The Best SSD for PS5 in 2023: Speedy NVMe Storage for Your Console

Finding the best SSD for the PS5 might seem like a daunting task due to the wide range of choices, but the reality is there are plenty of SSDs for the PS5 that will provide a simple and hassle-free capacity upgrade for your game library. To narrow down the options, we put a wide range of the speediest drives through a battery of tests to find the best SSDs for the PS5, as measured by both performance and pricing. Given that nearly any new drive you buy for the PC can also be used in the PS5, you can also find many of these same picks on our list of Best SSDs for desktop PCs.

There's never been a better time for buying an SSD than now, as a recent industry oversupply has landed numerous excellent deals on SSDs. We've seen the lowest SSD pricing in history right now, making it easier to pull the trigger. For instance, our top-rated SSD for the PS5, the WD Black SN850X, is now back down to its all-time low price of $134 for the 2TB model. Bigger SSDs are on sale, too; the spacious 4TB Teamgroup MP34 starts at $185, and the 4TB Crucial P3 is a mere $199, a savings of $40 over the already-reduced pricing.

But you'll need to be careful in which drive you pick. Our top pick, the WD SN850X, now comes as an SN850P variant that's just a PS5-branded version of the same SSD. However, in the end, WD's PS5-Branded SN850P is just an overpriced SN850X with a different heatsink and PlayStation 5 license, so steer clear and stick with our best SSDs for PS5 picks below. 

The PS5’s internal SSD is a restrictive 825GB, with formatting, updates, and bloatware typically leaving you with about 670GB free for games. That's bad news, because today’s games are becoming larger with each new release, and you’ll also need to store all the screenshots and video clips you gather while you play. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War all by itself uses more than 200GB! The good news: Sony has an M.2 expansion slot where you can put a second PS5 SSD with up to 4TB of capacity. That amount of capacious storage should satiate even the most demanding of gamers, but there are also more affordable options, like 1TB and 2TB models.  

Luckily, finding a spacious PS5 SSD to complement your console's internal drive isn’t too difficult — any PCIe 4.0 SSD that provides a minimum of 5,500 MBps of throughput over the NVMe interface makes the cut for use as a PS5 SSD, provided it comes with a heatsink that doesn't take the overall height above 11.25mm. You can even add your own heatsink to SSDs that aren’t marketed specifically for the PS5. You can also use one of the best external drives with the PS5 to store games, but these are only for game storage — you'll need an internal expansion drive to actually play the games.

Ultimately, the best drive for your PS is one that provides enough capacity to hold your games and data at a price you can afford. To help you choose, we've tested a number of the top SSDs in our labs — see the results further down the page — and pulled out the top performers for a list of the Best PS5 SSDs.

The TLDR: Best SSDs for the PS5

Best SSD for PS5:
WD Black SN850X
Alternate — SK hynix Platinum P41

Fastest SSD for PS5:
Samsung 990 Pro

Best High-Capacity SSD for PS5:
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G
Alternate — Seagate FireCuda 530

Best Cheap SSD for PS5:
Kingston KC3000

Best SSDs for PS5

WD has taken its popular Black SN850 SSD and turned it up to 11, but luckily the price isn't nearly extreme. The current $150 price point for the 2TB model is a steal, but make sure you check current pricing. The Black SN850X leverages an improved controller and newer flash to get the most out of the PCIe 4.0 interface, thus delivering excellent performance with the Sony PlayStation 5. Performance is improved across the board, and the drive comes with a heatsink option. 

WD also supports the SSD with a respectable five-year warranty that will let you game with peace of mind. This drive is made for the PlayStation 5, but it is a bit pricier than other options, so you'll need to keep an eye out for sales. It's also super fast for gaming on a PC, particularly with DirectStorage on the horizon. 

Read: WD Black SN850X Review

The Sk hynix Platinum P41 offers an excellent blend of high performance and low pricing, making it one of the best SSDs for the Sony PS5, and you can currently find the spacious 2TB model for around $155. This drive has long stood out as one of the best SSDs overall, but you'll need to budget for an aftermarket cooler before you slap this drive into the PS5.

The Platinum P41 is available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities and delivers up to 7,000 MBps of sequential throughput, exceeding the PS5's minimum specs. The drive also has a five-year warranty and a solid 750 TBW endurance rating, making it a top pick for the PS5.  

Read: SK hynix Platinum P41 SSD Review

Fastest SSD for PS5

If you're looking for the absolute fastest drive for the Sony PlayStation 5 that money can buy, the 990 Pro is your drive. The Samsung 990 Pro's new hardware and new options, including a heatsink with RGB and a 4TB variant that arrives in 2023, have allowed Samsung to retake the SSD crown. However, this drive comes with a relatively high price tag of $189, so you'll pay quite a bit for the privilege of owning Samsung's flagship.

The Samsung 990 Pro's performance is excellent across the board, setting a few new performance records, such as with 4K random read performance. In our testing, the drive was consistent, power-efficient, and cool. The drive is also backed by a competent warranty and decent support.

The competition is still fierce, though, and the 990 Pro's launch MSRP is higher than warranted. $20 extra for a heatsink and RGB is a good deal, though you won't be able to see the bling when the SSD resides inside the PS5.

Read: Samsung 990 Pro Review 

Best High-Capacity SSD for PS5

Sabrent’s Rocket 4 Plus is the first SSD designed for DirectStorage with a customized version of this firmware, so it’s optimized for future gaming on the PC. It also delivers solid performance in the Sony PS5, ranking third in our testing, and comes with a 4TB model option, thus maxing out the PS5's capacity limit of 4TB for an expansion drive. 

Still, newer drives like the WD Black SN850X and Samsung 990 Pro are often a bit faster. Only one of those drives currently has a 4TB model available, though. This drive deserves a heatsink, but it’s currently sold separately. The MSRP on this drive, like with the SN850X and 990 Pro, is also a bit high at $299, so you'll have to pony up some extra cash for this speedster.

The Sabrent PS5 heatsink is available separately. The primary caveat is that significantly cheaper options that will get the job done with the PS5, but there are very few available with a blend of such spacious capacity and speedy performance. 

Read: Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G SSD Review 

The FireCuda 530 is available in capacities of up to 4TB, comes in that small M.2 form factor, and delivers incredible sustained write speeds for a flash-based SSD. However, it wasn't among the top performers on our list, but the spacious 4TB of capacity will be the main draw for most users looking to fill their PS5 to the brim with games.  

Sporting Phison’s beastly, penta-core PS5018-E18 NVMe SSD controller and Micron’s fast 176-Layer TLC flash, the FireCuda 530 has a solid five-year warranty and support service that includes three years of data rescue. However, its high performance, endurance, and data rescue support add quite a bit to pricing, making it a very premium buy for the average gamer. The drive comes with an integrated heatsink.

Read: Seagate FireCuda 530 Review 

Best Cheap SSD for PS5

The Kingston KC3000 is a high-performance PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD that dishes out bleeding-edge speeds of up to 7 GBps of read and write throughput, along with up to one million IOPS — all for an incredibly affordable $83 for the 1TB model. The drive dishes out plenty of performance for the PS5, but the KC3000 isn't as fast as competing drives in our benchmarks. However, as we noted in our test section, the differences between the fastest and slowest SSDs in real-world gaming are incredibly slim, meaning that the KC3000's price tag will draw in the value seekers among us. 

With a five-year warranty and an incredible 3,200 TBW endurance rating, the odds are that the KC300 will solider on for longer than your PS5. You can also find this drive in a 4TB model, too. This is a budget drive, so you'll have to plan on buying a third-party heatsink.

Read: Kingston KC3000 Review 

Benchmarks / How We Tested PS5 SSDs

Some of the best SSDs for the PS5 are either specifically designed for the console, or come with an integrated heatsink. However, some drives don’t come with a heatsink, so we equip them with the Sabrent M.2 NVMe heatsink for the PS5 to both meet the requirements for the PS5 and to ensure a level playing field. We’ve found that this cooler is a great solution if you’re looking for a cheap, versatile, and easy-to-install solution.

The Sony PS5 has an internal benchmark measuring how fast the system can read data from the drive. This is the most critical performance metric for gaming, as a speedy response time is responsible for ensuring a smooth gaming experience. As you can see in the 'Benchmark Score' column above, the fastest PS5 SSD in our test pool was 17% faster than the slowest model. 

However, other real-world tests show much smaller differences. For instance, our 'Console to Expansion SSD' benchmark consisted of timing how long it took to move four games totaling 175GB, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Assasin's Creed Valhalla, Elden Ring, and Astro's Playroom, from the internal PS5 SSD to the expansion drive. We only logged a difference of one to two seconds for these transfers, showing that the differences are slight. 

We also tested this process in reverse, moving the four games back to the internal drive for our "Expansion SSD to Console" benchmark, but saw only a few percentage points of difference between the drives. However, this is due to a limitation of the internal PS5 SSD. 

Likewise, extensive testing has failed to expose meaningful differences between the drives — it's common to see a one-to-two-second difference between drives in load times. We're experimenting with more games to see if we can find better examples. Still, other testing we've seen from multiple outlets and innumerable tests of the best SSDs for the PS5 on reddit indicates very few meaningful differences, if any, for game loading times. Overall, you'll typically see a one to two second difference in game loading times between the various SSDs — that isn't even noticeable in regular use and could make a good argument for simply selecting the most cost-effective drive that meets the minimum specs. 

Naturally, not all of the drives that we test will make the final cut for our list of Best SSDs for the PS5, but that doesn't mean those drives failed the test, or wouldn't be a great deal if you can catch them on sale. The Solidigm P44 Pro is a great SSD that delivered respectable performance in our PS5 SSD benchmarks, and given the slim difference between the fastest and slowest SSDs on our list, it could make a great drive if the price is right. We can say the same about the Crucial P5 Plus, which did well in our PS5 testing and in our review. 

Sony PS5 SSD Requirements

The Sony PS5 requires an M.2 SSD that communicates over the NVMe protocol. In addition, you'll need a PCIe 4.0 x4 model that can deliver up to 5,500 MBps of sequential read throughput. The console supports 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB models.

These small, rectangular drives look like sticks of RAM, only smaller, and the PS5 accepts both single-sided and double-sided versions. You'll also need to ensure that your drive has a cooling solution pre-applied. These can consist of thin copper heat spreaders that look like a label, or a full-fledged metal heatsink with a thermal pad.

Unfortunately, not all of the best SSDs for the PS5 come with a heatsink, but you can use your own double- or single-sided heatsink. We recommend the Sabrent M.2 NVMe heatsink for the PS5, which actually replaces the outside SSD panel on the PS5 with a heatsink, giving the SSD access to nice cooler air from outside the system. We’ve found that this cooler is a great solution if you’re looking for a cheap, versatile, and easy-to-install solution, but there are many options on the market. For instance, TeamGroup has its new TForce AL1 heatsink, which operates similarly, coming to market soon.

Just make sure the SSDs don't exceed 110 x 25 x 11.25mm. M.2 SSDs are usually 80mm long by 22mm wide, described as size 2280, but some may be shorter or longer, so make sure you get one that matches your slot. The PS5 supports M Key Type 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 and 22110. Some M.2 drives support SATA instead of NVMe, but those are rare. Regardless, make sure your SSD supports NVMe.

Sony has detailed instructions on how to install a PS5 SSD. As you can see in the video above, installing the SSD is a simple process that only requires a #1 Phillips head screwdriver. After you've installed the SSD, you can navigate through the menus to the 'Settings>Storage>Installation Location' area and change it to your new SSD. All new games will not install directly to the SSD. To move existing games to your new drive, simply highlight the item you want to move, press the Options button, and then select 'Move Games and Apps.' Select any other games that you would like to move in the checkboxes, then select 'Move.'