When the PS5 first came out, expandable storage wasn’t really supported. Sure, you could hook up an external hard drive to it, but you couldn’t run any games off it, only use it for storage. Luckily, Sony has since added support for expanding the internal memory, which is great because the PS5 only comes with an 825GB internal storage capacity, and nearly a quarter of that is eaten up by the OS, so you’re really only left with 667GB. Of course, only the highest-performing M.2 SSDs are supported, and one of the best is Samsung’s 990 Pro. Even though it’s usually quite expensive, you can get it for a discount from Samsung for just $99, rather than the usual $120.
Why you should buy the Samsung 990 PRO
So what sets the Samsung 990 Pro apart from other M.2 SSDs? Well, a lot of it comes down to the 8nm controller, which helps it direct the flow of data more efficiently, which ends up providing a rather large bump in read/write speeds. In fact, it’s even optimized enough for Microsoft’s Direct Storage tech, which essentially takes advantage of higher read/write speeds to load only small pieces of data at a time rather than huge chunks. It’s the same sort of technology the PS5 uses to increase framerate performance and allow you to run at 4k and higher graphical settings since you aren’t wasting a lot of performance with loading and storing data, such as far away objects in the game that don’t need to be loaded in high resolution.
Another big positive of the Samsung 990 Pro is that it’s much more power efficient, and while it realistically won’t make a big difference for the most part, it certainly adds up if you tend to have your PS5 switched on a lot. Of course, the most impressive thing here is the massive 2TB storage, which dwarfs the PS5’s internal storage capacity and is very much needed, given that so many modern games can easily break 100GB.
Overall, the Samsung 990 Pro is a powerful piece of tech and a perfect upgrade to your PS5 if you need more storage and performance. Luckily, the discount from Samsung means you can grab it for less than $100, so you get a ton of value for the $99 price tag. While you’re here, check out some other great gaming deals you can take advantage of.
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