Safe to say the DIY Perks YouTube channel has form when it comes to surprisingly high quality homebrew tech lashups. But his latest effort, a Sony PS5 “tablet” conversion, is a bit special, even if calling it a tablet is a bit of a stretch.
The core of the system is the PS5 Slim with its smaller motherboard. Around that, DIY Perks has built an entirely custom air cooling solution using copper blocks, heat pipes and high-spec laptop fans. The really clever bits involve some 3D printed ducting, plus homebrew nickel electroplating for the main copper CPU block.
The latter was required, apparently, because the liquid metal thermal interface material that’s more or less required due to the PS5 APU’s beefy 200W heat output can actually be absorbed by copper over time. The solution is nickel electroplating, which can seeming be easily done at home in a glass jar. Who knew?
Anywho, the cooling solution involved some trial and error, with the first iteration suffering thermal shutdowns fairly rapidly. The final setup has the main cooling block hitting only 40 degrees C and the device itself achieving indefinite stability under load, which is pretty impressive.
Indeed, DIY Perks says the cooling is so effective, the fans can be run at relatively low speeds, the result being a homebrew PS5 tablet that runs quiter than many performance laptops.
(Image credit: DIY Perks)
(Image credit: DIY Perks)
(Image credit: DIY Perks)
That said, the whole “tablet” thing is, like we said, a teensy bit of a stretch. In plan view, the device is impressively compact, with thin bezels around three sides of the display (more on that in a moment). And the design looks remarkably slick. But it’s also very thick.
DIY Perks doesn’t supply any measurements, but it’s at least an inch and a half thick. It also has a completely external power supply, no battery and no touchscreen support, the latter not being a huge surprise given the PS5 isn’t a touch device. Oh and three semi-exposed fans on the back.
(Image credit: Future)
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That said, the chunky proportions do allow for what seems like a pretty impressive speaker system complete with a subwoofer. Add in a kick stand and yoiu have what seems like an intriguing transportable gaming rig if not an actual handheld device.
Oh, and that screen. DIY Perks went for a 4K OLED panel salvaged from a knackered Alienware gaming laptop and the results do look pretty spectacular.
All told, it’s an intriguing insight into what a clever DIYer can achieve these days using ingenuinty and a little 3D printing and well worth a quick watch.
