Could Sony's SSD solution be the better deal after all? (not about speeds)

Gaming
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I used to use these all the times before I got my server. Had a few melt too :grimacing:

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Yikes. I’ve never used one, but it’s basically what every “External” hard drive is. Except they use parts that usually don’t melt/explode. :smile:

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Ha ha, it was way back in the day, and the more spectacular failures were the “toaster” types. Thankfully, it was relatively little data compared to what we’re used to now! @Staffy Please share your findings if you still intend to do research! I wouldn’t mind having a peer-reviewed list of good accessories.

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Their argument is basically: “Why do I need an external HDD or SSD if I have an internal one?”

Simple: portability.

Plug it in, copy whatever you need and plug it somewhere else. It’s the easiest possible way to handle this situation, there are no drawbacks.

The only thing someone could complain about is the price, but they don’t have comparable PS5 drives to compare to. In order words, they have nothing.

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But…you will get 3rd degree burns and be hospitalized?

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I won’t swap cards likely ever, but I’d imagine it is far easier to use the XSX’s solution as a memory card if ya wanna take your games to a buddy’s house.

The XSX solution is proprietary, but they are also teaming up with other vendors and are varying prices/storage options in the future. I also dunno how pricey PS5’s solution is since Sony has not given us a list of compatible off the shelf SSD’s. Lots of ppl seem to assume any ole SSD that is ‘fast’ will work. That isn’t the case. I think the SSD needs to have its own heatsink too for PS5, but might be wrong there.

I don’t think the topic in general is a big issue tbh. Most will just use a HDD and transfer games back and forth as needed.

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Nice! So with that enclosure I would only need a “regular” cheaper PC SSD and insert it into that? That’s how it’ll work?

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I don’t see why it wouldn’t. Of course, I would do some google sleuthing just to make sure.

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Yeah, that’s my understanding but I would maybe wait for another article from Grubb to be sure.

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It’s likely that off the shelf drives later in the gen will be cheaper for PS5 than whatever cards are available for Xbox, but the card has its good points (convenience, can’t buy something that won’t work, transfers between systems). It’s good news that there will be more cards and manufacturers coming, they need a 512GB card @ $100 for Series S buyers ASAP.

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I think this’ll be a big point. Unless Sony are extremely loud and clear about this, I foresee a lot of frustation in the future. I’ll be curious to see how they handle it because on the face of it, more options is always a good thing but it’s extremely easy to burn through goodwill if you aren’t specific enough. Apropos of nothing, I had a Piano Black :smile:

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I think they would be smart to partner with an ssd maker to get an “approved” ssd into Playstation packaging and onto store shelves next to all the other PS peripherals.

But for anyone thinking the PS5 ssd solution will be cheaper than MS’s, I think you’ll be disappointed. Premium drives just simply cost more. You can’t brag about the speed and “bleeding edge” nature of your ssd and then expect it to cost less than a drive that isn’t (and doesn’t have to be) as fast.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens, but I’m fully expecting storage expansion on the PS5 and XSX to continue being absurdly expensive well into this gen. Like a lot of other people, I’ll be utilizing a much cheaper cold storage option for both.

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Yes, I completely agree! This new tech is shiny and expensive. I will say that I think that Microsoft being generally transparent about things is less likely to come back and bite them. Once you get over the sticker shock, it’s just one option. Things are more vague over on the PlayStation side right now, and it remains to be seen if this is another instance of letting Microsoft take heat for a while before announcing pretty much the same thing. It seems like things might be working out the same in terms of game prices, setting aside the massive ace in the hole that is Game Pass.

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I am going to do this, i dont mind waiting a minute or two to transfer a big AAA game, also you get the loading speed benifits for x1,360 and og xbox games.

Its worth noting an external sata ssd of 500mb/s will be the same speed as a external nvme ssd because both are bound by the max transfer speed of usb 3.1 which is 500mb/s

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After a few years neither will be considered bleeding edge, and at that point the PS5 using standard drives that don’t need to be packaged for a special, low volume interface should help them drive costs lower than MS will be able to. But I agree PS5-compatible drives will be absurdly expensive for the near term and MS may even have a slight advantage, we’ll see.

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No I think the PlayStation solution is crazy. To expand storage you need to take console apart, buy a correct Nvme drive that Sony has certified - and as yet they haven’t done this and said they won’t till post launch and then install it yourself carefully.

That can go wrong at a number of points and the drives Sony certifies will all be more expensive than the Seagate expansion card at least initially. There will be no viable 2Tb option for the PS5 for a long time if ever…prices would need to come down over years unless you fancy putting a hard drive in that costs way more than the console itself.

Xbox has a simple solution and they can add more products to the market. I’m sure they will do a 512Gb card specifically looking at the S.

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Do you talk about the internal oder expandable SSD solution? I wouldn’t call it better. It’s a different one. Both have trade-offs and I as a PC gamer would love a normale NVMe SSD expansion slot more. But that’s just for me. For most other people plug and play is better.

Especially if we consider, that pretty much nothing has changeable storage or today anymore. The internal SSD is expensive as you can see, but it’s faster. How much das will benefit the Ps5, we’ll see later in the generation.

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So to summarize…

Advantages of the Xbox solution:

  • it will definitely be available at launch, still no word on whether any currently available NVMe will be a good fit for PS5
  • easy to buy, you can’t mistakenly buy a solution that doesn’t work
  • easy to install, you just plug it in, no need to disassemble anything or use any external tools
  • easily portable between different systems, you can use it on multiple consoles or take it to your friend’s place
  • hot-swappable, no need to turn the system off to install or replace it, which makes having multiple expansion units a convenient option

Advantages of the PlayStation solution:

  • in the long term probably more flexibility when it comes to size and pricing, although we now know that Xbox will also offer alternative solutions, and Jason Ronald talking about different form factors suggests that adapters for standard NVMe drives might also be one of them
  • you can also use them on PC and possibly other devices

Am I forgetting something? Of course, PS5’s SSDs will be faster, but that’s the advantage of the system, not specifically the expansion solution, and it remains to be seen what that will amount to in real life situations.

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39

I just want something cheap and simple, but really I’m not rushing to buy expandable storage at the launch price. Maybe wait a year or two.

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That’s a really good summary. Everything about the experience should be better for Xbox, but they are likely to have a price disadvantage over time and may also have limited capacities to choose from.

The pro for PS5 looked potentially huge when people were speculating that the entire Xbox expansion ecosystem was just locked to Seagate. But if they do have multiple manufacturers on board, it should help reduce the advantage Sony will have here.

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