Today we’re taking a look at Sabrent’s Rocket 4 2TB SSD with heatsink PlayStation 5 bundle. Sabrent is the first company on the market who’s developed a heatsink that fits perfectly inside of the PlayStation 5.
Editor’s Note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon. Buying a product through these links supports Niche Gamer.
For whatever reason, Sony in their infinite wisdom decided to only ship the PlayStation 5 Digital console with a 1TB drive. With the System reserving something around 120GB of space, this leaves around 800GB useable.
Installing games like Far Cry 6 and Call of Duty: Cold War that use 100GB and upward (over 180GB in the latter’s case) mean it’s pretty obvious that your drive is gonna fill up faster than a homeless camp in San Francisco. Thankfully, Sony did have the foresight to include an optional M.2 slot, which allows you to expand the internal memory.
This second slot allows for up to an additional 4TB, but the 4TB drives are extremely expensive (just under $900 USD at the time of this review). Thankfully, Sabrent step up to the plate with their answer.
This is a review coupled with a supplemental install guide. You can watch the install guide below, and read the full review of the SSD below.
Sabrent Rocket 4 2TB SSD with Heatsink for PlayStation 5 Bundle
Developer: Sabrent
Platforms: PlayStation 5
Price: $349.99 USD
Sabrent’s Rocket 4 and Heatsink comes neatly packaged in a dual box that has both the Rocket 4 drive itself, and the heatsink in their own individual packages. They also come with a “how to” guide, and the heatsink includes a small screwdriver which will allow you to easily install the new SSD without the need for any tools of your own.
Unfortunately for me, as you can see in our video above, my grip strength is about as good as Anthony Cuomo’s pickup lines, so I had to swap to one of my own that provides a little more grip and leverage to loosen the screws. You simply flip the console over on its top cover, slide the bottom cover off, and unscrew the drive bay cover.
Inside the bay is a metal spacer and screw which have adjustable lengths; depending on the length of the M.2 drive you choose to install. This Rocket 4 drive showed measuring at a nice 6.5mb, which sits nicely above the 5.5mb write rate recommended by PlayStation.
Installation is super easy. In fact, I was able to install it one handed while simultaneously holding my iPhone in my other hand without much issue at all.
I did forget to put the spacer back in for the video, but rest assured, I realized it as soon as I stopped recording and opened it right back up and put it in properly. The heatsink sits perfectly into the drive bay groove, and the pre-installed thermal pad sits perfectly on the drive without any need to worry about alignment.
On a performance level, Sabrent’s Rocket 4 performs exceptionally well. It took less time to copy files from my external 4TB USB drive to the Sabrent drive, than it did to copy files to the external drive from the PS5’s internal drive.
Gameplay seemed to be mostly on par with the default drive, though I did notice a few hitches in cutscenes while playing Call of Duty: Vanguard; but I’m not sure if that’s just how the game is or if it had anything to do with the Sabrent drive. A few other games I tried such as Godfall, Genshin Impact, and Final Fantasy XIV seemed to actually perform a little bit better off the Rocket drive.
Overall, while this is a pricey upgrade, it’s an absolute must for PlayStation 5 Digital Edition owners. On a personal note, Sabrent’s been my favorite drive maker since I started doing tech reviews, not only because of the performance of their hardware but also for the premium feel of their packaging.
I love the little Steelbooks they ship their M.2 drives in, it’s just so much more satisfying than popping open a plastic mold. Nothing else comes close to feeling as premium as a opening a drive from Sabrent.
The Sabrent Rocket 4 SSD with Heatsink for PS5 is available in 1, 2, and 4tb variations and available at Amazon and other retailers. The 2TB bundle used in our review was provided by Sabrent. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.