PS3 Noise - changed poll.

[braehead]

I started a poll but wanted to change the options. Here it is.

 

[nil102]

My PS3 is a launch 60gig and my son-in-laws is Nov07 60 gig both are very quiet even after being on for 2-3 hours you can only just hear the fans with everything else turned off.I have a Sony Freeview/DVD recorder which is noisier but to be honest I hadnt noticed this before.Both our consoles are horizontal with lots of space around them in an open cabinet.Not sure if this makes a difference

 

[trip]

Very quiet. Barely noticeable. Launch machine 60gb from Japan.

 

[Jhuxley]

Much better poll braehead. Went for the second option for reasons stated in my last post.

Not whisper quiet like some lucky folks, but still well within the bounds of tolerable.

 

[Jay]

Has anyone got a bit more obsessed with everything from noise to the tiniest details in picture quality, since joining av forums?? I was never this bad before joining this site.....Nowadays I spend more time on the site than playing my games, and when I do tear myself away from this site I end up with my head pushed up to my console to listen out for any odd noises and then my face up to my screen to look at textures


I'll go on topic though My 40gb is noiser than my launch 60gb but quieter than my 360's.

 

[flygti]

Mine 60gb UK model - only a couple of months old but very quiet

 

[nolive]

mine is a Jap 60Gb(I live there) bought in July.

Was very loud over the summer period but the noise has become acceptable, even while wtaching DVDs, in the last few weeks(firmware 2.10 update or better air flow/lower temperature influence, I will tell on the main noise thread)

 

[braehead]

The firmware on mine upgraded when I first set it up on Christmas Day. Unfortunately when trying to watch a movie the noise was so bad we stopped watching. Gaming was a secondary consideration for me. The bluray DVD player was my main reason for purchase.

 

[lapino]

Had 3 60gb's, first two were incredibly noisy, had to send one back to Sony which was damaged during transport, got a brand new one then which was definitely better, but even that one started blowing pretty hard after an hour of DVD viewing. Sold that one for a good price, got myself a 40gb which is a LOT quieter when it comes to fan blowing, incredibly though, I seem to have a model that makes a rather annoying "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sound, when the fan is blowing at its lowest speed. So it is quieter, but not 100% satisfied with it.

 

[lovebeer]

1st 60gb was noisy which was replaced by wilko's for another noisy one.
Sent off to sony for them to have a look at who suprise suprise said there was nothing wrong with it.
Damaged in transit back to me(not surprising when the foam lid is put on the concrete floor while he placed the ps3 in the box) so replaced by sony and my third one,aghh bliss
Dont let anybody tell you there is no differance in noise levels because there sure as hell are

 

[Hornet2112]

US 60Gb PS3, very quiet, bought in July.
My Wii makes more noise!

 

[cleandesk]

My first PS3 was 60gb model, way too noisy. Sold it and bought a 40gb model. Much quieter. Still able to hear it but I can live with it.

 

[Fuey_fu]

Very quiet. It's a recent 40Gb version.

 

[mrm3]

Has anyone got a bit more obsessed with everything from noise to the tiniest details in picture quality, since joining av forums?? I was never this bad before joining this site.....Nowadays I spend more time on the site than playing my games, and when I do tear myself away from this site I end up with my head pushed up to my console to listen out for any odd noises and then my face up to my screen to look at textures

Yep very annoying.

I'll go on topic though My 40gb is noiser than my launch 60gb but quieter than my 360's.

Yep new poll needed. One for 40gb one for 60gb


PS My 40gb is quiet.

 

[braehead]

Thanks for all responses so far. With 69 votes counted it seems most people are happy with their machines so far. If I were Sony though I'd be concerned about the 10% who find noise unacceptable. Japanese companies are supposed to be quality obsessive so a 10% "failure" rate is very high. I noticed a thread on another forum that mentioned serial / batch numbers and mine was the same as several other problem unit owners.

On the topic of a different poll with questions for 60 and 40 owners I had considered this originally but given you can't buy the 60gig new any more I thought it was better to ask just about noise. I had originally also thought this was mostly a 60gig problem but saw a number of posts on another thread from 40gig owners so it's obviously on both sets.

Hopefully if we get the 80gig model this year they will have sorted out the problems. Someone had suggested it's just UK models that have the problems but searching US forums suggests that they have noise problems over there too. Take a look on youtube for the noisy PS3 videos that have been posted. Given this product is sold as a multi-device and a number of well regarded magazines have it as their BluRay DVD player choice I would have thought Sony would have been a bit more careful in their manufacture or have done some sort of product recall if there has indeed been a "batch" problem.

Am I being obsessive and overly picky? When you can't hear people talking on a movie because the fan is so loud then I don't think so.

 

[lapino]

Well, I'm also starting to think I'm "overly" obsessed, but I tend to try to make all my devices as silent as possible (PC is almost completely passive cooled). I sit about 6m away from my PS3 at this moment (PS3 at my left side) and I can clearly hear the "rrrr" sound my PS3 makes. People telling me their 40gb is completely silent are either lying, or there's something "wrong" with my PS3. For the majority, this "rrr" sound would sound normal and wouldn't bother them, same thing goes for people that have their console in a closed cabinet. As it is, my PS3 is completely free standing on top of a low cabinet, so every noise it makes is very easily heard all over the room.

 

[fizl]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - the day someone creates liquid cooling or a silent refrigeration unit for it, then I'll be happy!

Shaz

 

[CasDon]

Mine's ok,

Second stage fan comes on after a while, but then my house is ususally quite warm (bloody missus is always cold ) and the PS3 sits pretty close to the LCD Panel so its warm area of the room anyway.

But compare to my Virgin V+ box its ruddy quiet!

 

[Bribrian]

My UK 60gb is like the preverbial church mouse, my HT-30R home cinema is far noisier but still respectable.........

 

[fattiereturns]

I find that playing blu-rays is the only time I hear the PS.

25Mb/s is some amount of processing tho.....

 

[russd1978]

25Mb/s is some amount of processing tho.....

Especially considering all the copy protection HD decoding it has to do for each of those seconds.

 

[m4rkie23]

I find that the first 2 hours or so of gaming the fan is only on stage 1 and is pretty much silent (not noticeable from 2 metres away unless you really listen for it).
Stage 3 is loud if watching a quiet film or concentrating on COD4 online (any excuse...) but only lasts about 10 mins before cooling.
I'm pretty sure the fan did kick in quicker whilst watching blu-ray, but that is understandable to a certain degree.

It seems that people are experiencing very different noise levels between 40gb and 60gb models, or maybe its just some people being very picky....who knows?

I run my 40gb PS3 vertically and not confined in a cabinet (which i have read helps alot with airflow etc etc)

 

[Phill1978]

suprised is not the word my new 40gb (first foray into ps3) is whisper quiet i couldnt say it bothered me last night, couldnt sleep so @ 3pm was downloading stuff on it and in the meantime watched tv even though my set was on a minor 8 (out of 100) volume so as not to wake the gf it was wisper quiet, smooth even melodic sounding with no 'rrrrrrrrrrrrrr' sound to the fan it was just a wisper quiet airflow noise no mechanical buzz at all

my xbox360 is just stupid noisy, its iritating beyond belife @ night theres barely anyreason to turn the tv volume below 20+ with games as the 360' is enough to eventually wake the GF and have to end gaming not good

to sumise its about 3 times quieter than Xbox360 and i thought it would be quiet but not as almost silent as it is !

i sit 3 meters away and live in a empty part of the country side and ANY noises are heard so i can conclude if anyone was to get annoyed by the fan on the 40bg PS3 they would have a broken/not put together properly model or have stupidly large bat ears

 

[braehead]

[QUOTEstupidly large bat ears[/QUOTE]

But we've never met, how did you know about my ears

 

[braehead]

Well with 127 votes counted the results overall look pretty good. It would seem that I was unlucky to get such a noisy unit. If I were Sony though I would be concerned about 7% finding it unacceptably noisy and even more concerned about the further 28% who think it's noisy but they can live with it.

The result for me is that I will probably buy another one but I'm going to wait a month or two to see if we get news on the potential 80gig model. Also the packages available on the 40 are pretty poor compared to the package I originally got on my 60 so happy to hold back a wee while. I loved the idea of what the PS3 can offer but the implementation was flawed. As a games machine - great, not bothered about the noise. As a DVD player - great picture, noise too obtrusive. As the latter was my main reason for purchase I guess I need to take a good look at dedicated BluRay players although I think they are too pricey still for what you get relative to the PS3. Catch 22.

Thank to everyone who has participated in the poll so far. Over 600 hits suggests this is of interest to a lot of people so hopefully we can get the number of poll participants up too.