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Inside Gaming With Seagate

External HDD vs SSD for PS4

There’s two external drives you can use to add capacity to your Playstation: the HDD (hard disk drive) and the SSD (solid state drive). Let’s break down the differences.

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Image of Seagate Game Drive for Playstation Systems Image of Seagate Game Drive for Playstation Systems Image of Seagate Game Drive for Playstation Systems

Take it For a Spin

Currently the most cost effective drive, HDDs are a very common and reliable technology where data is stored on spinning disks. Rarely do they come smaller than two-and-a-half inches, but they can pack a lot of capacity into that space—and often a comparatively low cost.

Seagate’s 2TB Game Drive for PS4 Systems is a great option for an external HDD, offering about a 50 game storage boost to your overall capacity.

Ready in a Flash

A much newer technology, SSDs don't have any moving parts inside. Using flash cells, data can be written, read, and rewritten directly to and from the cells. This allows for smaller drives and faster read times than you would get with an HDD. The trade off is that SSDs are more expensive to produce, though the price gap has been shrinking over time.

If you are looking for a great external SSD, the Seagate Barracuda Fast SSD external drive just plugs in and gives you faster installs, boot ups, loading times, and auto saving.

But Which Should I choose?

Ultimately, choosing between an HDD and SSD comes down to your priorities.

If you want faster load times and great portability, go with a Seagate SSD. HDD speeds tend to run up to around 140 MB/s, whereas SSD speeds can hit up to 540 MB/s. And these are peak speeds, with actual load times varying for all games and systems.

If you want maximum capacity at a lower price point, then go with a Seagate HDD. You’ll experience the same load times as you’re used to with the internal PS4 hard drive. Best of all, you’ll be able to accumulate games until your heart is full (but hopefully not your hard drive).

So that’s a general overview of HDDs and SSDs. Once you find the drive you need, we can help you set it up, just follow the steps in this video.

For more tips and tricks on how to optimize all your gaming needs, check out more videos at Inside Gaming with Seagate.

Thanks for reading and happy gaming ✌