Topic: Is External HDD's good for the PS4?

So i've just spent around 70 quid on WD My Passport 2 TB Portable Hard Drive not good with brands of HDD's was just reading reviews but then 1 review said it's better just to buy another Internal Drive instead of an External HDD cus playing Games on an External HDD isnt good at all. So I was wondering for the ppl who use an External HDD whats your experiences ?

External drives have worked well for me. Not really seen any performance issues. I replaced my internal with a 1tb ssd and have a 4tb external then just transfer the games I play most onto the internal drive you have the best of both worlds. You can pick up internal SSD for less than £100 I think I paid £90.

Cheers for the replies appreciated. Ye I was just worried if I played PS4 Games on the External HDD if i'd have performance issues that was my only concern.

@Davehunt I’ve had no problems so far with playing games off my external HDD. I can’t even tell a difference whether I’m playing off the external or internal drive, to be honest. Maybe I’m either lucky or just unaware of some minor performance variable that exists.

On the subject though — where do most people place your external HDD? I have been just placing it on top of the PS4, which I have stored horizontally all the time. But I just realized that the external HDD does create a fair amount of its own heat, as well as it vibrates slightly due to the spinning disc inside, and I started to question the wisdom of stacking it on top of the internal drive, fan, and other stuff going on inside the PS4. Obviously the set up has worked fine this whole time, but I think I’ll start putting it to the side of the PS4. The problem is this is awkward and I tried it once and the drive beeped at me while playing - I think because it wasn’t perfectly flat sitting on a stack of magazines next to the PS4. Thoughts?

I have been using a 5tb HDD since the day Sony let us use external hard drives and I have no complaints. Occasionally I have to restart it cause the PS4 doesn't register it but that's nothing.

My PS4 lies on 4 large rubber tops (about 4 cm in height) since I noticed the table surface got warm too after a while. The external HDD lies next to it on smaller tops just because I'm a little insane. The biggest games go to the external HDD while the smaller ones go tho the internal HDD so they both have time to rest. 🙃

@Th3solution I've got mine as far away from the PS4 as the USB cable will allow, as I've experienced issues when it is closer to the console. I've never been keen on stacking hardware on top of each other. I've got a 3 tier stand with everything spaced out.

@Davehunt No performance issues that I've noticed, just the external drive not being recognised from time to time if I've put the console into rest mode and downloading a game to it.

Again thanks for the replying guys wasnt there an option also on the PS4 bit tired maybe it was said here where you can set usb to "always" or something from the default? which helps with the putting PS4 in rest mode and not getting the External not recognised thing?

@Davehunt Yeah tried that but still get the unrecognised error. It's not a huge issue just means i can't download games straight to the external drive whilst in rest mode, and I then move em over from the internal drive the next day.