Modder Builds All-in-One PS5 Portable with a Laptop Form Factor

Japanese modder TERA set out to solve a problem that had bothered him for years. He wanted a PlayStation 5 that could go anywhere without sacrificing the full experience players expect from the console at home. His latest creation delivers exactly that in a form that slides easily into most laptop bags.

Months passed since TERA finished a much larger portable version of this device based on the same hardware. That machine, weighing nearly five kilograms, had a battery life of less than an hour, but it had to have an oversized screen, which made it a pain in the neck to carry around and store, but they learned a lot from that effort, and all of those lessons were applied to this new project.

To get began, they disassembled an old PlayStation 5 that they purchased for only 22,000 yen. TERA took out the motherboard and flung the remainder of the components into a corner. This specific board was roughly two-thirds the size of the one used in the prior generation, which was significant since it gave them a lot more room to play with in terms of packing.

Now, heat management was a top priority because the main processor has a poor tendency of drawing nearly 200 watts when it’s under load. Early testing with the regular CPU cooling revealed that it could not last more than a few minutes before temperature warnings appeared. TERA opted to employ a vapor-chamber heatsink, which is commonly used in server equipment and can withstand high temperatures. He printed a mount for it and then added some heat pipes and aluminum bars to assist move heat away from the surrounding chips, as well as some liquid metal compound to the processor after applying a protective coating to prevent the surrounding electronics from shorts.

Then there was fan design, which was as significant. TERA simply took an off-the-shelf fan, cut its blades down to size, and printed a new housing and brand new blades to match the heatsink exactly. Then he added a temperature sensor, which sent data to a small circuit that adjusted the fan speed on the fly. They also added a display to the finished unit, which shows the temperature and fan speed at a glance.

The next step was power delivery, so they inserted a modified server power supply unit within the casing to avoid having to deal with a large, bulky external brick. They also installed some bespoke timing boards to ensure that the screen and fan did not draw any power unless you hit the power button. Finally, they added a tiny copper plate that connected to ground to eliminate the video noise that appeared during the initial tests.

This was built with a 15.6-inch Sharp LCD panel, which is a smaller display than the one used in the last design, but its glossy surface keeps the colors vibrant and helps them shave off some of the weight and thickness. They printed off several plastic elements for the outside shell, including ventilation slits on the sides and a metal handle for hauling. They then used double-sided tape to secure the screen and precise spacers to keep the back panel in place.

As for battery life, it’s still a work in progress. In other testing with a compact RC car battery pack attached directly, they were able to get the unit to run a PlayStation 4 game for roughly 30 minutes. Of course, the power-hungry PS5 titles don’t last as long, but the architecture allows for a detachable battery pack in future editions.