Its great to see Richard “In The Here And Now” Leadbetter, here and now.

Whenever Richard appears, I just think how 'Bespoke' he is.

Thanks mate. Looking forward to the next storage video with all the different SSDs tested 👍

I'd love to get a comparison video with other drives of similar spends and slower speeds. Great work as always!

Now I can download Knack as many times as I can.

Rich made a good point , the external ssd does not have to contend with OS process accesses.

I'm so glad digital foundary does such tests so well and covers near all bases, it's great for consumers.

This is great information and I like how the tested the Xbox Series X Seagate SSD in the mix. Richard you did an amazing job nothing but respect.

Respect to DF! The amount of times they had to shift apps (and the SSD) back and forth for these tests must have been exhausting.

Yes finally been waiting for DF's tests

Thanks for both the info and hard work with the tests so we don't have to look else where. Keep up the good work.

Been waiting for this! Even though I personally don't need more storage on my PS5, I am enjoying watching the coverage of the new SSD slot

The video I've been waiting for! ❤️

I appreciate all the work that went into this video. Thanks DF!

Do the same test but with a NVME that doesn’t match PS5 recommended specs, like a 3000mbps card

This makes me so excited for the future of this console... being given a bare minimum to essentially be limited by bandwidth of pcie x4 is wild... Awesome video!

Looks like the best move is to set the internal ssd as the default install location then when its full copy games over to the m.2 ssd since it’s faster to copy from internal ssd to the m.2.

I subscribe for Richard's bespoke, pristine quality hand motions.

I’ve watched several videos regarding this topic… but I’ve been waiting for DF’s run through specifically before I move forward 👍

Thanks for the tests! Will try the SN850 once 2.0 is out

Can't believe it took a year for this to be implemented.

While watching this, my GF says "Everything about his guy's voice sounds boring to me". I replied this is why I love his videos. Pure Information at it's finest. Ty m8!

Richards video profiles keep getting flatter and flatter. :D

Cool, cool. Saw the video this morning and Amazon delivered my Samsung 980 Pro drive this afternoon and the heat sink comes in tomorrow. :) Im glad the console drive tech caught up to PC. My current main gaming PC has two Western Digital Black SN850 drives which are almost copy and paste spec as the Samsung 980 Pro's.

I've been eagerly waiting for this analysis! Really fascinating results. My suggestions for the next video: 1) Try sustained transfer rates for large files (500+ GB). You could transfer five 100 GB games to see if there is a significant slowdown. I imagine having the heatsink would be most beneficial for this. 2) Please include summary graphs! It is hard to mentally keep track of all the numbers when they run by so fast. Making a simple graph in Excel would help people like me see the big picture, and not get lost in all the numbers. 3) Please test 1 TB and 2 TB drives. There are small spec differences with controllers, etc, so it would be useful to know. 4) Any way to test the temperature of the SSD itself, both with and without a heatsink? Judging from the overall results, there is no universal benefit to having a heatsink, at least in terms of pure transfer/read speeds. I'd be curious though if the temps tell a different story. I would pay extra for a heatsink if it really made a difference for longevity, but I don't want to waste money if the Samsung heatspreader sticker is enough. You guys rock! I'd be curious if the final firmware will make a difference at all.

Finally it´s possible to extend the storage with highspeed solutions. I have some room left on the internal storage but options are always great and the game library get´s bigger and bigger over time. Now I wait for prices to come down.

Amazing work from the team here

How convenient you tested the exact drive I have! thank you!

The heatsink vs. no heatsink deltas are almost surely only run to run variance. Thermal throttling is a go / no go thing, and if the drive throttles, you’d see a very large difference in times since performance would fall significantly for several seconds. Also, the Samsung drives have an effective heat spreading copper layer in their labels. The only time you would have risked throttling in that testing would have been when moving games to the drive (power consumption is highest while writing).

Would love a second video with the sn850 and maybe talking about heat problems, throtteling and the question of leaving the flap of the m.2 open or not (airflow problems...?!?).

Great technical video, as always. Covers everything!

Awesome Explanation, on point discussion. You guys deserve at least 5M subscribers 💖💖💖

I wonder if you really are supposed to re-attach the cover after the SSD was installed? This way, the headsink isn't exposed to the airflow? Wish you had checked the temps as well.

Though speed between with and without heatsink is insignificant, it is still required. Someone on Reddit tested 980 pro too, a heatsink reduced temperature 20 Celsius (from 74 to 50). I hope you test temperature as well.

Thanks for a great view into the internal upgrades!

Super informative Rich, Thank you.

Very nice video, many thanks for sharing these analyses! Would love to see, how the firecuda 530 will perform, since its specs are very promising, which is particularly true for the 2/4TB versions. Optionally, would also love to learn, which heatsinks are most suitable.

I would love too see the Seagate Firecuda 530, Aorua Gen4 7000s and as previously stated WD SN850.

Brilliant analysis! As always. Appreciate so much what you gentlemen do :)

How did i never know about this channel until now?!? Got a new sub here

I’m hoping to see the Firecuda 530 M.2 NVME Gen4 detailed soon. Proclaims to be the fastest read/write speeds of any m.2 Gen4 drives to date

I’m kinda glad that Sony went with standard M.2 SSDs. Sure, they’re expensive now. But they’ll eventually start to go down in price as time goes on since they aren’t proprietary. That being said, I do wish that Sony made a list of already-available SSDs that are fair game for the PS5.

Thank you for the thoughtful video. Now to make up my mind on which size I want.

thanks so much for this vid, cant wait to add my WDsn850 to my ps5 soon

I'm curious to see why there was such a big difference in speeds between the 980 pro 500GB here and the 980 pro 1 TB that was on Spawn Wave.

I wonder if the heatsink required is a preemptive measure to when the SSDs might be used much more heavily for streaming. I remember Cerny talking about streaming in all the assets in the viewport in real-time. Maybe a future technique for the PS5 VR headset?

Oh my god thank you I’m not the only one having problems with the 980 I seriously thought I was the only one but I guess a lot of people are having problems with it and other drives to thank you so much I’m glad I was reading the comments

Awesome vid. I am using the 2TB WD SN850. Love it..

I imagine the heatsink is more for hardware longevity rather than speed (although as said in the video it does seem that it may actually make a small difference to performance).

When an SSD literally 1/2 the price of the entire PS5 DE console beats its load time by 2 seconds :D

Thanks Richard! I'm using the same drive, haven't had any issues at all and I was able to get the 500GB version for $119 on Amazon.

Great and very in-depth tests and comparisons. A explanation why transferring to the internal SSD of the PS5 might be slower because that's also where the system is running from? Don't have a PS5 and don't know much about it, but it's an idea that came up when seeing the video.

Console gaming is in such a great place whether you are on ps5 or xbox, so excited to see where it goes..

The expansion slot leverages the full internal IO subsystems like the stock drive. Without that, you wouldn't see these speeds in native PS5 titles. Down the road when DirectStorage becomes more mainstream and game supported on PC, you'll see the same advantage using a superfast SSD with or without DirectStorage in play.

Nice to know that there're some SSDs that function atm. Don't need to upgrade right now but sounds promising for the future.

Love these guys man, they help in the decision making process

No question, being able to put in drives of any size is an advantage for PS5. But I prefer the hot-swapping ability of the Xbox Series expansion option vs. 10 minutes to swap drives from one system to another. The fact that it’s plugged in externally should be a heat-dissipation advantage too. Hot-swapping won’t matter at all to some people, but will matter hugely to others (such as people with an Xbox in the living room and the bedroom).

I'm guessing the M.2 -> internal ssd transfer is slow because the console is verifying the data, due to the fact that the drive is potentially modifiable by a PC. Thoughts?

your content is always the best!! thx for the amazing videos!!

Good video DF. This is some good information, I do like the Plug n Play style of the Xbox Expansion Storage and the Swappable nature aswell, you at the their mercy tho when it comes too Pricing n Availablity and with the PS5 you definitely have more Options n Price Options but it is more fiddly too connect and once it's in that's it you can't Swap it around.

would be interested to see the Ratchet & Clank testing compared with and without heatsync. It seems like it should be the most intense workload we could give storage at the moment to see how much we REALLY need that heatsync.

Those game transfers to and from the internal PS5 SSD and the M.2, was that done with or without the heatsink? Didn't hear you mention it.

Nice, I will keep this in mind when I end up getting more games down the line. Just want folders tbh haha!

You got me I suscribed ... I just wonder when the final software update will happen I was not chosen to test the Beta :(

Note: the Samsung SSD 980 Pro Gen4 500GB version has 5GB write speed vs the WD_Black SN850 500GB Gen4 has 4GB wite speed. Only from the 1TB version you get 5GB write speed. So if you are going for 500GB SSD, then it would be better to go for the Samsung

Can you test the performance with the metal cover on or off? Personally I think it should be on for airflow, but others say they're going to leave it off to use bigger heatsinks.

That Ratchet & Clank frame hitch test was a clever experiment.

the review I was waiting for

It’s good to see the flexibility and the freedom to choose any SSD vendor and capacity that you like, Sony knows how the proprietary expansion hurts the reputation of a system like they did on Vita with pretty expensive cards on a era of MicroSDs

I'm curious if it's better for the longevity of the SSD to omit the metal cover @4:39 to improve airflow and heat dissipation (the two air vents “notches” seem too small).

I believe it to be a great choice. 3rd party options for capacity upgrade. Let us not forget what happened with the PSP's memory cards. Thanks for this detail review as always. Much appreciated.

A test I would like to see done is updating a game, for example Demon's Souls. How fast can each drive patch the update into the main game? This usually takes a long time, but if it's a lot faster on the external SSD, it might mean the internal has a slow write rate?

980 pro (500GB) is freaking sci fi. I bought it at a discount €85 + be quiet MC1 heatsink €15. Perfect combination and fits in the PS5, read speeds tested at 6700MB/s.

I put in a WD_Black SN850 into my PS5 (500 GB). Games seem to run exactly the same as on the internal. Will see if that changes as time goes on, but currently very happy with the setup

Thanks guys !!!

Useful info, thanks

Thanks for the great video. It looks like Sony team really optimized reads on the internal ssd and was less aggressive on the writes (makes sense for limited-bandwidth requirements for game installs). Interesting results on battlefield as well, I wonder if it uses higher or lower numbers of small files vs the other tested games

I honestly think it's amazing that Sony decided to allow non-proprietary SSDs. Not a greedy call at all. They will probably benefit from this in the long run and they know it, obviously. Still, it doesn't come off as greedy because they are taking a risk and chance this way.

great video and helps clear up alot. I'll be curious to see which drives are supported when out of beta.

Great video! Thank you!

Would it not make more sense to keep the SSD slot cover off, so that the heat sink will get better airflow?

What I want to know is how much lower than the recommended speed can you go with the SSD and how much difference will it be in loading speeds.

Great video! Thanks!!

the music at the beginning of the video reminds me of the old songs used in comparisons of games from different consoles

After this one, the VRR update should be the next big one since the TV's are suppose to get by winter of this year and I'm sure they'll get about the same time

"Upgrading a PC is complicated compared to consoles"

Just installed my 2tb WD Sn850 Black with blue 3rd party heatsink, looks awesome

Great detailed review!

I was very surprised Sony went with standard off-the-shelf M.2 drives, traditionally Sony has always tried to come up with their own format for storage in their electronics. Whether it was Betamax, Minidisc, MemoryStick, or UMDs they always tried to get that extra nickel out of the consumer so this was a pleasant surprise.

Got my Mark Cerny WD-Black SN 850 1TB today ... for 155€ a pretty good price also (+20€ for a 3rd party Heatsink) 😍 unfortunately i have to wait for my beta access or for the final release of the SSD support 🤣 but prices already go sky high and most of ssds are already sold out 🤓

This was the video I needed

I’m liking the look of the WD black SN850 1tb with included heatsink. Alas not in stock on Amazon right now but I’m not in the beta program anyhow 😊

I’m so glad Digital Foundry exists

Thanks for the video! I am 2 years late to upgrading my PS5, however now that I am sharing the storage space with 2 other people, I've been in need of an upgrade. I was always under the assumption that we'd REPLACE the internal drive. So great that it is instead a separate storage slot on its own which can be used in addition to the internal storage. Guess I won't have to opt for the 2TB drive after all. For anyone who is watching this now as well, Amazon has the 980 Pro, with a heatsink, for pretty cheap. About $80 and no more expensive than the version without a heatsink.

Great info 👍

Great video DF!!! Was that some type of cheese used as thermal pad/paste for the SSD heatsink? 😆😆😆

Will you guys be trying other SSD’s? I’m Curious how Cerny has picked his own brand… I feel like I should buy the WD one because he’s plugged it. It’d be good to see you guys put them against each other - but I appreciate that’d be a lot of work. Keep up the good work.

Missed opportunity with 1st party game loading times. Spiderman: MM absolutely should have been included here as it has some of the fastest loading times of any ps5 game.

Took my chances and got a PNY Gen 4 1TB nvme drive free from Dell. I'm already on the Beta software and loving it! Will do some testing once I get the drive in the middle of the week.

This is great. I have the exact same setup incoming. I have the same heat sink since I used my motherboards original heat sink for my M.2 when I built my PC, and I just bought the Samsung 2TB M.2 off Best Buy for $369.99