Anyone able to please recommend an external hard drive for the ps5.

truewraith · 22 Jul 2024 at 18:04

Only just got one and im not sure which are good external hard drives to go for. As my other console is the Xbox Series X, and we have to buy special hdds for that to play x games.

Scort · 22 Jul 2024 at 19:20

Imo, I'd go for an internal M.2 SSD to add some more storage, as an external drive will only let you store PS5 games on it, you won't be able to run them. You can run PS4 games from an external drive though

Plainsong · 22 Jul 2024 at 20:09

Has to be internal. You can grab a 1 or even 2TB very reasonably priced now. No brainer imo but sorry if that’s not the answer you were looking for!

andshrew · 22 Jul 2024 at 21:06

As others have said, you can't play native PS5 games from an external USB drive but you can play PS4 games.

Pretty much any 2.5" USB HDD can be used for this, up to 8TB is size. For example: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...le-usb-3.2-external-hard-drive-hd-56p-wd.html

If you want faster loading times in those PS4 games then you can use an SSD. The USB ports on the PS5 are 10Gbit, so you want either a SATA SSD or a low-end NVME one as it isn't going to be able to read or write faster than around ~1GB/s. The PS5 can be a lot more picky with the controllers chips inside NVME enclosures (ie. it can crash when you put it into rest mode). For this reason avoid Crucial enclosures. I use a SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD without issue, if you were looking at making your own up with an off the shelf enclosure and drive then look for enclosures that use the ASMedia ASM2362 chipset as this seems to have broad compatibility (I've personally used that one without issue; the actual NVME drive you use doesn't seem to matter it's the chipset within the enclosure that causes the issues).

If you want to expand your native PS5 game storage then you have to add an internal PCIE Gen 4 M2 drive. WD, Samsung, Nextorage all have good options, look for their versions which include a pre-attached heatsink if you want a straight forward install.

truewraith · 23 Jul 2024 at 01:10

i had no idea about any of that, glad you explained it before i went and bought one, thanks. and yeah i guess i can buy bigger to store them on but to play its gonna cost more but less storage but ow well

would this be able to play native ps5 game straight from the drive! WD_BLACK SN770 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD, M.2 2280 NVMe SSD?

truewraith · 23 Jul 2024 at 01:12

oh im assuming the space in ps5 for the hard drive is empty ain't it ? You don't have to take out the main one and change it ? cant check myself as its not being delivered till friday

andshrew · 23 Jul 2024 at 07:57

truewraith said:
oh im assuming the space in ps5 for the hard drive is empty ain't it ? You don't have to take out the main one and change it ? cant check myself as its not being delivered till friday

Yep, the M2 slot is empty and adds extra storage without taking away what is built in.

SN770 is right at the lower end of the minimum requirements for the drive, it might work but you're better to stick with the faster ones like the WD SN850X, Samsung 980 Pro. You need a heatsink so buy the version which includes that pre-installed if you can. Since you're only just getting the PS5, if you can hold out until November you might get a better deal on the drive then during Black Friday rather than buying now.

The requirements for the drive are here, including the max dimensions for the heatsink if you decide to buy one without a heatsink and attach one yourself: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/ps5-install-m2-ssd/#min

Plainsong · 23 Jul 2024 at 11:32

truewraith said:
oh im assuming the space in ps5 for the hard drive is empty ain't it ? You don't have to take out the main one and change it ? cant check myself as its not being delivered till friday

Check youtube on how to do it. It’s quite straight forward. The space is in there ready for it to slot in. For WD the SN850 is the one people generally go for. 1TB can be had for around £90. You’ll need a heatsink as well.

Timber · 23 Jul 2024 at 11:48

NVMe drive makes more sense on PS5 although I do think having an external USB drive can be useful - either for storing games, or running PS4 games. I have the WD_Black D30 which was a present a few years ago and recently was useful for moving games over as I was upgrading the NVMe drive in the PS5.