PS5 SSDs: every internal solid state drive compatible with Sony’s gaming console

As of November 2021, there were 17 vendors of SSDs that offered products that were either implicitly or explicitly compatible with Sony’s PS5 gaming console, with nearly 80 different storage products ranging from 500GB to 4TB in capacity, with or without a heatsink.

Only a handful of recognized vendors (Lexar, Buffalo, Netac, Kingston and Transcend) haven’t announced plans to manufacture solid state drives that deliver the sort of performance required by the PlayStation 5. We’ve reached out to them and will update this list if necessary. If we’ve missed any brand or model, do let us know via Twitter on @techradar

PS5 SSDs: 7 things you need to know

We believe that prices will generally go down in time for Black Friday 2021. That’s based on anecdotal evidence gathered during our research. However…

Supply issues still persist. We’ve seen significant price differences between some suggested retail prices (SRP) and actual selling prices on Amazon where dynamic pricing is the norm. The WD Black 2TB SN850 SSD with a heatsink costs $549.99, which is about 38% more than its SRP.

1TB and 2TB are the sweet spots. There were only nine SSDs under 500GB (less than 12% of the overall batch) and 11 with a storage capacity of 4TB. The PS5 is not compatible with anything higher than a 4TB SSD at the time of writing. 1TB is the cheapest per terabyte category with 2TB carrying a small premium in most cases.

There are two sorts of SSDs. The ones that offer the strict minimum in terms of speeds that match the PS5 required specifications (Sony recommends using an SSD with speeds of 5500 MB/s or faster.) and those that go far beyond the recommended speeds (up to 7400 MB/s). The cheapest but slowest 1TB PS5 SSD is about $20 or about 13% cheaper than the most affordable but fastest model.

The fastest PS5 SSD is the Adata XPG GAMMIX S70 with a claimed speed of 7400MB/ss. It is also the cheapest of the fast PS5-compatible solid state drives at $149.99 for 1TB (and with a heatsink). In comparison, the Firecuda 530 from Seagate retails for $259.99, a 73% premium.

If you can, get your own heatsink. Manufacturers tend to have different approaches when it comes to how much to add on top of a naked/bare drive. Sabrent for example only charges about $10 for its 1TB and 2TB drives, which is perfectly acceptable. Others like Western Digital seem to charge a lot more, up to $60. Some of this though may be down to demand and supply.

One of the reasons why Amazon.com (not your local store) is probably the best place to buy a PS5 SSD is that it ships to a lot of countries outside the US and you can get parts for much cheaper or get parts that are not in stock in your country.

Disclaimer

We have compiled this list of SSDs that are compatible with Sony’s PS5 based on information available at the time of writing. This includes user comments, pricing, specifications etc.

We would urge you to do your own research with regards to actual, most up-to-date compatibility information as changes may occur between the publication of this guide and when you intend to purchase the item. Prices and stocks were checked on November 5th 2021.

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