Power Bricks; Inside or Out?

[SephYuyX]

Random question, but after watching a PS4 teardown, and someone mentioned the size of the power brick, I immediately though how much smaller the unit could be if the brick was external.

What are your thoughts?

[SephYuyX]

I liken it to the possibility that the PS4 could be the size of a Wii/U if it really wanted to.
Not only could it be smaller, but wouldn't it cut down on the heat inside of the unit?

I can easily hide the brick behind any numerous things around my TV, but I could see if you have a wall mounted TV and nothing near it, it may might it slightly cumbersome, but just depends on how your set up is.

[Eleven19]

I will always prefer outside if it accounts for less heat in the system itself, seeing as heat is one of the most damaging (and I think most common?) cause of system failures. I can very easily deal with aesthetics, what I don't want to have to deal with is a new 300-500 dollar game system.

[Odesseiron]

I still have my launch PS3 60gb, and that thing is still going strong. If the PS4 was designed with as good quality as that was, I have no issues with it. Look how many overheating issues 360 had with an external source. Didn't do anything for it. Although I think it was more due to inadequate cooling.

[Kaisha]

I prefer inside if we're talking wtfhuge power bricks like the 360 had. Not like it seemed to help the 360 any....

[Appie]

I still have my launch PS3 60gb, and that thing is still going strong. If the PS4 was designed with as good quality as that was, I have no issues with it. Look how many overheating issues 360 had with an external source. Didn't do anything for it. Although I think it was more due to inadequate cooling.

To counter this with a personal example. My first launch PS3 got a YLOD (before the shit was even known to be a YLOD) after 3 months in use, enough ventilation on all sides (more than other consoles in the same cabinet) but the thing usually got hot on top the disc drive (and at the PSU) and then power up the fan. New (also 60 GB hardware BC) PS3 still going strong (usually only warm at the PSU), but gave it alot more breathing space since I was scared.

tl;dr your mileage may vary

[Odesseiron]

Oh of course, there are going to be failures with anything electronic.

For another example of an internal power source that excels:

My home theater receiver. The thing is an absolute beast, higher end Pioneer model. It has every input you can imagine, plus it has outlets in it, so you can plug shit into the receiver. I never do this, even though it can probably handle it without issue, but still, I have it in a pretty small area in my entertainment center with not too much ventilation. Never gets hot. Prefer that over massive bricks. I mean i always end up hiding those things against the walls anyway, but they can still be unsightly.

[Serra]

Does the PS3 Slim have an internal or external brick? I've got one of the original models, and it's never been something I've looked into..

[Moridam]

both slim models are internal as well. they run much quieter and power consumption is reduced by more than half compared to the fatties (~60-80W vs 170-210).

[Pharaun]

Aesthetically I prefer internal, I hate have a bunch of external power bricks sitting behind my entertainment center. It makes the rats nest of cables even worse since it's hard to neatly tie them up. Realistically I understand that from and engineering and heat dissipation point of view that having an external brick makes things much easier to design. Don't make me hate it any less though.

[Kaisha]

both slim models are internal as well. they run much quieter

Maybe it's because I game with my PS3 two feet away, but I beg to differ on Slim being quieter than my YLOD'd fat. (RIP you fat beautiful PS2-BC bastard)

[Niiro]

My original PS2-BC PS3 is still running and it whines like a banshee after a while of being on (doesn't matter what it's doing, could just be sitting at the main menu with no disc inside).

It sits on top of a wall unit with nothing else nearby (I keep it vertical, figured that would help with the ventilation) and it still does it.

I can't imagine a slim could somehow be any louder.

[Moridam]

Maybe it's because I game with my PS3 two feet away, but I beg to differ on Slim being quieter than my YLOD'd fat. (RIP you fat beautiful PS2-BC bastard)

i kinda know what you mean. i replaced a loaner fatty with a superslim recently, the fans on the older one were unbelievably loud once they started to really spin up, to the point where i'd need to run my TV significantly louder to be able to properly hear game audio (i previously had a couple of BC models that never had that problem though).

the superslim runs nearly silent, provided you're playing off of the hard drive, but there's so little material between the disc drive hardware and the environment that it gets pretty noisy when that's in operation. i'm assuming it would be inaudible if my system were across the room, but it sits a foot and a half to the right of me, so it can get a bit annoying. still nowhere near as bad as the jet engine i was using previous to this one though.

[Serra]

i kinda know what you mean. i replaced a loaner fatty with a superslim recently, the fans on the older one were unbelievably loud once they started to really spin up, to the point where i'd need to run my TV significantly louder to be able to properly hear game audio (i previously had a couple of BC models that never had that problem though).

Yeah, the first time my PS3's fans kicked in terrified me. I thought something was wrong with it @.@

[Callisto]

As someone who transports their consoles on a regular basis, it's really nice to have everything contained in the case and not have to find room in the bag for the brick; not to mention one time I accidentally disconnectable part of the 360 brick that plugs into the wall at a venue that I wasn't able to make it back to for a bit so had to go 2 weeks with no 360 lol

[Correction]

Inside: My 360's brick already consumes too much space behind the stack and I don't have enough room for another one.

[shepardG]

If the GPU/CPU are water cooled, or basically if the heat isn't an issue, then i'd always rather it be inside. I always hated xbox's actually having something the size of a brick hanging off of it, compared to the PS3's standard sony power cord.

With that said, if the heat becomes an issue for more than 5% of the units, i'd rather deal with a brick than have a cpu/gpu burn out after a year.

[Correction]

With that said, if the heat becomes an issue for more than 5% of the units, i'd rather deal with a brick than have a cpu/gpu burn out after a year.

This is why it only makes sense to look at things from a practical rather than theoretical standpoint. 360 RRoDs were predominantly caused by overheating of components despite having an external power brick. As it stands as long as I own a 360 I can't abide another system that uses an external power brick as there just isn't enough space and you're not supposed to stack them.

[arus2001]

Prefer innies, mainly for mobility reasons.