Chassis types

Overview

This list might be incomplete. Not every model number or every motherboard for any chassis type might be listed. For fat models (except the early japanese-only SCPH-1X000 consoles), the chassis type names are well known, mostly from the service manuals.

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
• Motherboards: GH-001, GH-003
• Japanese-only chassis used for launch consoles
• Uses the KHS-400A laser
• Has a PCMCIA-slot and lacks the expansion bay

A+ -chassis

• Models: SCPH-18000
• Motherboards: GH-003
• Uses the KHS-400A laser
• Has a PCMCIA-slot and lacks the expansion bay

AB-chassis

• Models: SCPH-18000
• Motherboards: GH-008
• First japanese chassis to use the KHS-400B laser
• Basically B-chassis components using A(+)-chassis form factors
• Last chassis to include the PCMCIA-slot and to lack the expansion bay

B-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30001
• 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
• 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
• Motherboards: GH-006
• Used for european launch consoles and for some later north-american consoles
• Almost identical to C'-chassis and manufactured at the same time, but uses newer GS (CXD2944GB)

C'-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30002 - SCPH-30004
• Motherboards: GH-007
• Used for european launch consoles
• 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)
• 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 use the same chassis as others, and thus include the expansion bay and lack the PCMCIA-slot

D'-chassis

• Models: SCPH-3000X, SCPH-3500X (GT3 bundle)
• Motherboards: GH-012, GH-014
• 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 use the same chassis as others, and thus include the expansion bay and lack the PCMCIA-slot

F-chassis

• Models: SCPH-3000X R
• 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
• Drive uses Sony KHS-400C 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)
• 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)
• Motherboards: GH-023
• Introduces the "Dragon"-chip, which combines MechaCon, SysCon, EEPROM and RTC
• New drive electronics based around the Sanyo LA6508, LB11971 and Texas Instruments SP3727D
• Removed the iLink port

I-chassis

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

J-chassis

• Models: SCPH-5000X
• Motherboards: GH-027 (unconfirmed), GH-029
• Seems to be a rather obscure/rare chassis released only in europe
• Has a completely unique drive mechanism based around a PVR-702W laser
• 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-7000X
• 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)
• 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-7500X
• 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

M-chassis

• Models: SCPH-7700X
• Motherboards: GH-051, GH-052
• Exclusively uses combined EE+GS-chip
• Heavily reworked/simplified drive electronics (driver IC doesn't require any heatsinking anymore)

N-chassis

• Models: SCPH-7900X
• 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-9000X
• Motherboards: GH-070, GH-071
• Same basic electronic components as in N-chassis
• Different case design
• Reintroduction of an internal PSU

R-chassis

• Models: SCPH-9000X
• Motherboards: GH-072
• Removed the cooling fins which were still present in P-chassis. Instead, the EMI-shield now contacts the SoC.
• 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
• Motherboards: XPD-001, XPD-005
• For further information, see PSX and Motherboards/XPD-00X