Gadgetory

so why do we care so much about the console wars and why are we so adamant to prove which console is better than the next sure some sake justification for dollars spent or to be spent but I think the interest towards the debate derived from something a bit deeper it could be that it's driven and tied into a process similar to natural selection it's no accident that the majority of the criticisms and complaints of the previous generation of hardware have been vastly improved upon the collective mind of the gaming community drives the evolution of the hardware and this is why the console wars the debate exists people like mark Cerny at Sony and the team at Xbox listen in this round we're going to be comparing the devices in terms of aesthetics overall hardware design heat output power consumption and silent performance so welcome back to the next installment of the console the expectations for game console design and aesthetics have been upped quite a bit in the past couple of decades from Ataris 80s wood paneling somewhat toyish pieces of plastic game console design has always been interesting and its worst it's been but ugly but at its finest it's been truly elegant the words that come to mind when describing the ps4 in this regard are compact and streamlined first impressions are key when it comes to aesthetics and the ps4 impresses with its sleek and slanted design and surprisingly compact form factor aesthetics are of course completely subjective but when you see the Xbox one for the first time it's hard not to wonder where this goes and there's no question about it the Xbox one is significantly larger than the ps4 and the power supply is a sight to behold but there's been enough jokes about the Xbox 360s power supply so I won't go there but before you jump into any conclusions is big and bulky always a bad thing there is a reason why PC gamers tend to enjoy big cases and one of the key reasons behind this is airflow the better the airflow the cooler the components are and the cooler that the components are the longer they will last it's no secret that the Xbox 360 suffered severely from overheating and it's actually pretty great to see Microsoft taking measures to ensure that this gen is the repeat of that debacle the Xbox one is outfitted with a quite substantial heatsink and fan that even representative of the PC master-race and appreciate the heatsink and fan are mounted on the Xbox one's main system-on-chip and the fan is pushing air out of the top end of the Xbox one the device has substantial air intake vents on the sides and the back so basically air comes in through the sides and back and the large fan pushes the heated air out of the top so the Xbox one has decent air flow the ps4 is simply put a small engineering marvel when you look at how much Sony has managed to cram into a relatively small space it doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine which of the two companies has a long history in hardware engineering from a custom blu-ray drive to the ps4 is compact power supply everything has been designed to accommodate the ps4 sleek form factor but when the device are packed with the latest hardware at a relatively low price point it comes as no surprise that a couple of concessions has had to be made for one the frame of the ps4 isn't quite in perfect balance a teeter Zepeda when laid on an even surface it is a bit disconcerting but a quick fix no doubt in later revisions the ps4 can be placed upright but according to Microsoft the Xbox one can not this is due to the choice of disk drive which is not designed to function vertically the cases of both devices are made from a mix of matte and glossy plastic the latter of which is extremely prone to scratches a rougher microfiber cloth will leave its mark on both I learned this after a couple of wipes so I recommend you heed my warning but do you obviously can't get it all this price point I'd actually pay a extra hundred bucks for a metal frame but some but I guess that's what pcs are for while the ps4 is quite extravagantly vented in the back to maximize airflow the small size of the case obviously limits the size of the heatsink and fan which are significantly smaller to that of the competition the ps4 pulls air from the vents on the sides and the fan pushes the hot air out of the back let's take a closer look at how both consoles perform in practice when it comes to heat and noise output will be going deeper into the CPU GPU and other components in a later round but at this stage it's relevant to say that both systems run on a similar system on ship with approximately comparable architecture and power values after extensive measuring the ps4 was idling consistently around 38 degrees Celsius or 100 degrees Fahrenheit which is a respectable result but the Xbox ones temps impressed me even more with an idle tempo of 33 degrees Celsius or 94 Fahrenheit the Xbox one managed to run a bit cooler than the ps4 when idling in the user interface and not doing much but what about low temps while gaming I was surprised to see some other text size getting opposite results of what I measured while I was easily able to heat up the ps4 exhaust temps to about 50 degrees Celsius 122 degrees Fahrenheit I could not push the Xbox once temps about 47 degrees Celsius no matter what I threw at it I played titanfall while running Netflix in the background I tried forts on Dead Rising with different apps and the web browser in the background I could not get the temps to rise beyond that point so simply put the Xbox one at least in my case runs cooler than the ps4 and these results are actually consistent with the two other measurements firstly power draw while idling in the menus the Xbox one draws about 65 watts of power and the ps4 draws about 80 watts at idle and after a couple of hours of intensive gaming the Xbox one draws about 20 watts less than the ps4 to sum up the ps4 is more power hungry and it has a smaller fan so when you put two and two together you get a higher heat output for the ps4 and next up is noise output to hear that the Xbox one is practically silent when idling the ps4 doesn't cause much of a ruckus either but the noise output on the Xbox one is one or two decibels lower than the ps4 and here's where the Xbox one size may again come into play while the ps4 span ramps up with the 10 decibel noise increase during intense gaming the Xbox one's large fan managed to keep quiet even after an extensive gaming session and even while Netflix is running in the background and that is an impressive achievement there's barely a difference at the idle noise test but it should be noted that the Xbox one has two additional sources of noise namely the Kinect and power supply both seems to have a fan inside them thankfully the noise from the Kinect is not audible from an average viewing / listening distance but probably the most annoying thing that needs to be mentioned here is that the external power supply is not completely silent it creates slightly higher pitch squeal that definitely is audible when the machine is on standby mode and speaking of standby mode both machines are capable of downloading updates and doing some secondary tests in standby mode the ps4 draws about nine watts of power while the Xbox one actually draws more than double at around nineteen watts sure 19 watts is not a massive power draw but the Xbox one will run your utilities bill around 10 bucks more than the ps4 annually the weird thing about the Xbox one standby power draw is that it fluctuates and seemingly reacts to the Kinect so I'll be feeling that the ever sing I could always be watching there are a couple of distinct practical design choices that separate the hardware Sony has insisted to put the two USB slots in the front yes they are easy to access but the cramp recession prevents you from using more robust USB solutions like a 64 gig superfast Kingston also if you use accessories like a Astro gaming or turtle beach headset that requires you to plug in via USB you will have to run the wire across the otherwise clean looking face of the ps4 Microsoft took a very simple approach to USB ports in the back and one easy access port on the side I find this a much better solution and it doesn't spoil the look of the device the power buttons and indicator lights on both machines are subtle yet elegant I enjoy both immensely but I hate the ps4 power up sound it's the same as on the ps3 and it reminds me of the countless times that accidently powered on the device by sitting on the DualShock 3 or Bluetooth remote there's not much to say on the input and outputs they're pretty much the same on both devices excluding the two USB ports and the much touted HDMI input on the Xbox one this of course allows you to hook up a DVR or cable box or other device into the Xbox one the Xbox one also has an IR extender output there's one key design choice however in the ps4 with which the Xbox one cannot compete with namely this the ps4 is hard drive has been designed to be easily accessible and it took me about 10 minutes to swap in an SSD this is not possible with the Xbox one without tearing down the device and voiding the warranty so there it is both device look very clean when hooked up and installed the streamlined ps4 definitely wins in the looks department and is undoubtedly a marvel of hardware engineering however the compact size of the ps4 comes with its weaknesses as the Xbox one takes the cake in both silence and heat performance and from a practical standpoint the Xbox one has a slight edge with the USB placement but the ps4 receives a golden star for hard drive accessibility and for all these reasons can bind the PlayStation 4 and Xbox one deserve a point in round two round three is up next and this is where it gets interesting we'll be taking an in-depth look at the cpus and gpus of both systems so stay tuned for the next installment of the console game what's up 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