PlayStation 3 Takes a Lickin', Keeps Tickin'

Just look at an Xbox 360 the wrong way and it may light up with the dreaded Red Ring of Death. On the other hand, it appears that the PlayStation 3—or the particular console in this gloves-off stress test, at least—can take a pretty serious beating before giving up the ghost.

The gamers at PS3 Vault took a PlayStation 3 console and gave it the fire-and-ice treatment. First, they ran it for 108 hours straight (or about four-and-a-half days) in a typical living room, at about 73 degrees Fahrenheit; other than a small vibration near the disc tray, no problem. Next up? The back of a freezer van, where temperatures started at 50 degrees before dipping to zero. For the 108-hour deep-freeze test, PS3 Vault noticed that movie playback got a little sluggish as the mercury dropped, but otherwise all systems remained go. Finally, the bloggers turned up the heat by running the console in a sauna, where the temperature soared to 120 degrees in the final hours of the test. Amazing, besides the barest whiff of a burning smell, the piping-hot PS3 never skipped a beat.

Unfortunately, PS3 Vault didn't try the same test with an Xbox 360, a console that continues to be plagued by hardware failures—and a poor cooling system is widely considered to be the culprit. Indeed, my 360 gets alarmingly hot in my well-ventilated home theater cabinet; just think what would happen to it in a sauna.

Related:
How to kill a PS3 Console - Is it really possible? [PS3 Vault]