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with the PlayStation 4 still at least a year away Sony wants to squeeze every bit of profit it can out of the ps3 and what better way to do that then release a redesigned version that's slimmer and probably cheaper to make I'm Bill Detweiler and on this episode of cracking open we're going inside the PlayStation 3 super slim the super slim is Sony's third ps3 version it's the same width and roughly the same height as the PlayStation 3 slim but its sides are significantly shorter now like its predecessor the super slim has two USB ports and a hard drive activity light along the front around the back you'll find the same Ethernet HDMI optical audio and ps3 AV ports found on the previous model but from here on out things are a bit different for starters the new machines optical drive has a manual sliding disc cover instead of a motorized slot loading mechanism now this design likely helped Sony cut both costs and save space but it just feels cheap and as seen it's Jeff Bakalar wrote it's ultimately a step back now another change is how you access the hard drive the original ps3 hard drive was accessed through a panel on the side Sony moved that access point to the front on the ps3 slim and now they've gone right back to the side but on the super slim you just remove the whole side panel and not just a small cover and this is where our teardown begins after removing the hard drive I removed three rubber feet that run along the back and side of the unit's bottom and a void if removed warranty sticker next I remove the screws that were all underneath next I removed the three screws from the side of the case where the hard drive is now two of the top cover screws are accessible by opening the drive door but to remove the other ones you'll need to pop off the pieces of shiny plastic molding that run along the front and rear edges of the top cover with all the external screws removed we can pop off the top half of the case and get our first look inside the console the super Slim's internal layout is very similar to that of the ps3 slim the optical drive is mounted in the front right corner the cooling fan to the side and the power supply along the back the motherboard is under it all now both interiors are a far cry from the original ps3s the optical drive assembly comes out next by incorporating the disk enclosure into the super Slim's actual case Sony definitely saved a little space inside the unit I suspect the new drive is also cheaper now like the optical drive the new machines power supply is smaller than the ps3 Slim's it's also rated for fewer amps so the new console appears to be drawing less current than its predecessors after removing a few more screws I lifted out the motherboard and shield assembly unlike the ps3 slim you can't remove the fan without removing the whole assembly and then separating the shield from the motherboard now given the super Slim's more compact design it's not surprising that the cooling fan is smaller than the one in the larger slim now with the shield assembly removed we get our first look at the motherboard compared to the ps3 Slim's board this one is smaller and the chips are placed closer together Sony also removed the heat spreader from the reality synthesizer package swapped Marvell's discrete Wireless board for a newer marvel WLAN Bluetooth sock and went with two one gigabit XDR DRAM chips for the machines main memory instead of the older versions for 512 mega bit chips with our teardown complete it's clear and a bit disappointing that Sony wasn't trying to upgrade the ps3 line with the super slim just refine it so that begs the question why would they do this well as I said in the beginning I think it comes down to cost the new optical drive redesigned motherboard and all the other changes likely make the console cheaper to manufacture and given that Sony hasn't lowered the price at least not at launch they're making more on each unit sold and if they do lower the price later this year or definitely once the PlayStation 4 comes out the lower production cost lets them keep making money on the ps3 now if you're thinking about buying one of the new ps3 super Slim's check out Jeff Bakalar full CNET review for real-world tests and pricing information and to see more tear down photos of the ps3 super slim and remind full hardware analysis go to TechRepublic comm forward slash cracking open I'm Dylan thanks for watching