Looking for a cheap SSD to replace HDD in PS4 Pro

[Stahlmann]

I bought one 2nd hand a few days ago and loading times on this console are absolutely atrocious compared to my SSD-only PC.

 

I read that replacing the stock HDD with an SSD can help in some games, plus it gets rid of the HDD noise. Since it only supports 2.5" SATA drives and a PS4 isn't constantly writing stuff, I'd wager a DRAM cache also isn't important. I'm gonna install 2-3 games and that's probably going to be it.

 

The cheapest one I could find when searching for at least 480GB was from Emtec, but I never heard about this brand. Are there any red flags? 

 

Emtec ECSSD960GX150 960 GB Interne SSD Power Plus 3D NAND: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

[Needfuldoer]

I've never heard of Emtech either, but for a console it's probably fine.

 

Compare prices against the used market, too. I've bought plenty of used Intel, Micron, and Samsung SSDs in the past with no issues. (Especially for a game console that shouldn't hold anything irreplaceable.)

 

Here are used 480 GB Micron and Intel SSDs for a little less than that no-name one costs:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/355250057639

https://www.ebay.de/itm/266674215407

[Stahlmann]

27 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

I've never heard of Emtech either, but for a console it's probably fine.

 

Compare prices against the used market, too. I've bought plenty of used Intel, Micron, and Samsung SSDs in the past with no issues. (Especially for a game console that shouldn't hold anything irreplaceable.)

 

Here are used 480 GB Micron and Intel SSDs for a little less than that no-name one costs:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/355250057639

https://www.ebay.de/itm/266674215407

I've seen the error in my ways. I accidentally searched for the cheapest GB/€ instead of the cheapest for 480 GB specficially. Changing these parameters brought up brand new units for around 30€ from more reputable brands. I just got the KIOXIA EXCERIA SSD 480GB for 36€. Thanks anyway!

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, Stahlmann said:

I bought one 2nd hand a few days ago and loading times on this console are absolutely atrocious compared to my SSD-only PC.

 

I read that replacing the stock HDD with an SSD can help in some games, plus it gets rid of the HDD noise. Since it only supports 2.5" SATA drives and a PS4 isn't constantly writing stuff, I'd wager a DRAM cache also isn't important. I'm gonna install 2-3 games and that's probably going to be it.

 

The cheapest one I could find when searching for at least 480GB was from Emtec, but I never heard about this brand. Are there any red flags? 

 

Emtec ECSSD960GX150 960 GB Interne SSD Power Plus 3D NAND: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

It doesn't make much improvement as I recall as the PS4/PS4 Pro has other bottlenecks that prevents it ever reaching decent load times.

 

 

[Stahlmann]

2 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

It doesn't make much improvement as I recall as the PS4 is limited by how its SATA port works (I believe its connected over USB internally), not to mention CPU limited when decompressing the assets.

Tbh I've seen mixed reports on reddit, etc. I mean 36€ isn't a huge deal to me, if anything at least I'll get rid of the HDD noise this way.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Just now, Stahlmann said:

Tbh I've seen mixed reports on reddit, etc. I mean 36€ isn't a huge deal to me, if anything at least I'll get rid of the HDD noise this way.

Never heard the HDD in mine and I seemed to have the model with quieter fan, some people said that gets really loud.

[Stahlmann]

2 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Never heard the HDD in mine and I seemed to have the model with quieter fan, some people said that gets really loud.

It was the first thing I head when powering mine up. I probably noticed it more because I've been used to a completely silent PC for a few years now. Even in PCs I never found HDDs annoying. But after a few years of using SSDs only suddenly I can instantly hear them in most devices that use them.

[Alex Atkin UK]

16 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

It was the first thing I head when powering mine up. I probably noticed it more because I've been used to a completely silent PC for a few years now. Even in PCs I never found HDDs annoying. But after a few years of using SSDs only suddenly I can instantly hear them in most devices that use them.

Maybe I've aged out of being able to hear them, lol.  Probably not though, its usually high pitches you lose as you get older and coil whine still drives me insane.

 

Most 2.5" HDDs are really quiet, could be you got a bad model or its old and failing?

[Stahlmann]

3 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Maybe I've aged out of being able to hear them, lol.  Probably not though, its usually high pitches you lose as you get older and coil whine still drives me insane.

Maybe the HDD I have is unusually loud and was the reason why the seller sold it in the first place. Who knows with 2nd hand stuff. That being said, in this subforum alone there are 3 other threads talking about hard drive noise on the first page alone.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Just now, Stahlmann said:

Maybe the HDD I have is unusually loud and was the reason why the seller sold it in the first place. Who knows with 2nd hand stuff.

Yeah, especially if its been dropped.  Although I think I dropped mine when swapping it out for a PS5, surprisingly it seems to be fine but I misplaced my controller so can't properly test.  No plan to sell it anyway, keeping it in case I have a mad urge to play PSVR1.

[leclod]

In my PS4 Pro it's the DVD drive that's loudest, then Fan (not sure sure). Don't remember ever hearing the HDD and I agree with @Alex Atkin UK but I changed it with an SSD long ago tbh.

 

I recommend going 1TB (or even 2TB if you can), probably not much more expensive and very soon useful.

 

I recommend buying a cheap (proven) SSD.

Remember the PS4 is SATA1 150MB/s, my PS4 Pro is SATA2 300MB/s.

So if you only have a PS4 the SSD will be severely bottlenecked by SATA1 (but still faster than your HDD)

 

Edited March 5 by leclod

[Stahlmann]

2 minutes ago, leclod said:

I recommend going 1TB (or even 2TB if you can), probably not much more expensive and very soon useful.

 

I recommend buying a cheap (proven) SSD.

Remember the PS4 is SATA1 150MB/s, my PS4 Pro is SATA2 300MB/s.

So if you only have a PS4 it will be severely bottlenecked by SATA1 (but still much faster than your HDD)

I have the Pro model.

 

It's probably still down to the specific games and where the bottlenecks are. As I said, I've seen mixed reports of SSDs improving load times online.

 

In any case, I only bought it to play a few exclusives where I gave up waiting for PC ports, and I mostly just play Rock Band 4 to get more out of my electric drums (because I can't be bothered to learn a musical instrument properly). So currently I only have Rock Band 4 and Bloodborne installed. I might try Dragons Dogma or 1 or 2 other older games. I don't want to play Call of Duty or anything like that, so I'm pretty sure 480GB will be enough.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 minute ago, Stahlmann said:

I have the Pro model.

 

It's probably still down to the specific games and where the bottlenecks are. As I said, I've seen mixed reports of SSDs improving load times online.

 

In any case, I only bought it to play a few exclusives where I gave up waiting for PC ports, and I mostly just play Rock Band 4 to get more out of my electric drums (because I can't be bothered to learn a musical instrument properly). So currently I only have Rock Band 4 and Bloodborne installed. I might try Dragons Dogma or 1 or 2 other older games. I don't want to play Call of Duty or anything like that, so I'm pretty sure 480GB will be enough.

I had my game library on an external SSD, so that the gameplay recording wouldn't trigger TRIM issues (the PS4 does not support TRIM so once blocks need freeing up for writes then it could cause lags).  I think there's a test showing that's slightly faster than having it internal.

 

Even so, loads times are terrible compared to PC.

[leclod]

19 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

so I'm pretty sure 480GB will be enough.

You can go Emtec. Plenty happy buyers at Amazon and you'll never get close to the drive's limits in the PS4 Pro anyway.

10 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I had my game library on an external SSD. I think there's a test showing that's slightly faster than having it internal.

Wouldn't you loose more keeping the HDD in the PS4 than you might win (my PS4 doesn't write much to the drive) ?

Edited March 5 by leclod

[Stahlmann]

2 minutes ago, leclod said:

You can go Emtec. Plenty happy buyers at Amazon and you'll never get close to the drive's limits in the PS4 Pro anyway.

Like I already mentioned, the Emtec was only better value per GB (in their 1TB model). Once i filtered for cheapest 500GB-class drive, KIOXIA was in the race too.

[Alex Atkin UK]

3 minutes ago, leclod said:

You can go Emtec. Plenty happy buyers at Amazon and you'll never get close to the drive's limits in the PS4 Pro anyway.

Wouldn't you loose more keeping the HDD in the PS4 than you might win (my PS4 doesn't write much to the drive) ?

Lose what?

[leclod]

3 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Lose what?

Lose speed, time. You start the PS4 on the HDD. Then you still handle the external SSD via the OS on the internal HDD (ok, maybe that part is loaden in the Ram by then)

 

Edited March 5 by leclod

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 minute ago, leclod said:

Lose speed, time. You start the PS4 on the HDD. Then you still handle the external SSD via the OS on the internal HDD

 

Not that I'm aware of.  Why would it?  When in games the only thing that really matters is the drive the game is loading from.  Not writing to that drive while gaming means it can focus on reading.

[Stahlmann]

I have pretty much only played Bloodborne since making the switch, but in that particular game, the load times are significantly faster. I feel like 30-50% of the load time has been shaved off. I can't say exact amounts because I didn't time the load times with the hard drive still installed.

 

I have to hand it to Sony, I never expected this switch to be so easy. It's literally just downloading the PS4 firmware from the Sony website, putting it on a USB drive, swapping out the storage drive, plugging in the USB, and reinstalling the firmware. Not counting the backup time (which is optional), it took maybe 10 minutes or so.

[Mark Kaine]

On 3/5/2024 at 3:17 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

It doesn't make much improvement as I recall as the PS4/PS4 Pro has other bottlenecks that prevents it ever reaching decent load times.

 

 

this has always been a very weird myth on ps3 already... however replacing the stock hdd with a Samsung Evo 850 was the best investment i ever made, many games had vastly improved load times, installation process was like speed up x10, it even reduced pop-ins and lag in certain games...

 

so unless the ps4 is actually a lot worse than ps3 was in that respect i have huge doubts about these claims.