Is it worth adding an M.2 drive to your PS5? | TechRadar

Is information technology worth adding an Grand.2 drive to your PS5?

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Sony recently released a software upgrade that activates the Chiliad.2 slot on the PlayStation five, letting you increment the storage chapters so you can take more games installed on it at any given time. That's a expert thing, as game install sizes are approaching 100GB and the PS5 has under 900GB built-in usable space.

The procedure for upgrading is quite easy - y'all just need to popular off the white covers from your PS5 and so unscrew the bay that holds the Thou.2 drive. Earlier you even decide to exercise this upgrade, at that place are two things to consider. Your M.2 drive needs to have speeds that friction match or exceed Sony's minimum 5500MB/s recommendation. Secondly, the bulldoze should also have a skilful heatsink on it, every bit running at those speeds tin can brand it very hot.

Addlink sent us their AddGame A95 GEN4X4 NVMe that not only has a good 9.1mm low profile aluminium heatsink, just besides exceeds Sony's recommended speeds by quite a margin. The 2TB bulldoze that was sent to the states for testing has a read speed of 7300MB/s and a write speed of 6900MB/s. Pricing for the 2TB version is around $359, merely a 1TB version is too available at nearly $195.

The A95 uses 3D TLC NAND flash and supports PCIe Gen 4 which non but makes it a proficient drive for PlayStation just besides for your PC. We tested the drive on our PC with a PCIe Gen4 motherboard and got the following speeds with CrystalMark, verifying what ADDGame claims:

Coming to the PlayStation v, we tested it out by measuring the time information technology took to launch games on the built-in drive also as from the AddGame A95. Here are the results:

Game launch times on PS5
Game	Built-in storage	AddGame A95
Alan Wake	22s	20s
A Plague Tale	26s	26s
The Last of U.s.a.	34s	34s

We likewise measured the time it took to copy games from PlayStation 5'southward built-in drive to the AddGame A95. Here are the results:

	Time to movement	Size (GB)
Alan Wake	24s	30GB
A Plague Tale	27s	34GB
The Last of U.s.a.	29s	39GB
Nier + Demon's Souls + It Takes 2	01:36	124.50GB

As you lot can encounter, the speeds on the AddGame A95 were quite impressive, and the drive offered great operation when information technology came to game launches and installation. If you'd like to grab some more than storage for your PS5 before y'all run out, this is definitely an M.2 SSD that yous should consider installing.

Need fifty-fifty more than storage? These are the best external difficult drives and then far

Abbas has been living and breathing technology before phones became smart or clouds started storing data. He as well has commitment issues towards mobile phones.

Driven by tech and passion, he has successfully negotiated into bringing the largest gaming and tech publications to the Heart East that include IGN, CNET and TechRadar.