It doesn’t matter if your gaming platform of choice is a PC or a dedicated console. Either way, storage matters, as games are not exactly shrinking in size. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to upgrade the storage on your PC or console, and especially the PlayStation 5 when it comes to the latter, which lets you install an off-the-shelf solid state drive (SSD) so long as it meets a certain set of size and performance requirements.
One that fits the bill is the capacious 4TB Lexar NM790 SSD. That’s a lot of storage space—more than four times as much as what comes standard on the PS5—and it’s on sale for $249.49 at Amazon right now. It’s fully compatible with the PS5, and of course it works just fine a PC setup as well.
Regarding the PS5, it works with a variety of M.2 form factors. Here are the supported specs…
- Interface: PCI Express Gen 4×4, M.2 NVMe SSD
- Storage: 250GB to 8TB
- Form Factor: 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280, 22110
- Width: up to 25mm
- Length: 30/40/60/80/110 mm
- Thickness: up to 11.25mm (up to 8.0mm from above the board, up to 2.45mm from below the board)
- Seq. Read Speed: 5,500MB/s or faster recommended
- Socket Type: Socket 3 (Key M)
You can check out our guide on how to upgrade your PS5’s storage, but it’s a rather simple affair—just pop off the PS5’s lid, remove the M.2 slot’s EMI shield, install the SSD, then put it back together. When you hook the PS5 back up and turn it on, it will format the SSD.
As for the Lexar model that’s on sale, it’s a fast drive with rated sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,400MB/s and 6,500MB/s, respectively. That makes it one of the better values in the high-speed SSD space currently.
Alternatively, you can score Silicon Power’s 4TB US75 SSD for $234.99. That’s not a sale price, but it is one of the lowest price tags for a PCIe 4.0 model in this same general speed class (7,000MB/s reads, 6,500MB/s writes).
For those of you who are rocking a handheld console like the ASUS ROG Ally, you’re best served with an M.2 2230 form factor SSD. It just so happens that Lexar has one of those on sale as well—the 1TB Lexar Play 2230 SSD is marked down to $81.49 on Amazon (save $12.71).
It’s not a ginormous savings, but it’s a decent-enough price for 1TB of storage on a truncated form factor. You can also install this in handhelds like Valve’s Steam Deck to make room for more games. Regarding performance, it’s a PCIe Gen 4×4 model with rated sequential read speeds of up to 5,200MB/s and write speeds of up to 4,700MB/s.
Here are a few more SSD deals…