What are the best SSD expansion drives for PS5 Pro?

Question

so I was thinking about my ps5 pro setup and honestly im kinda stressed about the storage situation already... i have about a $170 budget for an ssd and im torn between the 2tb wd black sn850x and the samsung 990 pro. my logic was that the samsung is faster on paper but then i read that the ps5 maybe tops out at a certain speed anyway so am i just wasting money?

the sn850x is on sale locally right now but then i see the 990 pro with the built-in heatsink and it looks so much safer but its pushing my budget limit. if i get a drive without the heatsink to save $20 will it just melt inside the console? i need to get this sorted before launch day because i want everything ready to go...

JosephSweft · Accepted Answer

Honestly, ive spent way too much money on drives over the years just to realize the premium name brands arent always the smartest play. In my experience, you get way more bang for your buck with something like the Lexar NM790 2TB NVMe SSD. I swapped one into a buddys console recently and its basically lightning without the big brand tax. About the heatsink... your console definitely wont melt. Ive run drives bare for testing and they just throttle if they get too hot, but they dont die. If you want peace of mind, just buy a bare drive and slap a SABRENT M.2 NVMe PS5 Heatsink on it yourself. I did that with an SK hynix Platinum P41 2TB NVMe SSD and saved enough to buy a new game. It literally takes two minutes to install and works better than most factory sinks anyway.

Spravkiofe · Answer

Wait, how many games are you moving?WD_BLACK SN850X 2TB: Fast, but ran hot in my setup.Crucial T500 2TB Gen4 NVMe: Decent option that stayed cool in my tests... wouldnt worry tho.

Jesusevisa · Answer

Tbh you're overthinking the speed specs. The PS5 generally caps out its sequential read around 6500 MB/s during the actual console benchmark, so those 7450 MB/s marketing numbers on the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe SSD dont really translate to faster load times in-game compared to others. Here is the breakdown based on what I have seen in the data:

The WD_BLACK SN850X 2TB NVMe SSD is basically the gold standard for price-to-performance right now.

You definitely need a heatsink, but you dont have to buy the factory-installed one.

Getting a standalone Sabrent M.2 NVMe PS5 Heatsink is usually cheaper and actually fits the slot better than some generic ones. If the SN850X is on sale locally, just grab it. It wont melt your console, I promise. As long as you have any decent chunk of metal on there for heat dissipation, you are good to go for launch day. Save that extra cash for a new game instead.