Suggest a bigger Hard Drive for Playstation 4

Now as we all know you can replace the hard drive in the playstation to one with much more data storage than the existing 500g model,now the same space with a SSD is going to cost a small fortune and i want about 2TB so Hybrid is the way to go.

It has to be 2.5 inch as far as a know and i would prefer 64 gig of on board flash in this Drive as opposed to just 8 i have seen in a video,think the speed has to match whats in already which is 5400rpm ,but if its compatible to have run that runs even faster and works with the playstation 4 I'm all ears.

I have taken a look at ebuyer and a few places but i don't really know what I'm looking for and whats the best suitable,there is no search like �.Playstation 4 hard drive upgrade that brings up any results.

So anyone in the know please post a link or to about what to get and what works as this hard drive in my case is going to fill up pretty rapid and i would rather replace it now than in 6 months.

Cheers

I would have thought that you would only settle for a SSD drive, anything else isn't the best. Imagine how you will feel when someone comes on here boasting about how much faster and quieter their new SSD drive is
PS5 won't be out for a long time yet.

I do not know much more than you just that it needs to be a 2.5" drive. Official Sony upgrade guide.. 2 TB would be good but having just had a look on a few sites, Dabs, Ebuyer and OCUK the biggest Hybrid drive available is 1 TB

In reply to a post by time2die:

I have taken a look at ebuyer and a few places but i don't really know what I'm looking for and whats the best suitable,there is no search like �.Playstation 4 hard drive upgrade that brings up any results.

Funny you should say that just found this drive on Ebuyer which says 'Seagate 1TB SSHD - Ideal PS4 Upgrade'

Edited by astateoftrance (Thu 05-Dec-13 10:30:03)

SSD drive i have looked at Swanny but they are really really pricey and we are talking extreme amounts of money and possibly twice the cost of a playstation 4 to get anywhere near a 1TB SSD Drive.


I might spend a lot on gaming but i can not justify spending £700 plus on a Hard drive upgrade especially when the Hybrid Drives are only a few seconds behind when it comes to loading the data having watched a guy testing all 3 hard drive capabilities and loading times for certain data.

Will take a look Trance at your links.Much Appreciated matey

Basically I'm not all for taking things apart and upgrading stuff so i don't want to read a few forum posts buy the drive to find its not compatible,from what i have read it has to be 2.5 inches,Sata, and spin at at least 5400rpm,now i don't know if it spins faster it will work with the playstation 4 as i have not seen a post regarding this saying go for the higher rpm,also the guy testing the Hybrid Hard dive said the one he was using had only 8gig of flash memory and you can get them up to 64 gig which is even better.

Yeah got that official Sony Guide already in my favourites,tells you how to swap the drives but apart from saying 2.5 inch it don't mention much else regarding what else to choose.

That drive listed looks good mate but I'm not sure about the online flash memory and when i said the best is 64gig i made a mistake and it was suppose to be 64mb.

Don't also say that its a 2.5 inch drive but it does say suitable for a playstation 4 upgrade,pity i would have preferred a 2TB hybrid drive that would work with the Playstation 4 as opposed to 1TB as knowing me in 12 months time and the amount of games i buy and download this will also need changing.

A 2TB would be ideal and i would not have to upgrade again,saying that they are for pre/order and where expected in to them on the 4th december so at present they are not in stock.

There has to be bigger Hybrid drives than 1TB that will work with the Playstation 4��.Spook where are you i need your Geeky Skills here

Edited by time2die (Thu 05-Dec-13 11:50:02)

It says further down in the full description that it is a 2.5" drive. The larger capacity Hybrid drives I have seen are all 3.5"/desktop ones, looks like 1 TB is the max available at present for 2.5".

The flash memory in that drive is 8 GB, 64 MB is the cache. So like you said it would probably be better to find one with a higher proportion of flash memory...sure spookeh and others know much more and can advise

Had another look on Ebuyer and all the 2.5" hybrids have 8 Gb of flash except for this bad boy which has 120 GB SSD + 1 TB of HDD.

**** I have no idea if this is compatible with PS4!****

Edited by astateoftrance (Thu 05-Dec-13 12:36:13)

Is that cool or what and should i buy this�.What are the benefits of this compared to the other you listed,i don't mind buying this if its top notch and well worth the effort and is fully compatible with the Playstation 4 which I'm not sure it is.

Only had a quick look and i will look a little deeper later but i suspect you would not have given me the link if it wasn't .

Thanks Trance for your information��.Im not thick just want other Gamers opinions thats all

I do not know if that Western Digital drive would work or not in a PS4, my guess would be no as it says it is a non caching drive and is called a Dual drive rather than a Hybrid. Need the input of someone more knowledgeable than me.

So it seems at the moment the maximum capacity you can get in a 2.5" Hybrid drive is 1 TB with 8 GB being flash.

the hybrid drive will probably work unless there is something on the software side such as artificial restrictions of the ps4 which stops it working.

as the system will just see it as a hard drive still.

Looks like the first one then Trance,the 1TB hybrid drive that they say in the link Compatible with the Playstation 4,thanks also Chrysallis for your point matey

I know its to keep costs down with both the Xbox One and The Playstation 4 but come on,500gig in this day and age is a joke,especially when now we both have to install every single game and there are no other options.

With the Playstation o/s this only leaves 400gig spare from day one and I'm already at a third capacity after just 1 week.

Suppose the cheaper and other option is to play the game,finish it and then delete it of the hard drive.thats all well and good if its a single player game but what about the games like Battlefields 4,Killzone Shadowfall ,Ghosts and most of the other games that have multiplayer.

the o/s uses 50gig?

There is actually just 400gig allocated for your space for downloads believe it or not or just over ?

I have Knack,Resogun,Killzone Shadowfall,and that Blacklight retribution and after than Ive got about 325 gig left.

I have a few others like the playstation 3 classic Flower and a game i can not remember as I'm typing this,but they are well under a Gig.

you put a lot of time into knack yet?

Cheap skate

In reply to a post by time2die:

Suppose the cheaper and other option is to play the game,finish it and then delete it of the hard drive.thats all well and good if its a single player game but what about the games like Battlefields 4,Killzone Shadowfall ,Ghosts and most of the other games that have multiplayer.

That's why discs are good

Yeah that looks like a safe bet and 1 TB should keep you happy for some time, I agree that 500 GB is not really enough now especially with PS+ having free games every month. At least there is the option of upgrading the HDD with normal laptop drives which are cheap.

I thought the beauty of owning a console was not having to upgrade it all the time like a PC

I thought I had read somewhere that SSD drives would not be compatible at launch, unless that has changed? I'd ping an email to Sony support or something before buying. Just to be certain like?

Only about 30 minutes mate,spent most of my time on Killzone and Resogun.

It's not a SSD drive mate but a Hybrid drive which Ebuyer says is ideal for the Playstation 4 upgrade like Trance link suggests

I also read that PS4 supports Sata 2 not Sata 3, so many of the latest (and more expensive) SSD's won't make any appreciable difference.

Found it! The lack of trim support is bad news for SSD's. I knew I'd read it somewhere recently.

http://np.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/1pocve/ssd_trim_...

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-samsung-840-evo-b...

In reference to www.buildcomputers.net/trim-support.html:

Before you can appreciate what TRIM does, you'll first have to know this: Left unchecked, the performance of a SSD will deteriorate with use.

In reference to www.pcworld.com/article/2025402/ssds-vs-hard-drives-vs-hybrids-whic...:

Where hybrid products falter is with new data. When writing new data or accessing infrequently used bits, hybrid products perform just like a standard hard drive

So what you saying....can I not upgrade it and why is Ebuyer making claims in the Trance link that it's Compatable with the Playstation 4.

UPDATE

Think at present it's the least of my problem is you read my recent post ....Seems my Playstation 4 is some what Knackered

In reference to np.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/1pocve/ssd_trim_and_sata_issues_with_t...:

In the end I just sent an email to Sony customer support and they confirmed once and for all that it is going to be SATA II. They also confirmed that the operating system on the PS4 will not include TRIM functionality.

Oh great....£127 more than the actual console...don't think so... and it's Sata 3 and not 2 which the Playstation 4 uses...so basically it's wasted and a joke price....I'm keen but I'm not a total fool.

In reply to a post by time2die:

I'm keen but I'm not a total fool.

We noticed some bits were missing

Hey Cheeky Monkey

TRIM is nice to have but it isnt required.

also newer SSD models still have GC functions that dont require TRIM support to function.

Some people on pc's have ran without TRIM for years without issues (as previously using raid disabled TRIM).

In regards to SATA2 thats not an issue either, my pc is SATA2, and a ssd on SATA2 will still be very very fast.

So that article linked means the ps4 OS isnt optimised for ssd's ie. it doesnt support all ssd features but it doesnt mean ssd's wont work.

The only writes to the disc is going to be during the following.

downloads
saving games
installing games

and thats pretty much it. Since none of that is interactive inside the game except saving games the interactive performance should be fine. The main factor is read speeds on a console.

--edit--

ps4 can record footage, so that will write to the media, so if you plan to record footage (I think streaming wont write to disc only record will).then it might be a consideration. But a workaround for lack of trim is also to ensure free space is high.

Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 06-Dec-13 03:46:19)

It is important. The PS4 may have "PC architecture" but it doesn't have the interface to allow the same level of tinkering. SSD's are extremely efficient with regularly used data such as OS tasks. With installing new games, streaming etc., the benefits may well be negligible, especially considering the increased cost and guaranteed degradation that will occur.

Another properly informed description here.

There are all sorts of tools available for cleaning up cluttered hard drives. TRIM was specifically developed by the industry to address the same problem for SSD's. There's no conspiracy.

Not a joke price ssd memory isn't cheap, its getting cheaper but still. Blame the fact that the ps4 is sata2 on sony not the drive manufacturers. You won't find any ssd (or hybrid) in the capacity you want in sata2 and to be honest , you wont notice the difference on a console.

You WILL notice the difference between an SSD and a HDD though - massively They are quieter, much much faster and will last longer than a hard drive.

If you want to go for a hybrid drive theres only one that I know of in 2.5 inch and thats this one link They aren't particularly fast though.

I never said there was a conspiracy.

ssd's primary benefit is faster reads.

the enviornment on a console is actually brilliant for it since writes are limited to instances outside of the game (unless game recording or background downloading).

TRIM was developed early on as initial drives did not have GC or very good GC, things have changed, whilst TRIM still helps its no longer as important as it was when originally developed.

In real life terms sata2 to sata3 means very little, on every day use the difference is negligible and probably not noticeable, sata3 is great for benchmarks yes but a ssd on sata2 is still lightning fast.

People have used ssd's on ps3's never mind ps4's.

What is more important than TRIM on a modern ssd is if the ps4 utilises ahci or not (command queuing).

ssd manufacturers are aware many people will run their drives in environments with no trim so they have spent lots of money and time to make their drives still work well when there is no trim. Yes it wont be as good, but it wont be bad to the point its no better than a hdd.

With all this said tho I wouldnt get a ssd for my conole, too expensive for the capacity, hybrid drive? maybe, hybrid's do seem ideal for consoles.

Some of the latest drives have firmware mechanisms that reportedly negate the need for TRIM operations, but they are prohibitively expensive for most enthusiasts, let alone the average gamer. The SSD technology at the affordable and hybrid end of the market, requires firmware support for TRIM.
Without it you could end up with the drive's capacity halved or worse, within a couple of years.

I'd love some info on a £150 SSD or Hybrid that specifically states TRIM firmware support is not required, if you have it to hand. Then I would be sorely tempted to purchase one myself.

In reply to a post by astateoftrance:

sure spookeh and others know much more and can advise

I wouldn't count on it!

Sound advice. I've read the thread now and Timey's a lucky boy he has so much good input (Swanny excepted of course!)

Looks like Chrysalis is the biggest brain here regarding the technicalities and mrnelster's research is the most pertinent.

I'm using a Seagate Momentous XT 2.5" hybrid hard drive with my Macbook so blame me for piquing Timey's interest.

My suggestion at the time was that his own iMac would benefit more from using such a device than from a massive RAM upgrade.

I have a very limited understanding of SSDs and hybrids but I recall that the failure rate for SSDs is actually meant to be higher than it is for traditional hard drives believe it or not. Even though they are solid state rather than mechanical. Can't remember much about it now and it's definitely true SSDs have improved a lot (particularly with TRIM and on-disc cell erasing management) but my biggest concern here is how important is the operating system the SSD/Hybrid disk is part of.

The Seagate Momentous drive has its own software built in to cache the OS/most frequently used data so it loads up much quicker but I don't know how dependent that is on the OS used? Windows and Mac OS are a given but for the PlayStation? I dunno. And yeah, capacity is limited to 1TB as far as I know. Very good value though...

I would probably just recommend a 2TB drive that's at least 7,200rpm with known reliability and decent performance. I expect whatever you get is pretty much going to be better than what the PS4 comes with. I agree that 500GBs is marginally too little with game requirements these days if you're like me and you like to have a few games installed at the same time. I'll check out the links Timey old chap and if I find anything useful I'll let ya know. Hope you get your baby working again soon mate.

Parp!!!!!!

In reply to a post by Lt_Swan:

Parp!!!!!!

Said with true style.

Been reading the PS4 reddit forum thread article but just came across this post on another thread:

Thanks for posting! Gathering data has taken so much longer than I anticipated, but I've been working on it. Here's a quick preview...

There is a performance difference between drives when launching a game, but it's a narrow gap.

Installing a game to the hard drive was identical across all drives 5400/7200/SSHD/SSD, which I thought was interesting. That tells me the optical drive is the gating factor, which makes sense.

The other big question was physical drive size. Sony recommends 9.5mm max height, but my calipers agree with the German site that did an early teardown and said up to 12mm will fit. It would be very snug and may affect air flow, but it will fit.

The 7200rpm/killer heat myth has been debunked too. Peak exhaust temp is typically 44C under load, and the drive cage was about 10C lower. Changing drives had no meaningful effect. (The 7200rpm drive was barely warm after hours of downloading)

Performance wise, there is no dramatic difference between drives. I think the sweet spot will be 7200rpm drives, because you can get up to 1.5TB at a very reasonable price.

I should be able to finish up the spreadsheet tonight, to share load times so people can judge for themselves. AtariXL

Another guy links to this article though: PlayStation 4 (PS4) HDD, SSHD and SSD Performance Testing

Seems there's quite a bit of hold up going on with optical disc based games (despite installation to hard drive). This, the author speculates, is likely to be some kind of constant disc checking DRM authentication going on that's slowing things down and reducing the speed potential differential between the three drives tested: stock 5400rpm HDD as supplied, Seagate SSHD and SSD. In short, if you really want the most out of a change in storage drive you'd be downloading your games directly from the PSN store.

There might be more up to date articles out there. For me, I can't be bothered with it all anymore. Though, in conclusion, it looks like SSHD does confer some smallish advantage in performance. I'm getting some serious deja-vu now that's telling me (reminding me more like) Timey isn't gonna read this anyway.

Essentially, you want capacity buy a larger drive and don't worry about performance too much.

Very interesting. I think I would personally just go for a standard 2 TB HDD also.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Some of the latest drives have firmware mechanisms that reportedly negate the need for TRIM operations, but they are prohibitively expensive for most enthusiasts, let alone the average gamer. The SSD technology at the affordable and hybrid end of the market, requires firmware support for TRIM.
Without it you could end up with the drive's capacity halved or worse, within a couple of years.

I'd love some info on a £150 SSD or Hybrid that specifically states TRIM firmware support is not required, if you have it to hand. Then I would be sorely tempted to purchase one myself.

no ssd requires trim to function.

modern ssd's should still work reasonably well (and much better than hdd's) in a trimless environment.

As I already said a fair few people already use ssd's now without trim, anyone on an old motherboard will be no trim, raid0 unless a bios version from within last 12 months = no trim. Using ide/sata mode instead of ahci mode = no trim.

If trim was required it would be put in the manual, on the box etc, it isnt.

zfs has only just got trim support yet people have been using ssd's on zfs for years.

There may be 'some' ssd's that cope badly, so yes best to research, but I expect modern samsung and intel ssd's to be fine.

A article here.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-trim-firmwar...

Bear in mind the torture test is not the load expected in a console.

Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 06-Dec-13 23:15:45)

Will read these posts through tomorrow mate when i have a bit more time,just been giving Nelly a lesson on Twitch streaming service on the playstation 4 how to play a FPS timey style

I got confused after the first 2 lines you certainly up on the technical stuff Chrysalis well above my pay grade

I know who to ask when i want technical answers thats for sure,yourself Nelly and Spooky

Don't get me wrong i know certain stuff regarding PC and Consoles but its always best to ask fellow gamer there thoughts and opinions when thinking of other drives and upgrading.

I now have less than 300 gig left on the playstation 4 after installing Battlefield 4 this evening,providing the playstation 4 pulls its socks up and don't start giving me [censored] again i will be soon wanting to order a replacement hard drive so post the links of whats best and where from as long as its not SSD and has to be SATA 2 and around 2TB or just under�..Hybrid me thinks is the way to go.

Seagate 1TB SSHD Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" 5400RPM 64MB

£89.99 inc VAT & del pre order but lots of stock incoming at Ebuyer (Trance's heads up)

In stock but £99.99 at Overclockers

Cons:

only 5400rpm (there used to be a 750GB version with 7200rpm spindle speed tho it seems to be discontinued (I think you can still get this on Amazon but will have to pay an inflated price and there's probably no point)
only 1TB (which appears to currently be the largest capacity for laptop sized 2.5" hybrid drives)

There's also a slightly cheaper Toshiba Hybrid drive for £89.99 but I don't know if it's any good at all.


Remember - you need to get 2.5" laptop drives not 3.5" as that won't fit!!
SATA 3 is backwards compatible. You don't need to only look at SATA 2 models.


Two 2TB drives at Ebuyer

Lots of 1TB options at Ebuyer

Just one 1.5TB drive at Ebuyer

All these drives at higher capacities are 5400 rpm only. Dunno how much of a difference that will make in practise. There are other important parameters to consider when buying HDDs that reading the conclusion at geeky hardware sites and comparing some simple graphs will show. If you're not in a particular hurry I'd wait. 2 reasons: one) people (esp gaming sites etc, will start recommending stuff and two) there should be more choice and hopefully a little cheaper at that.

I don't know but does the PS4 support external hard drives as an extended game installation directory? They may do in future? USB3 has got to have enough bandwidth all things (like seek times etc) being equal. Definitely seems like a bad idea but we're all used to USB2 so maybe it's not such a daft thing to contemplate? Any info out there about that?

Dabs and Scan are two more places to look at (as well as googling). Be sure to double check the HDD's 2.5" not 3.5" before ordering. Check the 'Green' HDDs especially as they're designed to be more energy efficient (ie - slower).

In reply to a post by SPOOKish:

only 5400rpm (there used to be a 750GB version with 7200rpm spindle speed tho it seems to be discontinued (I think you can still get this on Amazon but will have to pay an inflated price and there's probably no point)
only 1TB (which appears to currently be the largest capacity for laptop sized 2.5" hybrid drives)

I heard that the speed isn't really noticeable and that the faster ones run much hotter so you're better off with the 5400

yeah thanks for pointing that out, my ssd in my pc is a sata3 model yet I use it on a sata2 interface.

I heard that the speed isn't really noticeable and that the faster ones run much hotter so you're better off with the 5400

Sounds sensible to me.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-momentus-...

£79.18 in stock

Thanks Dr Spook

So here is the question ?

If you had a Playstation 4 and you wanted to upgrade the drive in the next week which would you choose if money was no object

In reply to a post by time2die:

Thanks Dr Spook

So here is the question ?

If you had a Playstation 4 and you wanted to upgrade the drive in the next week which would you choose if money was no object

Money no object eh? That means I'd have to seriously consider a 1TB SSD but presently all the intel out there suggests for performance purposes a hybrid drive is a good bet but again you're restricted at 1TB in size and you said previously you wanted more space?

So, what I'll do for ya (as we're pals and all), is take a looksie and try and find my mate a nice 2TB hdd that's got a good reputation for speed and reliability. At the moment, I honestly feel - as space is your main requirement - that you should go for a 2TB drive (or thereabouts) if you're not in the habit of uninstalling games and all that carry on.

So, my questions to you first:

How much space do you really need? We'll forget about speed. I hear these PS4 games use up enormous amounts of hard drive real estate. Is that true?

How would you feel about buying another drive in future (and having to reinstall again stuff at a later date)? Right now, I'd be tempted to just click on kamelion's link to Scan and just get the 1TB Seagate hybrid drive then buy another 2TB drive or whatnot in future. That's what I would do.

Also - a note about overheating. If anyone had read my linked article/s, they'd have seen that apparently heat is not an issue with faster spinning hard drives in the PS4.

Be patient. That's my final bit of advice as you're not in danger of running out of space any time soon so it's not affecting you just yet. However, just get the Seagate drive if you like for now. Keep the old Sony provided drive of course. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, you could do some Professor Timey inspired research and buy 4 drives: that 2TB Green one (WD), the Seagate Momentous XT (1TB) @ 5400 rpm as well as the original Seagate Momentous XT (750GB version) @ 7200 rpm and a 1TB SSD that has a good reputation/spec for the PS4. Then you could put them all to the test and make some fancy graphs and talk the PlayStation community through all the pros and cons yourself. Get your stopwatch ready!

There's another option but its a bit ghetto. Mount a drive externally and then you aren't restricted to 2.5 inch drives and the mechanical limits on drive platter size. You could even make a nice bracket for it to mount it tidily.

Edited by deleted (Sun 08-Dec-13 23:32:30)

Yeah don't fancy doing that

German website ComputerBild has posted a series of hands-on pictures with a pre-release PS4 model. Based on the machine-translated German text, the 2.5-inch laptop-style hard drive is held in place with simple Phillips-head screws, so it�ll be simple to remove. Even better, it will fit drives as tall as 12.5mm � substantially more spacious than the PS3s maximum of 9.5mm.

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/168945-ps4-confirm...

For a moment there I thought I was living in 2019 ???
I must have been caught up in a negative reality inversion

Hmm, difficult to work out what your post is about when you are replying to a post from 2013?

In reply to a post by ian72:

Hmm, difficult to work out what your post is about when you are replying to a post from 2013?

It was at the top of the page, I didn't put it there and there were no other recent posts so I guessed it must have been a negative reality inversion /
How else would a thread from 6 years ago make it up here?

In reply to a post by Lt_Swan:

I must have been caught up in a negative reality inversion

�That looked just like a negative reality inversion, didn�t it?�

�Yes, it did a bit.�

I would guess spam was posted and then deleted - but the spam post would bring the "last post" date up in the forum page. It happens occasionally.

Yea you're probably right but there's still a slight chance that it was a negative reality inversion