PS5 Being Vertical Or Horizontal Makes No Difference To Cooling Performance, Says Ootori

The PS5 is coming soon, and it seems fair to say it’s a big ol’ boy. While it’ll be hard to gauge exactly how big it is until it’s in your own hands, it looks to be one of the biggest consoles I can recall. Because of that, as you can imagine, it’s going to take a lot of cooling, and it has a massive fan to do just that. But does it matter how you place it? According to one of the designers, not really.

In an interview with 4Gamer, Sony’s Mechanical Design Department VP Yasuhiro Ootori talked about the system’s design. In the interview he talked a lot about the guts of the machine, such as the liquid metal cooling system. When asked about whether it mattered how the system was positioned, Ootori reassured that it didn’t. He said despite the way the system looks, as if it’s built to be vertical to disperse heat, it actually is the same either vertical or horizontal. Though he said he preferred vertical himself.

“This is a frequently asked question. From the designer’s point of view, there is no difference in cooling performance between vertical and horizontal installation. I think some people think that the heat dissipation efficiency should be higher in the vertical installation due to the chimney effect. However, in a cooling system with an active fan (electric fan), the chimney effect is at the measurement error level. It works according to the specifications in both horizontal and vertical installation. Personally, I like the vertical placement where the top and bottom of the “PS logo” can be seen correctly.”

The PlayStation 5 will launch in select regions on November 12th with a full worldwide rollout a week later on the 19th. Ootori actually did a full teardown of the PS5, including showing it both vertically and horizontally, which you can watch in full through here.