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01Best SSD external hard drive for PS5
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03Best budget PS5 external hard drive
Sort your console out with this list of the best external hard drives for PS5 to expand your storage.
New PS5 games are coming out left right and centre – and with the backwards compatibility of the PS5 most gamers playing a combination of PS4 and PS5 games. An external hard drive is an easy solution to keeping your gameplay smooth and speedy when your console only has storage of just over 600GB.
PS5s compete with some pretty hefty PC builds in terms of performance. One thing console games can naturally fall behind on, however, is storage. Recently, games have only been getting bigger and bigger in terms of file sizes and it’s not uncommon for gamers out there to find themselves out of space. An external hard drive sorts this out.
These devices are especially good for playing PS4 games as these can be launched directly from the external hard drive. PS5 games will need to be moved over to the internal storage to be played. This still saves loads of time over having to redownload them. In this article, we’ll guide you through the best optimal storage hard drives and explain how upgrading your storage for your PS5 actually works in case this all sounds very new.
The best PS5 external hard drive
Samsung T7 Touch
Capacity
500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Drive type
SSD
USB type
USB 3.2
Toshiba Canvio Basics External Hard Drive
Capacity
2TB
Drive type
SSD
USB type
USB 3.1
WD Black P50 NVMe SSD
Capacity
500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
Drive type
SSD
USB type
USB 3.2
Seagate Portable Game Drive
Capacity
1TB up to 5TB
Drive type
HDD
USB type
USB 3.2
Samsung T7 shield
Capacity
Capacity: 1TB up to 4TB
Drive type
SDD
USB type
3.2
Choosing the best external hard drive for your PS5 is a balancing act between performance, capacity and price. Below you’ll find a shortlist of our best picks for external hard drives for PS5, and the next section will give you an overview of features to look out for.
Best SSD external hard drive for PS5
Samsung T7 Touch
Capacity
500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Drive type
SSD
USB type
USB 3.2
This is a popular drive to go for when choosing a hard drive to support your PS5, and for good reason too. Its sturdy design makes it a fantastically durable choice, boasting water resistance and dustproof specs.
Consider your bases covered thanks to its USB-C cable and USB-A cable. As for the time it takes to load PS4 games onto your PS5, consider it speedy Gonzalez. If you’re planning on doing more than using it to store games, it also performs well if you’re storing larger video files. You get the benefit of Samsung’s Magician app which keeps everything meat and tidy to manage.
The build quality is brilliant, meaning that, providing you look after it, this hard drive should last you for some time. The overall design is top-shelf too, with a sleek look and an LED square that lights up to let you know when the drive is transferring data. Taken together, this is clearly one of the best PS5 SSDs out there.
Most reliable hard drive for PS5
WD Black 5TB P10 game drive
Capacity
500GB up to 5TB
Drive type
HDD
USB Type
USB Type-C
Made with next-gen gaming in mind, this beast of a hard drive specially designed for gaming so you don’t have to lose out on your favourite games. With a capacity of up to 5 TB and support for both Xbox Series X|S and PS5, this hard drive is built to last. It has speeds of up to 140MB/s meaning you won’t be sitting waiting for your PS4 games to load. As one of the OG hard drive manufacturers, we’ve put our trust in WD for years and haven’t been let down yet. As they say about their product:
you’ll spend less time worrying about your hardware, and more time winning
Western Digital
The drive itself is well put together and durable, with a rugged design that looks great. WD are so confident in the durability of this drive, in fact, that they include a 3-year warranty when you purchase.
Best budget PS5 external hard drive
Toshiba Canvio Basics External Hard Drive
Capacity
2TB
Drive type
SSD
USB type
USB 3.1
Other than the sound price, we picked the Toshiba Canvio for its firmware-customized “Always-On” gaming feature so that it stays ready to respond to your gaming request, supplying you overall with more gaming time. Its sleek and simple design will also compliment your PS5, but ultimately, its best features are its budget value.
Fastest hard drive for PS5 – WD Black P50 NVMe SSD
WD Black P50 NVMe SSD
Capacity
500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
Drive type
SSD
USB type
USB 3.2
Going up or down in price for 500GB or 2 TB, this distinct hard drive performs brilliantly when loading PS4 games onto your console. Without a doubt it’s one of the top hard drives on the market, reaching up to 2,000MB/s (with a specific hardware set-up).
If you’re planning on using your hard drive for other purposes, rest assured it’ll work with Windows, MacOS, PS and Xboxes.
Best HDD hard drive for PS5 – Seagate Portable Game Drive
Seagate Portable Game Drive
Capacity
1TB up to 5TB
Drive type
HDD
USB type
USB 3.2
We’ve chosen this hard drive for its versatility, despite its old-school status. With the status of Sony’s own stamp of approval, you can have peace of mind knowing the Seagate Portable will happily wed to your PS5. Simple to get up and running, this hard drive is a no-brainer if you want an easy choice of the hard drive.
If you compare SSD vs HDD, it is clear that HDDs are the slower technology. However, if you have that bit of extra patience at a load screen you can save a good chunk of money.
Best durable hard drive for PS5 – Samsung T7 shield
Samsung T7 shield
Capacity
Capacity: 1TB up to 4TB
Drive type
SDD
USB type
3.2
We’ve chosen Samsung’s T& shield for its small, compact design and strong durability.
This SSD will resist your drops up to 9.8 feet, and is water and dust resistant while providing a pretty decent performance. It can read at 1,050MB/s and write at 1,000MB/s which is almost double the performance of the T5.
Often available at a discounted price, this SSD offers great value for money, and has won several awards highlighting its fast transfer speeds and ability to keep cool while transferring large files. If you’d like to use your SSD for more than just gaming, this is a great choice to take into the great outdoors, making it a very versatile choice.
Its versatility is helped by its compatibility with PC, Android, Mac & more, thanks to its compatibility with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.
Do games run well on an external hard drive?
The only games you can play directly from an external storage drive for the PS5, are PS4 games. This is because even the best SSDs do not meet the minimum data transfer capacity that PS5 games require.
However, a way around this is to store your PS5 games on your external drive and then transfer them over to your PlayStation 5 when you want to play them. While this will take a bit of time, it is much quicker than having to redownload the games each time.
What is an SSD external hard drive for PS5?
SSD stands for a solid-state drive. They use flash memory and no moving parts, making them more efficient and quicker than the older technology of HDD (hard-disk drives).
The Play Station 5 comes with one of the best quality SSDs available for a console and so matching this with an external SSD is your best choice. This will allow for the quickest moving of PS5 games to the main hard drive in order to play them. It will also grant the smoothest gameplay when playing PS4 games directly from your external hard drive.
The one upside of an HDD is that it can offer more storage for a lower price. If speed is not your top priority they can be a great way to store all the games you need without having to break the bank.
Best PS5 external hard drives FAQs
With your PS5 – it’s normal to be precious about what hardware you use with it. In order to make this easier for you – we’ve answered all of the relevant questions you might have.
Can you use any external hard drive to use on PS5?
As long as your HDD or SSD connects via USB 3.0, you should have no problem with your external hard drive connecting to PS5. If you are worried, consider the Seagate Portable Game Drive which has Sony’s seal of approval.
How many games can fit on PS5 hard drive?
Recent PS5 games take up about 40-60GB of storage a piece. If you’re storing all of these, plus some smaller PS4 titles, you can expect to fit around 15 games in your hard drive, although this obviously depends on how big your hard drive is.
