PlayStation 3

Models
There are 12 different models of the original PlayStation 3 Fat. At the end of each model number is a two digit suffix that indicates the region that the model was made for. The tables below give a brief overview of every fat retail PS3 ever released alongside applicable regions and their suffixes.

PlayStation 3 Super Slim Model list
Note: The NPX-001, PPX-001, PQX-001, RTX-001 and REX-001 motherboard revisions all feature a 28nm die shrunk RSX packaged on a smaller substrate layer, which uses half the number of RAM chips of the previous 40nm design. In addition, the CELL's substrate layer was reduced in size on the PPX-001, PQX-001, RTX-001 and REX-001 revisions; however, the die size appears to have remained unchanged at 45nm. See:

Diagnosing the YLOD (Yellow Light of Death)
All fat PS3s can suffer from the Yellow Light of Death. Unfortunately, a YLOD doesn't really tell much, other than a failure in the hardware initialization phase has occurred. This can mean anything from a dead GPU to a dead capacitor supplying power to the southbridge. To really know for a fact where in the  phase it failed, you'll need to solder a UART connection to the system controller (a.k.a  ). For now, follow the documents included in this repository or this guide (Windows)

Deep dive video on YLOD failures

If the syscon gives primarily power failure codes, replace the NEC/Tokin caps. These do not remove easy, even with a hot air station. They most likely will come out in pieces. Many guides show using tantalum caps at an angle. My experience is using 330uF caps from MacBook boards 820-2850 is a good option. These caps have a second ground closer to the positive terminal. This allows you to solder the 4 per NEC/Tokin without being at an angle or without exposing more of the ground plain. Also important to note, if replacing all 4 NEC/Tokins on this particular model, a jumper will be needed from 1 end of positive to the other, as the NEC/Tokins have an internal bridge.

If 0E128 NEC/Tokin use 470uF, 4 per NEC/Tokin

If 0E108 NEC/Tokin use 330uF, 4 per NEC/Tokin