When the PlayStation 5 first came out, you couldn’t expand the internal storage because there weren’t really any SSDs with the latest PCIe Gen 4×4 tech that works specifically with the PS5. Luckily, since then, there have been a lot of great NVME SSDs that work great with the PS5. Even better, there are a lot of SSDs for the PS5s with large sizes all the way up to 8TB, which is pretty massive, although you probably don’t need anything that massive. Either way, we’ve gone out and collected some of the best SSDs for the PS5 for you below.
That said, if you haven’t picked up a PS5 yet, be sure to check out these excellent PS5 deals, and if you already own one, maybe check out these PS5 game deals to expand your library.
Our favorite PS5 SSD deal
It wasn’t that long ago that you’d have to pay well over $100 to get an SSD for your PS5, and often, it’d be slower than the pricier alternatives. These days, you can buy a Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD with heatsink for just $99 from Amazon, thereby saving $65 off the regular price of $165. The SSD offers speedy performance while also having its own nickel-coated high-end controller to help deliver effective thermal control. It means it won’t overheat and performance won’t be compromised. Being a PCIe Gen 4 SSD, you get twice the data transfer speed of PCIe Gen 3 which is useful. Offering maximum read speeds of 7,000 megabytes per second, it’s a good upgrade to go alongside your existing hard drive with 1TB offering plenty of extra space at a shrewd price.
More PS5 SSD deals we like
There are a lot of different PS5 SSDs that you can use to upgrade your console’s storage space. When upgrading your PlayStation 5, look for a heatsink that has already been installed on the SSD for added ease, and check whether the SSD is compatible. Many are, and we’ve featured a bunch of them below. Different sizes are available with 1TB to 4TB most common. Not everyone needs 4TB, even though it’s tempting, so we’ve listed smaller ones, too, depending on your plans. Different brands are also available so we’ve focused on the most popular options.
- Seagate Game Drive 2TB —
- Crucial T500 2TB —
- Corsair MP600 Pro 2TB —
- WD Black SN850P 2TB —
- Samsung 990 Pro 4TB —
Why you need a specific PS5 SSD
Unlike your average laptop or computer, the PS5 can’t really accept any sort of SSD you want to put into it. While it’s true that, at the very least, you need to use an M.2 SSD, what’s even more important is that the SSD has a PCIe 4.0 specification, which is much faster than the older PCIe 3.0. While you could, in theory, put an older SSD into the PS5, it won’t be used to run games actively but will instead act as a storage to load games onto the internal storage, so it’s not much of an upgrade.
Also, Sony recommends that any SSD that goes into a PS5 come with a heatshield to help with heat dissipation. Without one, the SSD’s internal controller might thermal throttle it so that it doesn’t melt itself, which can impact the game’s performance and introduce lag and other issues. That’s why all the suggestions above come with some form of heatshield already pre-installed on the SSD.