Which SSD Drives Will Be Compatible With PS5?

Nah, there's an cartridge expansion slot in the back. I'll just use that.

@Ed4Heights I dont think you will be able to remove the SSD from the console anyway? I have read the Custom 825GB SSD is built into the system and should not be rmoved.
The Ps5 will accept NVMe M.2 SSD, which if you look online, are like long thin memory cards?

Yes I will be buying a NVMe M.2 SSD................... ONCE SONY PULL THERE FINGER OUT AND TELL US WHICH WILL BE COMPATIBLE >

@BNAG_Gamer Google PS5 cartridge. It probably won't happen, but I like the idea.

I'm not sure the individuals above have heard, but didn't SONY mention the PS5 will have an expansion slot in the back is for the "compatible" NVNe SSDs. I will be purchasing one to upgrade the memory for sure. If the system can do this I want to take advantage of every aspect it offers.

While obviously a placeholder now, I think you could expand with some recommendation for external SSDs to swap game in and out

why would you have a story saying 'all compatible ps5 ssd drives' while not having any of the information relating to title?

Oh, that's funny... My local newspaper has a similar front page article today. 2 pages about how someday there'll be an article printed in the very same spot.

I'm waiting on lists. That port on the PS5 will likely be for the certified SSD's that are available. I'd like to have at least 2-3TBs to be good for a year or 2 without having to delete and redownload/reinstall anything

I see this working with slower (in comparison) NVMe solutions. The master drive will allocate a set amount of space for files to cache from the slave drive. SSD file seeking is only slowed by smaller file sizes, which seems to be what Sony is eliminating with its new file structure. This is likely why hybrid SSD work better with PS3/4 in contrast to speed gain from full SSD units.

So your main drive will preload larger files into place seamlessly with small executables configured to launch games from the main drive. As data is needed, it's transferred to the main drive to act as a high speed cache, thus negating the need for equally matched speeds up to a point.

Sounds like the 825GB is onboard taking advantage of 12 channels. Expansion slot for M2 SSD cards. I'm hoping they can take advantage of the 12 channel interface (maybe not) still need another Mark Cerny hardware video. Then external USB for PS4 titles. Hopefully there is some easy method to copy / move games between drives to take advantage of the massive speed increase of the internal SSD. Looking forward to this generation doing something a bit different 😎

@dbunny
They have given a list of all the known compatible drives above, it is just that it's empty.

I plan to pimp out my 5 as best I can. Probably end up getting the SSD and an external.

Yeah, am most getting definitely getting a PS5, and I know that I will tear through 1TB of space in no time, have a 8TB external for my 4 Pro, and only 2TB free now... So a additional ssd for the 5 is a no brainer to me.

@dbunny slow news days and they still want clicks.

@Rmxqout you realize you're talking a lot more money for that much storage in ps5. Linus from LTT just installed similar 8tb of nvme in his pc and it was like 15,000 USD.

Keep your expectations in check is all I'm saying you'll be lucky if you can add an additional 1TB to the 825MB Included and it WILL cost probably a third or more of the systems selling price, if not closer to half, to do so.

@FoePlay

You're looking at doubling the cots of the system at minimum to have that much space. Most people will find they have to settle for adding 1tb for quite some time and it will still be 1/3 to 1/2 the systems costs (depending on what it ends up selling for) this stuff isn't like adding an ssd. Linus from LTT just added 8TB of the same similar speed stuff to his pc and it was $15,000 USD

Keep your expectations in check a system + 1 TB of PS5 storage (plus an additional drive for older ps4 games as well as a place to "park" ps5 games (say another 1tb external ssd) is about the most optimum and cost effective solution and even then.

Were talking probably close to doubling the systems price if not close to 2/3 of it.

@Cybrshrk it reduces cost. I'm not implying that the system sells with 2 NVMe units; if the expansion doesn't have to perform at the same level as the main unit, then it's cheaper to upgrade.

If a 1TB 970EVO NVMe can be had sub-$150 (maybe by then), which isn't on par with the OE PS5 unit, then you'll save a lot of money vs. an expansion unit that'll match PS5 SSD spec.

I'm hoping there will be a 3.5" floppy expansion drive for PS5.

@Skittlz Yes They mention that, but now only a couple PCI-E 4.0 SSD (like Gigabyte Aourus SSD 2/4/8Tb) will be compatible with PS5, and some other cheaper version. There are no slots for external SSD that we can see, but they will be one (probably M.2 SSD and compatible with sped (write and read) and that would not be the cheapest option... Because of that and PS5 boosted GPU, and standard 30 to 60(only in PS5 exclusive games) will be standard at PS5 in 4K or 8K resolution, I'm buy a beast of PC for myself and I will buy PS5 too, but not this version, for sure...

@Skittlz memory is the RAM. The expanding or upgrading hard drives is adding storage.

@Ed4Heights when was this announced or did you mix it up with the Xbox since that was announced it has a expansion slot for another SSD

@PupTwilight No mate, I didn't 'mix it up' Geez, some people are so lazy. https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/news/playstation/150121-sony-confirms-ps5-ssd-cartridges-and-dualshock-5-shown-in-patent

Like I said, it probably won't happen, but I like the idea.

At the moment for a 1TB PCIe 4 fast SSD you are looking at about £150 upwards. And they climb to well over £1000 as you increase speed and size. As I understood the presentation PCIe 3 SSDs will not be supported so so forget the £100~£120 cards you see, must be PCIe 4. Even some cheaper 4.0 M.2 cards "only" run around 2/3000 Mbs. At 5000Mbs and upwards it is unlikey you will notice any difference from the internal. As memory bandwidth is shared between loading from SSD and supplying the APU it will be pretty congested at that point and the high apu clock speeds result in increased latency for memory access.

PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs can get very hot and most included a heat sink which are unlikely to fit but hopefully Sony will follow the examples of the motherboard makers and include a built in heat sink over the slot.

I would wait as Long as possible to buy expansion, not only will PCIe 4 prices drop but expect speeds to increase a lot over the next year or two.

All I am going to say is the 825Gb SSD will fill really quickly, My 1tb Ps4 AND 1tb Ps4 Pro are at capacity with physical game data and digital games, SO we will have to buy these SSD cards BUT there bound to be expensive?
Cheapest according to Google....£25.41 (128Gb)
Most expensive........ £755.99 (4Tb)
BUT they have to be a certain speed to be compatible with Ps5.
I would of thought Sony would have told us which are suitable so we could buy them before hand

It'll be really interesting to see the size of Spiderman on PS5. I know it's not a direct comparison because it's a shorter game but the deduplication could still result in a much smaller package.

@FoePlay to be clear a 970 Evo (which is what I actually use today) is "about" the speed of the Xbox series x and its "inferior" storage.

The storage required to meet the needs of the Playstation platform is going to be significantly more expensive (even in 5 months it won't reduce nearly enough to make it justified) and people will quickly learn for some time that "parking" and "unparking" games is the only viable solution.

The best anyone realistically will be able to afford to add will be an additional 1tb as I can promise you a 2 tb of that speed will be way higher than than most would want to pay (like almost as much as the system itself).

Remember Sonys tech is very "next gen" when it comes to storage and to allow drives of much lower cost (and therefore lower speeds) would instantly prove that the NEED for all that fancy "next gen" storage is really for nothing and a "regular old nvme" like the 970 Evo would have been good enough.

I'd that were true then it would prove that Microsoft storage solution makes more sense and would invalidate all the hype Sony been putting into their only leading spec.

So therefore... It ain't happening chief!

@BNAG_Gamer lol they haven't said because they don't exist yet lol

@TooBarFoo yes as I said above to another fellow wanting to upgrade. The cost to do so will be prohibitively expensive for some time and not just any old nvme will be usable.

You'll need to get used to "parking" and "unparking" games quite often. But if you used a decent sized (say 2tb) external ssd with another even larger external hdd for "cold storage" it would be too terrible.

You could easily get by for several years this way and never run out of space by keeping the least played stuff on "cold storage" with ps4 titles and your other more played titles on the ssd while a few of your favorites as well as currently playing title reside on the internal.

It won't be too painful moving games in and out of "swap" and since most of your actually played titles are there you'll have quick transfer times and only need to go to the old (and much slower "cold storage" when you're really digging into your back catalog).

It would be excellent if they came up with a file system that did most of this automatically for you but I highly doubt Sony will go that far.

If I could see anyone it would be Microsoft since they already have similar technology baked into windows 10 with "storage spaces". Obviously it's not the same nor is it used in this exact manner but the idea of a central storage "pool" that's handled in the background from multiple sources is something they already do.

*BEST GUESS as to what SSD's will work...
First of all, I believe there is a cartridge form factor so using your own M.2 SSD would use a cheap adapter. You likely then just slide that into the rear.
Secondly, the important specs for the PS5 SSD are roughly:
1) 5.5GBps (uncompressed) or 9GBps (compressed)
2) up to 20x compression with Krakan
3) Six priority levels (i.e. to prioritize data to be sent first like audio)

Krakan is decompressed on a chip separate from the SSD so that's not an issue. Basically you need to be faster than 5.5GBps by an unknown amount to compensate for the lack of level assignment on normal SSD's.
But the M.2 connection can only handle up to 7GBps of raw data. There's also the problem that cheaper SSD's drop performance once they start to fill up (as they for example reassign 4-bit to 2-bit which increases capacity but decreases performance)...

SO... the SSD likely needs to fulfill these basic requirements:
1) 7GBps sequential transfer speeds, and
2) No drop in performance (comparable to the more expensive Samsung "pro" models not the "EVO" models).

I fully expect Sony to have expansion SSD's made specifically for the PS5. They may be cheaper than what you would buy yourself since they can keep it at 5.5GBps if they use the exact same "level" assignment setup.

Microsoft's expansion SSD should be a lot cheaper. This may be a big problem for Sony until prices come down.

@BNAG_Gamer
It need to have a 5.5 Gb pr second soo.. None so far.. That will for it as well

@dbunny I was thinking the same thing

In Cerney's talk IIRC he talked about their custom NAND chips being connected at a lower level than SATA or NvME allow for, which allowed for better real-world performance than a straightforward PC architecture could get, allowing for more lanes of prioritisation than even PCIe 4, so additional storage would have to be much faster than 5.5MB/s to make up for losses in efficiency from this improved interface. IIRC you'll need a drive that's capable of >7MB/s.

These drives are going to be hella expensive for the first year or two, but they're relying on the PC market creating enough extra demand that after that we get some big economies of scale.

I'm anticipating living with 825GB for at least the first couple of years and using external storage on much the same way that my PC for a long time only had a 256GB SSD and a 2TB HDD, with a 3TB NAS for cold storage. A year or two ago I bought a 512GB m2 drive, and I no longer feel the crush.

Be great to hear from sony about compatiable drives to prepare better for more storage etc then again when has sony really been prepared at this stage of the game. Ps4 was well planned and thought out this new generation is going backwards, i may sound like i complain but doesnt change my thoughts on getting a ps5 would just be nice if there was more transparency from them.

The Microsoft Seagate cards will cost $220 or £160 for 1TB.

Samsung just recently announced the 980 which is £220 maybe a candidate for PS5
Capacity: 1TB.
NAND Flash Memory: Samsung 12-layer V-NAND 3bit MLC.
DRAM Cache Memory: 1GB LPDDR4.
Read Speed: 7000MB/s.
Write Speed: 5000MB/s.

I will wait for a price drop hopefully next year?

Sony announced the PS5 would feature expandable storage during its first technical overview, although has since held off recommending users go out and purchase an NVMe SSD.

So, this article is more than a little previous.

You purchase additional drives prior to release at your peril.

There should be a leaflet in the box when you open your ps5 for the first time: "don't buy a Expansion SSD without checking with us " )

Samsung is releasing a 2TB version at end of year. I will just wait to see if it becomes officially certified by Sony and get that. Might be expensive but should last. And if Sony release a PS5 Pro I can just remove this and put it into the next console.
And after that just move it into the PC. I consider this a long term item.

So are you saying you can actually plug an external hard drive into the ps5 ( I have a 4tb seagate back up plus portal hard drive) but you would have to transfer them then onto the ps5 to actually run them? Will there ever any hard drives out that you can run ps5 games directly from an external hard drive ??

@Stonecold no, or at least not on the current form of the PS5, simply because the external interfaces don't run at a high enough speed whatever the speed of any future drive you plugged in. I believe the maximum throughput is 10Gbps, which is way slower than the internal ssd.

Thanks for the reply. What I have been reading up on about it is that you can use the external drives to store any PS4 games you have and you can play them directly from the drive but you can only use the drive to store save data for a ps5 game. Not sure if that’s all correct or not?

@BNAG_Gamer "ONCE SONY PULL THERE FINGER OUT AND TELL US WHICH WILL BE COMPATIBLE >" Did you even read the article? It states that the drives are not out there yet. So how can SONY give us a list if the drives are not out there?

@Mr_PlayStation ACTUALLY There are 2 drives on the market that the makers have said WILL WORK on PS5
Samsung- Samsung 980 PRO 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
AND
Western Digital- WD_BLACK™ SN850 NVMe™ SSD

BUT LIKE I SAID........ SONY NEED TO PULL THERE FINGER OUT AND TELL US WHICH WILL BE COMPATIBLE

Do your research before you try to put sombody down........ I THINK I just made you look like a total douche

@BNAG_Gamer

I worry about my sabrent rocket 4.0 nvme. The write speed is 5000 mb/s... It would be a shame If i couldn't use it at least for ps4 games

@BNAG_Gamer The makers may have but SONY has not and proper testing needs to be done before SONY makes such a list. Would you rather SONY not do extensive tests or have it so you can use an untested SSD that could overheat not only the SSD but also your console? Sure SSD have gotten better with the overheating but it does still happen and SONY is covering their asses because you will get those people that will whine that they didn't do extensive testing.

I just read your full message. How did I put you down? I just gave a simple question asking if you read the article because if you had then you would know the reason. Now if I would have said "Learn to read or stop being a blind little troll and put your glasses on and read the full story you lazy twit" then that would have been a different story and judging by your retort and uneducated little rant I think we all know whom the douche really is. If you have a problem with that just let me know and we can have a sit down face to face and work this little situation out.

I have 835 PS4 and PS5 games in my library apparently, but I may play the majority of them once a year if I'm lucky. I must've spent 20% of my time on my PS4 watching a file transfer screen as I copied games from my external HDD to my internal SSD and back again and I have no intention of doing that again next gen with my PS5 lol

I'm reaching the limits of the small SSD limit on mine now, but I've been deleting games and downloading new ones and redownloading old ones as and when I wanna play them. It's slightly longer than external drive would take but it means I can spend longer on the amazing PS5 patched Borderlands 3 or Godfall and not have to look at another file transferring screen! lol

Whenever Sony unlock the SSD internal port and we get a look at the super fast SSD, I may get one to add a bit of extra storage and hopefully there won't be much waiting around then between games!

My console has legit crashed 3 times this evening alone. I have had to remove the External HD as I think this is what is causing the system to be unstable. I have had to repair the database a few times tonight as well - anyone else having the same problem? Cheers

@iona80iona80 I had the same happened to me today. Totally froze and i had to hold down the power button for 20 seconds. I suspect the eternal too which worked flawlessly on my PS4 Pro

@morrisseymuse Epic 🤩

@Stonecold you're almost right the exception being that ALL save data, be it PS5 or PS4, has to be contained on the internal drive. My cloud has got up to the rather hefty 13gb of save data total now, which I've xipued all over for convenience but that's basically a PS4 game I could have had on the PS5 drive!

Removed the external HD and seems to have fixed it - patiently (?) awaiting an update on Sony as to which Hard Drive to use now.