PS3 'too powerful'?

Wednesday 14 June 2006
Sony's PlayStation 3 may be due for a spec reduction after difficulties getting all its components to fit together safely.

The alleged downgrade is due to Sony having trouble squeezing all of PS3's guts, muscles and brains into the console case itself, without risk of overheating. "The current designs, despite having vents all over the place, apparently still can't dissipate the heat to sufficient levels," said an insider source.

Above: The PS3 kits used at E3 were running on the reduced Cell specs, apparently

It's also mooted that the main Cell processor could well clock in at the reduced speed of 2.8GHz (instead of the currently quoted 3.2GHz) simply to allow Sony to produce enough components to satisfy demand, and that PS3's power source may have to be made external, like that of Xbox 360.

It's been barely a week since the last swathe of PS3 rumours, where it was claimed that PS3 wasn't powerful enough to compete with Xbox 360 - the poor console must feel more and more like Goldilocks as time passes. We'll bring you the inevitable official counterstatement to all of this as soon as it happens.