Yasuhiro Ootori, Vice President of Hardware and Mechanical Design at PlayStation, explains the reasons for the large size of the PlayStation 5.
Recently, we were able to enjoy the exploded view of the PS5, Sony’s new next-gen console, through a video in which we could see the large number of parts that houses the case of said machine along with its considerable general size. Now, Yasuhiro Ootori, vice president of hardware and mechanical design at PlayStation, has justified to the Nikkei media the definitive size and design of the new console, in which its single main fan and cost reduction have a lot to say.
A single large fan
And is that PlayStation is committed to an interior architecture with a single large fan; so much so, that its measures of 120 mm in diameter and 45 mm thick, make it need enough interior space and a central position to cool both sides of the main plate. In this sense, Ootori admits that they thought about using two smaller fans to reduce the overall dimensions of the console, although they ultimately opted for the current design in order to reduce costs.
Thus, while Xbox Series X opts for a plate divided in two in a horizontal position (also with a single fan even somewhat larger), PS5 opts for a single large plate and in which the different components are distributed, again , to reduce costs. In relation to this aspect, the heatsink used in PS5 is an integral heat pipe that replaces the steam chambers of the competition, being forced to work uniformly on both the processor and the GPU throughout its interior.
All this with a single purpose: to achieve the most optimal ventilation and heat dissipation possible and thus avoid possible overheating problems and excessive noise from the cooling system, in this case, from the aforementioned single large fan.
