We Tested PS5 Storage Upgrades, Here’s What Worked Best January 8, 2024

If you own a PlayStation 5, you’ve probably noticed that your console only offers around 650GB of usable storage. With games topping out at requiring 100GB of space to install, that internal drive is going to fill up quickly. So what is a gamer that wants to play the newest games to do? They UPGRADE!

At the time of writing, Sony allows two methods of upgrading the PS5’s storage capacity. The first is referred to as the EXTERNAL method, where a USB 3.0 Hard Drive is plugged into one of the PS5’s rear USB ports and formatted for external storage similarly to how external storage worked on the PS4. While you can move PS5 games to your external drive, the PS5 itself cannot play PS5 native games directly off an external drive, only PS4 games. The second is referred to as INTERNAL, where a heatsink-equipped M.2 drive is installed inside of the PS5. This requires opening up the PS5 with a #1 philips head screwdriver, and physically adding the drive to the console’s M.2 socket. That said, you are able to play PS4 and PS5 games from an M.2 drive, provided it meets Sony’s minimum performance ratings.

We attempted both an external solution using the Samsung T7 USB 3.0 drive, and an internal solution the Samsung 980 M.2 drive. Either drive offered 2TB of storage capacity. After EXTENSIVE testing, here’s what our real-world results were.