Much has already been said about the refrigerator-like design of the new Xbox Series X, so Microsoft has decided to provide some insight behind the overall look and build of the console. The company’s principal designer and mechanical engineer recently spoke with Digital Foundry to explain the intriguing design.

Microsoft previously revealed that the upright position of the Xbox Series X enables for a larger, more efficient fan to cool the powerful CPU and GPU. Furthermore, the design allows for an optical drive to read discs, all while reducing noise from the hardware’s heat sink.

“Jim [Wahl] mentioned how the ODD [optical disc drive] sets one dimension, the volume of the heat sink sets the other dimension, the height is set by airflow and throughout this kind of complex negotiation of figuring out how this stuff comes together, we landed on a square form factor which we love,” explained Microsoft's principle designer Chris Kujawski.

Director of mechanical engineering, Jim Wahl, then touched on the enlarged exhaust holes on the top of the tower saying, “You have exhaust out the top and we have large venting holes, but the net effect of putting all of this together, having parallel paths, having this really powerful quiet fan at the top, is that we get 70 per cent more airflow through this console than the past generation and we get 20 per cent more airflow through our heatsink alone than in the past generation.”

You can learn more about the design of the new Xbox Series X by following on over to Eurogamer.