Console Thermals/Fan Noise

[AlphaWolf]

I understand Kinect 2 actually has a fan ..,

Yep. Not sure why I thought it was gone.

 

[SlimJim]

It says right here that the PS4 is the most quiet console. If this is true, then my theory that DF tested the PS4 with the fans facing their 'sound-meter' and the XBox1 in the normal facing position, could be true. Or DF measured using a mobile phone; which probably had some noise cancelation active. I don't know.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Angetestet-Xbox-One-gegen-PS4-2052893.html

If the PS4 is quieter, smaller, more powerful, cooler, while having the PSU built in, then it really is the best console ever built without a doubt

 

[bkilian]

Quite a bit cooler than the ps4 should make it much safer in cabinets for those who are inclined. I suppose the external brick pays off there.

Kinect 2 lacks active cooling so no reason it wouldn't get warm. I'm not sure the descriptor of 'whopping' is accurate for 42C. Its 5 degrees warmer than people.

Kinect 2 has a fan.

 

[BeyondTed]

I understand Kinect 2 actually has a fan ..,

Yep. Not sure why I thought it was gone.

The depth camera.

Look at the iFixit teardown.

http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/UWZ1GeqQfCfg1RVd.huge

(Hopefully that link will work.)

If that link works you will see a fairly big power supply and then a metal block with three IR emitters in windowed TO cans.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Xbox+One+Kinect+Teardown/19725



Based upon the power supply, heatsink (see other pictures from the teardown) and the fan it looks like the IR emitters are pretty hot.



This link has thermal camera images, including the Kinect 2.0:

http://www.planetextech.com/profiles/blogs/xbox-one-thermal-images

Lots of fun.

 

[Grall]

It says right here that the PS4 is the most quiet console.

Well THAT is interesting... My german is very very rusty by now (and it was never particularly good to begin with), so I tried some online translation tools to try and see what exactly the article is claiming. Google refuses to translate the URL entirely (not displaying anything), and bing translate is rather crap, it seems to have big problems with the context of words and it creates generally funky sentences.

Still, you can make out the meaning anyway, and it seems Heise goes more in-depth with fan noise investigations than other comparisons I've seen so far. The power brick has its own fan, which is claimed to be noisier than PS4 idling (PS4 0.5 sone, power brick "rants" at 0.7 (thank you for the humor bing); testing conditions unknown.) That's rather weird! Also, brick fan runs constantly, wether console is on or off it seems, although the reviewer doesn't state if fan speed ever changes or is constant no matter the system load. Also, no word on sound level of kinect fan. It really should be imperceptible though.

 

[SlimJim]

Well THAT is interesting... My german is very very rusty by now (and it was never particularly good to begin with), so I tried some online translation tools to try and see what exactly the article is claiming. Google refuses to translate the URL entirely (not displaying anything), and bing translate is rather crap, it seems to have big problems with the context of words and it creates generally funky sentences.

Still, you can make out the meaning anyway, and it seems Heise goes more in-depth with fan noise investigations than other comparisons I've seen so far. The power brick has its own fan, which is claimed to be noisier than PS4 idling (PS4 0.5 sone, power brick "rants" at 0.7 (thank you for the humor bing); testing conditions unknown.) That's rather weird! Also, brick fan runs constantly, wether console is on or off it seems, although the reviewer doesn't state if fan speed ever changes or is constant no matter the system load. Also, no word on sound level of kinect fan. It really should be imperceptible though.

Well, a FLIR image showed the Kinect being hotter than the PS4.. But maybe the Kinect heatsink is really big and it's fan runs really low.

Anyway, I will buy an xbox one, just to compare it, and I will return it after a week. That is the only way to be sure. Heise got their PS4 early so maybe they are biased?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

It says right here that the PS4 is the most quiet console. If this is true, then my theory that DF tested the PS4 with the fans facing their 'sound-meter' and the XBox1 in the normal facing position, could be true. Or DF measured using a mobile phone; which probably had some noise cancelation active. I don't know.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Angetestet-Xbox-One-gegen-PS4-2052893.html

If the PS4 is quieter, smaller, more powerful, cooler, while having the PSU built in, then it really is the best console ever built without a doubt

Yes, pick the one and only review on the internet that claims PS4 is quieter and ignore all other reviews that don't state what you want to believe.

Well, a FLIR image showed the Kinect being hotter than the PS4.. But maybe the Kinect heatsink is really big and it's fan runs really low.

The site (http://www.planetextech.com/profiles/blogs/playstation-4-thermal-images) where you got your pictures shows the PS4 is significantly hotter when running a game (up to 115 degrees F on top and up to 141 degrees F at the vent compared to 94.3 degrees F for Kinect), so again, huh?

Regards,
SB

 

[Arwin]

I read the full article and yes, it claims the One basically comes with three fan driven devices. It does also mention that the one in the PS4 has a variable speed, so that can be annoying. They wouldn't recommend either device for music or movie playback because they are both too loud.

Other things I noted from the article is that voice recognition proved very unreliable, only recognizing their commands 50:50. They gave up on it after 10 minutes. They also note that they couldn't setup Kinect on the One because the setup then complains of too much background noise.

They also thought that Xbox games did a good job at hiding any performance deficiencies as they thought Ryse looked better than Killzone and Forza looks great as well.

All in all nothing much to see here really.

 

[SlimJim]

Yes, pick the one and only review on the internet that claims PS4 is quieter and ignore all other reviews that don't state what you want to believe.



The site (http://www.planetextech.com/profiles/blogs/playstation-4-thermal-images) where you got your pictures shows the PS4 is significantly hotter when running a game (up to 115 degrees F on top and up to 141 degrees F at the vent compared to 94.3 degrees F for Kinect), so again, huh?

Regards,
SB

there are only 2 publications that compare the noise output at a measured level:
Digital Foundry, and, the heisse.de one that I supplied.
To me this is basically confirmation that the Heisse.de article is true, and the DF one is not.

Again, I will buy an xbox one just to return it after comparing the noise levels myself. This means an xbox fan will receive an opened, used xbox. All that just for science. I kind of see the beauty of it

 

[Ceger]

there are only 2 publications that compare the noise output at a measured level:
Digital Foundry, and, the heisse.de one that I supplied.
To me this is basically confirmation that the Heisse.de article is true, and the DF one is not.

Again, I will buy an xbox one just to return it after comparing the noise levels myself. This means an xbox fan will receive an opened, used xbox. All that just for science. I kind of see the beauty of it

Seriously, please tone the fanboyism down. It is in everyone one of your posts lately.

Secondly, there are a number of articles measuring sound levels from both consoles aside from DF and Heisse.de. All but the latter have the X1 as quieter, though truth be told they are both quiet consoles regardless.

 

[bkilian]

I read the full article and yes, it claims the One basically comes with three fan driven devices. It does also mention that the one in the PS4 has a variable speed, so that can be annoying. They wouldn't recommend either device for music or movie playback because they are both too loud.

Other things I noted from the article is that voice recognition proved very unreliable, only recognizing their commands 50:50. They gave up on it after 10 minutes. They also note that they couldn't setup Kinect on the One because the setup then complains of too much background noise.

They also thought that Xbox games did a good job at hiding any performance deficiencies as they thought Ryse looked better than Killzone and Forza looks great as well.

All in all nothing much to see here really.

If your environment is too noisy for Kinect to calibrate, then there is no way in hell that you will be able to accurately measure the noise output of the consoles. Also, don't complain that voice reco is terrible if you have not calibrated, and cannot calibrate because your room is too noisy.

 

[Arwin]

They just said that you can't put the Kinect 2 on the One, not that they kept it there or that they skipped the calibration.

 

[Scott_Arm]

If your environment is too noisy for Kinect to calibrate, then there is no way in hell that you will be able to accurately measure the noise output of the consoles. Also, don't complain that voice reco is terrible if you have not calibrated, and cannot calibrate because your room is too noisy.

How noisy does it have to be to not be able to calibrate? Seems like the room would have to be fairly loud.

 

[Gipsel]

As Arwin already said, they first tried it with Kinect placed on top of the XB1. In that case, the fan of the One creates the background noise, which proved to be too much. Obviously they moved it away to complete the calibration.

Btw., to measure down to 0.1 Sone (as heise did), one needs a pretty quiet room.

 

[TheWretched]

Well THAT is interesting... My german is very very rusty by now (and it was never particularly good to begin with), so I tried some online translation tools to try and see what exactly the article is claiming. Google refuses to translate the URL entirely (not displaying anything), and bing translate is rather crap, it seems to have big problems with the context of words and it creates generally funky sentences.

Still, you can make out the meaning anyway, and it seems Heise goes more in-depth with fan noise investigations than other comparisons I've seen so far. The power brick has its own fan, which is claimed to be noisier than PS4 idling (PS4 0.5 sone, power brick "rants" at 0.7 (thank you for the humor bing); testing conditions unknown.) That's rather weird! Also, brick fan runs constantly, wether console is on or off it seems, although the reviewer doesn't state if fan speed ever changes or is constant no matter the system load. Also, no word on sound level of kinect fan. It really should be imperceptible though.

Since I am a native German, I'll do you a favor^^

Die PS4 liegt etwas unter dem Niveau der PS3. Bei ruhendem Hauptmenü rauscht der Lüfter mit 0,5 Sone, die unter Belastung im Spiel (gemessen bei Killzone) auf 1,1 Sone steigen – die Drehzahl schwankt während der Spiele, sodass sich der Rauschpegel immer wieder verändert. Im Bereitschaftsmodus, wenn die PS4 Daten empfangen und den Controller per USB laden kann, dreht der Lüfter auch, ist mit unter 0,1 Sone aber nur wahrnehmbar, wenn man das Ohr direkt in die Nähe des Lüftungsschlitzes hält.

Die Xbox One ist lauter als die PS4, wenn auch deutlich leiser als die ersten Xbox-360-Konsolen. Bei ruhendem Menü liegt sie bei 0,8 Sone, die bis auf 1,5 Sone ansteigen, wenn die Prozessoren bei Ryse auf Hochtouren laufen. Mit dazu bei tragen die Kamera und das Netzteil, in denen ebenfalls Lüfter eingebaut wurden. Der Netzteillüfter bleibt sogar im Bereitschaftsmodus (schnelles Aufwachen, Hintergrundladen von Daten) aktiv und lärmt mit 0,7 Sone.

Translates to

The PS4 has a slightly lower noise output than the PS3 (doesn't specify which revision. I'd imagine the fat one for now?). Idling within the homescreen, the fan puts out 0.5 Sone, which is raised to 1.1 Sone under load (measured using Killzone) - The rotational speed varies while gaming, thus the noise level isn't steady either. In Standby, when the PS4 is receiving data and the controller can be charged via USB, the fan is quieter than 0.1 Sone, but this is only perceptible, when you're putting your ear against the console.

The XBox One is louder than the PS4, but also notably more silent than the original Xbox 360 consoles. Idling in the homescreen, the console puts out 0.8 Sone, which is raised to 1.5 Sone, when the processors are under load using Ryse. This is compounded by the fact that the camera and PSU also have a built in fan. The PSU fan is even running in Standby (quick wakeup and downloading data), and puts out noisy 0.7 Sone in this state.

Honestly, this is quite different from what other articles have written. 1.1 Sone versus 1.5 Sone under load is notably more noisy, and the "active" standby at 0.7 Sone is also quite a lot, in my opinion.

EDIT: And... as a long time reader of Heise... I wouldn't put them into either camp. If they are biased, it'd be in favor of Apple, before anyone else.

 

[MrFox]

Thanks for the translation !

I really like that they measured in Sone, it shows they understand what is being measured. (for once) The frequency response of Sone is different from dbA and follows the ear's loudness curve. The frequency components of both consoles will be very different, and that could explain the results being different. Sone is designed to match the perception of loudness over a wide range, while dbA is a very simple fixed filter that doesn't work well for perceived loudness.

The rough conversion from Sone to dbA gives something fairly close and that would make the frequency weighting (and loudness compensation) a dominant factor:
1.1 = 30dbA
1.5 = 33dbA

I'm expecting there would be more motor noise from the XB1 (fan is exposed) and more turbulence noise from the PS4 (motor enclosed and all air paths are basically acting as mufflers).

 

[Billy Idol]

It says right here that the PS4 is the most quiet console. If this is true, then my theory that DF tested the PS4 with the fans facing their 'sound-meter' and the XBox1 in the normal facing position, could be true. Or DF measured using a mobile phone; which probably had some noise cancelation active. I don't know.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Angetestet-Xbox-One-gegen-PS4-2052893.html

If the PS4 is quieter, smaller, more powerful, cooler, while having the PSU built in, then it really is the best console ever built without a doubt

They do indeed say that during menu PS4 is quieter than X1 and while playing KZ:SF the PS4 is quieter compared to X1 playing Ryse.

Furthermore, in nearly every technical comparison (size, weight, noise, controller, menu UI, setup and installation time, time to play,...) they give the nod to PS4, except for camera and multimedia functionality and the 20+watt power draw, which they account to the better GPU.

 

[Billy Idol]

Well THAT is interesting... My german is very very rusty by now (and it was never particularly good to begin with), so I tried some online translation tools to try and see what exactly the article is claiming. Google refuses to translate the URL entirely (not displaying anything), and bing translate is rather crap, it seems to have big problems with the context of words and it creates generally funky sentences.

Still, you can make out the meaning anyway, and it seems Heise goes more in-depth with fan noise investigations than other comparisons I've seen so far. The power brick has its own fan, which is claimed to be noisier than PS4 idling (PS4 0.5 sone, power brick "rants" at 0.7 (thank you for the humor bing); testing conditions unknown.) That's rather weird! Also, brick fan runs constantly, wether console is on or off it seems, although the reviewer doesn't state if fan speed ever changes or is constant no matter the system load. Also, no word on sound level of kinect fan. It really should be imperceptible though.

That is exactly what they claim: power brick has an own fan, which even when idling is louder than the while PS4 while idling. They also say that kinect is quite loud.

 

[Billy Idol]

Oh, just saw that others already did the full translation...

 

[djskribbles]

I think that chip to chip variances will cause differences in temperatures and fan noise on both consoles. Overall they seem to be pretty comparable, both in terms of noise and heat, which is surprising considering the PS4's size.