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Sony open up M2 SSD port to beta testers of system software

Södy

Member
I wish I could just install a cheap SATA M.2 SSD just for my PS4 games. That way I could get rid of my external SSD. Would be enough for me at the moment.
 
There's one thing people are overlooking about the M.2 NVMe requirements on the PS5 and that is that currently they can only be used through a BETA. No-one knows if once the final firmware is released to the public that Sony won't change the requirements for the internal expansion slots such that 5,500 Mb/sec becomes mandatory with slower drives no longer working or being supported. That is the whole idea behind beta testing. People will be testing these and reporting issues they are encountering, which could lead to Sony amending the requirements, either relaxing them or making them stricter. Therefore, a slower drive that works during the beta may not work at all in the final release if Sony deem the speeds too low.

I suspect Sony will not change anything though. The reality is that 95% of the PS5's games will be multiformat from the likes of Ubisoft, EA and Activision/Blizzard etc so that means developers have to cater for the slower SSD speeds of the Xbox Series consoles. Only first-party PS5 games will really utilise the full access speed in my opinion and then there's always the internal 825 GB console storage if they aren't working properly from the slower one in the expansion slot.

Still a little annoyed at not getting a beta invite. I play a lot of games and my internal storage has been full since the start of the year so having an extra 2 TB of storage for my games cannot come soon enough. I even bought a 2 TB WD SN850 in preparation for the beta. Just my luck! You can still sign up for the beta so clearly they cannot be overwhelmed with requests so why are they not letting more people test it?
 
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cormack12

Gold Member
I suspect Sony will not change anything though. The reality is that 95% of the PS5's games will be multiformat from the likes of Ubisoft, EA and Activision/Blizzard etc so that means developers have to cater for the slower SSD speeds of the Xbox Series consoles.

I don't think it's accurate to say that will be a problem because of Xbox lol.

The bottleneck for 3rd parties will be last gen consoles 5400rpm laptop drives until they don't make games for those platforms any more.
The next bottleneck will be PC HDD (if they decide to continue supporting standard 7200rpm). They would then need to start listing SSD as min spec. which very few games do currently, even PC exclusives.
Then they would have to only support PCIe 4+ speed SSD drives on PC. They would be savaging their market.

This generation will end before 3rd parties list PCIe4 SSD on their min requirements. But yeah, ultimately the advice will be if it doesn't work from the expansion ssd you bought, copy it to the internal. And it's likely that only 1st party titles will utilise it fully but even then when games like GT7 and H:FW are also built for PS4 that would also be some way off. And we're never going to have that data surfaced to us because they are closed boxes. It going to be up to the 3rd parties to keep pace in this instance.

I'm also PO about not getting a beta invite. I have a fat PS account with loads of digital purchases and like 6 consoles on it. Infuriating, when I've got my SSD there ready to plug in.
 

truth411

Member
These prices are INCREDIBLE. Almost 1,000$ for some. INSANE. Guess I will just wait a bit for prices to come down, Or just buy another PS5 and Series X for that price.
For the PS5 Prices will dramatically decrease overtime since its storage solution in Non-Propietary.
 

MScarpa

Member
For the PS5 Prices will dramatically decrease overtime since its storage solution in Non-Propietary.
I understand that which is why I said I would wait. For right now I'm not going to waste money on buying an overpriced storage device to be obsolete in 1 year.
 
I understand that which is why I said I would wait. For right now I'm not going to waste money on buying an overpriced storage device to be obsolete in 1 year.

I can agree with the prices being a bit high for the larger sizes. But I don't understand what you mean by obsolete. Technically the next tech update for SSDs are Gen5s but the PS5 won't be able to take advantage of those additional speeds. You will be pretty much limited to around 7GB/s but that doesn't mean those drives will become obsolete in the PS5. If you buy a 4TB 7GB/s drive it should last you the entire generation.

I agree that prices are very high for some drives but I disagree that they will become obsolete.
 

MScarpa

Member
I can agree with the prices being a bit high for the larger sizes. But I don't understand what you mean by obsolete. Technically the next tech update for SSDs are Gen5s but the PS5 won't be able to take advantage of those additional speeds. You will be pretty much limited to around 7GB/s but that doesn't mean those drives will become obsolete in the PS5. If you buy a 4TB 7GB/s drive it should last you the entire generation.

I agree that prices are very high for some drives but I disagree that they will become obsolete.
Obsolete as in the size of the drive. Not the speeds, etc. Just like the previous gens. The small sizes really hurt you later on in the generation. That drive ends up being kind of useless in 4 years from now.
 
Obsolete as in the size of the drive. Not the speeds, etc. Just like the previous gens. The small sizes really hurt you later on in the generation. That drive ends up being kind of useless in 4 years from now.

That's assuming you don't ever delete anything or move anything to cold storage.
 
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truth411

Member
Obsolete as in the size of the drive. Not the speeds, etc. Just like the previous gens. The small sizes really hurt you later on in the generation. That drive ends up being kind of useless in 4 years from now.
But you can always make that argument with everything. Like waiting for the inevitable PS5 Pro or Slim.
IMO just wait till Black Friday and buy an SN850 black SSD 1TB size, that will last a few years then purchase the inevitable "Cheap" PCIE 6.0 M.2 QLC 4TB in size. That will be still more than fast enough and will last you the rest of the generation.
Im assuming PS6 will come out holiday 2028.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
There's one thing people are overlooking about the M.2 NVMe requirements on the PS5 and that is that currently they can only be used through a BETA. No-one knows if once the final firmware is released to the public that Sony won't change the requirements for the internal expansion slots such that 5,500 Mb/sec becomes mandatory with slower drives no longer working or being supported. That is the whole idea behind beta testing. People will be testing these and reporting issues they are encountering, which could lead to Sony amending the requirements, either relaxing them or making them stricter. Therefore, a slower drive that works during the beta may not work at all in the final release if Sony deem the speeds too low.

I suspect Sony will not change anything though. The reality is that 95% of the PS5's games will be multiformat from the likes of Ubisoft, EA and Activision/Blizzard etc so that means developers have to cater for the slower SSD speeds of the Xbox Series consoles. Only first-party PS5 games will really utilise the full access speed in my opinion and then there's always the internal 825 GB console storage if they aren't working properly from the slower one in the expansion slot.

Still a little annoyed at not getting a beta invite. I play a lot of games and my internal storage has been full since the start of the year so having an extra 2 TB of storage for my games cannot come soon enough. I even bought a 2 TB WD SN850 in preparation for the beta. Just my luck! You can still sign up for the beta so clearly they cannot be overwhelmed with requests so why are they not letting more people test it?
People who aren't in the beta should probably wait until general release to buy a drive. I think it's a safe bet that anyone with an SSD with 5.5 GB/s is going to be fine. I probably wouldn't buy one slower than that until after general release to make sure they're still allowed. This is a beta after all. Things could change.
 

Md Ray

Member
That's the ultimate test. Which outlet is doing the test?

The drives in the xbox are some weird mode/hack tho, they aren't really gen4, so let's hope they can make them work.
Gosh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say who it is. They're quite famous on here though.

Expect a title like "We Ran Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart on Xbox Series SSD" or something similar to it lol. You guys will know soon enough.
There you go.

The actual content is still yet to come tho.

EDIT: oh shit, nope. He tried two drives and both of them didn't work lol.

 
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Md Ray

Member
But what's the dfference? why do bigger drives exist anyway then ?
According to Kingston:

There are 2 reasons for the different lengths:

  1. The different lengths enable different SSD drive capacities; the longer the drive, the more NAND Flash chips can be mounted on it, in addition to a controller and possibly a DRAM memory chip. The 2230 and 2242 lengths support 1-3 NAND Flash chips while the 2280 and 22110 support up to 8 NAND Flash chips, which can enable a 2TB SSD in the largest M.2 form factor.
  2. Socket space in the system board can limit the M.2 size: Some notebooks can support an M.2 for caching purposes, but offer a small space that will accommodate only a 2242 M.2 SSD (2230 M.2 SSDs are smaller still but not needed in most cases where 2242 M.2 SSDs will fit).
 

Tripolygon

Banned
For those interested. DF tried to put the XSX SSD inside PS5 and it didn’t work. I would guess firmware difference but I don’t think so as same SSD works on PC.
 
For those interested. DF tried to put the XSX SSD inside PS5 and it didn’t work. I would guess firmware difference but I don’t think so as same SSD works on PC.

What's odd is that the PS5 accepted it and was in the middle of formatting the drive. Then it crapped out at around 13%. Seem weird that it didn't reject the drive from the very beginning if it wasn't compatible with it. But then again it's just a beta.
 

Tommi84

Member
A sale on MP600 if someone wants. 1TB for 129,90Eur. Heatsink needs to be changed, but the price is nice
 
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Topher

Gold Member
A sale on MP600 if someone wants. 1TB for 129,90Eur. Heatsink needs to be changed, but the price is nice

Good price, but I think you would have to replace the heatsink to make it fit in the PS5.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
There you go.

The actual content is still yet to come tho.

EDIT: oh shit, nope. He tried two drives and both of them didn't work lol.



I suspect there will be some firmware on the drive or something that could prevent it. It does work then crashes at a certain point.
 

GHG

Gold Member
For those interested. DF tried to put the XSX SSD inside PS5 and it didn’t work. I would guess firmware difference but I don’t think so as same SSD works on PC.

Are they actually going to do a full run down/analysis of various SSD's running on the PS5 now they've stopped fannying around?
 

01011001

Banned
For those interested. DF tried to put the XSX SSD inside PS5 and it didn’t work. I would guess firmware difference but I don’t think so as same SSD works on PC.

the SSD also didn't work right on PC, he said his PC wouldn't even boot with it inside the m.2 slot, and only using a USB casing made it show up. so there's definitely something going on with it that is non standard and problematic if used on other hardware.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
For those interested. DF tried to put the XSX SSD inside PS5 and it didn’t work. I would guess firmware difference but I don’t think so as same SSD works on PC.
i have been trying to play Ascent on xbox gamepass for windows, and while I had an xbox controller, my friend was using his dualshock 4. No matter what we tried, Xbox for windows simply wouldnt recognize it. We installed ds4windows, steam big picture mode, launching from steam. Nothing worked.

So there must be something in there that blocks the controller and same thing could be happening here. Sony firmware probably has code in there to reject it.

DF should test this 1.8 GBps PCIe Gen 4 SSD and see if it also fails.


I also saw some 3.2 GBps Gen 4 SSDs on newegg they can test with. I am surprised no one has tested these slower Gen 4 SSDs. Slowest i saw tested was 3.9 GBps.
 

NXGamer

Member
A sale on MP600 if someone wants. 1TB for 129,90Eur. Heatsink needs to be changed, but the price is nice
It is a good drive, heatsink change is debatable. My full video on this will be up tonight.
 

saintjules

Member
Looks like the SN850 with (and without) heatsinks are mainly gone in my area and some online too. Decided to go for the Samsung 980 Pro 2TB and MHQJRH M.2 2280 SSD heatsink. Heatsink comes next week, so will use the 980 meanwhile.

Stoked to finally move my stuff off the Externals. I'll still use them for Cold Storage purposes.

Edit: Smooth process in installing. Worked like a charm. Just have to wait for the heatink now.
 
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Tripolygon

Banned
the SSD also didn't work right on PC, he said his PC wouldn't even boot with it inside the m.2 slot, and only using a USB casing made it show up. so there's definitely something going on with it that is non standard and problematic if used on other hardware.
Could be something specific to their system setup but someone else did plug it in a PC and it shows up with all the partition and files accessible in disk manager and explorer.
 
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01011001

Banned
Could be something specific to their system setup but someone else did plug it in a PC and it shows up with all the partition and files accessible in disk manager and explorer.


it could be that some motherboards have no issue reading it but others do. it is a weird drive that is gen 4 but based on a gen 3 SSD, it could be that some mismatch is happening that makes it act weird in some systems.

has anyone tried formatting using a PC? and then putting it in a PS5? because maybe some of the files or partitioning of the drive is what causes issues I wonder...
 
it could be that some motherboards have no issue reading it but others do. it is a weird drive that is gen 4 but based on a gen 3 SSD, it could be that some mismatch is happening that makes it act weird in some systems.

has anyone tried formatting using a PC? and then putting it in a PS5? because maybe some of the files or partitioning of the drive is what causes issues I wonder...

Not to be a fanboy or to console war. But I would love to see that happen. It would be neat to see if having such high speeds is justified or not. Just maybe a GEN4 drive wasn't necessary for the PS5.
 
What's odd is that the PS5 accepted it and was in the middle of formatting the drive. Then it crapped out at around 13%. Seem weird that it didn't reject the drive from the very beginning if it wasn't compatible with it. But then again it's just a beta.

I think the Xbox Series SSD was probably too slow and that's what confused the PS5. This was tested on a beta firmware and Sony likely hadn't considered anyone trying an Xbox Series SSD in the PS5. The speed test appears to coincide with the formatting process so that is likely what caused it to glitch out. What should happen is the PS5 formats the drive then runs a speed test which would then report if the SSD was okay to use or too slow and should be removed. I'm only guessing though but it does not look like the PS5 runs a speed test for very long and it literally reports the read speed as soon as the formatting completes.
 
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Evilms

Banned


FoojnMG.jpg
 
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GHG

Gold Member
I think the Xbox Series SSD was probably too slow and that's what confused the PS5. This was tested on a beta firmware and Sony likely hadn't considered anyone trying an Xbox Series SSD in the PS5. The speed test appears to coincide with the formatting process so that is likely what caused it to glitch out. What should happen is the PS5 formats the drive then runs a speed test which would then report if the SSD was okay to use or too slow and should be removed. I'm only guessing though but it does not look like the PS5 runs a speed test for very long and it literally reports the read speed as soon as the formatting completes.

Yep AFAIK the speed test results are only shown after the formatting is complete so all the readings are done during that process.
 
Just wanted to come in here and say that proprietary media sucks. I am trying to buy a vita sd card and they are going for $120-200 for 64 GB cards. You can get third party 64 GB sd cards for less than $10.
This is true but the difference is that you can’t easily plug a 4tb hd to your Vita which is different from what you can do with the Series consoles. So, for long term preservation of digital media, you still have a viable option in the Series consoles.
 
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