Crafty Gamer Modifies PS4 To Run with 2 TB “External” SSHD Drive, Claims Better and Cooler Performance

Giuseppe Nelva January 14, 2014 2:16 PM EST

Most gamers normally purchase consoles and then just play on them without touching the hardware. Some, like me, like to be a little crazier and disassemble them to change the thermal paste and do similar small-time maintenance, then there are those that go all out, and prefer to go ahead and change them a bit more radically.

Paul Statham, who also happens to be Community and PR Manager at ARMA III Developer Bohemia Interactive, is one of those gamers, and decided that the tiny 500 GB 2.5″ HDD provided with the PS4 wasn’t enough for his taste, so he set out to replace it with a massive 3.5″ 2 TB Solid State Hybrid drive.

You’re probably asking yourself: “How the hell did he fit that in the console? It’s too big.” And in fact he didn’t. He purchased a few spare parts and actually mounted the drive externally, thanks to creativity and a bit of technical knowledge.

Modifying the console like that has a few advantages: first of all 3.5″ drives have a cheaper cost per gigabyte than 2.5″ ones, and the SSHD offered also provides better performance. The issue is that the internal power source of the PS4 doesn’t have enough juice to run such a giant, so Paul had to actually include an external power source (just for the hard drive) with his creation. That actually gave a further advantage, as according to our bold modder it lets the system run slightly cooler since the internal power source has to draw less power and there isn’t a warm HDD inside.

Below you can see a gallery with the finished modification, that didn’t “harm” the PS4 at all, thus not voiding the warranty. If you want to try this at home (but remember that we or Paul can’t claim responsibility if you fail horribly and destroy your console in the process, so proceed with caution and only if you know what you’re doing) you can also find a list of the parts Paul used and the order in which they’re connected here.

A female to male SATA cable can also be used instead of the gender changer, but according to Paul his option provides a more secure fit.

Unfortunately the modification seems to have a drawback, as it won’t allow you to set the PS4 in stand-by mode, but nothing is perfect. Ultimately this is definitely a clever way to make the impossible possible (at least a little bit), and isn’t that what Sony’s philosophy is all about?

I can almost hear Gene Wilder screaming “It could work!”