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 A/A+ chassis ones, but also later models. E.g. 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. One possibility is that "LCG" is a specific sub-type of the K-chassis that uses the GH-035 motherboard and is manufactured by Foxconn.

Chassis types

Fat chassis types

A-chassis

• Models: SCPH-10000, SCPH-15000
• Year(s): March - December 2000
• Motherboards: GH-001 (SCPH-10000), GH-003 (SCPH-15000)
• Japan-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)
• On the CDVD Drive daughter board, GH-001 boards only support the Sony CXA2605R RF-Amp (daughter board GM-038)
• On the CDVD Drive daughter board, GH-003 boards used in A-chassis consoles support either the Sony RF-Amp CXA2605R (daughter board GM-038) or the Texas Instruments SP3727A RF-Amp (daughter board GM-042) (a jumper labeled "TI" next to MechaCon identifies which RF-amp is supported; the jumper is just a marking and does not change anything electrically, while the actual difference is the installed MechaCon version).

A+-chassis

• Models: SCPH-18000
• Year(s): December 2000 - April 2001
• Motherboards: GH-003
• Uses the KHS-400A or KHS-400B optical pickup
• 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 2.00J (with remote control support) preinstalled in its ROM, as do all non-japanese and all later chassis Japanese consoles
• Has final kernal instead of protokernel
• Probably exists to use up the remaining stock of A-chassis parts while already producing and selling SCPH-18000 consoles with integrated DVD player 2.00J
• On the CDVD Drive daughter board, GH-003 boards used in A+ chassis consoles only support the Texas Instruments SP3727A RF-Amp (daughter board GM-042) (the "TI" jumper will always be set)

AB-chassis

• Models: SCPH-18000
• Year(s): December 2000 - April 2001
• Motherboards: GH-008
• Uses the KHS-400B optical pickup
• Basically B-chassis components using A(+)-chassis form factors
• BIOS/DVD-Player ROM (same versions as in A+ chassis) installed on motherboard instead of a daughter board
• Has DVD player 2.00J (with remote control support) preinstalled in its ROM, as do all non-japanese and all later chassis Japanese consoles
• Drive mechanism very similar to C/C'-chassis, but with a different PCB, as the driver ICs are on the motherboard
• Different heatsink design (somewhat similar to B/B' and C/C' chassis)
• Last chassis to include the PCMCIA-slot and last fat chassis to lack the expansion bay

B-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30001
• Year(s): October 2000 - early 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 optical pickup, as do all drives until D/D'-chassis (included)

B'-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30001
• Year(s): October 2000 - early 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 optical pickup, as do all drives until D/D'-chassis (included)

C-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30001 - SCPH-30004
• Year(s): November 2000 - March 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
  • High-current voltage regulation for EE and GS has moved back to the motherboard
• Almost identical to C'-chassis and manufactured at the same time, but uses newer GS (CXD2944GB)
• Late units have a D/D' chassis MechaCon and support the KHS-400B pickup with T609K lens (but also still support the older T487 lens)

C'-chassis

• Models: SCPH-30001 - SCPH-30004
• Year(s): November 2000 - March 2001
• Motherboards: GH-007
• 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
  • High-current voltage regulation for EE and GS has moved back to the motherboard
• Almost identical to C-chassis and manufactured at the same time, but uses old GS (CXD2934GB)
• Late units have a D/D' chassis MechaCon and support the KHS-400B pickup with T609K lens (but also still support the older T487 lens)

D-chassis

• Models: SCPH-3000X, SCPH-3500X (Gran Turismo 3 bundle). Non-Japanese consoles may have an R behind the model number, indicating that DVD Player version 2.10 (which is the first non-Japanese version with remote control support) is preinstalled in ROM.
  • Japanese consoles never have an R behind the model number, because all Japanese SCPH-30000 consoles came with at least DVD Player version 2.02 and thus support the remote control, so there was no need to separately denote this.
• Year(s): March 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
• New MechaCon firmware introduced support for the new KHS-400B variant with T609K lens

D'-chassis

• Models: SCPH-3000X, SCPH-3500X (Gran Turismo 3 bundle). Non-Japanese consoles may have an R behind the model number, indicating that DVD Player version 2.10 (which is the first non-Japanese version with remote control support) is preinstalled in ROM.
  • Japanese consoles never have an R behind the model number, because all Japanese SCPH-30000 consoles came with at least DVD Player version 2.02 and thus support the remote control, so there was no need to separately denote this.
• Year(s): March 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
• New MechaCon firmware introduced support for the new KHS-400B variant with T609K lens

F-chassis

• Models: SCPH-3000X R. Non-Japanese consoles always have an R behind the model number, because DVD Player version 2.10 (which is the first non-Japanese version with remote control support) is always preinstalled in ROM on these consoles.
  • Japanese consoles never have an R behind the model number, because all Japanese SCPH-30000 consoles came with at least DVD Player version 2.02 and thus support the remote control, so there was no need to separately denote this.
• Year(s): November 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
• Battery holder moved back to motherboard
• Some F-chassis consoles have a different heatsink made out of thin sheet aluminium, most likely developed for G-chassis to look less ugly through the transparent cases of the limited models but already used for some F-chassis consoles
• New drive mechanism uses Sony KHS-400C, KHS-400R or Sanyo SF-HD7 optical pickups, as do all drives until including I-chassis
• For KHS-400C, both, the T487 and the T609K lens types are supported

G-chassis

• Models: SCPH-390XX, SCPH-37000 (Japan-only limited editions with blue-transparent or black-transparent case)
• Year(s): July 2002 - 2003
• Motherboards: GH-017, GH-018, GH-019, GH-022
• New SPU2-chip with integrated DRAM (CXD2947R)
• New video encoder IC (CXM4000R) that is used in all fat chassis variants from this point onwards
• Uses SP3727B RF-amp (and is the only chassis including early H-chassis to do so)
• Some consoles have a different heatsink made out of thin sheet aluminium, 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, instead of a silver one
• For KHS-400C, support for the T487 lens type has been dropped; from now on, only the T609K lens type is supported for this pickup

H-chassis

• Models: SCPH-500XX, SCPH-55000 GU (golden, limited Gundam bundle, Japan), SCPH-5500X GT (white, limited Gran Turismo 4 Prologue bundle, Japan and Asia)
• Year(s): 2003 - 2004 (copyright date 2002 on motherboard)
• 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 (but also still support the older SP3727B RF-amp used in G-chassis)
• New drive mechanism, but still based around the same 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 more sophisticated temperature-controlled fan speed

I-chassis

• Models: SCPH-500XX, SCPH-55000 GT (white, limited Gran Turismo 4 Prologue bundle, Japan)
• Year(s): 2003 - 2004
• Motherboards: GH-026
• SPU2 + SSBUS-Controller combined into single chip (CXD2955R)

J-chassis

• Models: SCPH-50000, SCPH-50004
• 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 optical pickup, which only uses 24 instead of 30 pins as all earlier optical pickups do
• Uses SP3751A RF-amp/front-end-processor for the optical pickup in the drive electronics, just like every slim PS2 until including M-chassis does, probably to support the PVR-702W optical pickup that is exclusively used in J-chassis consoles

Slim chassis types

K-chassis/LCG-chassis

• Models: SCPH-700XX
• 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
• GH-032 and GH-035 require different top shields with different heat sinks!
• 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. This also requires special case parts.
  • The difference between SCPH-70011 and SCPH-70012 lies within the daughter board, with the SCPH-70011 daughter board (J20M001.30) being compliant with both, Canadian and US regulations, and the SCPH-70012 daughter board (J20M001.32) being compliant with just the US regulations.
• External power supply
• Top-loading and completely reworked drive mechanism
  • 2 drive mechanism variants exist: Mitsumi and Sankyo. These consoles require different top shells and proper MechaCon configuration data for each drive type!
• No expansion bay
• RTC-battery connected via cable instead of having a battery holder on the motherboard
• Above changes allowed for a much smaller and completely reworked case design

L-chassis

• Models: SCPH-750XX
• 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
• GH-036/GH-040 and GH-037/GH-041 require different top shields with different heat sinks!
• 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
• 2 drive mechanism variants exist: Mitsumi and Sankyo. These consoles require different top shells and proper MechaCon configuration data for each drive type!
• No connector (or soldering pads for it) for connecting the modem daughter board anymore; the north-america-exclusive dial-up support was dropped entirely, similar to SCPH-70001/70010.

M-chassis

• Models: SCPH-770XX
• Year(s): 09/2006 - 10/2007
• 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)
• Some changes regarding the voltage generation (VRM likely more efficient/cooler)
• Removed the 2 screw sockets at the back side of the console that existed on K and L-chassis
• RTC-battery moved back to a battery holder on the motherboard
• Fixed some of L-chassis' compatibility issues

N-chassis

• Models: SCPH-790XX
• Year(s): 06/2007 - 04/2008
• Motherboards: GH-061, GH-062
• Much smaller motherboard, heavily cost reduced console
• On GH-062 (and all boards of P and R chassis), the second drive door safety switch has been removed, leaving the switch on the power/LED board as the only safety switch
• Completely new chipset:
  • EE + RDRAM + IOP + IOP RAM + SPU2 (+ SPU2 RAM, which was already integrated into SPU2 years before) combined into single chip (CXD2976GB)
  • Has a dedicated GS again, but in a new revision (CXD2980BGB), which comes in a much smaller package and doesn't require cooling (besides airflow)

P-chassis

• Models: SCPH-900XX
• Year(s): 11/2007 - 07/2008
• Motherboards: GH-070
• Same basic electronic components as in N-chassis
• Different case design
• Reintroduction of an internal PSU

R-chassis

• Models: SCPH-900XX
• Year(s): 06/2008 - 01/2013
• Motherboards: GH-071, GH-072
• Removed the heatsink which was 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
  • Consoles with the smaller shield don't have the screw holding down the Controller/MemCard-connector installed
• Fan connected via FPC
• Most of the R-chassis consoles can not boot into FMCB without Fortuna Project.

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): December 2003 - early 2005
• Motherboards: XPD-001, XPD-005
• For further information, see PSX and PSX-Motherboards