The PS5 has had a special, custom water-cooling treatment thanks to Vietnamese modding channel Modding Cafe. In the land of custom gaming PCs, water cooling is used as an alternative to air cooling, often offering lower temps for critical hardware.
Modding Cafe uploaded a video detailing the whole process from disassembly to construction and testing. It's really a fascinating watch, especially if you enjoy videos about custom PC loops.
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Water cooling allows for better heat transfer away from the main components of the PS5. It often requires lower overhead than traditional fan-based air cooling, and is usually quieter. Air cooling requires bigger fans in most cases, which is part of what makes the PS5 so large.
Modding Cafe's custom solution looks out of this world, yet it seems to fit with the PS5's aesthetic at the same time. Fans of custom loops on PCs will recognize a lot of the design elements. And one of the coolest parts is that the modder plans to make this commercially available at some point in the future. It does go without saying, however, that doing this to your PS5 would void your warranty.
When you see the water-cooled PS5 next to the air-cooled ones, the former is noticeably smaller. Near the end of the video, Modding Cafe does some thermal testing. While it's not possible to get APU and memory temps directly, they did measure the water and back plate temperatures. It's a marked difference.
This wacky cooling solution joins other PS5 customizations. The likes of dbrand and others have made custom faceplates for the console. Installing this water-cooling solution will require a bit of DIY know-how, but the video walks you through disassembling the PS5 and installing the new parts.
As for when you can buy this for yourself, and for how much, that remains unknown at this time.
