PS5

Published on March 8th, 2024 | by Brent Thomas

Seagate Game Drive PS5 NVME 2 TB SSD M.2 with Heatsink Review

Seagate Game Drive PS5 NVME 2 TB SSD M.2 with Heatsink Review Brent Thomas
Score

Summary: The Seagate Game Drive PS5 NVME 2 TB SSD M.2 with Heatsink provides a welcome upgrade to internal PS5 storage, enhancing your gaming experience. No more moving games between external drives or redownloading them.

4.8

Upgrade +2


With what can seem like an ever-growing backlog of games and the near endless PlayStation Plus Catalogue, more PS5 storage space is always welcome. A seemingly daily inflow of game patches, PS5 visual upgrades/ remasters and DLC has meant that the stock PS5’s 825GB fills up extremely fast. Having to delete, sacrifice or reinstall large games becomes tiresome very quickly. Many modern PS5 games can take up to 100-150GB+ of storage, so it doesn’t take much to fill up the stock SSD when this reduces to ~600 GB after firmware size is factored in.

The Officially Licensed Seagate Game Drive 2 TB NVME SSD comes straight out of the box with 2 TB of storage, PS5 firmware, and an inbuilt heatsink to prevent overheating. Although you can purchase other SSDs and manually add in a heatsink yourself, this option truly allows for a straight out of the box and into your console product that simply works. No downloading of firmware required.

Even better than the stock PS5 SSD, the upgradeable storage boasts a read speed of up to 7300 MB/s and write speed of 6900 MB/s. This exceeds the stock PS5 SSD’s 5500 MB/s. Faster loading with a storage upgrade is always welcome.

What’s included in the box:

Specs  
Maximum Read Speed (MB/s) 7300
Maximum Write Speed (MB/s) 6900 (must exceed 5500 MB/s native SSD)
Included Storage (GB) 2000
Interface PCle G4 x4 NVME SSD M.2
Seagate SSD Storage 2 TB
Console Compatibility PlayStation 5- Disc/ Digital/ Slim
Seagate Manufacturer’s Warranty 5 years
Dimensions 80.9mm L x 24.2mm W x 11.1 mm H
Weight 46 g
Heatsink Yes custom heatsink inbuilt to SSD with thermal pad
Equipment Required #1 Phillips Screwdriver

Optional Flat Head Screwdriver to remove base

Installation Process

It really is as simple as removing the PS5 stand, face plate, and lying the console on it’s side. Next on to removing the SSD expansion slot cover and sliding in the new 1 TB SSD. A Phillips Head screwdriver is all you need. The SSD snugly slides right into the console’s internal expansion SSD terminal. Lastly lock the SSD in place with the provided spacer and screw. Replace the expansion slot cover and PS5 face plate, then it’s all done! It was so easy that my 3 year old helped me with this process! 😊

Above: before and after SSD internal expansion installation.

Performance and Use

All that’s left now is to format the new Seagate internal SSD. Out of the box it is optimised with matching PS5 firmware, so this process takes 2 minutes flat and then is ready for downloading or transferring from an external storage drive those extra games you couldn’t fit without that extra 2 TB!

The PS5 allows you to easily and quickly transfer files between the stock SSD and the new SSD. However you don’t need to do this as games will play from either internal drive natively.

Loading and startup times are at least the same and often even faster with the Seagate SSD than the stock drive with faster read/ write speeds. When launching a PS4 or PS5 game from the PS5 menu it works flawlessly as a native internal drive. This is a much better solution than having to transfer games back and forth from an internal to external drive, as you can only play PS5 games that are installed internally. With heavy testing on graphically demanding games such as GT7, Last of Us Part 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn there were no overheating or thermal throttling issues during loading or gameplay – flawless.

Final Thoughts

The Seagate Game Drive PS5 NVME 2 TB SSD M.2 with Heatsink provides a welcome upgrade to internal PS5 storage, enhancing your gaming experience. No more moving games between external drives or redownloading them.

The internal SSD works straight out of the box and into your PS5 console with optimised PS5 firmware, a simple installation experience. The SSD work flawlessly and with many games it in fact also reduces your load and installation times over the stock PS5 internal SSD.

At an RRP of $469.95 the cost is definitely on the pricier side (possibly due to the Official PS5 License) and probably the only read negative in this review.

The 2 TB SSD was provided for review here, also available in 1 TB and 4 TB options to meet your needs. Highly recommended for users who need more games and more storage!


About the Author

brent.lalor@gmail.com'

Brent loves the competitive aspect aspect of video games whether its first person shooters, esports games or improving runs in roguelikes and soulslikes. Outside of tech he can be found training for running events and watching Formula 1.



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