MOD.1 HEATSINK REMOVAL...

[lumclaw]

Probably not much, unless affected by some internal change outside Japan.
The original Japanese model 1 lacked both RF shielding and RF output.

[KillerBean2]

Okay, now I get it.. I think.

Tasuke is talking about the RF shielding when he's saying "heatsink"?

Still stupid, but makes more sense

[hacksquad]

I think removing heatsink from 7805 on the NES wont cause much trouble coz the components are less on the NES.. while on genesis.. doubtful ... it would overheat and die eventually

[lumclaw]

These old consoles are cooled by room temperature. There's no metal in contact with the major components.

[KillerBean2]

But the two 7805s are quite intimate with a slab of aluminum

[Mr Nuts]

The heat sinks are attached to components for a reason and that is too dissipate the heat as that component can get so hot it can destroy itself internally so you will reduce its lifespan,removing a heatsink from anything for any reason is very unwise,if you need to replace a component such as Triac,Voltage regulator,Ic,etc or anything else that is bolted to one you must remember to fasten them back together again after.

[kool kitty89]

These old consoles are cooled by room temperature. There's no metal in contact with the major components.

Voltage regulators on virtually all consoles going back to the 2600 utilize heatsinks of some sort, be it mounted face-down to a relatively empty, metal-plated (grounded) section of the PCB or a dedicated heatsink of some sort with the regulator mounted vertically. (on a separate note, a few quite old consoles/computers have heatsinks on parts of the chipset too, like the quite hot running TMS9918 -and variants- in the TI99/4, Colecovision, SG-1000, MSX, etc)

All MD models have some form of heatsink on the regulators.

If you frequently play around with mods on the MD, it's sometimes more convenient to replace that big aluminum slab with smaller voltage regulator heatsinks.

Also, it's probably a good idea to replace the thermal paste on the regulators. Aside from getting old and caked (depending on the type used), there's almost always way too much paste applied, which is no good for thermal contact. (you want to make a nice thin coating, just enough to sandwich between the 2 surfaces snugly)




On another note of Sega heatsinks, the one inside non-Japanese Virtua Racing carts is also unnecessary . . . I'm not sure why it's even there since there's a separate RF shielding sleeve surrounding it anyway. (unless that sleeve restricted airflow and/or reflected heat in such a way that the heatspreader was necessary) With the way thermal compound is typically applied to VR, removing the sleeve and heat plate (and cleaning off the thermal paste) will probably make it run cooler than the stock set-up anyway. (and JP carts lack all that stuff in any case)