

Upgrading the PS4 storage device (featured by a mechanical hard drive) to an SSD is a very popular option. Simply, if you look for the maximum possible performance out of your game console, you’ll need PS4 SSD upgrade. Because SSDs are known to be the fastest and most reliable storage device in history. They proved very high endurance and consistent performance over other storage devices, particularly hard drives.

Do You Need PS4 SSD Upgrade?

We’re all big fans of SSDs due to the great performance advantages they offer in all aspects, but that’s only when they are used in computers, not game consoles like PS4 or Xbox. That’s because a computer is qualified with its design and operating system to benefit the most from an SSD. Whereas a game console is NOT, no matter how powerful it is. The 4x or 5x performance increase is only seen in computers. As for game consoles, an SSD can only offer maximum 40% or 50% performance improvement. Yes, this is still a big number in the world of gaming. But when you take into consideration the premium you’re going to pay for that, you’ve to hold back and carefully rethink about it.

Alternate Option

Therefore, we have prioritized upgrading PS4 HDD to an SSHD. It’s the best PS4 storage upgrade in terms of overall features. It offers almost 80% of the performance you’d gain if you go with an SSD. Additionally, it comes with a capacious storage space up to 2tb. All of that for a very adequate price.

Worth it to say that an SSD can be a better option for PS4 Pro if you can afford it. You can read more about that in the PS4 Pro SSD Guide.)

Brief on this Guide

In this guide you’re going to learn everything you need about this matter. Therefore you will know exactly what you need. But as has been stated earlier, and based on our long experience in the tech realm, we advise of an SSHD instead.

Before we go deep into details with this guide, we will list the best PS4 SSD Upgrades. That’s in case the reader doesn’t get convinced and insists to get an SSD instead.

Best 1 tb SSD for PS4

This is the most popular SSD size for PS4. It’s suitable for the overwhelming majority of users. It comes with almost the same size of the stock hard drive.

As long as you are the only user for your game console, or you have an additional partner on the same console, this 1tb SSD storage capacity is presumed to be sufficient.

ٍMushkin TRIACTOR-3D 1TB SSD MADE IN USA. The Mushkin TRIACTOR-3D SSD is the latest efforts of Mushkin, a highly-reputed US-based company that’s known to manufacture reliable SSDs. Released in Mar 2017 , this SSD is one of the newest SSDs in the market. It comes with the implementations of the latest SSD storage technologies. Compared to other SSD brands, in terms of performance, reliability and price, we can confidently say that this drive features the best 1tb SSD upgrade for PS4.

Alternatives

The following drives feature good alternatives to the above one. They offer 1tb of storage capacity and high data transfer rate. All with the same price range (under $300) as our top recommendation.

SanDisk Ultra II 1TB SSD

SDSSDHII-1T00-G25

Crucial MX300 1TB SSD

CT1050MX300SSD1

ADATA Ultimate Su800 1TB SSD

ASU800SS-1TT-C

Best 2 tb SSD for PS4

The 2tb capacity SSD is best suited for enthusiasts with exceptional storage needs. Most enthusiasts are content with 1tb, and when they need an additional storage space, they use an external hard drive for this purpose.

This SSD size comes with a high price tag that most users cannot afford. But if your budget is fine with that, here we list below the best 2tb SSDs for PS4:

ٍMushkin REACTOR 2TB SSD The Mushkin Reactor Series SSDs are designed to appeal gamers and to those making their first move to solid-state storage. The Reactor is appealing for two reasons: price and MLC flash. As far as pricing goes, the Reactor is about the most cost effective SSD on the market. The Mushkin REACTOR 2tb SSD model is currently our Budget Buy leader. It’s an affordable, well-balanced SSD for anyone looking for acceptable performance at a low price.

Alternatives

There’s only one 2tb SSD that can be a real alternative to the above drive in terms of price and performance. Other SSDs with the same capacities are too expensive and we won’t be recommending them.

Crucial MX300 2TB SSD

CT2050MX300SSD1

Why to Use SSD in PS4—The Pros

There are several advantages/benefits you’ll gain from upgrading PS4 HDD to an SSD. They are:

The boot-up, sleep, and wake up processes of PS4 system will be noticeably faster with an SSD. As for an SSHD, it only offers faster boot-up time here, nothing else. An SSD in general is the most reliable storage device. If you have a serious concern about storage device failure, an SSD gives you the confidence you need for this purpose. SSD is the best storage solution for online gaming, especially when you have a very fast internet connection. SSD will help you move faster between game sessions, and respond instantly to your opponent reactions. Whereas this is not possible on that level of speed with HDD or SSHD. Game and apps installation is faster with an SSD. That’s due to the high write speed an SSD boasts over all other storage media. Although an SSHD offers a fast game loading time that’s only a few seconds behind an SSD, the SSHD can’t cut on the time of game session shifting, whereas an SSD can.

SSD Performance on PS4

As for SSD performance on PS4 and how fast it is, here’s a list of games tested on an SSD in PS4 to see the speed gains an SSD offers for PS4 users:

Game Title/Loading Time (Seconds) PS4 500GB Stock Drive OCZ Trion 100 480GB Bloodborne – Central Yharnam 30.8 16.9 Bloodborne – Great Bridge 26.1 15.0 Bloodborne – Old Yharnam Respawn 30.7 15.4 Bloodborne – Return to Hunter’s Dream 10.7 7.4 Fallout 4 – Vault 111 31.7 17.4 Fallout 4 – Exiting Vault 111 25.7 17.2 Fallout 4 – Concord Town 55.5 29.1 Fallout 4 – Diamond City 49.0 28.6 Just Cause 3 – New Game 69.9 43.8 Just Cause 3 – First Mission Respawn 28.9 21.1 Just Cause 3 – Baia 65.6 43.7 Just Cause 3 – Baia Respawn 23.4 16.2

What about SSHD performance then? You can’t get the full performance advantages of SSHD until you run a specific game at least 5 times. Therefore, SSHD will learn that it’s a frequently used game and, consequently, save it in its SSD cache. Otherwise, it will perform just like a mere mechanical hard drive. That’s why most of the reporters who underestimated the power of SSHD just tested it with PS4 in the first or second round only and recorded the results.

The advantages of SSD sound so appealing. But in fact, they are minor if you remember that an SSD will cost you more than 5x the price of an SSHD (2tb SSD costs around $450. On the other hand, a 2tb SSHD costs around $90). Eventually, it’s up to you after all if you that’s worth your money to pay for.

How to Choose the Best PS4 SSD

Consequently, if you have made up your mind to go for PS4 SSD upgrade, you need to consider the following guidelines before making the final step and purchase that speedy drive.

Additionally, I think it’s important to know the capabilities/potentials of PS4 before judging. That’s in order to get a broader picture on the whole matter.

PS4 Performance Potentials

PS4 is just a game console that was designed for specific tasks. It’s unlike a computer that can handle lots of operations/tasks at once.

As a result, PS4 doesn’t employ a strong CPU like a computer does. The computer’s CPU is able to handle so many multitasking operations that PS4’s CPU can’t. If you get to know that SSDs are designed to help computer’s CPU handle multitasks, then you understand better why SSDs perform much faster on computers than PS4.

In a nutshell, the multitasking feature that an SSD is designed to handle will NOT benefit PS4 system. Therefore, you cannot play two games at the same time on PS4, neither run multiple applications simultaneously. PS4 CPU was designed to fit in that situation.

So, what does that mean after all?

It means that the huge data flow the SSD sends to CPU won’t be processed instantly as a whole like a computer does. Rather the data will be set in a queue waiting for its turn of CPU processing.

What if you know that PS4 is configured with SATA II interface NOT SATA III? That makes the situation worse, and will surely remarkably bottleneck the SSD performance.

That’s in brief. You’ll understand now why we recommend Seagate Firecuda 2tb SSHD as the best PS4 internal HDD upgrade.

The Principles

Now, if that hasn’t convinced you enough, you can still go with an SSD for your convenience. Just take note of the following principles when choosing an SSD for your PS4:

A mainstream (entry-level) SSD offers almost the SAME performance as a enthusiast (high-end) SSD does. That’s due to the limitation of PS4 hardware specifications. PS4 CPU cannot even properly and wholly handle the tremendous speed the mainstream SSD offers. That means an enthusiast SSD is just a waste of money in PS4. Although PS4 is configured with SATA II interface, don’t pick a SATA II SSD for its cheaper price. Rather, gGo for a modern SSD instead. That’s because old SSDs degrade quickly and need continuous maintenance and refreshment using the TRIM feature managed by the SSD utility software package provided by the manufacturer, which is only available for install in computer systems. As for new and modern SSDs, they can maintain their performance automatically without the need for TRIM support on the system them are installed in. SSD manufacturers have always advised to maintain at least 15%-20% of free space on SSD in order to keep it running at its peak performance. I’m not sure if this has been fixed in the modern high-end SSDs of today though, but it’s worth of your attention. That means you must expect to use only 80% of your SSD storage capacity. Preserve the SSD for your important games and apps, and let the less important ones be installed on an external hard drive. Yes, this is the best way of using an SSD on PS4. You’ll run your favorite games and apps on their highest performance level, while keeping others handy on an external hard drive connected to your game console. If you want your SSD to last long on PS4, then pick a prominent, highly-reputed brand that has a good history in the industry and offers at least 3-year limited warranty. Unknown brands are risky to consider. Don’t go for less than 1tb of SSD storage capacity, because then you’ll limit yourself too much with the too small space. PS4 games are designed to accommodate PS4 hardware, and an SSD is not into the designers’ consideration. Maybe if you own a PS4 Pro the situation differs, especially with its support for SATA III interface, but games made for PS4 standards won’t benefit too much from an SSD the way you want.

Once you fully comprehend and follow these guidelines, you’ll be safe in your route for picking the right PS4 SSD.

How to install an SSD in PS4

Sony has made PlayStation 4 hard drive so easy to replace and upgrade, and upgrading it to an SSD is just as easy.

All what you need to do is the following: