[Speedmanz]

CBEH1000 reflowed and AS5 paste. Full chip surface application.
2 computer box fans sealed onto the rear of the PS3 pulling air out (externally powered). I also snipped out the grills on the PS3 for wide open unrestricted airflow.

room temp 75F

Running idle
CPU: 148 to 162F (varies)

Running Idle with Hard Drive cover off:
CPU: 142F to 158F

Running idle with external fans removed:
Internal fan does work fine.
CPU: 178F or more (I went to shut it down once it hit the 180 mark)

GPU: Always 10F to 12F lower than what the CPU reads.

I tried an experiment for the heck of it since I have a few PS3s..
I cut out a hole on the bottom of the PS3 matching the fan opening (thought was to draw cold air instead of partially recycled internal air.)

Discovered that the entire metal case of the motherboard relies on air flow that comes through the vents and pulled over it then through the bottom of the unit. Hence my temp findings on not having the hard drive door on.
This test/mod was not good. I do not recommend it. I since undid this mod.
With the external fans, the CPU temp stayed the same as previous steps, but I think I overheated other parts of the system to an unusable thermal state. It slowed down and froze off and on.

As of me typing this I am looking for where the temp settings are in the newest MM or how to get them back. I installed a new HD and did a fresh install of latest. Not able to find this util now and just started looking around the forums. I got distracted with this thread.