If you want to know the differences between the first CUH-1000 series model of the PS4 and the new CUH-1100 series which Sony has been pushing on the market lately, the Japanese blog Pocketnews did an extensive teardown of the new console and found out every little discrepancy between the two SKUs.

Power consumption between the two models is about the same both in stand-by mode and when turned on, while the CUH-1100 is about 50 grams lighter than its older counterpart, weighing 2.70 Kg instead of 2.75.

The new motherboard has the model number SAB-001, while the original one was SAA-001. Below you can see two pictures featuring both sides of the new board.

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The motherboard layout is almost the same, the only big difference is that the CUH-1000 has a two-phase circuit between the power supply and the CPU and a four-phase one with the GPU. The CUH-1100 has a one-phase circuit with the CPU and a three-phase circuit linking to the GPU.

The APU's model number has changed to CXD90026AG (previously CXD90026G), but the lack of difference in the number indicates that there's no change in processing power. Below you can see the old and the new APU chips compared (Old model above, new below, as it will be for all the pictures in this article).

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The Renesas R32C/118 system controller has also changed model number from A01-COL to A02-COL. Below you can see the two chips compared.

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The SDRAM connected to the sub-processor CXD90025G also changed model number from 4B2G1646E-BCK0 to K4B2G1646Q-BCMA.

The 8-bit MCU (Microcontroller unit) by STMicroelectronics that was connected to the sub-processor is completely missing in the new model. From the wiring it seemed to be related to the Blu-Ray drive, but since the same chip was (and is) also included in the board of the Blu-Ray drive itself, maybe it was redundant originally. Below you can see a pic of the missing MCU.

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The power supply has changed part number from ADP-240AR to ADP-240CR and is now 24 grams lighter. The output rating has changed slightly as you can see from the pictures below.

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The heat sink features the other main difference, as the shape of the fins has been changed. The new one weighs 324 grams against 298 of the old one. Here's a picture comparison:

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In the old CUH-1000 model, in order to raise the efficiency of the cooling depending on location, the fins have different angles in the high airflow area compared to the low airflow area. In the CUH-1100 model this has been omitted and all the fins have the same angle (editor's note: now the fins are also all the same size, while previously the ones in the low airflow area were smaller).

The design of the wi-fi antenna unit also seems to have been improved in order to reduce electromagnetic noise.

All in all, according to the analysis, the changes seem to be minor revisions, mostly aimed to reduce manufacturing costs, as it's normal during the lifetime of a console.