It's very likely that any USB 3.0 drive will be compatible with the PS4. (5) More likely than not, you don't have to stick to any brand name Because the USB 3.0 interface is universal, and storage is just storage, you don't need to stick to a particular brand, even if Sony recommends one.
#PS4 HARD DISK DRIVE PORTABLE#
Of course if you have the money to burn, or you move your PS4 around alot, I'd still recommend a portable drive. Additionally, there simply aren't many portable drives over 4TB, so the full-sized drive is usually the only way to go. (4) For 4TB drives or more, consider a full-sized desktop drive Here we see a more of a price gap between the two. They also won't offer noticeable performance improvements over their portable brethren if all you are using it for is PS4 storage. Desktop hard drives are bulkier, louder, draw more power, and require a separate AC adapter for power. That means a single USB cable will serve double duty as both charge and sync. Not only are they much smaller and easier to tote around, they are entirely USB bus-powered. (3) For 3TB drives or less, stick with a portable hard drive The cost difference between a portable hard drive and a desktop hard drive for 3TB and smaller drives is insignificant compared to the convenience of portable drives. We would recommend something like this Seagate FireCuda Gaming 2.5" (Portable) Internal Hard Drive paired with a cheap hard drive enclosure. Now if loading speeds do matter for you, an SSHD is what you want.
#PS4 HARD DISK DRIVE PRO#
The PS4 Pro has an even faster SATA III interface, and we saw little to no time decreases there. We don't think the increased bandwidth of the USB 3.0 interface will improve SSD performance either. However, based on our own test on an original PS4, you can get most of that reduction simply from upgrading to an SSHD (hard drive with SSD cache) at a fraction of the cost.
MaClarification: Upgrading from a 5400RPM HDD to an SSD won't improve gaming performance but it will reduce your system bootup and loading times. The bottleneck is with the PS4 hardware itself, not the drive or the USB interface. (2) Don't buy an SSDĪlthough an SSD with a USB 3.0 interface would work, you would see little to no increase in performance. Fortunately most new drives are USB 3.0 compatible. TipsThere are a ton of hard drive options out there, but there are some guidelines we would recommend you stick to: (1) Your drive must be USB 3.0 compatible This is a no-brainer because USB 2.0 drives are not compatible.