Chassis types

Overview

This list might be incomplete. Not every chassis and every model number or every motherboard for any chassis type might be listed. For fat models (except japanese consoles), the chassis type names are well known, mostly from the service manuals. There's some ambiguity regarding japanese consoles, especially the early A/A+/AB-chassis ones, but also later models. E.g. there may or may not be additional japan-only chassis types as well as motherboards, and some model numbers are different.

For slim models, it's mostly guesswork based on a small chassis type indicator in the bottom right corner of the label. However, the only publicly known slim PS2-service manual (for a SCPH-70000 console built around the GH-035 motherboard) mentions another name for the K-chassis: LCG-chassis. Both, "K-chassis" and "LCG-chassis" are used as descriptors throughout this service manual for the same chassis.

Chassis types

Fat chassis types

A-chassis

• Models: SCPH-10000, SCPH-150000
• Year(s): 2000
• Motherboards: GH-001 (SCPH-10000), GH-003 (SCPH-15000)
• Japanese-only chassis used for launch consoles
• Uses the KHS-400A optical pickup
• Has a PCMCIA-slot and lacks the expansion bay
• Uses the Protokernel which requires additional development work to make homebrew programs work (BIOS 1.00J or - beginning with late GH-001 boards - 1.01J)
• Has no DVD player preinstalled (has to be installed onto memory card using the bundled Utility Disc)

A+ -chassis

• Models: SCPH-18000
• Year(s): 2000 - 2001
• Motherboards: GH-003
• Uses the KHS-400A or KHS-400B laser
• Has a PCMCIA-slot and lacks the expansion bay
• BIOS boot ROM (new version 1.20J) located on a daugherboard, while the normal boot ROM pads on the GH-003 are left empty (this differentiates a GH-003 in an A+ chassis console from a GH-003 in an A chassis console)
• Has DVD player preinstalled in BIOS, as do all later chassis
• Has final kernal instead of protokernel
• Probably exists to use up remaining stock of A-chassis parts while already producing and selling SCPH-18000 consoles with integrated DVD player

AB-chassis

• Models: SCPH-18000
• Year(s): 2000 - 2001
• Motherboards: GH-008
• Uses the KHS-400B laser
• Basically B-chassis components using A(+)-chassis form factors
• BIOS rom (same version 1.20J as in A+ chassis) with DVD player installed normally on motherboard instead of a daughter board
• Drive mechanism very similar to C/C'-chassis, but with a different PCB, as the driver ICs are on the motherboard
• Different cooling fin design (somewhat similar to B/B' and C/C' chassis)
• Last chassis to include the PCMCIA-slot and to lack the expansion bay

B-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30001
• Year(s): 2000 - 2001
• Motherboards: GH-004
• North-america-only chassis used for launch consoles
• Very different internal form factor, "splitting" the main board components into two parts, with the smaller board including voltage regulators, RTC, EEPROM and SysCon
• Disc drive has a tilt motor that is only found in B and B' chassis
• Almost identical to B'-chassis and manufactured at the same time, but uses newer GS (CXD2944GB)
• Drive uses KHS-400B laser, as do all drives until D'-chassis (included)

B'-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30001
• Year(s): 2000 - 2001
• Motherboards: GH-005
• North-america-only chassis used for launch consoles
• Very different internal form factor, "splitting" the main board components into two parts, with the smaller board including voltage regulators, RTC, EEPROM and SysCon
• Disc drive has a tilt motor that is only found in B and B' chassis
• Almost identical to B-chassis and manufactured at the same time, but uses old GS (CXD2934GB)
• Drive uses KHS-400B laser, as do all drives until D'-chassis (included)

C-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30001 - SCPH-30004
• Year(s): 2000 - 2001
• Motherboards: GH-006
• Used for european launch consoles and for some later north-american consoles
• Similar, but not identical "split" board design as found in B/B'-chassis
• Almost identical to C'-chassis and manufactured at the same time, but uses newer GS (CXD2944GB)

C'-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30002 - SCPH-30004
• Year(s): 2000 - 2001
• Motherboards: GH-007
• Used for european launch consoles
• Similar, but not identical "split" board design as found in B/B'-chassis
• Almost identical to C-chassis and manufactured at the same time, but uses old GS (CXD2934GB)

D-chassis

• Models: SCPH-3000X, SCPH-3500X (GT3 bundle), both models might have an R behind model number, probably to indicate GH-013 (japanese consoles never have an R behind model number, including those with GH-013 board)
• Year(s): 2001 - 2002 (?)
• Motherboards: GH-010, GH-013
• First chassis to move all drive electronics to mainboard
• Also moves components from the smaller boards found in B/B' and C/C' to the mainboard, making the console have one single large board (besides the power supply)
• Almost identical to D'-chassis and manufactured at the same time, but uses newer GS (CXD2944GB)
• Battery on separate battery holder board
• Beginning with this chassis, consoles produced for the japanese market also include the expansion bay and lack the PCMCIA-slot

D'-chassis

• Models: SCPH-3000X, SCPH-3500X (GT3 bundle), both models might have an R behind model number, probably to indicate GH-014 (japanese consoles never have an R behind model number)
• Year(s): 2001 - 2002 (?)
• Motherboards: GH-012, GH-014, GH-016 (japan-only?)
• First chassis to move all drive electronics to mainboard
• Also moves components from the smaller boards found in B/B' and C/C' to the mainboard, making the console have one single large board (besides the power supply)
• Almost identical to D-chassis and manufactured at the same time, but uses old GS (CXD2934GB)
• Battery on separate battery holder board
• Beginning with this chassis, consoles produced for the japanese market also include the expansion bay and lack the PCMCIA-slot

F-chassis

• Models: SCPH-3000X R (japanese consoles never have an R behind model number)
• Year(s): 2001 - 2002 (?)
• Motherboards: GH-015
• New MechaCon-revision in BGA case (this is NOT the "Dragon" MechaCon used from H-chassis onwards)
• Support for Rohm RTC+EEPROM (combined) chip, although some consoles also came with the old dedicated RTC and EEPROM chips
• New drive mechanism uses Sony KHS-400C, KHS-400R or Sanyo SF-HD7 laser, as do all drives until including I-chassis

G-chassis

• Models: SCPH-3900X, SCPH-37000 (japan only limited editions with blue-transparent or black-transparent case)
• Year(s): 2002 - 2003
• Motherboards: GH-017, GH-019, GH-022
• New SPU2-chip with integrated DRAM (CXD2947R)
• Japanese SCPH-37000 (and some or all japanese SCPH-39000) have a different cooler, most likely to look less ugly through the transparent cases of the limited models
• For the transparent cases, sony even used a black flex cable to connect the buttons/LED-assembly

H-chassis

• Models: SCPH-5000X, SCPH-55000 GU (golden, limited Gundam bundle), SCPH-5500X GT (white, limited Gran Tourismo 4 bundle)
• Year(s): 2003
• Motherboards: GH-023
• Introduces the ARM-based "Dragon"-chip, which unites functionality of MechaCon, SysCon, EEPROM and RTC
• New drive electronics based around the Sanyo LA6508, LB11971 and Texas Instruments SP3727D
• New drive mechanism, but still based around the same lasers/optical pickups as with F and G chassis (Sony KHS-400C, KHS-400R, Sanyo SF-HD7)
• New power supply form factor; mounted upside-down
• Removed the iLink port
• Integrated IR-receiver
• Quieter fan with temperature-controlled fan speed

I-chassis

• Models: SCPH-5000X, SCPH-5500X GT (white, limited Gran Tourismo 4 bundle)
• Year(s): 2003 - 2004
• Motherboards: GH-026
• SPU2 + SSBUS-Controller combined into single chip (CXD2955R)

J-chassis

• Models: SCPH-5000X
• Year(s): 2004
• Motherboards: GH-027 (unconfirmed), GH-029
• Seems to be a rather obscure/rare chassis, all known consoles are either european or japanese
• Has a completely unique drive mechanism based around a PVR-702W laser, which only uses 24 instead of 30 pins as all earlier lasers do
• Uses SP3751A RF-amp/front-end-processor for the laser in the drive electronics, just like every slim PS2 until including M-chassis does, probably to support the PVR-702W laser that is exclusively used in J-chassis consoles

Slim chassis types

K-chassis/LCG-chassis

• Models: SCPH-70XXX
• Year(s): 11/2004 - 11/2005
• Motherboards:
  • GH-032 (dedicated EE and GS)
  • GH-035 (combined EE+GS)
• Uses combined EE+GS-chip or dedicated Emotion Engine+Graphics Synthesizer chips, depending on motherboard
• Components of Network Adaptor included on motherboard (Ethernet-transceiver and SPEED-chip)
• North american consoles (SCPH-70011, SCPH-70012) also have a small 56k modem daughter board, like the north american Network Adaptor. For this purpose, the motherboard has solder pads for an optional connector to this daughter board, that was only fitted for north american consoles
• External power supply
• Top-loading and completely reworked drive mechanism
• No expansion bay
• Above changes allowed for a much smaller and completely reworked case design

L-chassis

• Models: SCPH-75XXX
• Year(s): 11/2005 - 09/2006
• Motherboards:
  • GH-036, GH-040 (combined EE+GS)
  • GH-037, GH-041 (dedicated EE and GS)
• Uses combined EE+GS-chip or dedicated Emotion Engine+Graphics Synthesizer chips, depending on motherboard
• Introduces new PPC 405 based IOP with external 4MB DDR-SDRAM, which emulates functions of the old MIPS-based IOP as well as SPEED; has some compatibility issues
• As the functions of SPEED were integrated into the IOP, having an SSBUS-controller became obsolete, thus the combined SSBUS-Controller + SPU2 chip (CXD2955R) that was introduced with the I-chassis got "downgraded" to the older SPU2 (+SPU2 RAM) chip (CXD2947R), that was introduced way back with the G-chassis
• No connector (or soldering pads for it) for connecting the modem daughter board anymore; the north-america-exclusive dial-up support was dropped entirely

M-chassis

• Models: SCPH-77XXX
• Year(s): 09/2006 - 07/2007
• Motherboards: GH-051, GH-052
• Exclusively uses combined EE+GS-chip
• Heavily reworked/simplified drive electronics (driver IC doesn't require any external heatsinking anymore; board ground provides heatsinking)
• Fixed some of L-chassis' compatibility issues

N-chassis

• Models: SCPH-79XXX
• Year(s): 07/2007 - 11/2007
• Motherboards: GH-061, GH-062
• Completely new chipset:
  • EE + RDRAM + IOP + IOP RAM + SPU2 (+ SPU2 RAM, which was already integrated into SPU2 years before) combined into single chip (CXD2976GB)
  • Dedicated GS again, but new revision (CXD2980BGB), which comes in a much smaller package and requires no cooling (besides airflow)

P-chassis

• Models: SCPH-90XXX
• Year(s): 11/2007 - 2008
• Motherboards: GH-070
• Same basic electronic components as in N-chassis
• Different case design
• Reintroduction of an internal PSU

R-chassis

• Models: SCPH-90XXX
• Year(s): 2008 - 2012
• Motherboards: GH-071, GH-072
• Removed the cooling fins which were still present in P-chassis. Instead, the EMI-shield now contacts the SoC.
• 2 types of EMI shield; the later one is smaller and covers only part of the PCB, leaving the front part out
  • GH-071 goes with the larger shield, GH-072 goes with the smaller shield
• Fan connected via FPC
• Most of the R-chassis consoles can not boot into FMCB.

PSX chassis types

X-chassis

• Models: DESR-5000, DESR-7000, DESR-5100, DESR-5100S, DESR-7100, DESR-5500, DESR-7500, DESR-5700, DESR-7700
• Year(s): 2003-2005
• Motherboards: XPD-001, XPD-005
• For further information, see PSX and PSX-Motherboards