A Portable SSD Is the Secret to Upgrading Your PS5’s Itty Bitty Storage Capacity

A Portable SSD Is the Secret to Upgrading Your PS5’s Itty Bitty Storage Capacity
Contributor: Chris Neill, Isabella Noyes
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Despite being a brand-new console, the PlayStation 5 has a surprisingly small internal storage capacity. That’s why, back in 2021, PS5 owners rejoiced when Sony announced its first major software update – the ability to store your games on an external SSD.

While the PS5’s internal SSD offers a total of 825GB of storage, there’s only 667GB free to install your games on. That’s why grabbing a portable SSD isn’t a bad idea if you don’t want to go through the gut-wrenching process of deleting games from your console.

For instance, if you want to download Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War or the PS5 version of Marvel’s Avengers, you’ll need roughly 225.3GB and 184.1GB of free space, respectively. That’s easily half of your PS5’s storage taken up by two games.

Prior to this update, you were only able to port over your PS4 games to the new console via an external drive. You can even play your PS4 games from the drive, but you’ll need a good SSD that’s optimised for gaming. Otherwise, you’ll be spending a lot of time with loading screens due to middling read and write speeds.

How to add an SSD to your PS5 console

ps5
Image: Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images

There are two main ways to upsize your PlayStation 5’s storage. The first is by installing a PCIe Gen.4 M.2 NVMe with a heatsink, which will allow you to download, copy and launch PS4/PS5 games on your console. If you want to find out how you can add an M.2 SSD to your console, then we highly recommend following Sony’s detailed installation instructions here.

Of course, we understand that not everyone feels confident enough to install an M.2 SSD on their own.

Your other option is to plug in a USB-compatible portable SSD, which will let you export games from your console’s internal storage onto the SSD for safekeeping. However, while you can play your PS4 games directly from your SSD, you can’t play them on your PS5 directly from it. Instead, you’ll need to ferry the games back and forth between your console and the SSD if you wish to replay Skyrim for the zillionth time.

Just keep in mind that while the process will be seamless with an M.2 SSD, there may be a brief waiting period depending on the size of the game if you use an external SSD. However, you can reduce this by investing in an SSD with fast transfer speeds.

Keep in mind too that if you already have an internal SSD installed, you can also connect an additional portable drive to expand your storage capacity further.

SSDs to boost your PS5’s storage

Ghost of Tsushima
Image: Sucker Punch

Now that you know how to set up a portable SSD, it’s time to decide which one to buy. Before picking up an external drive, you should consider the kind of games you play. A 1TB portable SSD might do you fine if you’re economical about your purchases, but if you’re someone who is frequently picking up new titles, you might run out of space sooner rather than later. You’re better off going bigger from the start.

In terms of external SSDs, there are a fair few options available. We’ve collected a few solid choices that’ll help free up your PS5’s storage space – some of which have excellent discounts available at the moment. Plus, owning a reliable portable SSD isn’t a bad idea in general.

The Samsung T7 Portable SSD is a great portable SSD, and you can currently get one with a 2TB capacity for $349, down from the usual $699. The Samsung T7 has read and write speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s and 1,050 MB/s, and is an improved version of the Samsung T5.

If you’re worried about people stealing your game files, the Touch version of the Samsung T7 is also available for $339. The Samsung Touch T7 is more or less the same as the standard, but it comes with an extra layer of security – fingerprint recognition.

The T7 Shield SSD (2TB) is also currently on sale for $284.05 (down from $459). All you need to do is use the promo code TOP5OFF when you get to the checkout to receive the full discount. It has similar features and speeds to the basic T7, but sports a protective outer layer which makes it perfect for travelling with.

Seagate’s FireCuda SSD is optimised for gaming, which makes it a solid choice when it comes to game storage. It has transfer speeds of up to 2,000 MB/s, which is perfect if you’re playing any PS4 games from it. The only real drawback is that this 2TB drive will set you back $599.

The 1TB version of the WD Black P50 Pro Game Drive SSD is also available for $310.74, which is a great price considering most other Australian retailers are offering it in the range of $370 to $469. This portable WD Black SSD has also been optimised to have transfer speeds suitable for gaming, with read speeds of up to 2000MB/s.


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At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.