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[Mysterious]

I'm wondering this from a technical point of view, and not another "lol Micro$$$$oft phail lolzzzz".

And another question: Why didn't Sony make the PS4 have an external power brick? Wouldn't it make the size of the console itself even smaller?

 

[schwabdizzle]

its all the TV non sense I guess.

 

[sneaky77]

Different design philosophies

 

[Guevara]

Sony engineering magic.

 

[Beer Monkey]

its all the TV non sense

All that TV nonsense could fit in a soda bottle cap.

 

[Akuun]

Form factor makes almost no difference when it comes to two computers that are so similar. In this case, the power difference between these consoles has no relation to their physical sizes.

 

[anonymous_abc]

that cloud has to fit somewhere.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Short answer: Sony is primarily a hardware company. Microsoft is primarily a software company.

It is pretty amazing though. The PS4 is a slick looking machine and it's a lot smaller than I thought it would be for a first gen version.

 

[Monty Mole]

Microsoft's box is designed to be on at all times - albeit in a low-power mode. Hence they need to make it larger to accommodate a larger fan so it can run near-silent.

At least that's the general theory. PS4 is a beauty though in comparison.

 

[Toki767]

Microsoft is not a hardware company whereas Sony is.

 

[Newt]

Air flow paranoia.

 

[Takuya]

Hardware is far from Microsoft's strength...

 

[Punkster_NY]

dat fan O.O

 

[polyh3dron]

Sony has a bit more experience with the design and manufacturing of electronics.

 

[Y2Kev]

The esram gives off a large amount of heat or produced a larger apu blah blah

 

[soqquatto]

worse engineering

 

[Huge_Jackman]

Obviously the cloud.

Wait what?

 

[Syphon Filter]

Hardware is far from Microsoft's strength...

Cant they just farm it out to samsung or something?

 

[Ultimatum]

air flow is important, I really hope sony have properly thought about it in their design

and it'll make the xbo slim look like a big improvement

 

[MoogPaul]

Does the xbox one have more usb ports and such? I can't imagine kinect is that much of a power draw.

 

[ShadyJ]

I'd say the GDDR5 ram has something to do with it

 

[Wishmaster92]

Who knows, the way i see it is that the xbone could use more watts than the ps4 in the long run if they decide to upclock it, but i doubt they would.

 

[Lima]

The large fan. It will be quieter than the PS4. Who gives a shit about size in that case?

 

[DMiz]

Not sure if this image is more accurate, but I thought it would be nice to have a more two-dimensional comparison of the sizes between the two systems:

Re: why Sony chose to have the power brick within the system, I'd imagine it's for convenience - not having a large block taking up space, either behind the TV or underneath an entertainment unit, is logistically nice.

 

[statham]

Bigger is better

Spoiler

that's what she said

honestly, I think they are worried about cooling, without its case, doesn't look that big.

 

[Hanmik]

 

[josecitoxnyo]

Microsoft is not a hardware company whereas Sony is.

Pretty much this. Design is a crazy thing when you have the experience.

 

[Raymo]

Microsoft is not a hardware company whereas Sony is.

People always say this but it's not like they have their software engineers designing their boxes. I'm sure they have the capable personnel hired and the reason is something else. They have all the money in the world to spend on great engineers with expirience.

This is a poor excuse.

 

[metalmachine]

Designed after a cable box?

 

[SkullHydra]

The only reason I can think of, is to make the Xbox One seem like more of a 'Premium' multimedia machine.

Spoiler

And so it takes up too much room to use a PS4.

 

[Bowler]

xbox one is big so you can set your cable box on top of it?

 

[famousmortimer]

Cant they just farm it out to samsung or something?

They could and probably should have... but didn't.

 

[Kyon]

Premium product

 

[Lima]

xbox one is big so you can set your cable box on top of it?

That would block the fan, so no.

 

[Ricky_R]

Because bigger is better, no?

 

[mrklaw]

Microsoft's box is designed to be on at all times - albeit in a low-power mode. Hence they need to make it larger to accommodate a larger fan so it can run near-silent.

At least that's the general theory. PS4 is a beauty though in comparison.

both consoles have low power modes. if they are smart neither will need a fan running in that mode.

 

[Bluekaveli]

This has to be a joke.

 

[strata8]

Different heatsink design. MS uses a vertical design with a large fan directly above the APU, while Sony uses a smaller centrifugal fan that blows air across the APU horizontally and past the PSU. MS's design is cheaper and potentially quieter but requires more space.

 

[ZeroCoin]

No clue about hardware engineering, but my guess would be they are paranoid about another RROD situation. For the most part the systems are very similar. Have gotten a system teardown for the PS4 yet?

 

[waypoetic]

mmmmmmmmmagic!

no i don't know really. but i'd bet it's magic.

 

[Dead Prince]

5 million transistors

 

[FinKL]

If I'm going to guess, it's to make sure there's a lot of room for airflow/heat dissipation. They don't want the start of the generation to be like last gen where some Xbox 360's had RROD's

 

[jWILL253]

I'm looking forward to another glorious meltdown mid-thread...

Also, the pic in the OP is misleading. The One can't stand on it's side...

 

[Foxix Von]

OP, I think we'll only get to find out come launch and there's a tear down of the PS4. I'm assuming the difference is probably in actually having engineered a cooling solution for the system. From the Xbone guts we've seen it looks like they were incredibly paranoid of another RROD fiasco and just left a bunch of empty space in the box, opened up tons of holes in the case and stuck an oversized fan in there. The bone is a large console because it looks put together hastily, or at the very least its solutions to cooling are inelegant at best.

 

[DeadlyVirus]

I'm wondering this from a technical point of view, and not another "lol Micro$$$$oft phail lolzzzz".

And another question: Why didn't Sony make the PS4 have an external power brick? Wouldn't it make the size of the console itself even smaller?

Ok, then lets make room-sized console and it will take us to the moon.

Sony -> Hardware manufacturer
Microsoft -> Software developer

This is the diference

 

[Orayn]

It's a combination of them wanting to match the size and shape of other boxes that go under the TV and a cooling system that uses larger fans with lower RPM to make it as quiet as possible. They really just made it big and blocky because they wanted to and it fit the rest of their strategy, not because they're incompetent/lazy, not because Sony's hardware design team are wizards, and not because it houses some dark secret that gives it unreasonable thermal demands.

its all the TV non sense I guess.

HDMI input doesn't take up much motherboard space.

Ok, then lets make room-sized console and it will take us to the moon.

Sony -> Hardware manufacturer
Microsoft -> Software developer

This is the diference

Microsoft has hardware design teams, you know. Do you think the Surface tablets just showed up in a basket on their doorstop?

 

[Kajiba]

They're worried about that heat staying inside the box probably.

 

[H_Prestige]

Which one of these companies do you think employs the better hardware engineers?

If I'm going to guess, it's to make sure there's a lot of room for airflow/heat dissipation. They don't want the start of the generation to be like last gen where some Xbox 360's had RROD's

What does console size have to do with RROD? The current 360 is smaller and doesn't suffer from RROD. The previous version was poorly designed, and that goes back to engineering.

 

[Portugeezer]

To fit the giant heat sink and fan.

 

[la flama blanca]

It's a bad design, plain and simple.