Change the SSD holder in the Sony PlayStation 5 console. We check the performance of the best Samsung SSD 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe

One of the most important novelties of the current generation of consoles – PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S – is the built-in SSD bus, which significantly improves gaming comfort compared to old drives (HDDs). Thanks to the SSD, we can enjoy (usually) games that load quickly, as well as faster copying of files within the media. However, it is impossible not to note the ever-increasing requirements for new games, especially with regard to the amount of free disk space. Combined with the relatively small size of the SSD media built into the consoles, this leads to a situation where, after installing some big games, we no longer have room for additional production runs. In the case of the PlayStation 5, the remedy for this is an additional M.2 slot for the SSD. However, it has been inactive for about a year, and the M.2 port has only been activated by a recent software update. On the basis of the Samsung 980 PRO SSD, we show step by step how to install such a bus on the console, and also check its performance.

Author: Damian Mrsiak

The Sony PlayStation 5 console has a built-in 825GB SSD. Of course, this does not mean that we have a lot of space for our own use, because without installed games, it offers exactly 667 GB of free space. After all, that’s very little by today’s standards. After installing a few games (like Mass Effect Legendary Edition taking over 100GB, and Marvel’s Avengers; let’s add the new Call of Duty with the Warzone console and we practically have an entire SSD already full!), the problem starts to arise where to cram the upcoming games. The solution is the recent PlayStation 5 software update, which activated the M.2 slot after almost a year, thanks to which we can finally install an additional SSD bus or replace the base with a faster model.

The Samsung 980 PRO is currently one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD carriers. We’re checking out its capabilities on the Sony PlayStation 5 console, which recently received the option to install an optional M.2 SSD drive.

Samsung NVMe SSD 980 PRO Test – Fastest PCI-E 4.0 SSD

Before we even discuss the specifications of the Samsung 980 PRO and show its performance in the Sony PlayStation 5 console, let’s focus for a moment on the official requirements that the Japanese manufacturer places on semiconductor media. First of all, it should be models that currently support the fastest PCIe 4.0 NVMe interface – attempts to insert a PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD end with a message about installing an incompatible medium. Recommended sequential read speed is at least 5500MB/s. SSD models with Key M (Key M) in sizes 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 and 22110 can easily enter the M.2 slot, and it is also recommended that the included mount have its own heat sink. When it comes to capacity, the console can read models from 250GB to 4TB without any issues. It all sounds like a high entry threshold, but let’s check out what the best Samsung 980 PRO has to offer.

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Samsung 980 PRO Drive It uses the Samsung Elpis 8-channel compatible console with PCIe 4.0 interface and NVMe 1.3c protocol. For 1TB media, the sequential read is 7000MB/s, and the sequential write is 5000MB/s. The number of random reads and writes is even more impressive, in both cases reaching 1,000,000 IOPS. The manufacturer also used 1 GB of LPDDR4 cache and 3-bit TLC bones. It is currently one of the fastest solid-state media with a PCIe 4.0 NVMe interface. The manufacturer used a 114 GB SLC buffer in the 1 TB model, and it works in Deafult (6 GB) and Intelligent (108 GB) modes with TurboWrite technology.