The Sony Playstation 5 Pro is the most advanced home gaming console to hit the market to date. But you’ve likely never had a look inside at what puts it atop the current generation’s console wars. WIRED breaks it down so you don’t have to: this is every piece of a Sony PlayStation 5 Pro and DualSense Edge Controller.
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00:00Every piece of a PlayStation 5 Pro.
00:03It's faster, it's smarter, and it costs $700, and doesn't come with a disk drive.
00:08And if you want Sony's latest and greatest controller, that'll cost you an additional $200.
00:13Regardless of the price, it's the most advanced gaming system humans have made to date.
00:17But you probably haven't seen what's inside that puts it at the top of the console wharves.
00:21So today we're going to tear them apart.
00:23This is every piece of the PlayStation 5 Pro and the DualSense Edge controller.
00:28Let's start with the frame.
00:30You have these four side panels.
00:32Each can be removed by pulling on these four white plastic tabs without any tools.
00:36The standard and slim models of the PlayStation also have removable side panels,
00:41but they're not interchangeable with the Pro model.
00:43If you opt to pay extra for the disk drive, this is where you would slide that in.
00:47The CMOS battery access.
00:49Next, we're going to take off the CMOS battery bracket.
00:53A notable improvement in the PS5 Pro's design is the addition of a dedicated slot for easy access to the CMOS battery.
00:59Located just below the removable faceplate,
01:01this compartment allows users to replace the CMOS battery without disassembling the entire console.
01:06This small but essential component ensures the system settings and clock data remains intact,
01:10even when the console is unplugged for extended periods.
01:13It probably doesn't need to be replaced for 5 to 10 years, though.
01:16Connectivity.
01:18Here you can see both the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antenna.
01:21The PS5 Pro supports Wi-Fi 7, though you need a Wi-Fi 7 router to make use of those new features.
01:26The Bluetooth is version 5.1.
01:28The I-O board.
01:30I-O meaning input-output.
01:32Here is the board that houses the USB-C ports,
01:34for connecting various accessories like external storage, controllers, and even the PlayStation Virtual Reality 2.
01:40Now that we've taken off the screws, we can flip it and see the ports.
01:44These are soldered on, but what's nice about having a dedicated board
01:47is that you can replace it independently without fussing with the motherboard.
01:50The M.2 expansion slot.
01:52Next, we're going to take off this expansion cover for the M.2 SSD extension.
01:57In addition to its internal storage, the PS5 Pro features an expansion slot
02:01where users can add M.2 solid-state drives,
02:04and there are mounting holes for every M.2 drive length.
02:07The cooling system.
02:09Next, we have the fan.
02:11The fan is what drives the heat out of the device.
02:13It's easily accessible, which is great for cleaning and replacement.
02:16First, we'll take off this cover that protects the fan's power connectors.
02:20These are JSD connectors, or Japan Solderless Terminals.
02:23You can see the positive, negative, and ground wires.
02:25Next, we'll take off the four screws securing the fan.
02:28And this is a good time to note that Sony did a cool thing
02:30where they added in these little indicators next to each screw.
02:33So there's three dots, two dots, and no dot.
02:36Each corresponds to the length of the screw.
02:38So when you're disassembling and reassembling, you'll know which screw is needed.
02:42We're using this screw map here to keep track of which screws we're taking out.
02:45So this fan is bigger than those in the PS5 and PS5 Slim.
02:49What this means is that it's more powerful and it can drive more air,
02:52but it needs less power to produce the same air output as previous fans.
02:56It's important to note here that this console generates a lot of heat.
02:59And what gets rid of the heat are the fan and the heatsinks.
03:02These heatsinks pull the heat out of the chips and then drive it along down to the fan.
03:06Here you can see the fins of both heatsinks.
03:08That's where the heat will be drawn to and wicked away by the fan.
03:12To get to these heatsinks and the rest of the components,
03:14we'll take off this inner plastic shell.
03:16Part of this includes removing this tamper-proof warranty sticker,
03:20which actually doesn't mean anything in the United States.
03:23Thanks to the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act of 1975,
03:26consumers in the U.S. can open their consoles for maintenance
03:29without fear of losing warranty coverage.
03:31And 10 screws later, we have access to the heatsinks and inner components.
03:35We'll remove the wires that run to the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antenna
03:38connected via coaxial connectors.
03:41And we'll also remove the CMOS battery board,
03:44and then pry out that heatsink.
03:46This is the first smaller heatsink,
03:48and it's actually only held in place by thermal putty,
03:51which draws the heat into the copper piping.
03:53Here you can see the copper pipes,
03:55which draws the heat from the electronics to the fins.
03:57Next, we're going to remove this metal shield protecting the motherboard
04:00by removing each of the 39 screws.
04:03We'll also have to remove this cover
04:05protecting the main board's interconnection to the I-O board.
04:08Now we can remove the metal shield.
04:10Even though the 39 screws have been removed,
04:12it's still adhered by thermal pads,
04:14so we've got to use a decent amount of force to pry it off.
04:17And here is the main board assembly.
04:19Now you can see the second heatsink.
04:21So the PS5 Pro generates tons of heat,
04:23and it needs both of these sinks to keep it from overheating.
04:26This cooling system makes up for the majority of the 6.8 pounds
04:29or 3.1 kilogram total weight of this console.
04:32And if you look here, you can see two important prongs.
04:35These connect the board to the power supply.
04:37And here is that 390-watt power supply,
04:39which powers your console from a wall outlet.
04:42The motherboard.
04:44Removing the sinks and shield reveals the motherboard in all its glory.
04:48First, we'll take off these brackets to reveal the APU,
04:51or Accelerated Processing Unit.
04:53This one is an AMD SoC, or system-on-a-chip, made in Taiwan.
04:57It's an integrated system that contains both your GPU and CPU,
05:00and it's the heart of the PS5 Pro.
05:02Here you can see the liquid metal on the back of the APU.
05:05Liquid metal performs essentially the same function as thermal paste,
05:09taking heat away from the board.
05:11Liquid metal is great for this because it has such a high conductivity.
05:14The downside is that it can, if it touches the board,
05:17connect certain components and short-circuit your device.
05:20New to the PS5 Pro are these etchings,
05:22which keep the metal evenly distributed, preventing it from pooling.
05:25And this foam padding keeps the pool of metal in place.
05:28So this APU is why we can use AI to upscale graphics.
05:32The process Sony uses for this is PSSR,
05:35which stands for PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution.
05:38What that means is artificial intelligence is used to fill in gaps
05:41where the AI thinks pixels should be, to create higher resolutions,
05:45even if there aren't normal native high resolutions in that area.
05:49And here we have the I.O. controller,
05:51likely from Samsung sourced in South Korea.
05:54What this does is control signals going in and out of the device.
05:57And these two chips here, these are both NAND flash storage,
06:00made by Keoxia in Japan.
06:02NAND is a type of data storage architecture,
06:04and it's important because it can retain its information even without power.
06:07Each of these chips is one-fourth of the storage.
06:10You see there's only two here.
06:11There's going to be two more of the same chips on the back
06:14that hold the remainder of the storage.
06:15The PS5 Pro comes with a total of two terabytes,
06:18so each one of these holds 500 gigabytes.
06:21And then down here, these two components handle USB-C power and data management.
06:25This one is made by Texas Instruments, obviously an American company.
06:29It is a USB Type-C 10 gigabit bi-directional linear redriver.
06:33And what that means is in this context, it helps regulate the flow of data.
06:37Same thing goes for this one,
06:38also regulating whatever the data is coming in and out of the USB-C.
06:42This one is a Rich Tech, a Taiwanese company.
06:45And then we have these two chips, which are multi-phase controllers,
06:48made by Infineon, a German company.
06:50What these do is split the electrical current off into different ranges.
06:53Since different components require different amounts of electricity,
06:56these controllers make sure the right amount of power gets to the right place.
06:59Here we have capacitors and inductors.
07:02These store power and supply it in bursts to the components
07:05that need an extra boost at a specific moment.
07:08And the final component on this side of the board is the wireless card.
07:11This is how the system converts the signals from both the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
07:15When we flip the board, you can see the connectors to this card.
07:19First on this side, the most noticeable feature is the RAM.
07:23Each of these are 2 gigabytes of DDR6 RAM,
07:26totaling 16 gigabytes, made by Samsung in South Korea.
07:30And then up here, this is an important note for the PS5 Pro,
07:33it has an additional 2 gigabytes of DDR5 RAM from SK Hynix,
07:37another South Korean manufacturer.
07:39These two gigs handle console tasks, while the DDR6 RAM is for gaming tasks.
07:44And here are those mirrored NAND flash storage chips
07:46that we discussed on the other side of the board.
07:48And here is the M.2 connector that will allow you to connect that extra storage
07:52in the bay we opened earlier.
07:54And finally, this chip here is an HDMI retimer from Nuvoton, based in Taiwan.
07:59This helps stabilize the data going through the HDMI.
08:02And that does it for the console.
08:04Now let's see what's inside the DualSense Edge controller,
08:06which is quite a bit more advanced than the standard DualSense controller
08:09that comes with the Pro console.
08:11This one is manufactured in China.
08:13First off, it has a bunch of additional buttons.
08:15See these function buttons as well as these paddle buttons,
08:18all of which you can program to perform different actions.
08:21One cool thing you can do here is pull off the caps and replace them.
08:24Another exclusive feature to the Edge is the trigger sensitivity
08:27for the adaptive controllers.
08:29You can make fine adjustments in the on-screen menu,
08:32or here you can switch between full, medium, and light pull sensitivities
08:36to make the game feel more realistic.
08:38To access the internals, first we'll remove the paddles.
08:41Then push this release button, and this front trim piece falls right off.
08:45And flipping up these levers removes the joysticks
08:48when you need to replace them if they ever start to get stick drift,
08:51which can certainly happen.
08:53Often joysticks are soldered to the board,
08:55so being able to replace them like this is a really nice feature.
08:58You can buy a replacement for about $20.
09:00Now we can remove the rear trim piece.
09:02We have a few screws we need to remove here.
09:04Pop that trigger button right off,
09:06and we'll remove these underneath the L1 and R1 buttons,
09:09as well as unhook a spring.
09:12And removing the bottom housing,
09:14we can now see all of the internal components that drive this controller.
09:17First, you can see the battery here,
09:19and we can go ahead and disconnect it.
09:21Now we need to disconnect both vibration motors.
09:23These are not soldered in, but are connected by JST connectors.
09:27These motors are able to give very nuanced haptic feedback
09:30through different parts of the gamepad.
09:32And here is the entire trigger assembly,
09:34connected to the board by this ribbon cable.
09:36Here you can see one of the two microphones,
09:39which captures your audio for in-game chats.
09:41The controller can also react to the sound of your voice.
09:44And now we take out the battery bracket to remove the main board,
09:47the brains of the controller.
09:49Beneath that, we have the speaker.
09:51Next, we can remove the midframe.
09:53This frame holds the vibration motors, as well as the touchpad.
09:56And here you can see the button map
09:58that actually conducts your pressing of a button to the main board.
10:01These are buttons held in by these gaskets.
10:04And finally, we have the touchpad.
10:06The touchpad can be used for multiple functions,
10:09from strumming guitars to rolling a ball,
10:11or swiping up to reveal a game's full user interface.
10:16And that's it.
10:17These are all the pieces it takes to make the most powerful console
10:20and the most advanced controller in gaming today.
10:23So next time you fire up your PlayStation 5 Pro,
10:25you'll know what it all takes to bring your game to life.