PS4 SSD vs HDD – Quick Comparison Guide
Using a solid state drive (aka SSD) to replace the stock hard drive of PS4 has been one of the hottest trends among PS4 fanboys nowadays like never before. That’s because new PS4 games are now designed with highly-enhanced graphics and complex code functions that demand more resources to run and play on the stock HDD of PS4 (i.e. Some heavy games take more than 75 seconds to load, which can be frustrating to a wide variety of users).
Therefore, in order to overcome this pitiful situation and get PS4 to operate at its peak performance potential, many PS4 users aspire to upgrade PS4 HDD with SSD due to the undeniable fact that SSDs are way too faster than mechanical hard drives to the extent that an entry-level SSD can be up to 3 to 4 times faster than the fastest hig-end hard drive in the today’s market. And, especially if you have the PS4 Pro model, an SSD is
What if you get to know also that the PS4 stock internal hard drive is just a piece of an obsolete garbage that must be replaced with a better drive immediately if you’re serious about optimizing the performance of your PS4 and enhancing your gaming experience with it. (Read more on PS4 HDD specs for more details on this matter.)
Accordingly, an SSD presents itself as a very appealing storage upgrade solution for PS4 that offers much higher performance boost than a traditional hard drive, and a solid reliability that you can depend on for long years without fearing from any failure or defect in the near future. But, unfortunately, the steep price of an SSD compared with that of classical HDD is the biggest drawback in this kind of storage upgrade solution. So, primarily for this reason, we recommend going for an SSHD instead of an SSD, as it features a great compromise between performance, capacity and price. (Read more about PS4 SSHD for more details.)
As for this article, here SSD is compared with HDD in almost all major aspects, so as to help you get a clearer image about what benefits you’ll get from using an SSD in PS4 and whether it is worth to pay a premium for it for your game console or not.
SSD vs HDD – General Comparison
This section generally compares an SSD with an HDD in the major features to realize the real power of an SSD and why it’s magnitudes much better than HDD in all aspects expect price.
| Features/Drive | SSD | HDD |
|---|---|---|
| Heat & Power Consumption | Due to the use of microchips – SSDs use very little power and product nearly no heat. | Because of the moving parts in an HDD, they use more power which results in more heat output. |
| Components | SSDs are free of mechanical parts. They’re comprised of ICs (integrated circuits) that work alongside an interface connector. Primarily, there are three main functions – the capacitor, the cash, and the controller. | Inclusive of moving and mechanical parts designed with a motor-driven disk that’s responsible for holding data platters (with a magnetic strip layer). Atop the platter are heads that “read” and “write” data. |
| Price | SSDs are way much expensive than HDD. The cheapest 1TB mainstream SSD costs almost $250. | HDDs are known to be the cheapest storage solutions. 1TB of a high-end HDD costs almost $65. |
| Form Factor | SSDs have different form factors—2.5-inch, which is the most common and it’s the one that PS4 accepts. 1.8-inch and 3.5-inch, both don’t meet the PS4 HDD upgrade standards. | HDDs have the same variety of form factors. Only the 2.5-inch form factor is accepted, unless you want to use an equipment like a Data Bank. (Read more here.) |
| Interface | SSDs are configured with various interfaces—SATA, which PS4 only accepts, mSATA and M.2. | HDDs have different interfaces also—SATA, SCSI and PATA (obsolete). |
| Reliability | SSDs are more resilient, are less likely to encounter malfunctions, and provide better long-term use because of this. Because of their reliability, it’s not at all uncommon to receive a 5-year or 10-year manufacturer warranty. | HDDs are more prone to malfunction than SSDs due to their mechanical parts. In fact, an HHD is 7x more likely to encounter a failure than an SSD because of their use of mechanical parts. |
| Weight | No disk, spindle, or disk motor is present making it weigh less than an HDD. | They weigh more than an SSD due to their mechanical parts. |
| Defragmentation | SSDs are not prone to fragmentation and remain unaffected. | Over time an HDD drive can lose its performance due to fragmentation which can require routine maintenance. |
| Speed | Reduced latency and increased read/write speeds. Can handle more operations per second. | HDD’s provide higher latency and longer read/write durations. They handle fewer operations per second than an SSD. |
| Warranty | Due to there being no moving parts, malfunction or breakage is less likely to occur. Most manufactures offer a 10-year warranty. | Due to mechanical parts that are prone to malfunction, most manufacturers only extend a 5-year warranty. |
This is a general comparison between SSD and HDD, but what about comparing the performance of PS4 HDD and SSD? This is what you’ll find in the coming section.
PS4 SSD vs HDD
Now it’s the time to see what power an SSD offers to PS4 and how much performance improvements you’ll gain from using one in your game console.
| 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 |
It’s important to note that you shouldn’t expect the power given to a PC to be given to PS4, that’s because the performance improvements SSDs offer are limited by the system resources, and since PS4 is not considered a powerful system, the performance improvement will be limited accordingly. (read more on PS4 SSD here.)
Conclusion
Comparing PS4 HDD with SSD gives you insights on whether an SSD is suitable for you or not. In general, we believe that an SSHD like Seagate Firecuda 2tb SSHD is the best storage upgrade solution for the vast majority of PS4 users. Unless you own PS4 Pro, then an SSD is the best here if you can afford its price, as PS4 Pro makes a better use of SSDs than the standard PS4.
Think you mixed up the warranty comments / columns for SSD vs HDD
Oh yes, thanks for notifying us. It’s fixed now.
“PS4 Pro makes a better use of SSDs than the standard PS4” – Do you have an article or anything else describing why this is?
Yes I do.. Have a look here.