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PS3 quiet?

T

Taustin Powers

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 5, 2005
273
610
So I keep reading about how supposedly quiet the PS3 is, on this board and in other places.

Can we define "quiet"?

Cause the fans in mine come on after a few minutes and then remain on pretty much constantly. I tried with it sitting in a completely open space (enough ventilation), vertical position, blowing canned air in it...always the same.

Now, mind you, it's not vaccuum cleaner loud. I've seen laptops that sounded like airplane turbines - compared to that, it's nothing. But it's there, audible, especially when watching non-action movies.

Now, when people say it's quiet, do they mean the fans do not come on and make noise at all? Or do they just mean it's quiet compared to the Xbox360, which supposedly makes a whole lot of noise?

What's your experience?
 
Taustin Powers said:
So I keep reading about how supposedly quiet the PS3 is, on this board and in other places.

Can we define "quiet"?

Cause the fans in mine come on after a few minutes and then remain on pretty much constantly. I tried with it sitting in a completely open space (enough ventilation), vertical position, blowing canned air in it...always the same.

Now, mind you, it's not vaccuum cleaner loud. I've seen laptops that sounded like airplane turbines - compared to that, it's nothing. But it's there, audible, especially when watching non-action movies.

Now, when people say it's quiet, do they mean the fans do not come on and make noise at all? Or do they just mean it's quiet compared to the Xbox360, which supposedly makes a whole lot of noise?

What's your experience?
Click to expand...

I just got a PS3 last week which is completely silent. I would have no idea the console is on without seeing the green light.
 
Taustin Powers said:
So I keep reading about how supposedly quiet the PS3 is, on this board and in other places.

Can we define "quiet"?

Cause the fans in mine come on after a few minutes and then remain on pretty much constantly. I tried with it sitting in a completely open space (enough ventilation), vertical position, blowing canned air in it...always the same.

Now, mind you, it's not vaccuum cleaner loud. I've seen laptops that sounded like airplane turbines - compared to that, it's nothing. But it's there, audible, especially when watching non-action movies.

Now, when people say it's quiet, do they mean the fans do not come on and make noise at all? Or do they just mean it's quiet compared to the Xbox360, which supposedly makes a whole lot of noise?

What's your experience?
Click to expand...

mine is the same.

to compare, it is quiter than the wii , and a world away form the 360, although tbh with all three when you're in the middle of a game it really doesn't make much difference, however for films i think the 360 would drive me nuts!
 
Mine are the same, start off quiet, but after 15 mins of activity you can hear the machine get audibly louder. (Both on a USA & Euro PS3).
 
barr08 said:
I just got a PS3 last week which is completely silent. I would have no idea the console is on without seeing the green light.
Click to expand...

My PS3 is completely silent too. I never now when its on or off and its actually a little annoying because my stupid cat turns it on once in a while and its drawing electricity! :eek:
 
Quiet as in you cant hear it in a room. You can probably hear it in a room with very good sound insulation (like in a basement), where the background noise is extremely low, but in most rooms the background noise is high enough to drown out the sound of the PS3.

The only time I ever hear the PS3 is when the lens is looking for info on a disc.
 
Sony has changed the inner design of the PS3 several times (removing PS2 hardware, etc). There's no point in posting if you're not going to post your model number.

I have the original 60GB launch model, CECHA01. As others have described, it's silent at first, but the fans come on after 10 or so minutes. Mine is well ventilated.
 
Indeed people always define "quiet" by their own standards. Me, I'd say "quiet" means something you can't hear unless you try hard in a completely silent room. Only the Wii I would consider quiet IF there is no DVD inside / the disc isn't spinning. With a DVD inside (ie. playing a normal Wii game), it is louder than my PS3 (40 Gb newer model), which is about as loud as an old Xbox. Xbox 360 is noticeably louder than these two, especially the DVD drive.
 
Miharu said:
Indeed people always define "quiet" by their own standards. Me, I'd say "quiet" means something you can't hear unless you try hard in a completely silent room. Only the Wii I would consider quiet IF there is no DVD inside / the disc isn't spinning. With a DVD inside (ie. playing a normal Wii game), it is louder than my PS3 (40 Gb newer model), which is about as loud as an old Xbox. Xbox 360 is noticeably louder than these two, especially the DVD drive.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the 360 is super-loud
 
If you keep it cool enough the fan will not speed up and hence keep more quiet, I have my PS3 under my Air Conditioner and while it is on the PS3 never makes more than a wisper :D
 
Mine is a 40GB PAL model, bought April 19 2008. Mine is, I admit, in a pretty crappy position (it's in our living room, which has one of those Ikea units that has a huge space for the tv down the bottom, and then a shelf with two dividers up the top, it's in one of those top compartments). It has about 30 centimetres on both sides and behind it, and for the most part it stays silent. The exceptions, however, is either when it's summer or when I'm playing a graphic-intense game (for example, being a total psycho in GTA IV) - usually the fans will start up their nonsense after 10 or so mintues.
However, now that it's cooling down here it hasn't happened for a while, and luckily by next summer it'll be in a different position.
 
Its funny your talking about this because right at this moment for some reason i can really hear my ps3 making some really odd sounds which i haven't heard before but it's only happening when it's loading up a game's :confused:
 
I've had my PS3 since launch so that makes it the original 60Gig model and its quiet but after about 30 minutes of play the fan kicks in and stays that way for another 10 minutes before it gets quite again.

I suggest you invest in a light powered vacuum and get the dust out of it....just like a PC when dust accumulates on the fan it will work harder.

Compared to the 360 the PS3/Wii are ninjas.


Bless
 
barr08 said:
Yeah, the 360 is super-loud
Click to expand...

Oh boy, it sure is! :p

I was at my friends caravan just the other day, and we were playing Gears of War together (I was kicking his ass, and I don't even have the game). You could here the 360 very well, better than his speakers infact (which were quite loud!). And it vibrates alot too, not only the table it was on, but the entire caravan was shaking slightly! And I'm not talking about some tiny 12 foot thing, this was a big 28 footer!

But he did have some extra fans on it to keep it a little cooler, which may have made it louder. But it is certainly louder than the Wii and PS3 combined.

I have one of the first PS3s released in the UK, one of the 60GBs that can play PS2 games. It's pretty much as loud as my Wii, perhaps lightly quiter. But when I have my Laptop, G4, and PS3 on you can't here the PS3 at all unless it's reading a disk.
 
I've got the "second" revision 40GB PS3 with no backwards compatibility. I upgraded the drive to a 200GB 7200 rpm drive. Mine is almost as quiet as my TiVo HD. It's really great for watching movies. I can't stand watching movies on my brother's 360 - sounds like a jet engine in front of the TV.
 
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