Despite being a modern console, the PlayStation 5’s internal storage leaves a lot to be desired. With a total capacity of 825GB, and only 667GB reserved for you to install games, that’s not a lot of room – especially if your gaming diet is AAA-heavy. If you’ve owned a PS5 for a while now, there’s probably a good chance that you’ve gotten close to hitting capacity.
If you’re looking to bump up your PS5’s storage without hurling your current data into the void, you’ve got two options. You can buy an external, portable SSD and ferry data back and forth on there, or you can install an internal SSD into your PS5.
If you’re looking to avoid doing the frustrating dance of weighing up what game data you need to delete to make space for more, you can currently grab some great deals on a few PS5-compatible WD Black SSDs.
What WD Black SSDs are on sale?
Here are how the WD Black sales shake out:
- WD Black SN850 (1TB with heatsink) – now $171.99 (usually around $269)
- WD Black SN850 (2TB with heatsink) – now $294.25 (usually around $449)
- WD Black SN850X (1TB) – now $118.96 (usually around $155)
- WD Black SN850X (1TB with heatsink) – now $133.63 (usually around $189)
- WD Black SN850X (2TB) – now $208.63 (usually around $299)
- WD Black SN850X (2TB with heatsink) – now $246.39 (usually around $319)
These price tags may seem a bit steep, but they’re worth every dollar for what you’re getting. As far as internal SSDs go, Western Digital’s WD Black series is pretty reliable. The SN850 series is one of the best PCIe Gen 4 SSDs that you can buy, with some absurdly good read/write speeds of up to 7,000/5,300MB/s. In fact, these WD Black SN850 SSDs are officially licensed products for the PS5.
The SN850X range was released back in mid-2022 and while the discounts aren’t quite as impressive as the SN850 sales, these newer SSDs do have a slight edge when it comes to speeds. The SN850X models have read speeds of up to 7,300MB/s, with write speeds of 6,300MB/s (1TB) and 6,600MB/s (2TB).
The only catch is that these deals are available from Amazon’s US and UK branches, so you’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for your fancy new SSD to arrive. Still, that’s a pretty good tradeoff if it means saving up to $130.
Sony recommends that you use an SSD with a cooling structure attached to ensure effective heat dissipation. While you can buy a heatsink separately and attach it to your SSD, most of these WD Black SSDs come with a heatsink pre-installed.
If the PC is your gaming platform of choice, these SSDs would also make a great addition to your rig. Just make sure you’ve got enough tower space to accommodate them.
What are the requirements for adding an SSD to your PS5?
Apart from having a heatsink attached, there are a few other specifications that need to be met when installing an internal SSD in your PS5.
Here are the spec requirements for your SSD:
- Interface: PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 NVMe
- Sequential read speed: Minimum 5,500MB/s recommended
- Form factor: 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 or 22110
- Size with heatsink: 110 x 25 x 11.25 mm
- Heatsink size below SSD: 2.45mm
- Heatsink size above SSD: 8mm
The WD Black SN850 and SN850X SSDs that are currently on sale all meet the necessary criteria for compatible SSDs, so you shouldn’t have any problem installing one in your PS5. Once you have your new SSD on hand, you can check out Kotaku Australia’s guide to expanding your PS5’s storage here. It’s quite a straightforward experience.
This article has been updated since its original publication.
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