PS5 SSD Upgrade: The One Drive to Buy After the Holidays Fill It Up
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Holiday game gifts just ate the rest of your PS5 storage. Now you’re staring at “not enough space” every time you try to install something new. Good news: the fix is a single drive, and Sony already told you exactly what it has to be.
What Sony Actually Requires
PlayStation support is specific about this. The drive has to be:
- PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 NVMe (not Gen3, not SATA)
- 250GB to 8TB capacity
- 5,500MB/s or faster read speed, recommended by Sony
- Built with a heat-dissipation mechanism: a heatsink or heat transfer sheet attached to the drive
That last point trips people up. Sony also warns not to stack a second heatsink on top of a drive that already has one built in. So the easiest path is a drive that ships heatsink-equipped and sized correctly for the PS5’s M.2 slot, no separate part to hunt down or guess the dimensions on.
One more thing Sony notes: not every game runs exactly the way it does on the internal SSD, even on a qualifying drive. For the vast majority of games this is a non-issue, but it’s worth knowing going in.
The Picks
- WD_BLACK SN850P NVMe SSD for PS5, 2TB: the internal upgrade, officially licensed and heatsink-included.
- Samsung T7 Shield 1TB: cheap overflow storage for PS4 games and parking PS5 game files.
For the Internal Upgrade: WD_BLACK SN850P
This is the drive to buy if you want more PS5 storage, full stop. It’s officially licensed for PS5 by Western Digital (now sold under the SanDisk brand), which means it comes with a heatsink built specifically to fit the PS5’s M.2 slot. No measuring, no “will this heatsink clear the slot cover” guesswork.
On spec, it clears Sony’s bar easily. The 2TB model is PCIe Gen4 and rated up to 7,300MB/s read and 6,600MB/s write, well past Sony’s 5,500MB/s recommendation. It carries a 5-year limited warranty from Western Digital.
Because the heatsink is already matched to the drive and the console, you’re not choosing between “buy the fast drive” and “buy the right heatsink and hope they fit together.” That’s the whole appeal here: one purchase, one part, done.
For installing it, don’t wing it. Sony publishes an official step-by-step guide for installing an M.2 SSD in the PS5, and it’s worth reading start to finish before you touch a screwdriver.
For Overflow Storage: Samsung T7 Shield
This is a different job, not a cheaper version of the same job. The internal SSD is for games you want to play. The T7 Shield is for games you want to keep without playing them right now.
Here’s the catch, straight from PlayStation support: PS4 games can play directly off USB extended storage, no problem. PS5 games cannot. A PS5 game can be stored on a USB drive like the T7 Shield, but you have to move it back to the console’s internal storage before you can play it. Think of it as a shelf, not a second console drive.
That makes the T7 Shield a smart buy for a few specific situations:
- You have a backlog of PS4 games you want available to play without reinstalling from disc or download.
- You want to park PS5 games you’re not playing right now, then swap them back in when you want them, instead of deleting and redownloading.
- You’re not ready to open up the console yet and just need breathing room.
Spec-wise it’s a USB 3.2 Gen 2 drive rated up to 1,050MB/s read by Samsung, which is plenty for its job as extended storage even though it’s well under what the internal M.2 slot demands.
Which One Do You Actually Need?
If you’re out of space and want to actually play more installed games without juggling storage, get the internal upgrade. The WD_BLACK SN850P is the one drive that checks every box Sony lists and removes the heatsink-matching headache entirely.
If you just need a parking spot for PS4 games or PS5 titles you’re cycling in and out, the T7 Shield handles that at a much lower cost, you just have to accept the move-it-back-to-play step for PS5 titles.
Plenty of households do both over time: T7 Shield now for overflow, internal upgrade later when budget allows. Either way, you’re not stuck deleting your kid’s newest holiday game to make room for your own.
If storage wasn’t the only thing on your holiday gear list, check out our gift guide for gamer dads who only get 20 minutes at a time for more ideas that actually get used.