New PS5 Report Might Explain Why Some Consoles Have Loud Fans

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In case you missed it, there have been some reports since the PlayStation 5 launch of noisy fans. While our own review explicitly called out how quiet the next-gen console was, that doesn't appear to have been the case across the board. And while some instances could be as simple as a sticky label falling out of place and into the fan itself, a new report seems to indicate that the problem might be more fundamental: entirely different models of fans.

According to a detailed report from French outlet Les Numériques, some PS5 consoles appear to have different models of fans installed in them. The report provides photographic and auditory evidence that the different models look and sound different, and one of them appears to be definitively louder when in use. Notably, the report found that the version they tore down with a disc drive contained a quieter fan, but this doesn't mean every single PS5 with a disc drive has that specific model.

Also of interest: the fan shown in the public PS5 teardown video shared by PlayStation appears to have yet another different fan model. While none of this necessarily indicates that there's a problem with the supply of fans for the PS5, it is an interesting reveal nonetheless. Without tearing apart a whole bunch of different consoles, or direct confirmation from Sony, this might be as close as this mystery gets to being solved for now.

In general, the PlayStation 5 is now available globally thanks to the full launch on November 19th. The version containing a disc drive costs $499 while the all-digital console instead costs $399.