A recent report claimed that PS5’s might be prone to hardware damage if it is not kept upright. This was based on the belief that the console’s liquid metal thermal interface material can seep out, shorting circuitry and possibly frying the CPU. While this is not an official statement from Sony, it is being attributed to the console by several hardware repair experts.
In a video on YouTube, TheCod3r describes it as “one of the most common issues” he has seen with PlayStation 5’s coming into his shop for repair. He explains that the issue occurs because the liquid metal is not properly secured to the heat sink, which can lead to shifting over time. This can cause the liquid metal to break free from the heat sink, which could then cause the CPU and other components on the motherboard to become damaged.
While PCs can certainly suffer from the same problem if the heatsink seal is broken, most don’t use liquid metal in their thermal paste like the PS5 does. The PlayStation uses a special compound that transfers heat more effectively than traditional pastes. The PlayStation also has a piece of foam that acts as a corral to prevent the liquid from spilling onto other components.
Steve from TronicsFix compared a stock PS5 with the liquid metal to one with conventional thermal paste. He disabled the fans and put each console under a stress test to see how long they would last before shutting down. The PlayStation with the liquid metal lasted longer than the one with conventional thermal paste.Pc Thermal Paste