PS4 Hard Drive Compatibility – Everything You Need to Know
There are several benefits of replacing the internal hard drive of PS4 with a new, modern hard drive that offers larger storage capacity with a better performance that enhances the overall user’s gaming experience with their console.
Although a wide variety of users are inclined to expand the storage capacity of PS4 by adding an external hard drive that works as an extension to the primary system storage of PS4, there are still strong reasons that justify going for an internal hard drive replacement instead.
If you want to read more on a comparison between replacing/upgrading the internal hard drive of PS4 and adding an external hard drive, please view this article.
You Need a Compatible Hard Drive
Do you know that not all hard drives fit for PS4 internal storage upgrade? There are standards any hard drive must follow in order to be fully compatible with PS4 storage upgrade, which are:
- Serial-ATA interface. This is mandatory and any drive you pick for the upgrade purpose must be configured with SATA interface, no matter what generation it is, as long as it connects to the motherboard via SATA cable.
- 2.5-inch form factor. This is also mandatory if you’re looking forward to place the new hard drive into PS4 drive cage. Otherwise, you can go for a 3.5-inch form factor on condition that you use a special accessory for that purpose called: Data Bank.
- Maximum 9.5mm thickness. Again, this is mandatory if you’re looking to place the new hard drive into PS4 drive cage. Otherwise, you can break this standard and use a data bank to add a different drive.
That’s all you have to ensure in the new hard drive you pick in order to be fully compatible with PS4 internal hard drive upgrade.
PS4 Compatible Storage Device Types
There are three types of internal storage devices in the market, that are:
- Traditional mechanical hard drive (HDD). It comes in different form factors ranging from 1.8-inch to 3.5-inch. What’s compatible is the 2.5-inch as you know, and it’s the same form factor of the drives used for laptop computers nowadays. Just make sure the drive is configured with SATA interface, not NAS or any other interface.
- Solid State Drive (SSD). This is the best storage upgrade you can get for PS4 in terms of performance, but we only recommend it for PS4 Pro. This storage device usually comes in 2.5-inch form factor and in a very slim design that barely exceeds 7mm. The 3.5-inch form factor version of this drive is almost instinct and you might never find one in the markets today. Almost all SSDs are fully compatible with PS4, and they offer the highest speed and the most solid performance for every system, not only PS4. This type of storage device is configured in various bus interfaces, like mSATA and m.2. So, make sure it’s SATA interface that you opt for.
- Solid State Hybrid Hard Drive (SSHD). This comes in two form factors, one for laptops and other for desktops. The modern laptop SSHDs, like Seagate Firecuda SSHD, are fully compatible with PS4. Indeed, they are the best hard drive upgrade for PS4 in terms of price, capacity and performance all together (read more).
Other storage device types won’t fit for the purpose of upgrading PS4 hard drive.
A List of PS4 Compatible HDDs
Here, we pick for you a list that includes 7 of most popular hard drives that are fully compatible with PS4 and fit for the hard drive upgrade purpose:
Brand | Type | Capacity | Speed (rpm) | Cache | Thickness | Warranty |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Seagate FireCuda | SSHD | 1tb and 2tb | 5400RPM | 128mb + 8gb NAND | 7mm | 5 Years |
Seagate Barracuda | HDD | 1tb and 2tb | 5400RPM | 128mb | 7mm | 2 Years |
Samsung Seagate Spinpoint M9T | HDD | 2tb | 5400RPM | 32mb | 9.5mm | 2 Years |
WD New Blue 1TB | HDD | 1tb | 5400RPM | 8mb | 9.5mm | 2 Years |
HGST Travelstar | HDD | 1tb | 7200RPM | 32mb | 9.5mm | 2 Years |
Toshiba Notebook | HDD | 1tb | 5400RPM | 8mb | 8.9mm | 3 Years |
WD Black Performance Mobile | HDD | 1tb | 7200RPM | 32mb | 9.5mm | 5 Years |
As can be seen in the table above, there are several PS4 compatible hard drives that can be a great upgrade for your game console. We strongly recommend that you mostly focus on the cache memory, as it is a major factor that determines the overall performance of the drive, and the larger it is, the strongest the drive is.
Note that these drives are also compatible with PS4 Pro internal hard drive upgrade and PS4 Slim HDD upgrade.
Conclusion
It’s way too easy to upgrade PS4 stock hard drive, only if you have everything ready for this process in hand. Regardless the screwdriver and other equipment used for carrying out this process correctly, you’ll need a compatible hard drive that fits for this purpose.
It’s better to avoid additional equipment as much as possible, so we don’t recommend going for a drive that requires a data bank to fit. Rather, go for a drive that you can directly cram inside PS4 drive cage, and enjoy the optimized performance and the larger capacity it offers to you and you family.