A couple of weeks ago I noticed something strange during the teardown of the PS5 console. Sony’s official video showed Yasuhiro Ootori tear apart the PS5 for the very first time. One thing he pulled out was the massive fan which is situated in the middle of the console.
However, after the console released, more teardowns appeared online which showed off the same fan but it was actually completely different. It seems that Sony actually has two very different fan models which they install across the hardware and according to Les Numeriques, one of them is slightly quieter than the other.
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According to the French news outlet, they report that their PS5 consoles were making different sounds during gameplay. They decided to open all of them up and to discover that each console had either one or the other fan installed. The Delta Fan (or Fan A as they say) is 39dB(A) while the NIDEC fan (referred to as Fan B) is 43bD(A).
Even on standby, fan B was emitting a slightly louder squeaking sound that was louder than fan A (during tests using sound measuring equipment). Out of the five consoles which they own, two of them have the quieter fan while the other three are equipped with the louder fan B. In addition, fan A, which is the quieter model seems to include 24 blades compared to the 17 on fan B.
So does it make a huge difference? Not really. The human ear won’t be able to distinguish between the 39dB(A) and the 43dB(A) on two PS5 fans much. Even the extra blades won’t provide any drastic changes to the cooling of the console.
With that being said, if you had the opportunity to decide between the two fans, of course, you would want fan A. On paper, it is quieter and that is a fact. You are lucky if you purchased a PS5 console and got the quieter model but then again “quieter” means nothing here because the two fans are almost identical.
Is Sony delivering a “lesser” product to those with fan B? No, the company can do whatever they want as long as the quality of the hardware remains the same and the user experience is not affected. In this case, it is not.
It also does not help that users can’t decide for themselves. When purchasing a PS5, you don’t know what model fan they are getting but then again, it does not matter. You could remove the faceplate of the console and try count the blades if you are really determined to know. You could also replace the fan manually when it does become available on the market for sale. You will void your warranty though. You see. This is all just more of an inconvenience than anything else.
