The very best SSDs for PS5 in 2025

In case your PlayStation 5’s inside storage is beginning to really feel just a little cramped, you’re not alone. With sport installs repeatedly taking on over 100GB, increasing your storage is likely one of the best methods to get extra out of your console. The very best SSD for PS5 is not going to solely offer you further house on your sport library, however it must also meet Sony’s pace necessities so your video games load simply as quick as they’d on the built-in drive.

There’s a variety of SSDs to select from, whether or not you need a easy plug-and-play possibility with a heatsink or a budget-friendly decide the place you add your personal. Some provide higher cooling, others include software program instruments for managing efficiency — however all of the drives we’ve included listed here are suitable, quick and dependable. Right here’s what to look out for when upgrading your PS5 storage, and our prime picks that will help you get began.

Learn extra: These are the best SSDs in 2025

Desk of contents

Finest SSDs for PS5 in 2025

Essential

Capability: As much as 4TB | Learn efficiency: 7,300MB/s | Write efficiency: 6,800 MB/s | Connection: M.2

If you wish to save a bit of cash by putting in your personal heatsink, the Crucial T500 is a superb possibility. With learn speeds of as much as 7,300MB/s, it surpasses Sony’s technical necessities, and you may often discover the 1TB mannequin on sale for as little as $60. Essential additionally presents a model with a heatsink, so it’s price including each the Corsair MP600 and Essential T500 to a worth watch record and shopping for whichever mannequin is cheaper while you’re able to improve your PS5.

Professionals

• Quick
• Accessible with or with out heatsink

$75 at Amazon

SABRENT

Capability: As much as 8TB | Sequential learn efficiency: 7,000MB/s | Sequential write efficiency: 6,600MB/s | Connection: M.2

Of all of the SSDs on this record, the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus is essentially the most attention-grabbing. It comes with a novel heatsink that you just set up instead of the storage growth slot’s metallic cowl. Sabrent claims this design improves cooling efficiency. Because of this, count on to pay greater than you’ll for a mannequin with a generic heatsink, with the 1TB variant coming in at round $110 and the 2TB mannequin costing between $220 and $280.

Professionals

• PS5-specific heatsink design

Cons

• Not as quick as different choices
• Costly relative to different drives

$130 at Amazon

SAMSUNG

Capability: As much as 4TB | Learn efficiency: 1,050MB/s | Write efficiency: 1,000MB/s | Connection: USB 3.0

As I clarify beneath, you possibly can’t run PS5 video games from an exterior drive — however you should use one to retailer any video games you aren’t enjoying in the intervening time, together with older PS4 video games.

One among my favourite moveable drives is the Samsung T7. It may well write information at a speedy 1,000 MB/s. In the event you plan to make use of the drive completely for at-home use, it can save you cash by shopping for the common mannequin as a substitute of the ruggedized Defend variant. I’ve been utilizing T7 drives to retailer my pictures, music and video games for years, they usually have but to fail me. The most recent mannequin, the Samsung T9, boasts learn/write speeds of as much as 2,000MB/s.

Professionals

• Inexpensive
• Dependable
• Rugged variant out there

Cons

• Can’t play PS5 video games from exterior drive

$90 at Adorama

How we take a look at PS5 SSDs

I’ve examined a lot of the SSDs really helpful on this record, both for PS5 or laptop use. I additionally purchased and used our prime decide in my very own PS5.

PS5 SSD FAQs

How a lot PS5 storage do I want?

The PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro can settle for inside drives with between 250GB and 8TB of storage capability. In the event you already personal a PS5, chances are high you might have an inexpensive thought of how a lot storage you want ​​on your sport library. In the event you’re shopping for an SSD with a brand new PS5 or PS5 Professional, or shopping for for another person, it’s harder to inform what you would possibly want for a high-performance expertise.

PS5 video games are smaller on common than their PS4 equivalents, usually taking on between 30GB and 100GB, with some notable (and highly regarded) exceptions. In the event you’re a fan of the Name of Obligation collection, putting in Black Ops 6 and Warzone 2.0 can eat as much as 240GB. In different phrases, a full Name of Obligation set up will take up greater than one-third of the PS5’s inside storage. In the event you’re not a CoD fan, although, chances are high you’ll be good to retailer between six to 10 video games on an everyday PS5 internally earlier than working into issues.

You additionally want to contemplate your web pace. In the event you dwell in an space with sluggish broadband, the “you possibly can simply obtain it once more” rationale doesn’t actually work. At my previous house, a 100GB obtain took me round eight hours, throughout which period it was troublesome to concurrently watch Twitch or, say, publish articles about upgrading PS5 SSDs. Holding video games round on the off-chance you’ll wish to play them sooner or later is sensible.

Off the bat, there’s mainly no level in going for a 250GB PS5 SSD. Economically, 250GB drives aren’t that less expensive than 500GB ones — and virtually, that basically isn’t a variety of house for contemporary video games to dwell on. 500GB drives could be a first rate possibility, however after years of declining costs, I feel the candy spot for most individuals is to go for a high-capacity 1TB or 2TB drive, which ought to run you at most $200. The latter will greater than double the PS5 Professional’s storage with out breaking the financial institution.

Except you’re rolling in money and wish to flex, 4TB and 8TB fashions ought to principally be prevented, as you’ll find yourself paying extra per gigabyte than you’ll with a 1TB or 2TB drive.

Whereas the 825GB PS5 solely gives 667GB of storage, that’s largely as a consequence of storage being reserved for the working system and caching. In the event you set up a 1TB PS5 SSD, you will have, inside a margin of error, 1TB of storage out there for video games. Out of the field, the PS5 Professional presents 1.86TB of storage for video games, although you possibly can eke out extra when you delete the pre-installed Astro’s Playroom (gasp).

Since neither the PS5 Slim nor PS5 Professional function up to date CPU structure, all of our suggestions will work with no matter PS5 mannequin you personal.

Are you able to play PS5 video games on an exterior SSD?

Exterior exhausting drives are likely to value lower than inside SSD counterparts (and there’s likelihood you would possibly personal one already). Sadly, there are restrictions on what you are able to do with them. An exterior SSD connects to your PS5 by way of USB, and is just appropriate for enjoying PlayStation 4 video games, or storing PS5 titles. That’s helpful when you’ve got something however the perfect high-speed web — it’s quicker to maneuver a PS5 sport out of “chilly storage” on an exterior drive than it’s to re-download it — or wish to preserve your PS4 library readily available.

Because of the limitations right here, you don’t want the highest-performing mannequin, though it’s best to go for SSDs over HDDs for improved switch speeds and cargo instances. Any primary moveable drive from a good model will do, with the Essential X9 Professional and Samsung T7 being choices we’ve tried and might suggest.

Which SSD playing cards are suitable with the PS5?

The official answer to this query is an “M.2 Socket 3 (Key M) Gen4 x4 NVME SSD.” However even inside that seemingly particular description, there are extra elements to contemplate. The primary necessities Sony has laid out for compatibility come down to hurry, cooling and bodily dimensions.

For pace, Sony says drives ought to have the ability to deal with sequential reads at 5,500MB/s. Early testing confirmed that the PS5 would settle for drives as sluggish as 4,800MB/s, and that video games that faucet into the SSD repeatedly — comparable to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart — would trigger no points. Just about the one factor the PS5 will outright reject is one that does not match the Gen4 x4 spec.

In our opinion, although, utilizing a drive slower than the specification is a threat that, when you don’t have already got that drive mendacity round, just isn’t price taking. Simply because we haven’t discovered points but doesn’t imply there received’t be video games that may very well be problematic sooner or later. The value distinction between these marginally slower Gen4 drives and those that meet Sony’s spec isn’t big, and also you would possibly as properly cowl all of your bases.

Barely extra difficult than pace is cooling and measurement. Most new SSDs are going to be simply positive; the PS5 can match 22mm-wide SSDs of just about any size (30mm, 40mm, 60mm, 80mm or 110mm, to be exact). The overwhelming majority of drives you discover will probably be 22mm extensive and 80mm lengthy, so no drawback there.

It must be famous that the system can match a 25mm-wide drive, however that width should embody the cooling answer. Talking of, Sony says SSDs require “efficient warmth dissipation with a cooling construction, comparable to a heatsink.” The utmost top supported by Sony’s slot is 11.25mm, of which solely 2.45mm might be “beneath” the drive.

This beforehand meant a few of the hottest heatsinked Gen4 SSDs, together with Corsair’s MP600 Professional LP, wouldn’t match throughout the PS5’s storage growth slot. Since Engadget first revealed this information in 2021, most NVMe makers, together with Samsung, have come out with PlayStation-specific fashions that meet these necessities. That mentioned, if you wish to avoid wasting cash, naked drives are sometimes cheaper and it’s trivial to discover a cooling answer that can work for the PS5.

The one part in an NVMe SSD that basically requires cooling is the controller, which with out a heatsink will fortunately sear a (very small) steak. Most SSDs have chips on just one aspect, however even on double-sided SSDs, the controller is prone to be on prime, as producers understand it must be positioned there to raised dissipate warmth.

So, head to your PC part vendor of selection and decide up mainly something that meets the really helpful dimensions. search time period is “laptop computer NVME heatsink,” as these will probably be designed to slot in the confines of gaming laptops, that are much more restrictive than a PS5. They’re additionally usually cheaper than those labeled as “PS5 heatsinks.”

One advice is that this $6 copper heatsink, which attaches to the PS5 SSD with sticky thermal interface materials. It really works simply positive, and in performing stress assessments on a PC, we couldn’t discover something metallic that didn’t preserve temperatures underneath management. While you’re looking out, simply ensure that the answer you go for measures not more than 25mm extensive or 8mm tall (together with the thermal interface materials) and has a easy technique of set up that’s not going to trigger any complications.

One last item: When searching for a PS5 NVMe, there’s no purpose to purchase a Gen5 mannequin over a extra reasonably priced Gen4 mannequin. As issues stand, Sony’s console can’t benefit from the brand new normal, and although Gen5 drives are backward suitable, they’re costlier than their Gen4 counterparts. Simply purchase the quickest and highest-capacity Gen4 mannequin you possibly can afford.

Easy methods to set up an SSD into your PS5

In the event you want steerage on how to install your new NVMe into your PS5 or PS5 Professional, we have now a separate information detailing all of the steps right here. Set up is fairly simple, however our how-to may also help you when you’re caught. Simply make be aware: Earlier than making an attempt so as to add extra storage by way of a PS5 SSD, guarantee that you’ve Sony’s latest software installed.