PS4 unboxed and disassembled on video

[Lonyo]

From the size of the DVD drive, they both SP4 and XBone look almost the same size to me.

PS4 has an internal PSU, Xbox One has an external brick AFAIK.

 

[sniffin]

Wow, that's some pretty efficient design there.

If this is true, then that means the PS4 will be quieter than quiet. I currently have a super-slim (I know that this version has a 45nm Cell BE chip from the original 90nm and the GPU is 40nm as opposed to the original 90nm) and it never makes any noise at all. The only times I've ever heard it was when it was initially reading a disc that was just inserted into it...

This is in stark contrast to the old 2008 partial-BC PS3 80GB model I had in early 2008, which sounded like a jet engine in its final days before it got the YLOD.



Not necessarily. The PS4 may be compact, but no devs or people who have gotten the system early have been complaining about overheating issues. And as mentioned above, if this thing is really as quiet as they say it is, it's an incredibly efficient design. People would have to go out of their way to make one of these overheat.

Yep, the PS3 super slim is incredibly quiet except for the exposed disc drive which is a non issue in the PS4.

Sony always make quality hardware. I am pretty confident this will be impossible to overheat unless you cover the the intakes on the bottom and the exhaust deliberately. The PS3 super slim gets lukewarm at best. To those worried about the compactness affecting heat, don't. It's a very solid design.

My only gripe with it is disassembly to clean it is a longer and more difficult process than basically all other electronic devices today. When I took apart my super slim I ended up with like 30 screws or something.

 

[Saylick]

Hard to tell from the video as he had the external cover off already, but usually there is a door/cover that will allow access to the drive. like in the ps3

Kudos for Sony to do the disassembly as well, it looks like it might be easily repairable if needed.

It is indeed hard to tell from the video because they cut every single time he flips over the PS4.

The cover that he pops off in the beginning is the BOTTOM of the PS4, so when that centrifugal fan is first seen, you are looking at the PS4 upside-down. The integrated power brick and optical drive is also shown during this part of the video.

Then they make a cut. At this point, the PS4 is flipped back right-side up. He pops off the GLOSSY side on the TOP of the PS4, which houses the internal hard drive tray. Note that there are NO stickers that need to be removed when you pop the glossy cover off. He goes on and mentions something about the harddrive being secured only with 1 screw and proceeds to remove the internal hard drive.

He continues and removes the first layer which covers the PCB. He then removes the PCB itself and goes on to point out the APU and the low-power standby/networking chip. At this point, you can also see the 2nd layer that the PCB is secured to, which is that metal tray which has the heatsink built-in. He removes this metal tray and flips it over, revealing the heatsink which has 2 heatpipes built-in. In other words, the heatpipes have to work upside-down. Overheating shouldn't be an issue because of the size of the heatsink and because heatpipes work through capillary action. Lastly, he removes the centrifugal fan and then shows the black plastic frame which holds everything together.

 

[Saylick]

Not necessarily. The PS4 may be compact, but no devs or people who have gotten the system early have been complaining about overheating issues. And as mentioned above, if this thing is really as quiet as they say it is, it's an incredibly efficient design. People would have to go out of their way to make one of these overheat.

This. Developers have already expressed their satisfaction at the PS4's cooling system.

I personally think the PS4's cooling is quite elegant as compared to the Xbox One's.

On the PS4, you have dedicated routing and ducting for the cooling system, which is that black plastic shroud which acts as a dedicated channel to route cool air from the centrifugal fan through the heatsink and out the back of the PS4. The heatsink makes direct contact with the chip itself, but more importantly, the PCB is separated from the cooling system through the metal tray, which more-or-less acts as a heat shield, thus isolating the heat generated by the chip to the dedicated channel only from which it can be easily extracted.

On the Xbox, you have one large axial fan which sits on top of a heatsink. Cool air is drawn from the TOP of the console and is directed downwards through the heatsink. Beyond this point, however, the PS4 and Xbox differ significantly in cooling design. In the Xbox, hot air simply leaves the heatsink on ALL sides and is allowed to flow where ever it wants to in order to leave the case. This explains why there are a lot of vents throughout the outside of the console. Also note how the PCB is exposed to this hot air before the hot air leaves. There is NO metal tray which prevents the hot air from reheating the PCB.

Long story short, Sony's cooling system, in my mind, is leaps and bounds more elegant and flushed-out compared to the Xbox's cooling design. The end result is that the PS4 is smaller and lighter, yet is still capable of keeping itself cool and quiet. Using a PC analogy, the PS4 is like a blower-style graphics card, where hot air is ejected from the case so that your case doesn't get warmed up. The XBO is thus analogous to an open-air design for your video card, where any hot air generated is dumped back into the case.

See attached images for what I'm talking about:

PS4:
Take a look at the piece in the center of the image. Yes, number 5 in the stack if you were to treat this image like your NUMPAD. Note how if you composite Number 3 (again, look at your NUMPAD) onto Number 5, you can see how the shroud in Number 5 directs cold air directly through the heatsink and out the back of the console (which is in the 'down' direction in this image)

The only vents you really notice are the ones in the back. The main exhaust holes are the ones on the RIGHT in this image. The top left holes are used for connectors, the bottom left holes are in actually blocked off by the integrated power brick, and the entire right side (right of the division), is the exhaust for the heatsink.

Again, to hammer the point home. You don't see anything vents beyond the ones in the back. The result is a clean-looking exterior. Also good to note is that the internal hard drive housing is situated behind the glossy top cover and is removable without having to void your warranty.

Xbox One:
You can see how the air is able to leave the heatsink from any side it chooses to.

On the XBO, you have vents on most of the exterior surface. The console itself is larger than the PS4 as well.

Top intake vent is shown, along with a vent in the back.

Top vent is shown, along with the left-side vent, which happens to cover the ENTIRE left side of the console.

Top vent is shown, along with the right-side vent, which covers HALF the right side of the console.

The worst part is that you have to be careful stacking anything on top of the XBO because you might block the intake vent if you do. On the PS4, you don't have this issue.

 

[seitur]

This die looks quite big for as some like to call it "tablet cpu".

Well it's 8 cores but more importantly GPU is propably most powerful APU ever built.

 

[mindbomb]

to me, the cooling on the xbox seems much superior. which is a bit weird considering it has the less powerful, cooler running hardware.

 

[ShintaiDK]

to me, the cooling on the xbox seems much superior. which is a bit weird considering it has the less powerful, cooler running hardware.

Xbox360 had a ~30% RMA rate mainly due to bad cooling. The PS3 around 10%. I am pretty sure that part haunted MS in the decision.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Does anybody know why they are making the PS4 APU at TSMC and Kaveri at Global Foundries? Do you think there is any particular reason behind that decision? Both are @ 28 nm, right?

 

[erunion]

Does anybody know why they are making the PS4 APU at TSMC and Kaveri at Global Foundries? Do you think there is any particular reason behind that decision? Both are @ 28 nm, right?

Kabini, which uses jaguar cores, is TSMC. Kaveri isn't relevant.

GF 28nm is not ready. MS and Sony need reliable suppliers, if they had chosen GF 28nm they wouldn't have gotten consoles on the market before Christmas.

 

[Abwx]

Two interesting photos of PS4 and Xbox1 SoCs , not sure but it looks
like there is 2 x 5 cores with only 2 x 4 enabled , surely that this allow
far better redundancy and to increase yield substancialy.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multim...ystem_on_Chips_Compared_Under_Microscope.html

 

[Saylick]

That "fifth core" that you talk about isn't the same layout as the other 4; I'd surmise that it isn't a core.

 

[Abwx]

That "fifth core" that you talk about isn't the same layout as the other 4; I'd surmise that it isn't a core.

Possible but then cost would be huge since a single non
functional core would render the whole 350mm good to be
thrown in the trash bin , i find that a few mm2 not forcibly
used would be less costly than to get rid of entire chips.

 

[Saylick]

Possible but then cost would be huge since a single non
functional core would render the whole 350mm good to be
thrown in the trash bin , i find that a few mm2 not forcibly
used would be less costly than to get rid of entire chips.

That's like saying what if a part of the XBO's SRAM cache was hit, then what? What about the memory controllers? Do those have built-in redundant buses as well?

 

[Abwx]

That's like saying what if a part of the XBO's SRAM cache was hit, then what? What about the memory controllers? Do those have built-in redundant buses as well?

There s redundancy parts for the memory controler , RAMs
GPU cores and even bus , it doesnt take more than a few %
more area to increase yields dramaticaly but in thev case
of the cores they are too complexe to allow redundancy
other than by adding a full core.

 

[Saylick]

There s redundancy parts for the memory controler , RAMs
GPU cores and even bus , it doesnt take more than a few %
more area to increase yields dramaticaly but in thev case
of the cores they are too complexe to allow redundancy
other than by adding a full core.

I'm not a chip designer by any means, but I'm thinking there is in fact some redundancy built-in to the core circuitry already, like extra execution units or something. Intel dual cores aren't recycled quad cores if I'm not mistaken, which suggests that there is some redundancy within the cores to ensure that the number of defects per core has to be pretty high in order to render the core unusable.

Maybe someone with more know-how could answer this in more detail.

 

[Abwx]

I'm not a chip designer by any means, but I'm thinking there is in fact some redundancy built-in to the core circuitry already, like extra execution units or something. Intel dual cores aren't recycled quad cores if I'm not mistaken, which suggests that there is some redundancy within the cores to ensure that the number of defects per core has to be pretty high in order to render the core unusable.

Maybe someone with more know-how could answer this in more detail.

Intel s dual cores can be harvested by suppressing non
functional parts , first HThreading, then execution units can
get rid of AVX paths as well as VTd and so on down to the
most basic celerons wich are deprived of most recent functions,
dies wich have only a single core that can be harvested
are sold as embeded models like celeron 927UE.

 

[desiplaya4life]

wow looking through this .. I am now more interested than ever investing in a PS4 for my gaming instead of Xbone or heck even building a pc...

I think Sony has ALWAYS done great job in R&D. Their marketing is not as great as their competitors otherwise.. I believe Sony always usually makes decent hardware!