My PS4 1200 model, while being quieter in terms of dB than the 1000 and 1100 series, has an irritating fan/coil whine that has led me to try and use external cooling to keep the fan rpm from ramping up and down, which is when the high pitch whine is the worst. I have also torn down the console and applied a better, longer lasting thermal paste. This has helped but didn't really solve the problem. When idling or simply at a consistent speed, the whine still exists intermittently, but it's considerably quieter and less noticeable than before, but still loud when the speed is changing.

I eventually came across a YouTube video showing an internal fan controller that comes in different variations, that allows your fan to run faster than normal, slower than normal, or at a set speed of your choosing. I decided to purchase one of these and give it a shot. It's made a huge difference and seems to have solved my problems.

The controller I bought overrides the PS4 and allows you to set the base speed of the fan, which is anywhere between 20% and 100% of it's full speed. If and or when the PS4 heats up enough that it requires higher fan speeds for more cooling, the controller instantly gives up control back to the console and the fan speeds up until the system has cooled down enough, and then the fan slows back down until it reaches your controller setting, and the controller takes over again.

Installing it was extremely easy. You shut off your PS4 and completely disconnect it. You do have to open up the top portion of the console, for the first 3 models of the PS4, not sure about the slim or pro. It consists of removing the the top warranty sticker on the back (not sure if this still voids your warranty since those rules have changed, with new PS4's no longer having the warranty stickers), removing the rear security torx screw under that sticker, sliding off the left HDD cover, removing a few internal torx screws on the right cover light bar indicator, and gently pulling off the right cover. Then you just disconnect the fan cable from the motherboard, plug that end into the fan controller module, and plug the module cable into that same motherboard fan connection.

After that I plugged the PS4 back in and fired it up. I used the fan controller and a small flat screwdriver to adjust the fan speed by ear to reach my desired setting, which seemed to be right around the 50% mark, give or take. This setting was enough that with my PS4 sitting approx 8 ft in front of me in an open cabinet, I could just hear the faint suction of air. Luckily, this setting was enough that after playing demanding games (that would previously have made the fan ramp up and down a lot, or have the fan running hard regardless), only very rarely would speed up the fan beyond my setting, and not far beyond, for a short period before it would drop back down to my chosen speed. I then shut off the PS4, disconnected it, put everything back together, reconnected it, and fired it up, and I was finished. Took less than 30 minutes total.

I didn't want to increase the base speed anymore, because there is a small downside to this. When the PS4 is in rest mode and is downloading, it will run at your newly set base speed, so the console will be more audible, and the fan will run much faster than it normally would otherwise, which will lead to a shorter fan life overall. Depending on your speed setting, the exact quality of your specific fan, and how much you play and download in rest mode, your fan could still last long enough that you'll never have to worry, or you could need to replace it at some point in time.

https://www.circuitsurgery.com/docs/red-green-module-differences.pdf               (Mine is the red/white module and red line on the example graph)

The reason the fan doesn't need to ramp up like it did before, is because the console is running so much cooler due to the increased base speed, that it takes way longer for the system to heat up during demanding gaming. I've played for hours and the fan only speeds up slightly, just a few times, and for 10-15 seconds maybe, and then drops back down to my 50% setting. While initially tinkering with my controller setting, I also was able to find out that my PS4 never would have gotten above about 75% fan speed before the controller, and that was fairly loud. When I got up to 80% and higher, it was jet engine like the OG PS4, which was not something I could ever deal with. Way, too, loud.

The best part of all of this, that I wasn't exactly expecting, is that the fan/coil whine seems to be 'gone'. To be clear, at lower settings it still tended to whine, but at my setting I hear nothing but a faint suction of air now, and no high pitch whine. Even when the fan ramps up slightly the whine doesn't seem to be there anymore. I'm not sure why exactly, if it's because of the lower internal temperatures or the lack of voltage and current fluctuations since the fan is almost completely consistent now, but it's a huge bonus nonetheless.

I know issue's along these lines have been brought up in the past, so I figured I would put this out there for anyone interested. The controllers cost around $20 USD and can be purchased on their website or on eBay. It's the only product in it's category that I could find anywhere, which was a little surprising. They make controllers for PS3, PS4/Pro, 360 S, and XB1/S/X. They're based out of the UK and ship worldwide btw. 

https://www.circuitsurgery.com/

https://www.ebay.ca/usr/circuit5urgeon?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

I emailed and asked some questions before I made my purchase and they replied the next day and were very helpful. While I can't personally speak to the longevity of the product, I don't see any reason to think that should be a problem, plus their customer feedback is super positive.

They had eBay deals on BF, like 25% off I think, so they might again on BD, who knows. Could be a great late Christmas gift. Was a great early one for myself. LOL. For anyone in Canada, since our postal service is basically still on strike, they won't ship here until it's resolved, so probably not until the new year. I ordered mine right before the strike started, and it took a month to get here, instead of the week it should have, and the delay was Canada Posts fault, so just fyi.

Does a one hit wonder deserve an update? Maybe I shouldn't have written a book to explain it initially.

The fan accelerator module is still working great, and I've actually been able to set it lower between 40-45%, and it runs at that speed 99.9% of the time still. I spent the first month tinkering and then left it alone, so it's been about 10 months now and no problems.

Here's a vid to give you an idea of what my PS4 used to sound like after maybe an hour of somewhat demanding gaming.

And here's a vid to give you an idea of what it sounds like now, 99.9% of the time. It sounds like the Pro in this vid (3:00-3:50 is best for times sake).

On my couch, with the house dead silent, I get a reading of 38dB. With the TV on and muted, and the PS4 on, I get 42dB on my couch, and 63dB right beside the PS4 where the fan is. The rare time when the fan ramps up one step, get's a reading of 45dB on the couch, and 67dB right beside the PS4.

Needless to say it's unbelievably quieter and consistent, and the whine now only happens faintly the very rare time it ramps up for very short cool down bursts after multiple hours of gaming. Needless to say I'm quite pleased with the results.

My PS4Pro is somewhat noisy, but during gameplay it never disturbs me.

I've never really had a problem with the noise of the ps4 it's always been a quiet console until I started playing Attack On Titan 2: final battle. I dunno why but that game really makes the ps4 rev up.

I have my ps pro sitting on a Laptop fanpad with the usb hooked up to the front. keeps it nice and cool.

It's an option if you know what you're doing, but I'm pretty sure that doing this kind of tinkering voids the warranty so that's something to keep in mind. And you should probably check the fan and the temperature once in a while to make sure everything is working correctly.

I've had varying degrees of noise on both the OG PS4 and the Pro, depending on the game, and seemingly, with certain parts of any given game. I remember Rocket League being a "fan heavy" game for whatever reason. I have an odd situation currently with No Man's Sky. Whenever I go to the faction representative to deal with missions, on any space station, the fan goes into escape velocity overdrive mode. It's SO WEIRD, and I don't like it.

My Pro is pretty noisy when it's loading the next race in GT Sport. It is weird how it will speed up to turbo mode in certain static menus, yet during actual racing it's quiet. Fan speeds up when the lobby loads, is open for warm-up. When it slows down it means the cars are on the track and the race is about to start.

Ehh, a regular blast of air to vent the dust out can't hurt :)

I used to have a couple of 80mm USB fans blowing either on the top, sides, or both, and it seemed to actually make things worse because the internal fan would ramp up quite a bit more than was typical. I think maybe because they were blowing some of the heat downwards towards the vents, leading to the intake bringing in warmer air, or when I tried flipping them and sucking heat away, it was also sucking some fresh air away from the intake vents. I also wouldn't doubt they created some turbulence, even on low speed, which probably made it harder for the intake vents to get fresh air in. I don't use them anymore because I can't find a configuration where they seem to be beneficial.

It's not external plug n play, but it's really not to technical. Taking off the top plastic cover and unplugging the fan cable, then plugging it into the accelerator module, then plugging the module back into the fan plug, and putting the cover back on, is like one step beyond swapping the HDD. Taking the covers off doesn't void the warranty, but the module install almost certainly would.

Now if something went wrong, whether it was tied to the module or not, you'd be crazy to send it in to SNY with the module still inside. It takes no time at all to put it in, and wouldn't be any different to take it out. I have no idea how SNY would know since there are no alterations to the console whatsoever, other than the removal of the warranty stickers, which you're legally allowed to remove for repairs.

Yes you would certainly want to check after a while to make sure the fan is still operational, but you don't have to turn the fan up much from the stock 20% idle to hear it's running. As for temperatures, it'll never be a problem because the fan modules always make the fan run faster than stock. There are different modules and they all work a little differently.

Mine is self adjustable, yet if my setting isn't enough to keep the console cool, it allows the console to take over and ramp up the fan however much it needs. Once it cools back down to my setting, the module takes over again and keeps the fan from running any slower. I've got it set so that it very rarely has to ramp up beyond my setting.

The only real downside is rest mode downloading, because the fan will still run at my setting, and not the 20% stock idle like it normally would, so it means slightly more power usage, and shorter fan life. If you play a lot that's something to take into account, especially if you're all digital, otherwise the average gamer wouldn't ever wear out the fan running it at like 50% all the time anyway.

I've read that frame rate is the biggest reason the fan goes crazy. 60fps games seem the make the APU run quite hot and make the fan wind up sometimes. I've also read that in some of the menu's for certain games, that the frame rate is completely unlocked apparently, so the APU starts cooking and the fan can scream sometimes. Not sure if any of this is factual, but 60fps games on my PS4 were noticeably louder than others. The one thing graphically that tended to make the fan get wound up was fire, or photo mode. 

In HZD, standing near a campfire always made the fan ramp, and in R6Siege, if I sit at the home menu for a couple of mins, even now with my faster fan adjustment, the fan will slowly ramp up more and more until I enter another menu.

I watch NSC from time to time for tech modding on YouTube, yet haven't checked him out since the new year, and saw a couple really interesting videos related to the PS4/Pro cooling system.

Here he is installing a PS3 Slim cooling fan in his PS4 Pro with some modifications. The PS3 fans seem better built and are much quieter.

Here he is lapping/sanding down his Pro APU because it's shape is so convex it doesn't allow the flat heat sink to make much contact. Only in the center portion, therefore quite poor heat transfer through to the heat sink, regardless of paste, which leads to higher fan speeds.

I never paid that much attention to my PS4 APU when I removed the heat sink, other than it having way too much stock thermal paste, and wonder if that's part of the reason my fan used to ramp up so often. Not sure if I would attempt lapping the APU even if it's shape was a problem, as it's a pretty delicate and timely process which could lead to damaging the APU permanently.

This would explain why some people are having problems with fan noise with their PS4's though. I've seen quite a few people online mention they've tried many standard things like higher end thermal paste or RAM thermal pads to try and solve the heat problem to no avail. Well if the heat sink is making poor contact with the APU due to it's shape, then there's not a lot you can do unless you really wanna tinker and take chances.

Hopefully SNY was aware of this when designing PS5 and have done what they can to mitigate these problems as much as reasonably possible.