[News] I Changed the PS5's Power Supply. Did It Get Better?

[Mr.Talha]

 

Sony’s PS5 gaming console has a bright future ahead, especially during these challenging times, where even mid-tier GPUs cost more than the PS5 (see our GPU price index). Sony has already sold millions of PS5s, so it is natural to have some consoles that don’t operate properly. 

For instance, some users are complaining about coil whine noise from the PS5’s PSU. What is more embarrassing is that there is currently no replacement part available for the ARP-400DR PSU that the PS5 uses, and if you try to find it on eBay, you will notice that the listings are few and super expensive.

The ARP-400DR is built by Delta Electronics, one of the largest PSU manufacturers, and its quality is excellent, but this doesn’t mean that it is bullet-proof. There should be a replacement option for this part since many PS5 consoles will soon be out of warranty. 

The ARP-400DR doesn’t have any active cooling, relying entirely on the main cooling fan of the PS5. Its plastic case with the tiny ventilation holes doesn’t make things look better, and the only thing that saves the day is that it is mildly utilized since the PS5 only draws around 200W during gaming while this PSU’s max power reaches 372W. Nonetheless, this PSU will shut down in minutes without cooling due to over-temperature protection with a 350W load.

We thought that a replacement power supply for the PS5 would be a good idea mainly for these reasons:

No power supply has 100% efficiency, and there will never be one that does. This means that every PSU is a heat source, especially if it doesn’t have a cooling fan to remove the heat out of its internals. The same goes for the ARP-400DR that the PS5 uses. 

With 200W load and 230V input, it has a 16.25W thermal load, while with the same load and 100V input, its thermal load is 23.84W. This might not sound much, but a PS5 console will be used for many gaming hours, so even such a low thermal load will be added to the APU’s, RAM, and Flash memory’s thermal load.