Noisy PS3 - can I put it in a cabinet without fear of overheating?

[Atticus]

My PS3 Slim is so noisey (like a low, rumbling hum) I just can't watch anything on it. It's too off-putting.

So I was thinking about getting a different TV unit with some doors I can close. Is this something you can still do or would something like a PS3 be prone to overheating?

[Kongster]

Give it some room to breathe or it'll be even noisier and hotter. Possibly ylod, too. The newer PS3 slims are quiet unlike my one

[dragonfly10]

All modern consoles generate far too much heat to be kept in a closed cabinet.

If you got the room for it and a bit of money you can try it this way:

Modern consoles got wireless controllers and HDMI connections. Take advantage of that and put the consoles in a different room than the one you are playing in. The distance should be as short as possible, though. Best setup would be wall to wall. The main problem is the wireless controller and the thickness/material of your walls. I got myself 10m HDMI cables (weren't cheap, though) and they work flawlessy even at higher resolutions like 1080p. If you only play games on the console you may be able to get lengths of up to 20m and more without problems, but the cables get pretty expensive. Most convenient way to put the cables is to drill a hole into the wall. HDMI connectors are pretty small, too. You can route your network cables the same way as the length is even less of an issue here.

There's no quality loss and no lag for me. The controllers work very well too with all games I've played on X360 and PS3 except for Williams Pinball Challenge for the PS3, which seems to have a different method of pulling the input data from the controller.

If you got a wall to wall setup and wired controllers you can do it the same way. USB extension is mostly possible up to about 6-7m or more depending on the cables and the devices.

This way you have a gaming experience without any noise from the consoles.

[Volition]

That sounds like a pain, what about when you need to change discs?

[dragonfly10]

Of course when you want to change games you need to get into the other room to swap the disc. I don't have much of a problem with that as I tend to stick to the same game for a period of time. Fortunately we are not in the age of 3,5" disks anymore where you needed to swap disks every few minutes on an Amiga without harddisk. But then again the Amiga wasn't as noisy as modern hardware to begin with

I only know of a few games for the X360 that are spread on several DVDs and even with those you only need to swap those discs after a lot of playtime hours.

To be honest I don't see much inconvience in that. Atleast not as much as in the noise coming from the consoles.

Gaming rooms may differ, but I think most people need to get up to change games anyway, so it's just a few steps more.

[Atticus]

In the end I took the PS3 back to GAME and they exchanged it. The new one is a lot quieter. Hate this 'luck of the draw' aspect to buying consoles these days

[dragonfly10]

Did you buy the PS3 just a short time ago?

Anyway, good thing you got the problem solved

[Atticus]

Did you buy the PS3 just a short time ago?

Yeah, I sold my launch 60GB and picked up a Slim a couple of months back. Didn't realise how noisy it was until I tried to watch something on it. Game were great though, no probs with the exchange and told me to come back if there were any more probs.

[sj33]

In the end I took the PS3 back to GAME and they exchanged it. The new one is a lot quieter. Hate this 'luck of the draw' aspect to buying consoles these days

Gone are the days when you could rely on a console to 'just work', even those that use established hardware such as the Wii. It's depressing.