The Playstation 4 finally received the ability to connect external hard drives of 2.5 or 3.5 inches with update 4.5. This way, you can offload games and data at will and no longer need to constantly free up space on the internal drive. But which hard drives are the best and which can you buy with a clear conscience?
On March 9, 2017, the long-awaited Firmware update 4.5 for Sony’s Playstation 4 console was released. Not only was there a Booster Mode for the PS4 Pro included, but you could finally connect external hard drives to your console. This allows you to plug large external hard drives into the USB port of your Playstation 4 and you are finally freed from the bottleneck of the way too small standard PS4 hard drive.
Playstation 4 Update 4.5 – Which hard drives can I connect externally?
With the Firmware update 4.5, entirely new possibilities open up for the PS4. While you were previously limited to a maximum of 1 terabyte (unless you had swapped in larger drives yourself), you can now connect external drives with up to 8(!) terabytes with the new firmware. More than enough storage space for your favorite games.
To ensure that the read and write speeds are also right, the new software of the Playstation 4 also supports the fast USB 3 standard – if you want that, make sure when buying a hard drive that it also uses USB 3!
External hard drives for PS4 – 2.5 or 3.5 inches?
If you are dealing with the topic of external hard drives, you often hear about 2.5 and 3.5-inch drives. Don’t worry, you can connect them all via USB, the size only affects the actual dimensions, volume, weight, and power supply.
- 2.5-inch drives are lightweight and compact. You can easily plug them in and take them with you. In addition, they do not require a separate power connection and are energy-efficient. However, they are smaller in volume than the larger 3.5-inch models.
- 3.5-inch drives are heavier and bulkier than their smaller relatives and almost always need their own power source. However, they are significantly larger than the 2.5-inch versions and have a better price-performance ratio.
If you don’t want to carry your data around much or at all, a 3.5-inch drive is probably the better choice for you.
Playstation 4 – External hard drives – HDD or SSD?
Most external hard drives are still HDDs, or “Hard Disk Drives”. These are standard hard drives, in which a mechanical read head reads the data from a magnetized disk. Such hard drives are inexpensive, but they produce a noticeable hum during use and are prone to impacts and shocks due to their mechanics.
Completely different are the SSDs: These “Solid State Drives” have, as the name suggests, no moving parts. The data is read directly from the memory without a mechanical read head. As a result, SSDs are lightning fast, consume little power, and are shock resistant. The downside: they are usually quite small in volume and expensive!
Amazon Bestsellers: The most popular external hard drives for the PS4 – Which should I buy?
The following external hard drives are a good choice if you want to properly expand your PS4. If you click on the individual products, you will also be able to select larger TB variants on Amazon. Have fun browsing!
External HDD hard drives
External SSD hard drives
Note: The article was originally published in early March. We have updated it.
