Prominent tech YouTuber Austin Evans pulled apart a revised Sony PlayStation 5 ‘1200’ model and discovered that the new model was “surprisingly different” under the hood. Highlights spotted included; a noticeably smaller motherboard, a smaller AMD processor cooling system, and an integrated SSD heatsink. He also noticed that, when gaming, the new PS5 used 10% less power.
This is the second hardware revision of the PS5, the first revisions in 2021 saw Sony do little more than reduce the size / weight of the heatsink assembly . That resulted in a weight reduction of 300g (both models). A few days ago, it was reported that a revised PlayStation 5 model, new for 2022, had surfaced in Australia . The only difference we knew about at the time, from the updated 2022 spec sheet, was a weight reduction of 300g (ODD model) or 200g (Digital model).
Evans got a brand new 2022 revision PS5 Digital flown to the US from Australia. Thus, in his video, he compared the 1000 model , and 1100 model (2021) to the headlining new 1200 model (2022). After a outer visual comparison and nothing of note to report, Evans ran all three consoles with the same scene in Astro’s Playroom the three consoles from old to new were pulling approximately 218W, 229W, and 201W respectively. However, the noise generated by the running consoles wasn’t noticeably different by ear or measurement.
Thermals, hotspot on 1000 model was about 53 degrees Celsius, this went up to about 63 degrees Celsius on the 1110 model, but the 1200 model was 53 degrees Celsius (but less or a hot spot and more of a large blob). So, it was time to tear down the trio of PS5s, for a side by side comparison, at last.
Immediately after taking off the white outer shell it was noticed that the newest device had less material in the black plastic shroud and it was visible that the SSD slot wasn’t backed by any section of the PCB. Though the fans look the same size, the new model 1200 fan has blades that aren’t attacked to the central spindle.
Last but definitely not least we got to see the three different motherboards and different heatsinks in all three models. They looked so different, Evans decided to weigh them and discovered that the 1000 model’s motherboard and heatsink assembly weighed 1.58Kg (3.5lbs), the 1100 model 1.36Kg (3lbs), and the new 1200 model 1.13Kg (2.5lbs). The approximately 225g cut for the 1200 model is more than the generational weight difference, so some other components have got heavier – probably the shielding and metal area behind the SSD. However, that makes the lower power, cooler running AMD custom chip all the more interesting.
Xbox Wants to Help You Reduce Your Electricity Bill
While Sony has optimized the PS5 in some way, to reduce power usage while gaming by about 10%, Xbox users might consider reducing console power consumption in standby by applying the Energy Saver mode. Since March this year this has been the default mode, but owners of earlier produced / sold Xboxes might have the Instant On mode active, consuming between 11 and 15W when in ‘standby’.
Apparently, according to The Verge, this household LED bulb type amount of power usage will cost UK dwellers nearly £5 ($6) per month with electricity costs as they are predicted to be from next month (52p / 60 cents per kWh). Energy Saver mode would cut this to usage / expenditure to approximately £0.20 (0.23 cents) per month.
