A lot of noise has been made recently about the reliability issues of one of our competitor’s systems. So, not surprisingly, some of our more ambitious PlayStation faithfuls decided to run their own stress test on the PlayStation 3. They put it in a freezer at zero degrees for up to 108 hours and they put it in a sauna at 120 degrees for up to 64 hours — all the while running games and Blu-ray Disc movies on it. Did it fail? Nope. Like the Energizer Bunny, it kept going and going and going. Probably not something you want to try at home, but our thanks to the guys at PS3 Vault for putting our system through the ringer. Check out their full report.
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221 Comments
@Madness3120
P Diddy would, maybe some crazy emo rock star or PS3 Vault employee’s
@149
Honestly, I dont know why, but my PS3 is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH hotter than my 360, anytime of the day. Its also MUCH, MUCH, MUCH quieter, but 360 is really cool compared to my PS3. Is it a defect with my PS3, or am I just one of the luck 360’s?
152……That depence where you put your PS3, mine is standing on near my tv in open air and after 6 hours of playing its not even hot…its handwarm. The space round my PS3 is free arround it for appr. 30 cm…..and its standing on plain wood. My 360 (the third one) is standing on the other site of the TV also in open space……it is freaking loud and after one hour of playing I can cook an egg on the power supply and the 360 self is HOT…….The first 2 ones died on me…ring of dead issue…..
@153
Yep, I think I have a lucky 360, and defective PS3. I have them right beside eachother hooked up to the same TV, with tons of ventilation. Does you PS3 freeze? I was wondering if this is a software or hardware issue, but its not ventilation, because both of my consoles have more than needed.
When was the last time SCEA said we have heard what the fans want and that’s what we plan to give them?
I’ve only heard them say, ” We believe we have compelling content”
Read some posts fellas you’re not even close to hitting the mark!
this gave me much reason to celebrate and justify my console :D
haha and most xbox 360s cant even last in regular environments!!!!!!!! way to go sony!!! way to justify my purchase!!!!!!!!
Not that I didn’t enjoy the PSone but…
How long was it until the Disc Read Errors effected the ps2? I know far more people that had DRE’s than red rings…. just a thought
ps3 is probably the most durable console and the most QUIET ever…
my 360 died within 2 months of purchase… and they gave me an OLD and REFURBISHED one…
WOW, im glad I’m getting a PS3. You pay for what you get and paying a bit more for a PS3 is worth it….
In short, the Playstation 3 is a bloody brilliant console! :)
“… reliability issues of one of our competitor’s systems …”?
Maybe you should look at your own systems.
My PS2 broke 18 months after I got it.
I’ll buy a PS3 when hell freezes over.
I’m glad it will work then.
My Ps3 and 360 are rigged up in the same room with the same ventilation. Ps3 gets warmish when i run it for a while but no issues at all… whether it be running F@H all night or long sessions of gaming.
Sigh..
I have a big floor fan running on high aimed at the 360s vents and this keeps it going for a while 1-2 hrs. No fan? it crashes in about 20- 30 min. on Lost Planet. no joke. About the same for Gears.
Sony? can you give Capcom a kick in the @ss? Resident evil for the PsP? Lost Planet and Dead Rising for Ps3? Whats up with them? they seem adamant about no Ps3 versions for those titles.
Being able to put your game console in a freezer is a neat feature… I guess… But more important to me (as a gamer) is the, you know, games. I’m still waiting for some good stuff for this console…
@magus05
i wasnt going to say anything but since you said exactly what i would have said then i guess i should…hehehe
I think its f***in awesome that my PS3 won’t die…but what good is a system that doesnt die if there are no good games to play
Yeah…you can stick it in a Sauna or a freezer and it still works…cool!…but why does Madden NFL 08 chug like a female dog on valium?….I’d rather have (and do have) a console that plays at a smooth frame rate…check out the evidence…pretty lame excuses in my opinion. Bwahaaaa….”they’ve had longer to make it better!”
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=27671
Oh…40cal…how many people play their console under the conditions you stated the 360 kept crashing?….not many I’d wager…unless your trailer doesn’t have air con….yep I’m back and I’m coming for ya!! ; ) hook, line and copy of angling weekly!
Besides M$ policy to repair for free any rogue 360’s is far superior to $ony’s policy on replacing their exploding laptop batteries – think about that one! ; )
So when’s ‘BioShock’ coming to PS3?
Oh…and Dave k, slight over exaggeration on the unit’s durability –
Environment 2 Back of a Freezer Van: Temperature Started at 50F and was progressively scaled down over the next 4 days to reach 0degrees.
So it didn’t spend 108 hours at freezing at all did it?…probably only did a few hours at zero whilst coming down from 50F, besides freezer vans (used for transporting frozen goods with specialized moisture evaporators) is not the same as a household ‘freezer’ which causes considerably more moisture which I’m sure would kill any console.
Environment 3 Heat Sauna – Starting temperature was 100F and gradually increased to 120F over the last 24hours. The only incident we noticed was a slight burning smell that came in around 64hours at 110F, the console was extremely hot when we finished.
Slight burning smell?!…yeah that’s ok I’m sure.
Chances are the 360 & Wii would have expired long before the PS3 did…I’ll give you that….guess it’s just a shame that 99.9% of people want to play good games whilst not sitting in a sauna or a freezer van.
Nice try…but reeks of being a low blow attempt to diss the competition.
Also from the same site that did these test:
“However, the graphical difference will not be as significant as some might suggest. For both of these systems, the success or failure will depend on the quality of games. With strong third party support for both the systems it is hard to predict one system completely dominating the other system.”
Hmmm….let’s look at games & online capabilities next huh?….the real decider, not whether your machine has more processors and can survive extreme temperatures.
Some stories are simply too sensational to be true, thus giving us every reason we’d ever need to just blow it off, but there’s one saving grace to a whacked-out story: pictures. Reportedly, an Xbox 360 owner was rammed in a hit and run style accident, where his Chevrolet S-10 “rolled over three or four times,” launching the helpless console and a bevy of accessories onto the freeway. While the fellow (thankfully) survived the ordeal with little more than a “bruised elbow,” his beloved console suffered quite a beating; the Xbox 360, its power brick, and several controllers were ran over by oncoming vehicles, leaving “tire marks” everywhere and “squishing” the metal supports within. After the turmoil subsided, this hardcore gamer was (understandably) more concerned with the life of his toy than whether or not his insurance policy had expired, so he rushed home to try things out. Although his trigger arm was a bit sore, the console managed to boot up, play games, and even play back a DVD, providing an assumed sigh of relief for traumatized lad. You can catch a video of the rugged console in action after the break, while hitting the read link will show you the survivor’s tale and a bevy of pics.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/17/xbox-360-survives-multi-roll-car-crash-keeps-churning/
Now this is a true story, As far as a stress test goes any fanboy can make a console seem better then it really is. And as an owner of both consoles sony’s PS3 doesn’t have any bragging rights until us gamers get our hads on the goods witch the don’t have. Wheres the beef sony?
I’ll admit that’s a good story from back in Nov 06. My question is, a console that can stand up to that, but it can’t stand up to heat?
Also anyway we can get a picture of that console when it got the RROD the next day?
I’m just messing with you, this post is completely retarded.
Yes, but can it make toast?
Nope.
[…] The official PlayStation blog is enjoying the good attention, saying, “A lot of noise has been made recently about the reliability issues of one of our competitor’s systems”. It’s a shame that after an incredible first year showing and building a nice lead, Microsoft is getting killed by these reliability problems. It’s a shame that they didn’t catch these problems before the console was released, even more of a shame that they made mistake after mistake trying to fix it in the last 21 months. […]
[…] official Playstation blog pointed out a group of Playstation fans who decided to run a stress test on the console to see what […]
@Swiss Trev: Do you own a PS3? If you do, then I can see your point of view as being more valid than what I previously anticipated. Now, if you don’t than you have no reason to talk smack about a system you don’t know. Regardless of how silly it may be for us to play any system in such extreme temperatures, it doesn’t take away the fact that Sony is saying their console is durable. Yes, it lacks games but so did the competition when it was rolling all alone in the “next gen” race last year. come back next year about this same time and if games are still lackluster for the PS3 than I’ll by you a lollipop
My Ps3 is a Beast and nobody in my house even bother’s to turn if off anyways and it has been like that since Nov and only problem I have had was a Bad Handshake process between my HDTV and the Ps3(I use HDMI),now if they would update the browser, and allow the iPod to send the song names to the Ps3 I would be soiling my good trowsers.
of course the ps3 wouldnt fail what more can you expect from sony other then success and microsoft? FAILUREEEEE
PS3 KICK ASS!!
i leave it on for like….. the whole day.. still perfect!!
BUT… [DELETED]!! why the [DELETED] they moved GTA to 2008!!, [DELETED] can’t wait!
It’s a lovely story (the one about the stress test) but only the very gullible (or those with a vested interest in it being true) would believe it.
[…] official PlayStation blog is enjoying the good attention, saying, “A lot of noise has been made recently about the […]
@P_tear_griffin
No I don’t own one, I went and got that piece of s**t brick the competitor makes the day after Sony fooled us with their price cuts – after waiting nearly 8 months sitting on the fence….that brick has given me endless hours of fun with top hole games and sweet online functionality.
So no I don’t own one but I do work with them on a daily basis….I’m a CG artist in the games industry now working on my 3rd game for PS3 (have only worked on 2 360 titles) so I think my opinion counts for as much if not more than someone who owns one seeing as I get to play pretty much every title that gets released.
Swiss Trev, the price cuts weren’t any sort of joke… you’ll see that the 80GB will drop down to $499 and lose the game it’s bundled with. For more information, see the PSP bundles or PS2 bundles of the past.
@Cagalli
…hope you’re right for Sony’s sake…but I live in the UK where we traditionally get any kind of price cuts last and I couldn’t wait any longer…..besides added value does not equate to a price cut. I got inside info of the price ‘cut’ 2 months before it was announced so I waited only to find it wasn’t in the UK and they just added more stuff for the same price.
my brother dropped his out of the car onto gravel and nothing happened to it. great product. cant wait for the games ive seen to come out. funny how alot of people think so low of this system.
[…] [via: Playstation Blog Comments #65] […]
Would you guys mind commenting on the recent statements by a Ubisoft Developer claiming that “the PS3 can’t handle AI nearly as well as the 360″
I will comment on that , go to the R&D page from the great guys of insomniacgames
(http://www.insomniacgames.com/tech/techpage.php)
And you will understand that ubisoft is developing games like on XBOX360 , they must treat code as data and they will have a great AI , i mean the PS3 is the master of parallelism !!!!
my stepdad dropped it from 3 feet inside a duffle bag and the fan stop working but its an amazing product.
Little bit of information to further the Ps3 fans..
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=170133
Apparently Unreal Tournament will have to be tweaked on the 360 so they can fit everything in. They’re even wondering if they’ll have to cut back on the number of maps on the 360 version.
So that’s grumbling from makers of PGR, Id games with Rage and now UT3. Not to mention the ps3 exclusive titles like Heavenly sword that feature 10gigs of music alone.
Ahhhh blu-ray… I look forward to the High def version of Hard boiled packaged with Stranglehold. The tea house gun fight is worth the 10 extra dollars alone.
Yes Sony you have once again made a great product. I also have a 360 and have not had 1 problem with it either. But I do see the playstation 3 soon being the superior product.
I admit it appears as if I post only to slag Sony – this really isn’t the case. I have a Sony phone, TV, laptop, Hi-fi, Amp, Speakers, PS1, PS2 and am happy with the quality…more than happy in fact. I’ve pretty much always bought Sony because it has meant quality. Damn it, if they made cars I’d probably buy one of them too!
My argument (if you must call it that) is that I feel the PS3 price is too high for what the average gamer wants/needs and it is over engineered (I work with coders on a daily basis that curse the multi threaded processors)….some times you can make it better than it ought to be.
And as far as the blu-ray versus HD-DVD argument?…developers are just being lazy if they’re using that as an excuse as to why the PS3 is superior….geez, I was doing art for games back in the 8-bit era where you had to make the most of what you had….I even had to plot spites out on paper and enter them as HEX to see what I was doing – Dpaint was a revolution back then!
In my honest opinion I will state that the PS3 is by far the most superior sophisticated next gen (now current gen) console on the market. Sony’s build quality has never been in question as far as I’m concerned….they beat the rest hands down.
But….I’m a gamer, not a techno nerd. I buy a new console for three reasons: the price I have to lay out, the games I can play and the online service. And I’m afraid to say that Sony scores 0/3 for these compared to competitors. Honestly I hope this changes around, I really do….nothing can compare to the exhilaration of persuading my studio manager to let me borrow a blue PS1 dev-kit for a weekend once we got a pre-release copy of Ridge Racer…geez, I played that at home for about 20 hours solid (in black & white because my TV was inadequate) and couldn’t believe that games consoles could finally emulate what I had previously only played in the arcades.
I guess I’ve been lucky with my 360 – no signs of the RRODeath and doesn’t seem to overheat any more than my PC – although I’d admit I have a slight advantage as I live in the UK where temperatures never get too high, certainly not as high as in a sauna.
Guess I’m rambling – but it distresses me somewhat (but not too much) that I’m labeled a 360 fanboy only posting on this forum to play devil’s advocate…not so.
My biggest hope for PS3 is ‘home’ – I sincerely think that this is the thing that will really distinguish the 360 from the PS3….to the point where I may one day regret my 360 purchase and if I sell a kidney buy a PS3. It has the potential to be huge – to the point where people will actually play/experience it in preference to a £30+ game. Reminds me of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash – maybe you can obtain better & better ways of travelling the longer you play….start with walking, then a bike and finally end up being able to fly!?…
Anyways…peace. = )
IMPORTANT INFO
Before Folding@home was accessible to ps3 users in North America, My ps3 was lucky to see maybe 8 hours of being turned off during the 24hour day between my wife, two kids and myself.
Since Folding@home has been accessible it hasn’t seen more than 8 minutes being turned off, if it’s not running music-movies-games-web-f.list chat it runs folding@home, I’m currently approaching the 147 work units mark, and My system has frozen during Resistance once, and Motorstorm once, And I played them a lot, other than those two happenstance freezes that occured only online, it hasn’t had even remotely a hiccup, I’ll continue to keep my ps3 on, whether it’s running entertainment or distrib. computing, but as it stands it’s practically been powered up since launch, and not only runs as good as when I got it, but with Firmware updates, and software patches, I’d almost say it runs better now than ever. It’s as if it was designed to stay on like a pc, I’ve never been so impressed with a console in my 27 year life…
I stand by my above statements with my entire soul, none of this is fiction whatsoever, I seriously expected problems from how much use I put the ps3 through so far, and in relation to the early model ps2 disk read error issues, but the thing doesn’t even get warm or break a sweat so to speak, I have absolutely no doubts it will last the entirety of my desired gaming experiences, from here until ps4.
Exactly what… kind of technology… did you put in our homes Sony… This is the stuff of Industry Legend.
“SONY FOR LIFE!”
[…] 0.2%, cuando la media de fallo de cualquier videoconsola es de el 3% al 5%. M?s informaci?n aqu?. PlayStation.Blog ? PS3 Stress Test __________________ Hilo Dragon Quest- Hilo de Suikoden […]
@ Swiss trev
Let’s quickly look at your three points.. First off there’s the recurring issue of price. I don’t imagine by this point in the never ending comparison of console vs console you’ve managed to avoid pricing what you’re getting for how much. I’m the kind of person who likes to buy something and find out that tax has been included. No surprises. What i’m trying to say is that the 360 price is deceptive in that you end up paying more for what you originally thought of as a cheaper system. Wireless? Hd-DVD? Online? all extra.
I’m one of the more unfortunate 360 users whose playing experience is marred with freezes every 20-30 minutes. Living in the near sauna like locale of Montreal I guess you have to expect that. I’m going to try my luck at having it repaired in November or so because that’s when i’m going to be drowning in Ps3 games. Most of 2006 was pretty slim pickings for the 360 but then we had nothing to compare it to so everyone just grumbled and waited for releases. In comparison, Sony is just going through the same thing. Can you compare a 1 yr old child to a 2 yr old and say things like “HA! my child is a genius.I scoff at your idiot, mongoloid”
Okay. bad analogy but i just wanted to use the word mongoloid.
Online you’ve answered yourself. I feel the same way about Home and hope it can capture peoples interest the same way it has mine. If it ends up being as innovative as it seems, it’s going to tilt the online favour into Sonys camp.
I’m sure you’re right about the space issue. If games like Oblivion can make it fit on one dvd then you have to ask why others can’t do the same thing. But even the best coders will be hard pressed when the games get more and more demanding. They’re not getting any smaller so when will it become a real issue? a year? 2? so that means 360 users will be shelling out for a shiny new HD Dvd Drive.. or shuffling discs.
I’m aware that the 360 has the edge in coding at the moment. But with companies like Insomniac making public their experience with the system and growing familiarity, i don’t think it’ll be much of an issue for long. I head something to the effect that ID Software’s new engine addresses this issue?
Back and forth… debate really only serves to pass the time. In five years we’ll see how things turn out.
[…] communications Dave Karraker took note and promptly blogged about the experiment on his official PlayStation Blog, while making sure to bash Microsoft’s 360 along the […]
ps3 is very solid, the build quality and overall, not like the MS competitors console, I saw a video of the internals of that box… ridicilous, built out of the worst quality components lol, not to mention overheating and stuff, my roommate had to buy and extra cooler for it…. and people complain about prices, pay less for worse quality in this case eh, wake up…
@roadclimber
Nice well thought out comments – enjoyed reading your post.
As for the extra price for extra 360 features thing? – I’d agree that it becomes an issue for a large proportion of gamers. Just not for me. I never used my PS2 for watching DVD’s – used it to play great games. Similarly I probably wouldn’t use a 360/PS3 to watch hi-def films….instead I plan to buy one of these new fangled dual players that let me watch HD-DVD and Blu-Ray on the same machine without having to faff around with switching cables.
I guess bottom line is I use my i-Pod hi-fi to listen to music, my DVD player to watch films and my console to play games. I’ve spent a small fortune on a DVD film collection and have no immediate plans to update those to HD-DVD/Blu-Ray just yet.
As for disc space?…I’m happy with games like Oblivion, Gears of War and BioShock (man! That game rocks! – if you’ve got a 360 get the downloadable demo now). Cramming a disc with extra music and movie sequences just to fill a disc and make a point seems to me to be…..well pointless. As I’ve said I’m happy with games that have the same kind of resources as the ones mentioned above….not saying that more space isn’t a good thing – just that is it really needed at the moment?….yeah, maybe in 5/6 years time but by then M$ will have brought out their next console with an even larger disc format than blu-ray – kind of comes back to my point of the PS3 being over engineered for the current climate.
Bad news on your 360 freezing – I won’t attempt to say that this isn’t a problem, similarly the dreaded RRODeath. I have friends that got early 360’s that have failed – so far I guess I’ve been lucky but at least I’m safe in the knowledge that if it does go t*ts up then M$ will now repair/replace free of charge….can’t ask for more than that. With the new innards in the 360 the whole overheating/RROD issue will hopefully be a thing of the past….true M$ should have soak tested longer and fixed these issues with their first release, they didn’t and now they’re paying the price (literally) but they are doing something about it. When I was on my 3rd PS1 due to read errors on the CD drive I got no such recompense from Sony.
@Chuuey
Learn to spell please fella – reading that post was painful.
“I saw a video of the internals of that box… ridicilous, built out of the worst quality components lol”
Crikey – you can tell the quality of components from just looking at low resolution internet video?
What a load of rubbish. We have just sent one of our 360 Elites to do an orbit of the Sun, travelling at the speed of light running Halo 3 continuously and it came back barely warm.
Dave, honestly with this post. As a game developer who is open minded and fair across all game systems. I see this post only really fueling fanboys and admitting typical corporate arrogance. I mean look at these responses. ::eyeroll::
I feel a real stress test of the PlayStation hardware is not if it will last in extreme conditions – but if the optical lens will last this time around so that I don’t go through three PS2’s with natural ‘Disk Read Errors’ again. As for my PS3 it usually feels way much hotter than my 360 most of the time anyway, just being honest.
If you really want to make your product seem ‘invincible’ or god like… next time you take a bath drop the PS3 in your tub and see if it will still play. I am curious if this invincible product will still play – post back the results. :)
Well, did any one see what has to be done just to keep the 360 on?..its a shame really. the Xbox would break if it went throught the same trials. I mean you got to wrap it in 3 towels… yes towels while its on and leave it there, without it catching on fire, for any one to use it none the less just look at it without it caching the red eye of Doom. I leave my Plastation on for weeks without any problems….SONY ROCKS!!!!!!!!!! ^o^
Yeah, Ps3 is the [DELETED].
[]^XO
Took my neighbours 2 years old child 5 seconds to destroy his Ps3 by inserting coins instead of a disc. So the PS3 can do a lot but apparently not be used as a “PS3 Bank”
But I guess in the US manual it says so to avoid a law suit, the 2nd most favourite American sport.