I replaced my PS4 Pro thermal paste and it instantly runs quieter

[Deleted member 888]

Given early adopters will probably now be out of the 1-year warranty, I just want to give a heads up this has helped my rather loud PS4 Pro stay quieter.

The paste I used is just cheap http://www.arcticsilver.com/cmq2.html which apparently has a long-ish cure time. My Pro is quieter right away though.

Video guide I used



The Pro is easy to take apart, it's just a ScrewStation lol. Way more screws than a PS3. As I said in here I was trying to fix a broken PS3 Slim for CFW which ended badly, so as I was in disassembly mode I thought I'd tackle my PS4 Pro too.

Worth a look for anyone with a noisy Pro. You can always tackle removing fan dust by just popping the PS4 Pro lid off, which doesn't void warranty and has no screws.

 

[PattonFiend]

What kind of paste did Sony use in the manufacturing?

 

[Deleted member 888]

What kind of paste did Sony use in the manufacturing?

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Couldn't tell you, sorry. Mine wasn't applied too badly, but my Pro has been erratic since I got it. Loud, quieter, loud, quieter, loud, quieter during intensive games. It never seems to make it's mind up.

It's simply quieter in general now, but not silent.

 

[Lost]

What kind of paste did Sony use in the manufacturing?

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Toothpaste, apparently

 

[Stowaway Silfer]

Swear to god the term "thermal paste" is what keeps me from building a PC. Scares me too much and I prefer paying for it to be assembled.
I'm not bothered by Pro noise but it is pretty cool that you can do this.

 

[Gusto]

For now it may run quieter because all the dust has been removed. I really don't think thermal paste is going to fix it long term.

I just had SONY replace my PSpro and at first it was super quiet and now it's slowly starting to get louder. My Xbox 1x can't stop making fun of it.

 

[PattonFiend]

Toothpaste, apparently

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Haha, aww, man... I was having a really bad day. Thank you for sharing this. Totally hilarious and just turned my frown upside down :)

I have searched Google but could not find what kind of paste they used in the manufacturing process. Would be interesting to know if anyone can find out. Thanks!! Glad it worked for you!

 

[Deleted member 888]

For now it may run quieter because all the dust has been removed. I really don't think thermal paste is going to fix it long term.

I just had SONY replace my PSpro and at first it was super quiet and now it's slowly starting to get louder. My Xbox 1x can't stop making fun of it.

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There really wasn't much dust in my Pro though. I'm a bit of a clean freak and as I have a dust allergy I need to keep living areas fairly dust free.

 

[munancho]

Could you whip up a guide of how to actually apply the paste properly? I've only ever changed thermal paste once on an old Xbox and even then the temperatures still stayed the same as before so I don't think I did it right. Some people say a grain of rice, others go with an X and some throw it on there like peanut butter. What to dooooo?

 

[Deleted member 888]

Could you whip up a guide of how to actually apply the paste properly? I've only ever changed thermal paste once on an old Xbox and even then the temperatures still stayed the same as before so I don't think I did it right. Some people say a grain of rice, others go with an X and some throw it on there like peanut butter. What to dooooo?

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Internet furiously debates this, I've always just gone with a pea-sized circle blob in the middle of the chip.

Just make sure all the old paste is cleaned off the chip/heatsink.

 

[Decarb]

I did this on OG PS4 and that thing went into quiet mode almost the entire time.

EDIT: about how to apply paste, I think newer chips and the bottom of heatsinks have very slight bulge in the middle and tapers off ever so slight towards sides. So a pea method works fine. But if you want to do peanut butter method thats fine too, assuming you apply it evenly.

 

[Era of not Yakuza]

Had 3 ps3's and learned that Sony has some of the worst thermal paste. My Super Slim turned off once and i send It to fix. The guy opened and showed me that the thermal paste has dried

 

[Little Old Man]

Swear to god the term "thermal paste" is what keeps me from building a PC. Scares me too much and I prefer paying for it to be assembled.
I'm not bothered by Pro noise but it is pretty cool that you can do this.

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You literally put a pea sized amount into the centre of the CPU chip/lid. If you're worried about the rate at which it squirts from the tube, then just test it on a piece of cardboard, as you get way more than required.

 

[Fistwell]

What kind of paste did Sony use in the manufacturing?

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Ken Kutaragi's pre-c*m.

 

[Xiyng]

Huh. Maybe I too should do this. My regular PS4 is really loud and I hate it. It's much noisier than my PS3.

Swear to god the term "thermal paste" is what keeps me from building a PC. Scares me too much and I prefer paying for it to be assembled.
I'm not bothered by Pro noise but it is pretty cool that you can do this.

Click to shrink...

Applying thermal paste is pretty easy and even if you screw up a bit, it's easy to fix. Mind you, it's easy to not screw up too badly if you're at all careful. Assembling a PC is relatively easy and straightforward, but it's probably going to take a while unless you do it a lot. The part I hate the most is connecting those tiny cables to the case, but even it isn't difficult - it's mostly annoying.

 

[inner-G]

Swear to god the term "thermal paste" is what keeps me from building a PC. Scares me too much and I prefer paying for it to be assembled.
I'm not bothered by Pro noise but it is pretty cool that you can do this.

Click to shrink...

It's like the least exact/complicated thing ever: https://youtu.be/r2MEAnZ3swQ

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

I turned my pro around, so the back is facing forward. No airflow issues then and it's waaaay quieter now.

 

[Deleted member 888]

I turned my pro around, so the back is facing forward. No airflow issues then and it's waaaay quieter now.

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With the added benefit it can probably heat your room now. The Pro pushes out a fair bit of hot air.

 

[Faust]

Swear to god the term "thermal paste" is what keeps me from building a PC. Scares me too much and I prefer paying for it to be assembled.
I'm not bothered by Pro noise but it is pretty cool that you can do this.

Click to shrink...

It's super easy and if you use the stock cooler that comes with the chip you don't even have to apply it... It's part of the setup.

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

With the added benefit it can probably heat your room now. The Pro pushes out a fair bit of hot air.

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Comes in handy with these Chicago winters!

 

[BLLYjoe25]

Swear to god the term "thermal paste" is what keeps me from building a PC. Scares me too much and I prefer paying for it to be assembled.
I'm not bothered by Pro noise but it is pretty cool that you can do this.

Click to shrink...

don't let it put you off. i can understand what you mean though because building a PC can be intimidating at first. seriously though there is nothing to thermal paste application. it comes in a little syringe and you squeeze a tiny blob into the centre of the CPU heat spreader. when you mount the CPU cooler it applies pressure and spreads the paste out across the heat spreader. thermal paste isn't gonna damage your system unless you put insane amounts on so that when pressure is applied it all comes out and makes contact with the board. i did exactly that with my OG ps3 lol. i caked the chip with loads of paste then put the heatsink back on. it worked for a while but eventually crapped out.

the thing i hate about building a PC is cable management and likely if you buy a prebuild or have someone build it for you the cable management won't be that great. i've been meaning to take apart my PC for to clean it out but the thought of dealing with all the cables is putting me off.

It's super easy and if you use the stock cooler that comes with the chip you don't even have to apply it... It's part of the setup.

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true although stock coolers are only good if you don't plan to overclock. if you want to overclock you need a higher quality fan. there might be some that come with paste preapplied but the ones i've bought i've had to apply paste myself.

 

[miserable]

that's great and I'm happy for you OP...however, it needs to be said that this is not a guarantee.

I replaced paste in 3 ps4's and 1 ps4 pro, and only one of them ran quieter (a regular ps4, not the pro). and I know how to apply thermal paste properly.

I also tried with different paste, from Arctic Silver to Noctua on one of them, didn't make a difference.

the bottom line is YMMV

 

[Deleted member 888]

that's great and I'm happy for you OP...however, it needs to be said that this is not a guarantee.

I replaced paste in 3 ps4's and 1 ps4 pro, and only one of them ran quieter (a regular ps4, not the pro). and I know how to apply thermal paste properly.

I also tried with different paste, from Arctic Silver to Noctua on one of them, didn't make a difference.

the bottom line is YMMV

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True, if your Pro is reasonable I wouldn't bother.

Mine was like a child hyper on sugar. Any semi taxing game and the fan would be ramping up and down every 10 seconds. It's better now.

Not anywhere near as quiet as my original Xbox One, but the PS4 Pro internal power supply produces a fair bit of heat from what I can see. The Xbox One size and external power supply help noise levels. My Xbox One power supply makes a lot of buzzing noise though -_-

 

[pswii60]

Toothpaste, apparently

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The smallest things make me chortle :)
Edit:

Ken Kutaragi's pre-c*m.

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No you went too far.

 

[30yearsofhurt]

Couldn't tell you, sorry. Mine wasn't applied too badly, but my Pro has been erratic since I got it. Loud, quieter, loud, quieter, loud, quieter during intensive games. It never seems to make it's mind up.

It's simply quieter in general now, but not silent.

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Same here. It will ramp up for take off at a fmv cut scene but then start to idle when things get busy. What gives?

 

[Deleted member 888]

Same here. It will ramp up for take off at a fmv cut scene but then start to idle when things get busy. What gives?

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Not sure if the OS temperature monitoring is just poorly coded. I noticed when my CFW PS3 was alive for a few days I could set how the fan controls worked and make my PS3 more consistently quiet whilst staying under max operating temperatures.

 

[DetectiveKenobi]

I saw what it takes to take apart the PS4 Pro a while ago and I'm like nahh haha. I can do the PS4's relatively easy but man that thing looks like a pain. Also I recently sold my PS4 to my friend and I redid the thermal paste on that PS4. I also redid the thermal pads by replacing them with some new ones just in case that also contributed to it being louder. It did run quieter. For how long IDK.

 

[Cjdamon042]

Same here. It will ramp up for take off at a fmv cut scene but then start to idle when things get busy. What gives?

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Purely talking out of my ass here, but it could be that during an FMV the frame rate is let loose and is up in the hundreds/thousands which is what causes the fan to pick up speed. Sometimes I've noticed on some PC games that menus, boot up logos and whatnot aren't locked to anything and FPS displays will show them reaching really high numbers.

 

[Malcolm9]

I find with my Pro as long as it has plenty of space it's pretty quiet. If I put it under my tv unit where it is all enclosed, then the fans can get quite loud.

Basically give it room to breathe.

 

[DetectiveKenobi]

Question. PS4 Pro Vertical or Horzintal? I've been thinking of getting a stand for my Pro just to have more USB ports and extra cooling. Unless that wouldn't help?

 

[ApeEscaper]

Maybe should do this for my og ps4

Toothpaste, apparently

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Loll

 

[Deleted member 888]

Question. PS4 Pro Vertical or Horzintal? I've been thinking of getting a stand for my Pro just to have more USB ports and extra cooling. Unless that wouldn't help?

Click to shrink...

Air intake is on the sides so I wouldn't put it vertical.

 

[Kaako]

I thought about applying Liquid Metal on mine instead cause I still have a shit ton left over from my recent PC build but decided I am too lazy for now and have a huge PC backlog to finish.
If you do this, might as well go all out and liquid metal that sucker instead of regular paste.

 

[Zackat]

I just got a pro and the only time it gets loud is when I am in the store. It goes straight jet engine.

 

[Faust]

don't let it put you off. i can understand what you mean though because building a PC can be intimidating at first. seriously though there is nothing to thermal paste application. it comes in a little syringe and you squeeze a tiny blob into the centre of the CPU heat spreader. when you mount the CPU cooler it applies pressure and spreads the paste out across the heat spreader. thermal paste isn't gonna damage your system unless you put insane amounts on so that when pressure is applied it all comes out and makes contact with the board. i did exactly that with my OG ps3 lol. i caked the chip with loads of paste then put the heatsink back on. it worked for a while but eventually crapped out.

the thing i hate about building a PC is cable management and likely if you buy a prebuild or have someone build it for you the cable management won't be that great. i've been meaning to take apart my PC for to clean it out but the thought of dealing with all the cables is putting me off.


true although stock coolers are only good if you don't plan to overclock. if you want to overclock you need a higher quality fan. there might be some that come with paste preapplied but the ones i've bought i've had to apply paste myself.

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If he's too afraid to apply thermal paste I'm not exactly sure he's going to be sitting there and tweaking it to overclock which is why I didn't bring it up because it's a moot point in his case.

I don't know what intel does, my last 3 builds have been AMD but I don't think I've had an AMD chip that I can remember that didn't have thermal paste already applied and you just screwed on the cooler with it already applied.

On a side note, unless you bought a cheap case, most have many holes to move the cables to the backside of the case. It should be clean and easy alleviate even if you don't want to go through the trouble of zip ties and such. I build my recently and except for one cable I need to stretch a little since I didn't have an extension handy, it's all pretty much invisible.

 

[HououinKyouma00]

I did this to my original PS4 and it worked for a matter of a month or two and then got just as bad again.

Wont be doing this on my Pro, I still have 2 years left in the warranty.

 

[BLLYjoe25]

If he's too afraid to apply thermal paste I'm not exactly sure he's going to be sitting there and tweaking it to overclock which is why I didn't bring it up because it's a moot point in his case.

I don't know what intel does, my last 3 builds have been AMD but I don't think I've had an AMD chip that I can remember that didn't have thermal paste already applied and you just screwed on the cooler with it already applied.

On a side note, unless you bought a cheap case, most have many holes to move the cables to the backside of the case. It should be clean and easy alleviate even if you don't want to go through the trouble of zip ties and such. I build my recently and except for one cable I need to stretch a little since I didn't have an extension handy, it's all pretty much invisible.

Click to shrink...

fair enough. i was hesitant about overclocking with my first PC and got a locked CPU and used the stock cooler.

intel stock coolers come with paste applied and since skylake (i think) you will only get a cooler if you buy a locked CPU. they used to include them with K chips but stopped because of course if you buy a K cpu then it's because you plan on overclocking so there isn't any need to have a CPU cooler with it.

my first case was cheap but it was easy enough to get the cables all hidden round the back but there was very little space for them so getting the back panel on was a nightmare. my current case (fractal design define s) has way more room so it's easier but still i just can't be bothered dealing with the cables. i don't have any zip ties because the case has velcro straps which helps i guess.

 

[Atish]

For now it may run quieter because all the dust has been removed. I really don't think thermal paste is going to fix it long term.

Click to shrink...

All thermal pastes will dry out eventually. Cheaper ones sooner.
It's recommended to reapply them.

 

[Vic Damone Jr.]

only certain games do this for my Pro, it's orobbaly help but I just can't be bothered to open it and go through all that nonsense(did it before with a PS3 and PS4).

 

[Faust]

fair enough. i was hesitant about overclocking with my first PC and got a locked CPU and used the stock cooler.

intel stock coolers come with paste applied and since skylake (i think) you will only get a cooler if you buy a locked CPU. they used to include them with K chips but stopped because of course if you buy a K cpu then it's because you plan on overclocking so there isn't any need to have a CPU cooler with it.

my first case was cheap but it was easy enough to get the cables all hidden round the back but there was very little space for them so getting the back panel on was a nightmare. my current case (fractal design define s) has way more room so it's easier but still i just can't be bothered dealing with the cables. i don't have any zip ties because the case has velcro straps which helps i guess.

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Yeah, velcro straps are much nicer, wish my case had come with some. That's interesting with Intel chips. I guess it makes sense why they stopped including it but didn't realize they would essentially force you to buy your own.

 

[Kinthey]

How much quieter would you say did it get? There are rumors that the latest model number of the pro, CUH-7116, has a quieter fan. If those turn out to be true I'm honestly considering to sell my current one and get one of those, but replacing the thermal paste might be an alternative.

 

[HebrewHammer]

Thermal Paste sounds like a currency in Warframe.

But color me intrigued.

 

[Deleted member 12833]

My Pro rarely gets noisy. I did this with PS3 but with probably not bother this time unless it becomes a problem

 

[AStrangerIsHere]

thermal paste isn't gonna damage your system unless you put insane amounts on so that when pressure is applied it all comes out and makes contact with the board. i did exactly that with my OG ps3 lol. i caked the chip with loads of paste then put the heatsink back on. it worked for a while but eventually crapped out.

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You need to reply to this thread in order to see this content.

 

[Deleted member 888]

How much quieter would you say did it get? There are rumors that the latest model number of the pro, CUH-7116, has a quieter fan. If those turn out to be true I'm honestly considering to sell my current one and get one of those, but replacing the thermal paste might be an alternative.

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It's not doing SUPER JET ENGINE anymore, but during Pro enabled games it's still audible. A decent improvement for me.

 

[Crayon]

Swear to god the term "thermal paste" is what keeps me from building a PC. Scares me too much and I prefer paying for it to be assembled.
I'm not bothered by Pro noise but it is pretty cool that you can do this.

Click to shrink...

I'm trying to think of an analogy that would make it less intimidating and all can think of it putting mayo on when you're making a sandwich. So just think of thermal paste as mayo that tastes great with your cpu.

 

[Deleted member 8696]

Swear to god the term "thermal paste" is what keeps me from building a PC. Scares me too much and I prefer paying for it to be assembled.
I'm not bothered by Pro noise but it is pretty cool that you can do this.

Click to shrink...

What? You just put a little and that's it

 

[Deleted member 10612]

Didn't Linus test different amounts/ways of application of the thermal paste and came to the conclusion that there is no difference in how its applied and nothing to gain by doing a "new" coat...

Question for the OP would be, how has the temperature in your city changed over the last days. Imo that should do more to keeping the ps4 silent then a new coat of thermal paste.

 

[Cookie Dough]

Swear to god the term "thermal paste" is what keeps me from building a PC. Scares me too much and I prefer paying for it to be assembled.
I'm not bothered by Pro noise but it is pretty cool that you can do this.

Click to shrink...

It's really very simple. If you can apply toothpaste to your toothbrush you can apply thermal paste. But even that aside, many coolers come with pre-applied thermal paste these days and most of the time whilst not the absolute best option they are fine.

 

[Deleted member 888]

Didn't Linus test different amounts/ways of application of the thermal paste and came to the conclusion that there is no difference in how its applied and nothing to gain by doing a "new" coat...

Question for the OP would be, how has the temperature in your city changed over the last days. Imo that should do more to keeping the ps4 silent then a new coat of thermal paste.

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UK, so it's cold 95% of the year.