Official PS5 teardown

It's weird how the Series X is much smaller than I anticipated and the PS5 is SO MUCH bigger.

Nice that the panels are easy to remove. I'd be tempted to just leave them off.

Interesting engineering and what seems like really nice build quality. It is striking though how much volume the casing itself takes up. It does seem that there's a lot of room to shrink the package up into a PS5 Slim type design.

I also wonder if them showing those dust collector holes implies that it's something users should do regularly.

I'm having the exact same reaction and it's hurting my brain. I pictured the Series X as a towering monolith and the PS5 as a normal sized, if maybe slightly bigger, console.

@giantrobot24: it looks fairly normal lying down horizontally which seems like the preferred way to position it rather than in the vertical.

That's a bad looking console.

I wonder if it voids warranty if you remove the winged plates and do a custom paint job to them? Either way I'm really glad they put out this neat video.

For real. Maybe Sony just chose a svelte representative for the purposes of this video, but it makes the console itself appear positively enormous. It literally stretches the length of his entire torso.

that thing is literally the size of his entire torso

Anyone getting launch model PS3 vibes from this? The curvy case plus the heat sink at the bottom remind me a lot of the Spider-font console.

That PCB is giant. And I have no idea how much this type of thing would add to the total cost, but the rotating base to safely store a single screw seems a bit much to me. Like why not just use a captive screw?

I really don't like the look and would prefer to wait for the eventual slim model.

I already bought the Xbox S and I have a PS4 pro. Plenty of games to keep me busy.

Well considering early reports are saying the series x is just a giant oven, I'd rather a system be huge and stay cool(there's a reason standard pc cases are a thing) than be able to fit in a cubby and have another red ring fiasco.

I bet it's loud. It definitely looks intricate like the PS3 under the hood. It gets me thinking about the SCIENCE behind packaging a console. I hope there's some nuts theory about heat management and making sure stuff is in the right place.

You mean that report where they misquoted Bakalar?

Taking the plates off doesn't seem an issue but I bet if you RMA a painted console they send it right back untouched. I remember EVGA getting massive good will for being the only gfx card maker who would honour guarantees if you replaced the fan with a water cooling block.

I would expect third party shell replacements to be a thing though.

@ghost_cat said:

I expect that as long as you don't remove those stickers like he does to get to the screws on the chassis, your warranty will be fine. The plates seem to be made to be easily removed, and I'd be surprised if customized ones don't show up for sale like the 360 face plates.

@frytup: among others, the articles I've seen that quote Backalar aren't a misquote, they clarify that it "won't burn your house down" or necessarily cause issues, but it DOES get hot. Which who knows what that hea will do over the course of the life of the system.

If people are saying it's hot, they must be comparing it to something and the most logical thing would be other systems.

Keep in mind I'm not trying to throw shade at MS. I bought both. I'm just saying Sony made a good call even if it is a detriment to esthetic.

@reap3r160: I have no opinion either way until people get their hands on final hardware and we start seeing real-world numbers, but the Series X cooling system should be able to get rid of a lot of heat. Just having a larger case doesn't make cooling better if air circulation is bad.

I would assume that is the goal. Help keep the systems from becoming a rocket engine after a year or two.

Also, I absolutely love how over designed the stand is.

At 2:04 he says "the white panels on both sides can be removed by the users themselves". (according to officially supplied English subtitles on the video)

I don't really get why people are freaking out over Jeff Bakalar's expansion drive being hot. Of course the expansion drive was hot - plug in drives like that involve metal-to-metal contact, very close to the other heat-producing components in the system.

Cooling systems for any piece of equipment does not make its components run/feel cool to the touch. It simply works to remove heat from the system to avoid it overheating. It's still going to generate heat, and you're still going to find that heat if you look for it; say, on an expansion card that slots in close to the other main system components.

Anyone ever run a PC? They exhaust hot air. That is how the cooling system works. The XSX is a small (in comparison) form factor PC so is going to get even hotter. It is the cooling system doing it's job. As long as it stays within the designed thermal margins it should have no long term impact on reliability.

PS5 apparently runs cooler and in the teardown you can see why. Big brute force heatsink, fan and large case. Which is the best approach? Hopefully both methods work fine. Only time will tell.

It biggg than I thought....I honestly don't know if I have the space for this console. Unless Sony come out with a press release of "Sorry, engineer actually 3ft tall", this looks bigger than every horizontal or vertical space I have right now. My own fault for not considering how big it really was but...just kinda wow I guess. "Ambitious".

@petesix0: I mean, they showed measurements right at the top. You don't have to guess. It'll fit either vertically or horizontally in my entertainment center with a few adjustments.

And, yeah, that's actually a pretty small dude.

@frytup: I saw the numbers(And will at some point fish out a tape measure), this is just the first time I've seen it like this. I steadfastly refuse to search for "Sony Engineer Measurements". I ain't going on that list.

Correct.

Agreed. I think Series X will run quiet and PS5 will run quiet...and feel cool to the touch. But, if you are not packing-up your the Series X to move it after playing that might not matter.

My own thoughts:
Both system will seemingly be using a lot of energy. That energy becomes heat. That heat when moved away from the system into the 'environment (your room) will heat the air. Both systems will do that - both will dump a fair amount of heart into the room - just very quietly. Sony might just have the advantage that it pushes the heat out more effectively and might not heat its own case as much. Yet, both will heat up our room because both draw a fair bit of power. Its physics heat that is made is heat that needs to be dissipated out of the system and then out of the room...magic doesn't help. ;-)

What will be interesting to see is which system stays quite longer. Which systems will be easier to clean or need less cleaning because of design? Both system teardown for Series X and PS5 seem to show both system come apart fairly neatly. But, I won't lie, PS5 looks like it was more expertly engineered.

The PS5 is one plain small white button up shirt tall. That's huge!

@ghost_cat: it doesn’t, the warranty voids when you take off the black plastic underneath, you see it in the video when he peels the sticker. Even then in the Us the warranty isn’t voided when you add storage that was the ruling of that court case a year or two ago

It should take paint just fine its will be a PC/ABS (Polycarbonate ABD alloy plastic) that will take paint.

What interest me is that give the mechanisms that hold it in place the covers could LOOK like anything as long as they let air into the back central section.

• Want a more squared-off rectangle? That could be made.
• Want the PS5 to be a beachball sized sphere? Some crazy person could make that.
• Want the PS5 to be as slim as possible & as flat as possible? Some perosn or company will do that too.

After the PS5 launches someone will make a 3D printer STL/OBJ file with the pin layout that would allow someone to 3D print their own shell. I'd do that in ABS because PLA or Nylon would be too soft for the temperature the console will reach. But, I 100% guarantee that a few days after launch, someone with some CAD experience will have an STL/OBJ file up for free.

Two take aways.

1. You can vacuum the heatsink without tearing it apart.

2. You can remove the fan for cleaning.

After 6 years of ownership those things get clogged, my PS3 was filthy when I cracked her open after only 3 years. This will make a launch PS5 much quieter towards the end of the generation.

Is that expandable storage bay not the nail in the coffin for xbox?

@quadeo: I think a lot of enthusiasts are vastly overestimating how much the common consumer cares about this sort of stuff. Most people will just delete a game to free up space and not think about this too hard. I imagine that the people that feel the need to have 5-10 games installed at a time and rotate between them regularly are in a vast minority.

If you want a drive you put in the bay to actually work with PS5 games, it needs to be PCIe 4.0, and more specifically it needs to be on Sony's approved list. Given those requirements, I doubt it'll end up being much cheaper than the Series X expansion cards.

ha- apply this to every component of prelaunch 'discourse.' in fact, i'd wager new consoles are fully off the radar of most consumers, let alone discussions of solid state storage solutions.

Found my tape measure. I have no horizontal space for a PS5 currently(I have shelves but they're all full), but I have space for vertical orientation, on my unit underneath my TV. The clearance I have, is 40cm. The PS5 is 39cm, and I've seen people guessing the base adds another ~1.5cm. My TV is up a height, but from the sitting angle I have, this means a PS5 would only need a customized gumball machine case to feel like I have Tom Servo in front of me. (Someone plz make Tom Servo case panels for the PS5)

When it was first shown I thought the PS5 was gaudy and ridiculous. As time has gone on I'm kind of into it. Like, it will definitely stand out in anyone's room or entertainment center (if it even fits that is). Also that tear down video was fascinating. It seems very high tech. And that heat sink has some junk in the trunk.

Removal of the sides might effect fan efficiency. With fans the path of air sometimes is HOW the proper function is achived. Leaving the sides off might result in 'worse' dust infiltration. Or, it might not move air where the system wants the air to travel. Or, it could have little effect; but why risk it?. My guess if if you don't like the wavy shape that a 3rd party might make sides that might suit what you needed better.

Thus, is would be VERY hesitant to take the side off permanently.

@monkeyking1969: I'm sure we'll have plenty of test data from people trying it with the panels off very soon. I also wouldn't be surprised if there's some kind of sensor in the console that won't allow it to run with panels removed without some modifications.

And, yes, eventually there will be tons of third party panel alternatives.