PlayStation 5: new information on the cooling system revealed

Since the beginning of this year, some reports have begun circulating online according to which PlayStation 5, the next generation console of Sony, allegedly used an "unusually expensive" cooling system, and the recent details released by the company itself on the console hardware have certainly been in line with these early rumors. In fact, Sony recently talked about how the wanting reduce costs was one of the reasons he decided to use one large fan in the PlayStation 5 instead of two. Similarly, the company took into account the actual costs even when it made some particular decisions also in other areas of the platform, such as the cooling system, as he explained Yasuhiro Otori, head of the PlayStation5 mechanical and thermal design team, in a recent interview with 4Gamer.

Il liquid metal cooling of the PlayStation 5, in fact, was chosen for the console to reduce the overall cost of the cooling system. While the liquid metal thermal interface material alone is certainly an expensive choice, it has proven effective to the point of allowing Sony to use cheaper components elsewhere. According to the statements released by Otori, the coolant would have led to some difficulties in the production process of the platforms, which is why Sony would have spent about two years to find the best solution to use it, obviously taking into account the numerous risks. Also, in the course of the same interview, Otori confirmed that Sony has plans to continue improve and optimize the fan and of the PlayStation 5 even after the launch of the console, through some firmware updates.

The main reason they chose to use liquid metal inside the PlayStation 5 is the cost. Typically, the ideal for thermal design is to spend money close to the heat source. As an analogy to general thermal design, let's assume you have a system cooling structure that costs 10 yen for a TIM and 1000 yen for a heatsink. If you upgrade to a 100 yen TIM here, you can get the same cooling effect even if you use a 500 yen heatsink. In other words, the total cost can be reduced. I have always wanted to use liquid metal, however it is highly corrosive to aluminum used for parts such as heat sinks. To manage these materials, it was also necessary to take measures for the production of equipment. It took us more than two years to prepare ourselves well to solve these problems.