The PS5 is a big console, the biggest in modern history, and a DIY YouTuber has now built a PS5 “Slim” model that’s a fraction of the thickness of the plastic cases that accommodate PS5 games.
Matt Perks, comprehended as DIY Perks on YouTube has spent substantial time and effort forming a PS5 “Slim” that brings the size from almost four inches to just beneath an inch.
The result is a slim copper console that combines the vital PS5 components and a giant external power supply and cooling explanation that can be hidden away. Most of the thickness of the PS5 arrives from its cooling heatsink and power supply, so DIY Perks migrated those into a long external unit to make the actual console far more gorgeous on top of a TV stand.
A custom water-cooling system replaces the PS5’s existing cooling solution and uses copper sheeting to channel wetness over the CPU. This sheeting also possesses several thermal bridges to help excellent components like the SSD and power circuitry attached to the PS5’s motherboard.
While Sony has reduced the power consumption of some previous PlayStation models to construct slim versions, that’s a little out of reach for DIY and modding. So instead, DIY Perks reached the route of the PS2 or PS One thin models by creating an external power supply.
This external power and cooling unit resulted in tragedy at first, frying the motherboard of the PS5 because the team fell over and intercepted airflow to cool the console effectively. However, after swapping the motherboard out, the PS5 “Slim” successfully boots and plays games as you’d expect.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this custom cooling solution also results in temperature improvements for the PS5. DIY Perks measured significant improvements in RAM and VRM temperatures and notes that temperatures could be further lowered with an even bigger external cooling unit.
While some will call the enormous power and cooling unit cheating, the entire project is still a fascinating 30-minute journey into the trial and error of modding consoles. The custom copper water block is impressive in how simple DIY Perks makes it seem, built using a jigsaw and standard tools. Thankfully, scalpers probably won’t put nearly as much effort into making the PS5 “Slim” a reality on eBay soon.
The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console designed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced in 2019 as the successor to the PlayStation 4, the PS5 was released on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and South Korea, with a worldwide release following a week later.
The PS5 is part of the ninth generation of video game consoles, along with Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, which were released in the same month.
The base model includes an optical disc drive compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. The Digital Edition lacks this drive, allowing it to serve as a lower-cost model for those who prefer to buy games through digital download. The two variants were launched simultaneously.
The PlayStation 5’s main hardware features include a solid-state drive customized for high-speed data streaming. In addition, it is to enable significant improvements in storage performance, an AMD GPU capable of 4K resolution display at up to 120 frames per second, hardware-accelerated ray tracing for realistic lighting and reflections, and the Tempest Engine allowing for hardware-accelerated 3D audio effects. Other features include the DualSense controller with haptic feedback and backward compatibility with most PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR games.
The lead architect of the PlayStation console line, Mark Cerny, implemented a two-year feedback cycle after the launch of the PlayStation 4. It entailed regularly visiting Sony’s first-party developers at two-year intervals to find out what concerns they had with shortcomings in Sony’s current hardware and how such hardware could be improved in console refreshes or for the next generation.
This feedback was fed into the priorities of the console development team. For example, in the development of the PlayStation 5, a key issue was the length of loading times for games. Cerny said several developers, including Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney, told him that the standard I/O speed of hard disk drives was now a limiting factor in pushing game development.
Slow data rates placed limits on the size of data being loaded into the game, the physical location of data on the storage medium, and the duplication of data across the medium to reduce load times. An important goal was to find ways to reduce loading time, particularly in games that stream or dynamically load new game areas as the player moves through the game world.
Jim Ryan, the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, stated that Sony had researched the feasibility of a “low priced, reduced spec” version of the PlayStation 5, like what Microsoft had done with its Xbox Series X and its lower-power counterpart, the Xbox Series S; and concluded that they believed such consoles do not fare well, becoming obsolete too fast.
Cerny publicly described the new console in an interview with Wired magazine in April 2019. In early 2019, Sony’s financial report for the quarter ending March 31, 2019, affirmed that new next-generation hardware was in development but would ship no earlier than April 2020. In a second Wired magazine interview in October 2019, Sony said it intended to send its next-generation console worldwide by the end of 2020.
The current hardware specifications were revealed in October 2019. At CES 2020, Sony unveiled the official logo for the platform, which follows the similar minimalist styling of the previous PlayStation consoles and brand. Digital Foundry spoke with Cerny in detail and published a “deep dive” on April 2.
A significant game library showcase had been planned for June 4, 2020, but was postponed until June 11 due to the George Floyd protests. This presentation was also the premiere of the console’s exterior hardware design.
Event lighting being set up at SIE headquarters on the evening of November 8, four days before the November 12, 2020, launch Sony planned to launch the PlayStation 5 by the 2020 end-of-year holiday period. The date and pricing were confirmed as part of a game showcase presentation on September 16, 2020; the release date in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and South Korea was confirmed for November 12, 2020, and most of the rest of the world on November 19, 2020.
PlayStation 5’s release in India was delayed, leading to speculation that a trademark dispute was the reason; a different person briefly trademarked the name “PS5”; eventually, the conflict was resolved, and the system was released there on February 2, 2021. The console launched in Indonesia on January 22, 2021. The scheme launched in China on May 15, 2021.
The console launched with two models: a base version with an Ultra HD Blu-ray compatible optical disc drive for retail game support alongside online distribution via the PlayStation Store. A lower-cost variant lacks the disc drive and retains digital download support.
Following the September 16, 2020, presentation, Sony stated that pre-orders for the console were to open at various retailers the following day. However, several retailers in the United States and the United Kingdom launched pre-orders that evening, causing a rush on pre-orders, including scalping, as many stores’ inventories were quickly sold out, creating confusion.
Sony apologized for the incident on September 19, 2020, and promised to increase more pre-order deliveries over the coming days and stock through the end of the year. The console has remained challenging to find worldwide since its release as stock is limited due to a global chip shortage. Sony expects it to stay in short supply until 2023.