PlayStation 4 (codename Orbis) technical hardware investigation (news and rumours)

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At first glance, it might sound kind of cool to watch a movie while playing a game while video-chatting with your friends while looking up stuff on the web while watching TV news - and all of that at the same time on the same screen. I personally don't consider it very practical and really don't see how that's supposed to be the next big thing in home entertainment, though.

It's more practical/useful for non-gaming situations. Alongside TV, movie or a fitness app 'snap' is a great idea (whether it's great in practice remains to be seen). Even casual games (PvZ2 with a sidebar seems fine to me).

In a core game? I don't think giving up peripheral vision in BF4 for a twitter sidebar is going to be particularly popular with players.
 
Some apps on PS4 must continue running in the background. For example Music Unlimited, and of course party chat. In most cases an app that is not visible does not need to be running, though. Of the use cases shown for Snap only the Twitch.tv chat window actually seems useful. Since the Xbox One gives over two display panes to games and PS4 only gives them one that wouldn't pose any barrier to adding a similar feature. It's just a question of resource stealing from the game, I'd think.

I think PS4 already has livestreaming with a chat window overlay and a smaller screen showing chat from watchers or something like that.
 
Here it is

20131016-JAPAN-0563_edit-660x440.jpg


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http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/ps4-gallery/
 

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/ps4-gallery/#slideid-86191

It's an impeller fan, and the motherboard is mounted on the bottom with a quite tall heatsink sitting over the APU?

Edit 2: nope - that picture is upside down. So the board is mounted on the top of the case with the fan underneath it. (the MB is upside down?)

Yep, the board is mounted upside-down, otherwise those pieces wouldn't fit together.

I guess that would let the RAM on the back of the MB cool passively (through the top of the case) whilst the main board is actively cooled?
 
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HS covers RAM and APU. The blower is pretty small, and does appear to be responsible for the bulge that I noticed earlier.
 
That console is seriously beautiful...

The oblique shape leaning towards the jet-engine-exhaust appearing vents, the stacked appearance with the clean indentations.... the contrast of the matte and reflective finish...

Just gorgeous... the designer has seriously exceeded my expectations... the most beautiful PlayStation ever in my opinion.

I am a huge fan of the original PS2 design, as well as the Slim PS2 series... I feel like this design is just like those but with even more amplified features, and just as slick.

Amazing work :)

Edit - Video of a teardown uploaded today: http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/playstation4-teardown-video/ :)
 
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For a brief moment I thought there was no thermal interface compound as the chip is clean, but he must have cleaned it for the cameras. There's white smear on the heat-sink shielding part when he lifts it off.

PSU is along the back. RAM doesn't appear to have any cooling on the back side, so the HSF setup is long with the heat-pipe spreading heat along the HS's width.
 
You can see the two pin prong on the MB for the PSU; so it must sit on the MB. Must watch video!

*edit*

Watched the video. It strikes me how elegant the whole design is. It looks as though the design principles that have produced the Xeria and Tablet Z series are feeding through the entire chain. It also makes the XB1 design look very clumsy and inelegant.
 
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How cool is that. Especially the CGI thing that puts it back together at the end :D

Also, it makes you wonder how much smaller it could have been still if it had an external powerbrick.
 
The APU and 8 ram chips are also passively cooled the other side of the board.

On the PS4 teardown video we can clearly see thermal paste for the APU and 8 GDDR5 chips on the upper shield plate, the one of the opposite "normal" side of the motherboard (not the one with the heat sink).

And the BluRay drive seems to be specific for PS4 aswell, no PC parts there. The overall cleanness of the motherboard, the simplicity of the heat sink which is attached to the shield plate, the oblique main body with the air slits designed to let passage (in/out) for the cool/heated air...

A beautiful design of simplicity, efficiency and beauty.
 
Must watch video!
Lower pants before you do that; that video is pure hardware porn... (Insert pun about motherboards and prongs here.)

Watched the video. It strikes me how elegant the whole design is. It looks as though the design principles that have produced the Xeria and Tablet Z series are feeding through the entire chain.
To be fair, sony consoles have been this elegant since the PS2, and PS3 especially, which also largely followed the same overall principles, with its directed airflow and single radial fan and so on.

It also makes the XB1 design look very clumsy and inelegant.
It's certainly a lot more inefficient with the use of space inside the console. What it may have over PS4 is a much larger diameter fan, which could potentially mean lower sound levels, I haven't seen any reports about that yet. PS3 Slim had lower heat output, but also a much smaller fan, meaning sound level - and especially frequency - actually increased, meaning a less enjoyable overall experience near the device. This is my one concern right now regarding PS4. When gaming I don't really notice my PS3 Slim's fan, but when watching movies I sure do. Of course, PS4's power saving features are radically more advanced, so fan noise during movie watching should not be an issue methinks. Gaming, though, I've no idea. If the APU puts out upwards of 150W of heat, then the fan ought to be fairly audible during gameplay, as evidenced by various videocard coolers and also PS3 Slim etc.

I would really like to know more about this. :)
 
Also, it makes you wonder how much smaller it could have been still if it had an external powerbrick.
Don't be ridiculous, it would have been larger overall with the external brick. You'd also needed a thick, unwieldy power cable leading to the console and a big unsightly brick of hot plastic on the floor. The internal PSU in PS4 is tiny as we can all see, and occupies what would essentially have been mostly dead space inside the casing...
 
So, the fan size is smaller than the PS3 slim´s one ( 85mm vs 95mm ). I suppose noise will be similar and that tdp is smaller in PS4 or that having CPU+GPU in one APU allows having a smaller fan. By the way, the chip marked with "SCEI" must be the custom secondary chip. Isn´t it too big for being only an ARM cpu?.
 
For a brief moment I thought there was no thermal interface compound as the chip is clean, but he must have cleaned it for the cameras. There's white smear on the heat-sink shielding part when he lifts it off.

PSU is along the back. RAM doesn't appear to have any cooling on the back side, so the HSF setup is long with the heat-pipe spreading heat along the HS's width.

Well, on the teardown video you can clearly see the shield plate on the back side of the motherboard is screwed to the board with thermal paste for the 8 chips and APU. Reminds me the passive cooling of my old N64.

So I guess one could say the RAM on the back side is only passively cooled (along with the APU).
 
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