It turns out that in production, Sony used two different fans in different batches of PS5’s. The first of which, (called ‘Fan A’ on French news outlet Les Numeriques website) operates at 39 decibels; whereas the second fan (called ‘Fan B’ on the site) operates at 43 decibels.
That might not sound like much of a difference, but if you follow along to the recordings on their site you can really hear that one PS5 fan is louder than the other.
Why one PS5 may be louder than another
The French news site “Les Numeriques” made a startling discovery. After realizing that the PS5’s in their office sounded different while running, the guys at Les Numeriques took them apart to investigate. They tested 5 consoles in total. Tests ranged from consoles at the office and privately owned staff consoles.
Of the 5 they found that only 2 of them were equipped with the quieter Delta fan (fan A) whilst the others were equipped with the louder NIDEC fan. (Fan B)
What’s in the box?
The issue here is that none of these consoles had the fan specified anywhere. Not that this is in any way untoward, or even unusual. Previous iterations of the Playstation also had a similar issue, although it should be noted that the louder fan was often linked with an improved performance level.
It seems like the fan you receive (if you can even get your hands on a PS5!) is fairly random, and it has yet to be seen whether the fans in any way effect performance.
A THIRD Fan?
The plot further thickens from there. Due to the internet rumor mill, it has been stated that there is maybe even a THIRD fan variant. Given solely to reviewers and Youtubers.
This of course hasn’t been fully substantiated, but still presents potentially another interesting element to this unfolding story.
This might not be enough to effectively “worsen” the PS5 as a console, but I know that if I were to realize that my PS5 was louder than somebody else it would definitely bother me!
Only time will tell how this effects the different consoles. But I for one am interested to see what the final outcome will be. And whether or not Sony will address the issue directly.