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The other reason to pay extra is that its performance is very good. The Toshiba Canvio Flex is a little faster, particularly when it comes to sequential read/write speeds, but the FireCuda isn’t far behind – and it outpaces most other rivals when it comes to loading games and saved games, albeit only by a couple of seconds in some titles. Its transfer times are also competitive when you’re copying games to and from the internal HDD. If you like the styling, this drive won’t let you down when it comes to performance. We run two sets of tests when we’re looking at external hard drives for the PS5. First, we connect them to a PC and run the CrystalDiskMark benchmark to test their raw sequential and random read/write speeds. Sequential speeds are an indication of how fast the drive can read or write large quantities of data in one sustained burst, which makes a big difference when you’re first running a game, loading a saved game, streaming in all the models and textures in a level or transferring a game from one drive to another. Random read/write speeds cover smaller data transfers, and make an impact when you’re running a game directly from the hard drive. There aren't any specific types of external hard drive you'll need to use with the PS4. Any USB 3.0 HDD or SSD will work, and capacity shouldn't be an issue either. Although, it's worth noting that you will need to format whatever drive you get to make it compatible with the PS4's software and storage type. Once you do format a drive to this type, you most likely won't be able to use it for any other purpose, which is a bit of a shame. Are PS4 external hard drives worth it? When it comes to running games on PS4, it’s actually the fastest HDD we’ve tested. In A-B tests with the Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive, it shaved 12 seconds off the time it took to load The Last of Us Part II, and 13 seconds off loading a saved game. Differences in other titles aren’t so noticeable – we’re talking just a second or two with Resident Evil 2 – but this is a great HDD if you want your PS4 library close to hand, or want to make the most of PS+ Extra. We run two sets of tests when we’re looking at external hard drives for the PS4 or PS4 Pro. First, we connect them to a PC and run the CrystalDiskMark benchmark to test their raw sequential and random read/write speeds. Sequential speeds are an indication of how fast the drive can read or write large quantities of data in one sustained burst, which makes a big difference when you’re first running a game, loading a saved game, streaming in all the models and textures in a level or transferring a game from one drive to another. Random read/write speeds cover smaller data transfers, and make an impact when you’re running a game directly from the hard drive.
If your PS4 is anything like ours, it's probably getting louder with every boot. A bit of expanded storage never goes amiss, but in particular, that launch model's 500GB of HDD won't fit many contemporary games. While you might not be able to get the performance we've come to know from the best SSDs for gaming, or even the best PS5 SSDs, there are plenty of great PS4 options that will work. The best PS4 external hard drives might give you better load times than the standard console HDD - especially since portable SSDs are getting cheaper. In truth, there are a million reasons why an external hard drive can come in handy, but with gaming on PS4 at this stage, it'll either help you move game data around, increase storage, or transfer screenshots and the like from console to computer. No matter your reason for looking, the list of external HDDs and SSDs down below will set you on the right path. Besides a short cable that comes in the box, this is a hard drive that's longing to be displayed well next to your console. No matter if you're using it for PS4 or PS5, this is an HDD that's worthy of a place on your TV stand. Of course, the other con besides a shorter cable is that this is yet another limited edition Seagate game drive that's HDD, not SSD. As external SSDs come down in price, we really hope this is the last time Seagate forces HDD on us.The best way to narrow down your selection is to decide on how much capacity you need – naturally, the bigger the better generally applies, and getting the largest space for the lowest price should be your goal. Next, you need to work out if you'd prefer an SSD or an HDD. If you didn't know already, even the fastest HDD is massively outperformed by the speed of an SSD. If you know for a fact you're in the market for one, we've collated a more specific list of the best PS4 SSDs for folks who want to modify their console into a PS4.5. Now is the time to swap an SSD into your PS4 Pro. With the price of SSDs constantly tumbling, thanks to a vibrant PC market, drives like the brilliant Samsung EVO 860 are now affordable and easy to use. When it comes to SSDs, the EVO series has long been the gold standard, and the 860 EVO replaces the 850 series, thanks to superior performance and more modern design and parts. It's actually cheaper than most 850s now too. Demonstrating this clearly is the fact that you can get a 1TB X6 for a similar price of SSDs with less than half of the storage. The Crucial X6 is fantastic for storing and playing PS4 games and will ensure you have the speediest of file transfers, loads, and games at your fingertips. A big benefit is that of getting a PS4 external hard drive that's likely faster than your PS4's internal one, and this will also be a drive that will go incredibly well with the new-gen PS5 console when and if folks upgrade. It comes with a USB-C port into the drive but this can be implemented as a USB-A or USB-C connection depending on what device you're using it on. In our testing, we got the same speeds through either port so it shouldn't matter which you have free or available, or if you change the device it's used with during its lifetime. There's a small but clear LED indicator on one of the short ends which is always a help, but one small downside is that it does get a little warm when in use so it'll pay to keep that in mind when positioning it.
However, where other drives with a similar spec have been overpriced, the P50 isn’t hugely more expensive than the T7 or its 1TB rivals, so you might find the reduction in transfer speeds makes buying it worthwhile. It’s also a well-built, stylish effort that looks good next to your Sony system. If you don’t mind spending a little extra, this is the best PS5 external drive.
Right now, there are only two reasons to choose a desktop external hard drive. First, they can run to larger capacities: even the biggest portable drives max out at 5TB, while desktop drives go up to the full 8TB maximum capacity. You’d have to have a massive games library, though, to make that a deciding factor. Otherwise, some desktop drives have a 7,200RPM spindle speed, where portable drives usually only manage 5,400RPM. This can mean slightly better performance, and slightly shorter loading times.
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