Certain PS5 consoles are noisy due to differing cooling fans, report suggests

Is your PS5 noisier than you were expecting? Your console may have a cooling fan of lesser quality inside it, a new report suggests.

French tech website Les Numériques has revealed that not all PlayStation 5 units are created equal, after the outlet noticed a difference in the noise exhibited by the review unit Sony provided them and a second unit purchased through a traditional retail channel.

The site then proceeded to teardown several more PS5 consoles and discovered that the fans inside all five units were completely different from each other.

Only fans

As evidenced by the picture below, the fan said to be from the noisier retail model has 17 blades on it, while the press unit's fan reportedly possesses 23 slightly thinner blades.

PS5 retail fan vs PS5 press unit fan — (Image credit: Les Numériques)

While the exact airflow provided by each fan is difficult to quantify, it's generally assumed that fans with fewer blades have to work harder and spin faster to push air through, leading to a noisier fan overall.

As pointed out by our sister site Tom's Hardware, the discovery brings into question the usefulness of many existing PS5 teardown cooling tests, as they may no longer accurately reflect what users can expect from consoles purchased at retail.

That said, so long as your PS5's fan is effectively cooling the console it's attached to, it's doubtful that Sony will issue a replacement.

If you'd like to see which fan is inside your PS5, you can view this easy enough without voiding your console's warranty by popping off the white side panels.