You might not realise it, but it’s easy to expand the PS5’s storage. Sony took its time in activating the feature, but it’s been available to everyone for a while now.
There aren’t exactly hundreds of drives out there that work with the console, as they need to meet exacting requirements on not only speed and quality but also size with a heatsink attached (and you should have a heatsink, or risk overheating yourSSD). We’ve gathered the very best PS5 SSDs, right here.
We’ve tested these SSDs to make sure they fit into the PS5’s expansion slot, meet the speed requirements and are sensibly priced, which of all help us to narrow down a shortlist of only the most reliable options for you.
Seagate FireCuda 530
WD_Black SN850
Samsung 980 Pro Heatsink
XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade
Gigabyte Aorus Gen4
Our Top Pick:
Our top pick
A super quick SSD if you can grab it with its own heatsink.
First up is this lightning-fast drive from Seagate, which is our top pick both because it smashes through Sony’s speed recommendations and because you can easily pick it up with its own heatsink that’ll fit in the console.
Its speed is absolutely crazy, with a maximum of 7,300 MB/s write speed that is just about as fast as you may reasonably find, and it’s not priced too badly with that bleeding-edge power in mind.
Other great internal SSDs for your PS5
Here are four other impressive options for internal PS5 SSDs.
Another superb option
Great on the speed front and with its own heatsink.
Equally impressive is this SSD from WD_Black, which similarly has its own low-profile heatsink that you can get it with.
It can post up to 5,300MB/s write speeds so you shouldn’t find that games load any slower than they would on the internal SSD, and while it isn’t the cheapest drive out there, it’s a future-proof one.
Best for reliability
Speedy, reliable and well constructed - but it’ll cost you.
Samsung’s 980 Pro SSD has long been recognised as one of the best SSDs money can buy for PCs. Unfortunately, Samsung never offered a model with a heatsink, so it was a bit of a faff to use one with a PS5.
This new model comes with a heatsink - and a stylish one at that, not that you’ll be looking at it very often - making it perfect for use with the PS5. The only downside is that it costs quite a lot. Budget-minded gamers might want to add a DIY heatsink to the regular 980 Pro to save some cash.
The faster, newer 990 Pro isn’t something that brings any real benefit over this more affordable version, either.
Great value
If you’re happy to assemble it, this is superb value.
XPG’s drive is priced incredibly competitively, offering the cheapest way to get extra storage on this list. It has excellent speeds to offer up, too, more than meeting Sony’s requirements.
The only small downside is that the heatsink it comes with has to be stuck on to the drive, which is slightly fiddly but really very straightforward. For the brilliant value you get, that’s a task we’re more than happy to do ourselves.
Also excellent
A really good drive and heatsink combo.
Another drive that has its own heatsink, one which will fit nicely into the PS5’s expansion slot, is this one from Gigabyte, which again would work great as an all-in-one solution.
Write speeds of up to 5,500MB/s mean that you’ll again be unlikely to ever run into any trouble running games quickly,
How to choose an internal SSD for your PS5
There are absolutely countless SSD options out there for your PS5 - here are some questions that can help you narrow your choices down.
How much space do you need?
To start with, if you’re looking for an expansion drive you’ve probably had issues with running out of space on your PlayStation 5 - and we know the feeling. That said, since you can technically add as much as four terabytes of space to your console, it would be worth working on how much you really need.
After all, if you only really need to ensure that you can keep a couple of massive games like Call of Duty: Warzone and Battlefield V installed, then getting a 512 or 500GB drive might be enough to keep you free from deletions. If you want to have an absolutely huge collection installed at all times though, by all means, go for a bigger drive.
What’s your budget?
Something else that will impact your choice of drive size, of course, will be your budget. If you only have around £100 or $100 to spend, you’re going to have to compromise on the amount of storage you can pick up, whereas someone with no real limit could easily find a larger capacity without any trouble.
Could you install a heatsink yourself?
A good way to mitigate the cost of your drive is to pick up one that either doesn’t have a heatsink or requires you to attach an included one yourself. This is way easier than it sounds and can often bring the cost down by a chunky margin, so we think it’s a great option for those who have less to spend.
