Of course I can't produce comprehensive data - I can't poll 100 million PS4 users and ask them if their console is loud. Hundreds is a number I pulled out of my ass. For all I know it could thousands or millions. All I know is that I'm not the only one and there have been numerous reports of the issue existing. The fact that the PS4's fan noise has become a meme and a joke among Sony's hardware quality in the PlayStation topic speaks volumes of the issue.
But this is where my beef is. MS took the feedback to heart about the X360's lousy cooling and overheating issues and provided next-gen consoles who (in the majority) produce no heating problems at all. The question is: Will Sony follow suite, or did they learn fuck-all from the PS4's fan noise?
You only need to Google “loud X1X console” to see just how prevalent the occurrence of loud Xbox console is too. And that’s expected, because the Hovis method MS uses creates an additional degree of variability in the console acoustics and power consumption.
The fact that people meme something in a closed community doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, and given just how many PS4 have been sold versus Xboxes, it stands to reason that statistically there’s will be a higher absolute number of users with abnormally loud consoles, even if the percentage of loud consoles overall was lower than for xbox. So you need to look at things in perspective.
The core point, however, is that memes on Internet forums and anecdotal evidence of defective consoles, doesn't prove that Sony is shit at designing console cooling solutions (which is your original point I was arguing against). It just means that some unfortunate folks were unlucky in their console purchase, which is inescapable regardless of the cooling system and console accoustic performance design.
It’s an issue of manufacturing variability, not poor design.
