Replacing PS4 Harddrive

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

I have to say, the thing that pisses me off the most with this generation of consoles is that even if you have a game's disc you have to install it to the system's HDD anyway. That being the case, I find 500 gb to be woefully inadequate. As such, I thought about replacing my PS4 HDD with a 2TB one.

Is this an easy process?

Would the Seagate barracuda models be any good for this?

Does anyone have any different recommendations?

 

[KidBaize]

I agree about the size of physical game installations being really annoying. They seem almost as big as digital but you still get the longer loading times. It's the worst of both worlds and has pretty much turned me off physical copies now.

I replaced my PS3's HDD but haven't needed to yet with my PS4. It's probably a similar process, which was pretty straightforward IIRC. Any standard 2.5" SATA laptop HDD should fit but you might want to go for a SSD or higher RPM model, like 7200 instead of 5400. Here is a decent article with instructions and different models.

http://www.techradar.com/how-to/gaming/how-to-upgrade-your-ps4-hard-drive-1285428

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

I decided to just do it. I ordered this one off of amazon Canada.



Cost $118 Canadian which is like $90usd I think. Reasonable I think.

 

[method115]

Not a bad price I got mine for like $78. Process was very easy.

 

[ROKKO]

I did a 2tb Seagate maybe 6 months ago I think $97 from Amazon. I'm not a tech guy and it was an easy process. I let my bro do it because he enjoys that stuff. The longest part is transferring the data. The physical part is easy. You will need a flash drive for the operating system but PS made it easy.

 

[GhostZ06]

put an SSD in it

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

put an SSD in it

I think the seagate firecuda is SSD, or at least hybrid.

 

[GhostZ06]

I think the seagate firecuda is SSD, or at least hybrid.

naa brother go with a full SSD

 

[Wariowokecancel]

put an SSD in it

Zero performance gains according to many sources. You will gain nothing in game and maybe get 10% on load speeds.



Just get the biggest drive you can.

 

[lockjaw211]

I ordered a new HD and ended up sending it back. Cuuldnt get the ps update off the website to read off the USB stick I had formatted perfectly. No matter what I tried it wouldn't work. Just gonna get the PS4 pro anyway soon.

 

[jefferz]

naa brother go with a full SSD

They're console gamers, performance isn't a requirement.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

They're console gamers, performance isn't a requirement.

Spoiler

 

[jefferz]

Spoiler

 

[mike6585]

The Seagate Firecuda SSHD drives are the best option right now for PS4 / PS4 Pro upgrades if you don't change games often, otherwise just put a standard 2TB HDD in and call it a day. The SSHD has cache memory that will store frequently used data for faster loading. If you switch games a lot, it will just delete it's cache memory and load everything from the HDD portion = no loading speed advantage.

Putting an SSD into a console is stupid because you will spend a shit ton of money for very little return in load time performance increase. The PS4 has a SATA 2 interface that isn't fast enough to allow full read/write speeds of an SSD. The PS4 Pro has a SATA 3 interface, but oddly it doesn't show any increase in performance over the regular PS4 with each type of harddrive (HDD, SSD, SSHD).

Either get a 2TB HDD or a 2TB SSHD. An SSD is a waste of money if installing in a console.

 

[SeefourDC]

Zero performance gains according to many sources. You will gain nothing in game and maybe get 10% on load speeds.



Just get the biggest drive you can.

This is not true according to a lot of sources. Some games are showing half load times with a crappy SSD. There are a few games that are obviously super processor heavy on loading that it makes less difference on but so many games the SSD makes a huge difference. You can ask my bro who I'm always waiting on

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

The Seagate Firecuda SSHD drives are the best option right now for PS4 / PS4 Pro upgrades if you don't change games often, otherwise just put a standard 2TB HDD in and call it a day. The SSHD has cache memory that will store frequently used data for faster loading. If you switch games a lot, it will just delete it's cache memory and load everything from the HDD portion = no loading speed advantage.

Putting an SSD into a console is stupid because you will spend a shit ton of money for very little return in load time performance increase. The PS4 has a SATA 2 interface that isn't fast enough to allow full read/write speeds of an SSD. The PS4 Pro has a SATA 3 interface, but oddly it doesn't show any increase in performance over the regular PS4 with each type of harddrive (HDD, SSD, SSHD).

Either get a 2TB HDD or a 2TB SSHD. An SSD is a waste of money if installing in a console.

Well, a 2TB firecuda is what I've ordered so hopefully it will work out good (when it gets here, may take up to two months )

 

[Ladder Master]

I put a 1TB Seagate SSHD shortly after I got the PS4. No problems so far.

Here is a chart for quick comparison of amazon prices.

 

[Grob]

Is it true that if you replace the HD you need to re-download all your games? If so, that would mean losing my P.T. demo.

 

[Madmick]

Zero performance gains according to many sources. You will gain nothing in game and maybe get 10% on load speeds.

I assume you are speaking specifically to PS4's. I hadn't seen any data on it.

For PC's any good benchmarker in summary will note that it depends on the game, and even the level/instance being loaded, but I just posted a slew of videos in the main PC thread demonstrating the objective superiority of full SSD's offer for load time, and for the games where it makes a major difference, it's not 10%, it will sometimes be 400% or faster. In fact, here's a casual post from a user on the Crucial forums I just Googled with some of the steepest differences in terms of seconds for cold/hot loads (HDD load times on the left, SSD load times on the right):
http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Crucial-SSDs/SSD-vs-HDD-game-loading-comparisons/td-p/85884

Batman Arkham City
x x
14 10

Blood Bowl
24 19
34 17

Ceville
15 6
26 4

Dragon Age 2
14 13
9 6

Shogun 2
97 81
29 21

Trine 2
14 9
x x


Witcher 2
14 13
25 10

The thing I think many guys don't think about is that this isn't just about the time it takes to load the game up. It's talking about any time you enter a new virtual space (i.e. "instance") of the game. Every time you load a new level. Every time you pick a new planet on Mass Effect. Every time you die the game is going to hot-load you back to the last checkpoint.

The SSHD's often close the gap, though, so many argue they are a better price/performance purchase than SSD's for pure game drives. I think he hit the optimal performance/value curve with that Firecuda, no doubt. Seems to be the #1 choice replacement drive for PS4's. Still, if you happen to play a game like GTA V where load times are often huge, and the difference has been vast in certain benchmarks, then these loads start piling up minutes upon minutes on the hour in terms of the additional gaming minutes they offer. It becomes a question of how much you value your time, or the repeated stretching of your patience in each instance, definitely.

I put a 1TB Seagate SSHD shortly after I got the PS4. No problems so far.

Here is a chart for quick comparison of amazon prices.

It's $115 for the 2TB Firecuda for us Yanks at Newegg. It was $99 before the newer version came in. They lifted the price, but I think it will settle back down. That isn't a bad premium at all.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Well I got an email this morning saying the firecuda shipped already, so I should have it by the 9th, which is a nice surprise because when I first placed the ordered the anticipated delivery date was February 27th, lol.