PlayStation 5 Teardown Showcases Easy Access to Internals

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    PS5 Console Teardown
    PS5 Console Teardown

    The PlayStation 5 is one of the most hotly-anticipated products for a while now, and it was made more so with its reveal and pricing announcement. But just as of Wednesday, we have also been given access to the internals of the console (at least virtually). Sony uploaded a teardown video with Yasuhiro Ootori, Sony’s Hardware Design Division’s Vice President of the Mechanical Design Department taking some tools and talking in detail about how the internals of the console are laid out. We’ve gone over the basics of the PS5 teardown here, but in this article, we’ll dive deeper into the details.

    From Stand to Fan: PlayStation 5 is Easy to Handle

    The main highlight of the teardown is seeing just how exceptionally easy the whole design is to work with as a user. The first thing that you will notice is the stand that can come off with the removal of a screw. The stand comes off, the screw goes in the stand that is held in place by it, and even the hole can be plugged with a piece that comes in the stand, yet again. It is clear that Sony carefully considered this, and saved many users the hassle of losing and sourcing a new screw for the stand.

    PS5 teardown - console opened
    The PlayStation 5’s user-removable panels and stand removed by Yashuiro Ootori.

    Next, we were told that the side panels come off without any tools at all, just a lifting-and-sliding action is necessary to take them out and gain access to the inside of the console. This potentially opens doors, quite literally, for custom-designs of these panels, and even first-party special panels to accessorise the console even more. But more important is what we get access to inside.

    Just opening the back panel isn’t everything you have to do to get into the console proper, but that is a boon as well: you get just what you would want to access in regular maintenance. There are two dust catchers that you can simply vacuum to remove any dust built up inside the console, and the cooling fan can also be accessed for a wiping down if necessary in the same operation.

    PS5 teardown interior fan
    The large fan on the PlayStation will require lots of clearance to optimise the running of the console which may potentially run quite hot.

    Additionally, you will find the extra M.2 expansion slot, behind a small screwed-in cover. The PS5 will only take PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD drives which match the specifications of the integrated drive of the console, though. These drives are expensive, but it is certainly a matter of time when they get more common and potentially much cheaper. It plays well into the user’s hands, as they will wish to upgrade their storage typically after a few years of ownership as they have a bigger game library to store in their console.

    More From Inside the PlayStation 5

    The teardown takes us in further in the console, showing us its motherboard, the cooling solution, and Ootori also explains how they overcame the challenge of cooling the console’s processor while also keeping it quiet when running. The PS5 will have a liquid metal thermal interface material (TIM) application inside it, which ensures maximum thermal conductivity into the console’s heat pipes, which lead to a large heatsink, in turn, cooled by the large, singular, 120mm fan which is also double-sided for maximum air intake in the normal vertical position of the console.

    PS5 teardown - Heatsink
    The large heatsink of the PlayStation 5, pulled out. With the liquid metal TIM, the PS5 will stay cool, as Sony claims, in regular use, while also staying quiet enough.

    The heatsink is also a careful choice, Ootori says, as with the liquid metal TIM and its large size, the need of a vapour chamber is eliminated, and the console still is effectively cooled. What the heatsink cools, is a single chip housing both the CPU and GPU components, the AMD Ryzen CPU made with the Zen 2 architecture, consisting of 8 cores and 16 threads while clocking up to 3.5 GHz, and an RDNA 2 GPU capable of delivering 10.3 TFLOPS.

    The PlayStation 5 is a larger console when compared to its predecessors. But this teardown shows the consumer that it is a well-informed decision, as it benefits both the cooling design, as well as the user-friendliness of the whole gadget. It has many ingenious features in terms of its design, and it seems like it will be a treat to be able to use it. Though, as some preliminary analysis may suggest, the PS5 is best used vertically to allow its fan maximum operability, even if it can be used in either orientation.

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