Since even before the release of the console, Sony already explained the differences between placing the console PS5 in position horizontal and vertical, implying that, in terms of cooling, we would not find any difference and that, therefore, it did not matter how we placed it. However, after a time in which users have been enjoying their consoles for months, some have begun to come to light. problems that clearly indicate that, in reality, there is a more recommendable position than another.
The PlayStation 5 console includes among its accessories a support that allows the console to be placed comfortably in a vertical position, thus giving us users the possibility of choosing in which position we want to place the console according to our convenience (the console, yes, is designed to be placed horizontally).
SONY says it doesn’t matter if you put the PS5 horizontally or vertically
According Yasuhiro Ootoriresponsible for the SONY design department (he is the person responsible for the famous video published by SONY where they completely disassembled the PS5 to show us the inside), how to place the console is irrelevant in terms of coolingand although he confessed that he personally preferred to place the console vertically and that is why they added the support, the thermal performance will not be affected.
In a later interview, Ootori discussed the console’s cooling hardware, which as you may know incorporates liquid metal between the processor’s IHS and the heatsink to promote better heat transfer. Again he was asked if there was a position where the console would cool better, and again SONY’s head of design said there was no difference:
“There is no difference in cooling performance between putting the PS5 in a vertical or horizontal position. I believe that some believe that placing it vertically favors cooling due to the so-called chimney effect, but in a cooling system with a fan, this chimney effect falls within the level of error; the PS5 works according to the SONY specifications in whichever position it is ».
So, according to the words of the person in charge of designing the PlayStation 5, it doesn’t matter if we place the console horizontally or vertically… however, as we have told you in the introduction, the time at the end has made us have to take this into account because, in fact, some problems have appeared that are going to make us opt for a specific position.
Placing the PS5 vertically can cause problems
Many users have the console placed vertically from day one and have not had any problems; However, problems have begun to appear from many other users who have found problems on their consoles; the symptoms are essentially over temperature (the console turning off) and that the fan works at its maximum even with the console at rest, but it was not known what the problem was until they disassembled it to see if everything was in order.
Good morning, here’s another ps5 from a client. Console always vertical… where does the liquid metal go? Areas without liquid metal in the glass… heating… off… Nfin pic.twitter.com/tiPA2kVcr1
— Mr. Lara (@srlara81) March 28, 2022
As you can clearly see in the inserted Tweet, the problem is that when the console is in a vertical position, the liquid metal between the IHS of the console’s APU and the heatsink gradually moves towards the lower area, leaving the upper area with practically no material for heat transfer.
However, as we have said, not by putting the console vertically are you going to run into this problem, since many users have it that way from day one and everything works normally. However, and since it seems that more and more users are encountering this problem, the best thing to do would be to take care of yourself and place the PS5 horizontally.
