Over the past few console generations with built-in storage, gamers were typically stuck with however much storage they bought the console with. With the PS5, Sony made a surprising move by including an internal M.2 PCIe slot to install an off-the-shelf SSD to supplement the internal storage. Given that this is the same company that paired the PS Vita and PSP with ludicrously expensive memory cards, this was a welcoming change of space, especially given the paltry 825GB of storage you have to work with. Now, you can install high-end PC SSDs like the Corsair MP600 Pro LPX, our number one pick, to load even more games, nearly as fast as the extra-special drive that's built into the console itself.
TL;DR - These Are the Best SSDs for PS5:
There are a few restrictions. First, you need a PCIe 4.0 or Gen 4 drive or better. This interface allows for SSD speeds up to 7,500MB/s, which is a huge improvement over the 3,500MB/s for Gen 3 M.2 SSDs. You're also going to need an M.2 drive. The actual physical size of the drive doesn't matter, with the PS5 having screw holes for every size of M.2 drive on the market right now. However, most of the time you're going to want to stick with an M.2 2280 drive – they're the most common M.2 drives on the market.
We also recommend getting an SSD with a built-in heatsink. There are size restrictions on the heatsink itself, it can't be taller than 11.25mm. Luckily there really aren't many SSDs out there that won't fit. Your PS5 SSD needs a heatsink because PCIe 4.0 SSDs have a tendency to create a lot of heat when under load, and the little cubby where the SSD slot is located isn't exactly ideal for passive airflow over the drive itself. So, you'll need a heatsink just to make sure your drive doesn't overheat and throttle its performance. You can either get an SSD with a built-in heatsink, or get a seperate heatsink, either way will work just fine.
As for capacity, choose however much storage you think you'll need. Most people will probably be fine sticking with a 1TB drive to supplement their system. This will essentially double your available storage, and can store a ton of games, or at least allow you to install Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and like two other games. You can of course splurge for a giant 4TB drive as well, allowing you to create a huge archive of games, just be aware that these capacious drives have a much higher price tag.
Contributions by Danielle Abraham and Callum Bains
PS5 SSD Basics
A healthy amount of SSDs are available that pair perfectly with the PS5’s M.2 slot. Given there’s more competition than even just a couple of years ago, you’ll find plenty of high-speed, low-cost drives for a sub-$100 price tag. If you’re looking to amp up storage, you’ll find the price of these drives rises exponentially; bigger drives, like the upcoming 8TB SSD from Western Digital, will run you well over $500.
You’ll want to ensure you install an NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD with maximum dimensions of 110 x 25 x 11.25 mm or 4.33 x 0.984 x 0.442 inches, including the heatsink. Clearly, the PS5 has some cramped, shallow quarters, leading to high temps, rendering a heatsink necessary to prevent bottlenecking or damage to the drive. Luckily, most drives come with an optional heatsink, but if you need to venture out on your own to grab one, be sure it fits height requirements of under 8mm above the SSD or 2.45mm below.
Beyond size requirements, you'll need at least a PCIe 4.0 SSD, that can reach sequential read speeds of 5500MB/s or faster. Most SSDs will have a rated sequential read speed and write speed advertised, so you can get a pretty good idea of how fast it'll be by looking at the box. When you go to install a PS5 SSD, it will run the drive through its own speed test, which will tell you definitively if it's fast enough to run PS5 games. In my experience, this speed test peaks at around 6,500MB/s, so drives that are significantly faster than this aren't really worth getting for the PS5. These days, most PCIe 4.0 drives are rated for aroun 7,000 – 7,500MB/s, so you'll be spoiled for choice.
Another thing you're going to want to take a look at is the warranty of the drive. This is more than just marketing hype, most SSDs will be rated for an amount of time, usually 5 years, along with an endurance rating, measured in TBW. This stands for 'Terabytes Written' and measures how much data can theoretically be written to the drive over its lifespan before it fails. This doesn't mean that a drive rated for 700TBW will fail after you fill it 700 times, but instead that it should last at least until that point.
You'll also want to look at the type of NAND memory the SSD is built from. There are three types of NAND that are typically used: QLC, TLC and MLC. The main difference between the three are endurance, with QLC lasting the least amount of time, and MLC being the most durable. Of course, this will also affect the price of the drive, with QLC drives usually being the most affordable drives on the market, with MLC NAND typically found on the most expensive SSDs on the market, and are generally meant for creative professionals, rather than gamers. All of the drives on this list are using TLC NAND, which naturally falls somewhere in the middle.
Given the PS5 only offers 825GB of space and the PS5 Slim has 1TB, you’ll more than likely want and/or need more storage. Games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Baldur’s Gate 3 take up well over 100GB each when installed, so you’re storage will fill up quickly. The M.2 expansion slot lets you add 250GB-8TB of speedy internal storage. 1TB seems to be the sweet spot between capacity and price, but if you’re looking to put your massive gaming library on one console, you’ll want even more space. Luckily, most mainstream PCIe 4.0 SSDs come in capacities up to 4TB, so you can really build up a library if you have the budget for it.
Beyond an internal SSD, which should be your preferred storage option, you can use an external hard drive. Some external SSD offerings hit relatively high speeds. You can’t run PS5 games on them. However, it will save you the hassle of redownloading larger games, while PS4 titles can be played right on the drive.
Looking for assistance in installing your PS5 SSD after puchase? Be sure to check out our guide on how to upgrade your PS5 storage. Luckily, you don't need to be hardware aficionado to figure it out.
1. Corsair MP600 Pro LPX
Best PS5 SSD
The Corsair MP600 was one of the first SSDs that were actually advertised as a PS5 SSD, and to this day it remains one of the best. While it can't keep up with some newer SSDs – especially those built on PCIe 5.0 – the PS5 can't really take advantage of much faster drives anyways. And given the fact that you can find the Corsair MP600 for as little as $80 for a 1TB version, it doesn't make sense to get anything else.
This SSD is rated for a sequential read speed of 7,100MB/s, with write speeds up to 5,800MB/s, which puts it well into the territory of PS5-compatible drives. In reality, those speeds will only be reached on PC, with the PS5 rating it around 6,500MB/s. That's still more than fast enough to load most PS5 games as fast, or even faster than the main SSD built into the system.
However, the 1TB version of the Corsair MP600 has a durability rating of just 700TBW, or terabytes written. This essentially means the drive is warrantied to run well until it's written 700TB over its lifetime. Given that means filling the drive 700 times, though, it's unlikely most PS5 gamers will ever reach that number. Instead, this is only really an issue if you're ever going to want to rip this drive back out of your PS5 Pro and throw it into an editing rig or something. Most people will never even come close to that 700TB.
2. Crucial T500
Best Budget PS5 SSD
The Crucial T500 is the best-value SSD around, with nice performance bump from P5 Plus, which previously held this spot. For just over $100, comes a drive offering 1TB of storage with a heatsink attached – only $15 more than the non-heatsink model – and is perfectly sized to slot into the cramped quarters of the PS5. Not only does this drive double the storage on the console, but the hassle of finding and spending extra cash on an absolutely necessary heatsink that fits can be avoided.
Afraid of losing fast speeds with such a great-priced SSD? Don’t be, as the T500 keeps up with the best high-performance drives thanks to the Micron TLC 3D NAND flash memory – a solid step up from the QLC NAND seen in many budget SSDs. Max read speeds of up to 7,300 MB/s can be expected from the 1TB drive. Write speeds aren’t shabby either, hitting up to 6,800MB/S. So, everything from game boots and saves to transferring massive gameplay clips will be fast and seamless.
If 1TB doesn’t seem like enough storage, bumping up to the Crucial T500 2TB SSD sees a big increase in storage space and even faster speeds. The TBW rating is also doubled to 1,200 compared to the 1TB drive, though it still offers the same 5-year warranty found on most SSDs. Unfortunately, a 4TB option isn’t available for the biggest game library.
3. Samsung 990 Evo Plus
Best PS5 SSD Without Heatsink
While you can spend a lot of cash on a PS5 SSD, I’ve always preferred drives that deliver excellent performance, without a bloated price tag. That’s essentially what the Samsung 990 Evo Plus provides. It does have a lower endurance rating than the more expensive 990 Pro, but that’s not something you really have to worry about if you’re plugging an SSD into a console. Plus, the 2TB drive I tested is still rated for 1,200 TBW (terabytes written), which is more than most gamers will ever actually use.
What’s more important is speed. Now, while the drive is rated for up to 7,250MB/s sequential read speeds, the PS5 storage test that runs when you install a new drive rated it at 6,137MB/s. That’s still more than fast enough for PS5 games to run on it, and in my testing it loaded Metaphor: Refantazio in just 4.37 seconds, a bit faster than the native drive at 4.47 seconds. That’s just a 10ms difference in loading time, but hey, at least you know it’s not going to load your games slower, right?
One thing to keep in mind is that the Samsung 990 Evo Plus is a DRAM-less SSD, which means lower peak performance in pro workloads. However, while it does mean this drive has lower peak performance than it would with a dedicated DRAM cache built-in, the PS5 can’t take advantage of its full rated speed anyways, so it really doesn’t matter. What does matter, though, is Samsung doesn’t currently sell the Samsung 990 Evo Plus with a heatsink attached, which means you’re going to need to pair it with one of your own. Luckily, SSD heatsinks are generally just a few bucks on Amazon, and you could probably get away without one, too.
4. WD_Black P40
Best External PS5 SSD
The WD_Black P40 is not your traditional hard drive. Instead, it’s an external SSD that connects to the PS5 over USB, skipping the hassle of using a screwdriver to open up the M.2 expansion slot on the console. Plus, it’s not exclusive to the PlayStation, so this 1TB works perfectly as an external SSD for Xbox or PC. However, some caveats come with this storage solution.
Unlike the internal SSDs we recommended in this guide, the WD_Black P50 can’t run PS5 games that are installed on it. Their file data can be stored quite happily, saving the hassle of redownloading the almost 100GB Spider-Man 2 whenever you want to get back to web-slinging. At least PS4 titles can still be played directly from this USB drive, making space for newer PS5 games on the internal storage.
Though the WD_Black P40 can’t hold a candle to the speeds of internal PS5 SSDs, it's significantly faster than typical hard drives, tapping out at an impressive 2,000MB/s read speed with a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 connection. That speediness can be especially handy for quickly transferring data from the PS4 to PS5 when setting up the new console.
PS5 SSD FAQ
Is an SSD worth it for PS5?
A good chunk of the PS5’s internal 825GB SSD is taken up by system files, leaving you with a little over 650GB of usable storage space. The PS5 Slim adds a bit more storage, and the PS5 Pro further updates the storage up to 2TB. If you dedicate yourself to only a few games at a time those smaller storage amounts should probably be enough. But if you like having several games on the go, or are a fiend for live service games that tend to balloon in size as more updates and content packs are added, you’ll soon find yourself hitting the limits of the PS5’s storage. At that point, get yourself an SSD. It's one of the best PS5 accessories you can invest in.
What speed SSD should I get for PS5?
You’ll need an SSD that’s rated with a read speed of at least 5,500MB/s. In practice, it’s difficult not to find a PCIE 4.0 drive that ticks that box. The higher the speed the better, but unless you’re looking to regularly transfer lots of files back and forth from your drive, anything 6,500MB/s or above should do you absolutely fine.
When is the best time to buy a PS5 SSD?
PS5 SSDs are a surprisingly expensive add on to any PS5 console purchase. Prices have dropped pretty signicantly over the years, but if you're hoping to save as much money as possible, there are a few different times that are best for buying an SSD. The first big one is Amazon Prime Day, which usually takes place in July every year. After that, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are an excellent time to find big discounts on PS5 SSDs online.
Are PCIe 5.0 SSDs worth it for the PS5?
No, it is not worth buying a PCIe 5.0 SSD for PS5. The PS5 supports PCIe 4.0, and though PCIe 5.0 drives are backward compatible with PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 3.0, the console can’t take advantage of the full read and write speeds of the latest drives. That means it’s not worth the extra money, especially when you can often find PCIe 4.0 SSDs for far less.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
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