You should buy an M.2 SSD for your PS5, but be cautious

Best answer: Yes, but be very careful and do your research. Sony can't guarantee that all SSDs meeting its listed requirements will be fully compatible with PS5. You'll want to make sure that the SSDs in question have been tested and the manufacturer states they're compatible.

What's the difference between an SSD and HDD?

To make it as simple as possible: SSDs are much faster, usually smaller, and cost more than HDDs. SSDs use flash storage to read and write information, while HDDs have mechanical parts that physically read and write information.

If you look at the PS5 vs. PS4 Pro, which uses an HDD, the PS5 is lightning fast in comparison.

Should I buy an internal or external SSD?

Now that Sony has enabled expanded storage for PS5, you should definitely buy an internal SSD. There's a dedicated slot for one next to its fan and across from the disc drive after you take off the white plate. The problem is that it can be tricky figuring out which models are compatible. You can read the full list of requirements below, and as PlayStation notes, M.2 SATA SSDs are not supported.

Spec	Requirements
Interface	PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD
Capacity	250GB – 4TB
Cooling structure	Heatsink (single or doublre-sided)
Sequential read speed	5,500MB/s or faster
Module width	22mm width
Form factor	M.2 type 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 and 22110
Socket size	Socket 3 (Key M)
Length	30mm, 42mm, 60mm, 80mm, 110mm
Height	Less than 11.25mm
Total size w/ cooling structure	Smaller than 110mm (L) x 25mm (W) x 11.25mm (H)

Now, if you want to just store and play your PS4 games, that's a different storage. All backward-compatible PS4 games can be played from an external SSD connected via USB. This is a great way to free up that precious SSD space in your system because you want to save that for PS5 titles.

Internal

Seagate FireCuda 530 1TB Internal Solid State Drive

See at Amazon

Confirmed to work

Seagate has already tested its FireCuda 530 model and confirmed that it works well with PS5. If you can find one in-stock you'll definitely want to pick one up. We'd recommend a 1TB or greater size because anything less generally fills up very quickly. Just be aware that the larger the size, the more expensive it will be.

External

Samsung T7 Portable SSD (500GB)

$70 at Amazon $70 at Best Buy

Only for backward compatible games

A lot of you may have a decent amount of PS4 games you want to play on PS5, and these can be played on an external SSD. In fact, that's the best way to play them. Since only the built-in SSD on the PS5 can run PS5 games, you shouldn't waste any of it on PS4 titles. This saves you precious storage space.

by Jennifer Locke