The PlayStation 5, whether you decide to purchase the Digital Edition or the regular
version complete with Disc drive, comes with a blazing fast internal SSD . And that SSD
is arguably one of the most important parts of the console,
allowing for unbelievably quick loading times and the smoothest gaming experience possible.
But, as quick as it is, it’s not the most generous in terms of it’s size,
at only 825gb. And keep in mind, that some of that has to be used for the running of
the console itself. PS4 titles like the Last of us 2, red dead redemption 2,
cyberpunk 2077 each come in at around 100gb in size, and games like the Call of Duty franchise
can often be about 200gb each, so that storage can get eaten up seriously quickly.
Thankfully, Sony have designed the PS5 so that you can add to your internal storage,
and in a seriously un-Sony fashion, they’ve not restricted it to some
proprietary Sony-brand storage that they can overcharge you for,
you actually have lots of options to choose from, which I’ll explain in a moment.
Now I’ve gone for this, the Western Digital Black SN850, complete with Heatsink, which I’ll
also explain in just a moment, because that is important. But essentially what I’ve got here, is
a 1TB drive in addition to the 825gb internal SSD of the console that should be able to run just as
quickly as the baked-in SSD, and I paid about £150 for this, so it actually wasn’t too expensive.
In this video, we’re going to get this installed into my console and get it setup.
I’m then going to run a few speed tests to see how the SSD performs, and then I’ll tell you
what options you’ve got for purchasing your own SSD, and explain a low-cost option that you might
be able to make the most of in the meantime, if this isn’t really doable for you right now.
**Installation**
Installation is very straightforward, Sony have made this very easy indeed.
I’ve powered down my console fully and unplugged it from the mains which is important.
Take the PS5 off of it’s stand, and then lay it down on it’s side. Lay the console
so that the PS5 logo is faced down, and the ports of the console are facing towards you,
like I have here. Use your right hand to lift up gently at the bottom right of the panel,
and use your left hand in the upper left corner to kind of slide the panel to the left.
It’s a bit fiddly, but it will come off, and thankfully it’s way easier to snap back on.
Now you’re looking for this part of the PS5, which is where the new SSD is going to live.
Unscrew the PlayStation branded screw using a small philips head screwdriver, remove the cover,
and this is where we’re going to install our SSD. The reason for the different holes is
that Sony are allowing you to install drives of different physical sizes,
you’re just going to want to take note of the hole that’s relevant to your drive,
then remove the screw and washer that are already installed at this end of the bay.
Place the washer down onto the relevant hole for your SSD, and then slot the SSD into the drive,
you do have to come in at a slight angle. Once in, the SSD will lay down flat, and you can then
use the screw to attach into the washer, keeping everything nice and firmly connected and in place.
Reattach the bay cover, put the PS5 side casing back on, reattach to the stand and the physical
part of the job is now done, you can hook everything back up to your power and display.
Booting the PS5 up for the first time after installing the SSD
will result in your PS5 recognising it, and insisting that you format the drive,
and you of course just follow the instructions to do this, it’s all very simple and takes seconds.
With that done, the PS5 will indicate what it believes the read-speed of your drive is,
6500 mbs for me which I’m very happy with, and then you’re good to go.
**Using the drive;**
OK, so some things to be aware of regarding the drive. This drive, whilst internally
installed in your PS5, is still very much a separate drive to your main internal storage,
you’re not going to be able to split files across the two or anything like that. There is therefore
a certain amount of data management that you need to think about when using the new drive.
You can for example choose where to install your newly downloaded games, whether that should be
your core drive, or your new expanded drive, and you can break this down by PS4 and PS5 games.
Now my preference I think is going to be to leave it as the core internal drive,
and to use this expansion as a kind of overspill drive. Because remember that one of the key
benefits of this expanded storage, is that you can run both PS4 and PS5 games from it as normal. So,
when I start to run low on space on the core drive, I can just head to the Settings of my PS5
and shift some games across. In fact, let me show you how that works, we’ll move Riders
Republic over, which is a 25 gig game, and I’ll let it run in real time on the screen
now so you can see just how quickly it’s able to do this. It really doesn’t take long at all.
In terms of the performance, I’ve moved a few of the games that I’m currently playing
over to the drive, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk etc, and I can tell you
with absolute certainty that this drive is every bit as quick as the core PS5 SSD drive,
games boot up just as quickly and play just as smoothly.
And that’s the great thing about this expansion, once you’ve got it setup,
it’s really no different to using the core internal SSD. I honestly wish I could say
a bit more about it, but it just works, and just as effectively as the PS5’s main internal drive.
**Choosing a suitable drive**
Now, one thing to point out, is that you can’t just throw any SSD inside your PS5,
Sony have some pretty strict requirements in terms of what will and won’t work. The best
way to be sure that the SSD you’re thinking of buying is going to work with your console
is to head to Sony’s website and read their requirements, but fundamentally,
it needs to be a PCI Express M2 drive, with read speeds of 5500 mbs or higher.
You also do want to ensure you have a Heatsink installed. You can choose to fit this yourself
if you wish, or you can opt to purchase one with a Heatsink already fitted like I have. This is
important because in order to read data at the speeds required to be compatible with the PS5,
this SSD is going to generate some pretty serious heat,
and that heat needs to be able to be vented out as efficiently as possible.
Not using a heatsink is going to cause your drive to overheat, and underperform, perhaps
even damage it, so no matter how tempted you are, don’t cheap out, ensure you get a heatsink.
**Using an external SSD instead**
Now, you might be thinking, well I’ve already got an SSD, I’ve got one of these external
USB C drives, and I know that the PS5 can access external drives, so why not just use that? Well,
basically, because the PS5 can allow you to store and even play PS4 games from these,
but not PS5 titles, and the reason for that again comes down to read speeds. This is a Sandisk
Extreme 1TB portable SSD, which I use for all of my video editing projects on my MacBook Pro.
And honestly, it’s more than fast enough for that kind of work, this has a read speed of 1000 mbs.
But even the next version up from this, the Extreme Pro, which has 2000mbs read speeds,
isn’t fast enough for the PS5, which needs 5500mbs as a minimum.
So yeah, it simply isn’t quick enough, not for PS5 titles anyway.
But, one option you do have, is if you have a large library of PS4 games, you could store and
even play them on a large external drive, and save your internal space for PS5 games only.
You might even have an external drive lying around that you could use for this already,
without having to invest anymore money. Definitely worth considering,
if spending money on a compatible SSD isn’t really an option for you at the moment.
**Conclusion**
So there you go, the Western Digital Black SN850 SSD,
installed and running on my PS5, which now has loads of space for me to download games,
and not have to constantly delete them. I’m really happy with how it’s running so far.
What about you? Have you upgraded your PS5’s internal storage? If yes,
what SSD did you go for? If no, why not? Drop me a comment, and let’s talk about it.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like,
and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.