Sony has quietly revised the PlayStation 5 Slim again, changing its motherboard, cooling system and CMOS battery without changing the console’s model number.
According to VideoCardz a teardown of the Marvel’s Wolverine Limited Edition PS5 Slim revealed a newer EDM-051 motherboard inside a machine still labelled CFI-2116.
Console technician Modyfikator89 found a redesigned motherboard layout, a different heatsink and changes to the liquid-metal cooling system surrounding the APU.
Sony has already used the CFI-2116 designation for earlier PS5 Slim hardware, which means the model number no longer guarantees buyers will receive the same internal revision.
One of the more useful changes involves the CR2032 CMOS battery. Sony has moved the battery to a position where owners and repair technicians can remove and replace it more easily. Earlier PS5 Slim revisions used the same type of coin-cell battery but required more work around the motherboard to reach it.
The PS5 Pro already uses a similarly accessible arrangement, so Sony appears to have decided that servicing a battery should not require an archaeological expedition through the console.
Cooling has been revised again, with changes to both the heatsink and the area around the processor that contains liquid metal.
According to the teardown, the new design more closely resembles the PS5 Pro implementation and exposes a smaller area around the APU to liquid metal.
Sony has used liquid metal as its thermal interface material since the original PS5. The substance offers good heat transfer but has produced enough repair-shop anecdotes to make any redesign around it worth watching.
There are no comparative temperature, noise or gaming-performance figures for the new revision yet, so it is unclear whether the changes improve cooling or simply make manufacturing cheaper.
Sony has also changed the HDMI retimer implementation, moving to a newer design that is reportedly less expensive. Despite the hardware change, the documentation supplied with the console still describes the older internal arrangement and doesn’t mention the easier-to-replace CMOS battery.
That leaves buyers with two potentially different PS5 Slim revisions carrying the same CFI-2116 designation, with no obvious way to tell which one they are buying from the box.
