to test other options.

Nyko has made some very good accessories over the years, and after hunting high and low, I finally managed to find an Intercooler system designed for the PlayStation 3. The devise is supposed to help keep the system cool and the option between spending $30 on this as opposed to $150, well, the choice should be quite obvious. So, was the Intercooler everything that it promised to be?

The unit itself is quite easy to set up. It is two separate pieces, one for the back and the other for the side where you’d find the fans on the PlayStation 3. In order to power the fan, the back portion slips over the existing power cord port and runs off the power supply for the PS3 while the connecting side piece runs off the same current. It’s still very easy to access the HDMI port on the back and since the power switch on the back is now covered, it is moved to the front portion of the Intercooler. So, the overall design seems to work well enough, and five fans should prove to be just the thing needed to keep the PS3 cool, but the good parts of this gadget end right here.

The first problem is that the Intercooler, running off the PlayStation 3 power cord, is constantly on. There are enough issues with the PS3 consuming a lot of power, but having something like this running at all hours isn’t going to make things any easier. If you want to turn the fans off you simply use the power button on the front, but that poses a new problem. This powers down the entire PS3 meaning that no longer can you use the controller to turn the console on but instead; you’ll need to physically go over and switch it back on. This led to yet another issue where I had to then go back over and tap the touch button on the front of the PS3 as the controller still didn’t work to get the console to turn on. Yes, I really am that lazy, but let’s face it; the modern consoles have given us the power to not need to move too terribly far, so being spoiled by that, having to go over to the PlayStation 3 each time I want to play it is something of a burden.

That’s just the first problem however. The next came with the Intercooler itself. My problem with the fan in the PS3 was that it was getting a bit noisy, though not on the same level as the Xbox 360 where the fans might hit a decibel level where neighbors are calling the police to complain about the noise. The Intercooler starts out rather noisy, and that’s on the lowest setting. A knob on the front allows you to adjust the speed of the fan, but turning it up higher just adds to the noise, and quite a bit. What I found however is that having the Intercooler in place did nothing to alleviate the heating issues. While it was slightly cooler, the unit is still experiencing a great deal of heat, so the only logical solution is to turn up the Intercooler fan speed, adding to the noise and my frustration.

My next solution is to simply remove the Intercooler and try to rearrange the setup as far as the entertainment center is concerned, hopefully enough so that the PlayStation 3 has a bit more breathing room. If that fails, the next step will be to move it out of the cabinet in a more open environment, though this adds a new problem which is the threat of cat hair, not to mention that my cats seem to love to run around like complete idiots at all hours of the night, knocking over anything in their path and unplugging things as well. As fro the Intercooler, this is one time that I hung onto the recite and it’s going back to where it came from. The money spent on it will have to be tucked away in case the PlayStation 3 does need to go back to Sony, but I hope that’s not the case.
 

-mike-