My custom Playstation 4 Pro SilentPS4

[Firehuntah]

Thought it'd be nice to share this here, maybe give other people some ideas if they're experiencing the same problem.

For a while already now I've been getting very annoyed with my PS4 Pro, the newer the games the more sound that awful fan inside of it seems to make. I'm making no joke (or am I? ) when I say I could play GT Sport and feel like I'm playing GT1-5 with the loud vacuum cleaner sound right in front of me. Or like a Boeing 747 trying to take off, I'm not really sure anymore which comes closer. In any case I always had to turn up the volume of my TV so I could at least hear some of the sounds in the game. Been able to deal with it all this time though but when I got Red Dead Redemption 2 enough was enough. I couldn't even hear what was being said in the game and couldn't follow the story that way. Figured it was finally time to do something about it.

First I tried renewing the thermal paste and thermal pads like many people do. I even switched out the Delta fan (which is known to be the loudest one) for the better Nidec fan but it all didn't help. Seeing some projects of a few other people online I decided to try and start my own project. Creating a custom case out of wood, adding a larger cooler with a big silent fan on top and using an ATX power supply instead of the original one that produces a lot of heat. All to finally get rid of that fan noise.

So that's exactly what I did, the project took me about 2,5 weeks, working on it outside of my regular working hours. And the result is pretty awesome. While you can ofcourse tell this isn't some machined but handcrafted case I think it still looks pretty cool and IS also cool (pun intended ). It's pretty big since I had to give space for that big cooler and power supply but most important is that the temperatures are very stable now and it's near silent. Sure you can still hear the fan but it's really hard to notice while gaming. I no longer have to put up the volume of my TV and can hear everything that's being said in the game. It's a real joy and so much more immersive as well.

Here are some pictures, a video and link to the full album.

All components that I took out of the PS4 Pro, just missing the blu-ray drive.

The cooler mounted to the motherboard. It's pretty huge.

Inside of the wooden case, had to cut out a lot of grooves for things like the disc opening, power/eject buttons, power supply and all the ports.

The finished case, still unpainted.

Adapter cable which connects the ATX power supply to the PS4 Pro's motherboard.

Heatsinks on the memory chips, they're on the bottom of the motherboard so a bit hard to keep cool.

A look at the inside with all of the components in the case.

I really couldn't have made it any smaller, there's not much space left.

The actual finished project with some chrome PS4 stickers on it.

Video showing the case in 360 and noise comparison.


Link to my album to see all pictures of the whole project.

 

[Ameer67]

Awesome work. My favorite part of this project was how you added the grooves in the front to imitate the triple layer sandwich the PS4 Pro has. Very neat. 👍

 

[imported_rik19]

I just took the top cover off my ps4 pro, it just pulls off and had no more fan noise since..hehe (disclaimer, risk of fire injury or death, do it at your own risk)

 

[FPV MIC]

I have one of the first model PS4's and have the same issue... it's noisy as, to the point that with RDR2 I had to turn on the subtitles . Your solution is far better @Firehuntah 👍.

 

[sesselpupser]

As much as I do love this, I think I'll stick with my noise cancelling headphones! Great work though, did you make the ATX adaptor yourself or is someone selling them @Firehuntah? What's the inline component on the grey wire?

Edit: Having watched the video, I'm not sure my PS4 Pro is that loud but it's hard to tell from a recording. I mean it definitely makes noise, but I'm pretty sure if mine had ever sounded like that I would've sent it back!

 

[shoemaker]

Or you could just use a headset then you wouldn’t hear it !

 

[Firehuntah]

Thanks all!

My favorite part of this project was how you added the grooves in the front to imitate the triple layer sandwich the PS4 Pro has. Very neat. 👍

Yeah that's what I tried to go for with those 3 layers. But instead of 3 even layers on mine it goes from big (bottom) to small (top). The sandwich is just a bit thicker here. Figured adding these grooves would look cooler as just having a simple box.

I just took the top cover off my ps4 pro, it just pulls off and had no more fan noise since..hehe (disclaimer, risk of fire injury or death, do it at your own risk)

While that works to bring the noise done, as the APU and power supply both get more air and run cooler, other components on the motherboard like the memory chips are actually getting less cooling. So I'm not sure if that's a good idea. The cooling concept of the PS4 Pro is just having high air pressure in a small case, this air pressure goes away when you take the cover off. But who knows, maybe the memory chips don't need that much cooling anyway. PS4 Pro's seem to last a very long time, don't think they break down often.

I have one of the first model PS4's and have the same issue... it's noisy as, to the point that with RDR2 I had to turn on the subtitles .

I've heard stories about that first model PS4 yeah. I believe that one's even worse than the PS4 Pro. Had to do the same here, always have subtitles turned on. Not sure if I still have to now but I like it anyway.

Did you make the ATX adaptor yourself or is someone selling them @Firehuntah? What's the inline component on the grey wire?

Edit: Having watched the video, I'm not sure my PS4 Pro is that loud but it's hard to tell from a recording. I mean it definitely makes noise, but I'm pretty sure if mine had ever sounded like that I would've sent it back!

Yep, I made that one myself. Though I did find some schematics online to help me figure out which wires of the power supply to connect to the motherboard. The component in line with the gray wire is a 10K resistor and it ends up at a transistor which lets the PS4 Pro turn the power supply on and off.

And to be fair, my PS4 Pro was a little bit more quiet when I had the original Delta fan in there, though still way too loud. The sound you hear in the video is with the Nidec fan which is supposed to be better. That wasn't the case for me though. When I got my PS4 Pro a bit more than 2 years ago it didn't sound like this since the games still weren't taking full advantage of the hardware. It's only with the newer games that it's so loud. No way to send it back anymore as it's out of warranty after those 2 years.

Or you could just use a headset then you wouldn’t hear it !

Yeah but what if you have a surround sound system with really amazing sound, you'd want to listen to that instead of having a headset on right? I've never really liked headsets so I didn't want to resort to that.

 

[sesselpupser]

The component in line with the gray wire is a 10K resistor and it ends up at a transistor which lets the PS4 Pro turn the power supply on and off.

Oh yeah, the pullup (or down, I forget) on the PSU's enable line? Pretty neat integration. You could submit this to Hackaday, I think they'd dig it!

 

[Firehuntah]

Oh yeah, the pullup (or down, I forget) on the PSU's enable line? Pretty neat integration. You could submit this to Hackaday, I think they'd dig it!

Yep, there's a power on wire (green) that comes out of the power supply, if you ground that wire it'll turn on the 12V. The transistor and resistor just use the PS4's signal to ground this wire. It's not necessary, could just keep the 12V always on and be done with it, but both the power supply and motherboard fans keeps spinning that way which is a bit silly.

I might share this on some other places later on, really want to get back to gaming again after not doing it for 2,5 week or so.

 

[PocketZeven]

In my opinion it looked better without black paint!