My PS3 has over 2 years of use now, I've seen countless posts in several different forums about how this is the time it's recommended to change the thermal paste in order to prevent the dreaded Ylod from happening, or at least making it less prone to happen (actually it's known fact that for any kind of cpu, gpu or what have you it's recommended to change the compound every 3 years or so).

Yesterday my ps3 froze on my while playing Just Cause 2, now I know that's not a major problem, I had it freeze on me on other games as well sporadically, plus right after that I played 3 hours straight of GT5 without a hitch, but that got me thinking that maybe I should consider doing this in order to be safe(r).

So what do you fellow ps3 veterans think about this? is it worth it? I'm terrified of disassembling the thing, even though I am pretty seasoned when it comes to building computers, consoles are a whole different beast.

I heard thermal paste is all it takes.

" I heard thermal paste is all it takes. "

tried googling for a tutorial? that should give you a basic understanding of the risk and work itll take which my guess says both will be next to none :p

How much experience do you have disassembling things like this? I can only assume that you know what you're doing if you already have some of this "thermal paste" lying around.  
 
I know I wouldn't take mine apart, but I also have no experience taking things like that apart. 

If you feel comfortable taking the PS3 apart, applying the paste and putting it back together I say go for it. The warranty on your machine is prolly up anyway and if your machine is already starting to overheat and freeze whats the worst that could happen. My friend changed the paste after he thought his machine was starting to overheat and he thinks that it helped. 
 
edit: have you poked around the Sony boards? You will probably find more reliable answers there.

Thermal paste you say? Before you try that why not drain all the water out of this coffee maker I got here?

" How much experience do you have disassembling things like this? I can only assume that you know what you're doing if you already have some of this "thermal paste" lying around.   I know I wouldn't take mine apart, but I also have no experience taking things like that apart.  "

" If you feel comfortable taking the PS3 apart, applying the paste and putting it back together I say go for it. The warranty on your machine is prolly up anyway and if your machine is already starting to overheat and freeze whats the worst that could happen. My friend changed the paste after he thought his machine was starting to overheat and he thinks that it helped.  edit: have you poked around the Sony boards? You will probably find more reliable answers there. "

" @onarum: I successfully repaired my PS3 approximately fourteen months ago, and I would simply ask you this: is your PS3 positioned vertically or horizontally? If it's horizontal, I wouldn't bother with the operation. Not unless you are certain there's a problem. This freeze you experienced during Just Cause 2 is more likely due to the game being saddled with "open world jank," if I may quote Ryan Davis. "

isn't thermal paste cancerous? don't eat it.

The other week I completely disassembled my old 80gig PS3 cleaned it completely of dust, (the fan was horrible) continued maintenance with cleaning off old cpu and gpu thermal paste and applied fresh paste. I have never had an issue with my PS3 ever, I just thought that with 10 years on my shelf it could use a little love. I still play it daily and immediately after the maintenance I noticed that it runs cooler and quieter. I highly recommend doing this to all of your consoles that are no longer under warranty, hell I even keep my original Xbox in great shape.