Prices for PS5 SSDs are flying low – that’s how cheap you can expand the memory

Upgrading a PS5 with more storage is easy, but it has also been very expensive up to now.

No console has internal storage as fast as the PS5. At the time of launch, SSDs with the then brand new PCI Express 4 standard were still so expensive that Sony had to make a tough compromise in terms of capacity: buyers only have just over 650 GB available.

Fortunately, the PS5 can be easily expanded, a standard NVMe SSD can be attached via a slot on the side. However, the steep price for an upgrade that also meets Sony’s speed specifications made many gamers shy away. At the moment, however, they are at the all-time low!

Up to 25 percent price drop in just two months

Storage media are subject to a fixed cycle: demand is very high at first and production gradually adjusts to this, but over time demand decreases, after which manufacturers slowly reduce their production volumes.

In times when there is too much supply, the prices also drop, after all, the storage suppliers do not want to be left with their SSDs. This is happening on an even larger scale than usual, as money worries resulting from increased inflation mean that PC and laptop components such as SSDs are no longer in demand by far.

In addition, there are drastically reduced production costs: Flash memory components for SSDs are currently cheaper than ever as production costs have fallen and SSD manufacturers order smaller quantities from their suppliers – After all, their warehouses are full to bursting. All of these aspects result in a price drop of up to 25 percent (in the case of 2 TB NVMe SSDs).

Some examples of the reduced prices:

At the beginning of the year, the low was one Samsung 980 Pro with 2 terabytes at 233 euros (via Geizhals.de). You can get the same model on Amazon for just under 180 euros. The 1 TB variant fell from just under 125 euros to 100 euros in the same period.

With the 980 Pro, however, you would have to install an additional cooler, which is available for a few euros. For example, here is a popular Thermal Grizzly heatsink:

Also, the Kingston Fury 1000G is an absolute bargain right now. The SSD is slightly slower than the Samsung 980 Pro, however, comes with a pre-installed cooler, making it quite popular among PS5 fans:

Does it even have to be that fast?

Digital Foundry’s technical experts have examined whether PCI Express 4 SSDs with lower data rates are not also compatible with the PS5. And lo and behold: Even if the data transfer rates of 5.5 gigabytes per second estimated by Sony are not achieved, the SSDs can be used with the console without any problems. The loading times are then only fractions of a second longer.

Such tests are more than a year old. There are now many SSDs on the market that fall short of Sony’s recommendation, but only so narrowly that you will hardly notice any differences compared to a faster SSD.

However, the apparently lower level of performance pushes the sales price down and is therefore easy on your wallet. The SN770 in the 1 TB version from Western Digital, for example, only costs 75 euros (you have to buy a cooler separately), but with 5.15 gigabytes per second it performs almost at the recommended level:

Have you found the right SSD for you? Here’s how to install it:

External SSDs have also become cheaper, but they are not worth it for PS5 buyers

The storage capacity of a PS5 can also be expanded via one of the USB ports. Traditional hard drives still offer the most storage space, but they load games very slowly due to their mechanical design.

An external SSD would therefore be the better solution, but they hardly differ in price from an internal SSD like the Western Digital SN770. So you are better off with that, especially since no PS5 games can be started from USB storage media.

SSD prices are likely to remain low

Since a price trough is usually followed by a rise, the time to buy is pretty good right now. However, a number of analysts are assuming a very low price level for the entire year, as demand has collapsed for many months and production costs have fallen much more than forecast.

Have you added additional storage to your PS5?