Fan Noise - 60GB vs. 80GB

[dougotte]

I've had a 60GB model for about a month (actually two units; I exchanged the first one). The second one is quieter, but still audible during quiet passages in movies or music.

I'm considering exchanging for an 80GB. Has anyone done a comparison? Is the 80GB any quieter?

Thanks,
Doug

[The Seventh Taylor]

Interesting question. I haven't done a comparison and I haven't read any either. I got myself a 60GB while I could because I wanted to have the hardware emulation for PS2 games rather than the software emulation.

There's the main difference I'm aware of: the 80GB version contains a little less silicon than the 60GB one but I'm not sure if it dissipates any less power. I could imagine the PS2 chip is only active when running PS2 games and at such moments the Cell and RSX may be mostly idle except in models that emulate PS2 in software. If so, the there should be little or no difference.

Unless the 80GB Hard Disk Drive has a different noise profile than the 60 GB (or the 20 GB one, for that matter), for instance if it runs at a different RPM speed. I haven't seen any information about this nor read any complaints or compliments to that effect, so I'm as curious as you are.

[dougotte]

Thanks for the response, Seventh. I did actually exchange the unit Saturday, but haven't had a chance to test the fan noise in a quiet room. I'll post back here after I've done some testing.

Doug

[dougotte]

Unfortunately, the 80GB is just as loud as the first 60GB I owned. The fan's second gear is audible. What's worse, it kicked into 3rd gear last night. I can't see ever using this machine for SACD listening. I'm going to return it and go back to my Pioneer 59AVi.

Doug

[The Seventh Taylor]

Did it make any difference putting the console horizontal or straight up?

[dougotte]

I tried the console:
1) horizontal in an open rack;
2) vertical in the wide open;
3) horizontal in the wide open.

There was no difference in the noise in any setting.

Thanks,
Doug

[The Seventh Taylor]

Supposedly the 80GB version uses the same silicon (90nm) as the 20GB and 60GB versions as far as CPU ('Cell Broadband Engine') and GPU ('RSX') are concerned. Even though it lacks the PlayStation2's Emotion Engine/Graphics Synthesizer for hardware-based PS2 emulation (to ensure backward compatibility) it doesn't make much difference for fan noise (dependent on power dissipation) except perhaps when playing PS2 games.

Reportedly the new 40GB unit employs a 65nm version of the Cell processor. Power consumption is lower and consequently the fan can spin at a quieter rate. According to the (Japanese) article in on AV Watch it's actually lowered by 6 dB to 30 dB. They've even reduced the amount of ventilation holes, judging by this picture (from a comparison by AV Watch)



Too bad this will not help us with SACD playback because they left that out of this version. We can only hope Sony will introduce an SACD-compatible version (80GB?) with the new silicon.