Best Buy 1TB External Hard Drive PS4


Best Buy 1TB External Hard Drive PS4

Best Buy 1TB External Hard Drive PS4

Gaming is becoming more and more popular, and PS4 easily won the battle against Xbox One in popularity. Even though the Xbox is also a very fun console to own, the victory of the PS4 means that more people will play PS4 games, and thus more multiplayer games for the Playstation will have enough players to function properly, even after this much time. Aside from that, there are also single-player games that can more than impress players, and a plethora of them. The fact that a PS4 player will want to play many different types of games might indicate a possible problem: lack of space to handle all those games. The internal storage space of the PS4 might not be able to store all the games you would like, together with your progress and data in all of them, so getting an external hard drive might be the best option available. In this article, we will be exploring some options for the best 1 TB external hard drives to buy for the PS4. 

Best Buy 1 TB External Hard Drive PS4 – Overall 

In this category, we wanted to take a look at the most balanced device, the best one overall. One person might require a machine with insane speeds while someone else might just need a budget backup device, but these are specific scenarios that require quite specifically wired devices, whereas the overall category is intended to satisfy the largest spectrum of people with a device that is at least decent in all aspects. For that case, we have chosen a device that is great in affordability, speed, reliability, and aesthetics. 

The winner of this category is the Samsung T5 1TB SSD. It is the perfect well-rounded device for PS4-s within the 1TB category, being fast enough to handle any task that it might encounter, affordable enough compared to the performance it delivers, is very reliable and sleek as well. It is the perfect overall device and a perfect match for a PS4. 

The Samsung company doesn’t need any introduction, chances are, you are reading this on a Samsung device yourself. They are one of the most popular electronics companies in the whole world, battling only Apple since there aren’t many competitors who reached the level Samsung has. Samsung is known for its value for money but in a bit less traditional sense. When people think about value for money, they think of a budget item, like the next one on our list, which doesn’t cost much but offers more. Well, Samsung devices cost mid- to high-range but deliver spectacular performance in almost all aspects. In general, the company’s devices (may those be refrigerators or TVs) are really well-balanced products, which excel in almost all areas they can excel in. These characteristics are no different when it comes to the Samsung T5 1 TB SSD. 

Let’s talk about the specs and features of the device. The Samsung T5 Portable 1TB SSD comes in a couple of different colors (black, blue, and red). It is a small (74 x 57.3 x 10.5 mm), sleek device, with a simplistic but elegant design. It is sturdy and durable, withstanding drops from almost 2 meters. Samsung claims that its product is capable of transferring data at speeds of up to 540 Mb/s, which is more than enough for any type of PS4 gaming. The only place you might run into problems is the pro sphere, where higher-end gadgets are needed, however, 99% percent of gaming can be easily handled with such transfer speeds. The device also comes with two separate cables: one USB A to C, and one USB C to C. This way, you don’t have to worry about not having ordered an adapter to be able to connect the drive to your PS4, which doesn’t have a USB C port. A 1 TB model costs around 140 dollars on Amazon at the time of writing this article, which is not an unreasonable price for such a high-quality gadget. 

We, however, do not like to recommend products we haven’t tried ourselves, so we decided to order a 1 TB model and see whether the device stands up to the test. Upon opening, we weren’t surprised to find that the device is high-quality, and also looks and feels really neat in the hand, just like most products made by Samsung. Two cables were included as described. 

We then decided to test it. We plugged it into our PC first to check some basic performance stats with CrystalDiskMark, and the device connected to the PC without a problem. We tested the device’s speed and got back 538 Mb/s reading speeds and 514 Mb/s writing speeds, which we were satisfied with since this meant that the company’s statement was spot on and that the T5 is probably going to be fast enough to handle the tasks we wanted to test it on. After testing the performance, we moved our 10 GB test folder onto the drive and back, which altogether took less than a minute, which was impressive.

Then, for the most important part, we tested it with our PS4. The setup took a short while, since we had to format the disk, then connect it, move some games onto the disk. Once all that was done, which was fast enough, we launched a couple of games that we have placed on the drive earlier, with no lag whatsoever. It really felt just like playing the games from the internal drive, no lag, no long loading times, or anything that could have interfered with the experience. Added to that, it was nice to know that we have a whole terabyte to fill with games, plus the internal storage of the PS4, which means a lot of games. All-in-all, our conclusion is that the Samsung T5 SSD is a perfect all-around option for extending storage space for a PS4, it runs games perfectly and will also increase the lifespan of your console by splitting the workload. Check out this great device on Amazon on this link! 

Best Buy 1 TB External Hard Drive PS4 – Budget Option

So in this category, we were looking at the devices which can still perform well when connected to a PS4 but won’t break the bank. Not like Samsung will, but in this category, we wanted to focus on the range of people who don’t care all that much about how well the device performs, even less about its aesthetics, but rather much more about getting quality, reliable extra storage on a budget. Now of course, as always, cheaper items are cheaper mostly because they lack something that the more expensive ones have, but that doesn’t always mean that the expensive device wins in every sphere or that it is the optimal one to purchase. 

For the budget option, we went with a classic device, the Toshiba Canvio Advanced 1 TB HDD. It is one of the cheapest devices around which also has one terabyte of storage and decent performance. First, we wanted to choose the Toshiba Canvio Basics 1 TB HDD, but then we stumbled upon the Advance version, which is sometimes even cheaper than the Basics version and outperforms it in almost all aspects which can be analyzed. The Toshiba Canvio Advance is the best option out there for people looking for value for money. 

Toshiba might just be the oldest company in the electronics industry since it was founded in 1875, which is a striking difference from the rest of the big companies, a majority of which were founded during or after the Second World War. The history of Toshiba and how it has managed to stay afloat and productive throughout all these years is a sign of the reliability and also the affordability of their products. They are very popular all around the globe, which you can test by walking into any electronics store. You are bound to find Toshiba items. This sort of reliability and industry-standard level performance that Toshiba delivers can also be found in their Toshiba Canvio Advance devices. 

The specs of this device are nothing spectacular compared to the Samsung device’s, so that is why we will start by mentioning the price, in the light of which information all the specs will seem a lot better. A Toshiba Canvio Advance 1TB HDD is available on Amazon for 48 USD plus shipping at the time of writing this article. Almost 100 dollars less than the Samsung device, with the same storage capacity. It is an absolute steal. The areas where the 100 dollar difference can be felt is the speed and the design of the device. It has traditional HDD transfer speeds of around 120 -140 Mb/s, which isn’t bad and will still suffice for most types of gaming but is almost 5 times slower than that of the Samsung. This doesn’t come as a surprise however since the Canvio is an HDD, which is naturally slower than their SSD competitors due to the technology they are built with. It is also a small device (78 x 109 x 14), very compact, and also very light (just 149 grams), which makes it easy to carry around. 

We naturally decided to test this device as well before publishing an article on it. When the device arrived, the first thing that struck us was actually how lightweight it is. It truly is light compared to other external drives, especially HDD-s, which tend to be bulky and rather heavy from the 1 TB category and upwards. This device was not like those, it felt like holding a feather, so light that it almost made us suspicious about its quality (which suspicion was dismissed quickly). The design of the device is simple but aesthetic, but nothing special or elegant. Just a well-designed product. 

Now for the performance, we connected it to our PC just like the Samsung, and tested the read and write speeds of the device with the CrystalDiskMark program. According to the company, the device can handle around 120-140 Mb/s of transfer speeds, and after testing, we concluded that those claims are valid. We got back read speeds of 134 Mb/s and write speeds of 129 Mb/s, which is pretty standard for a good HDD, perhaps a bit above the average. The device also comes with a password protection feature that the Basics version does not, which we tested and it works perfectly well. 

Now for the important test. We connected it to the PS4 and spent a whole lot more time formatting the disk and then moving some games onto it to test whether it can run them directly from the device. This HDD has speeds 5 times slower than the Samsung SSD, which isn’t a surprise and it isn’t a criticism of the Toshiba Canvio, but it does mean that a 50 GB game’s transfer will take about 5 minutes instead of the 1-minute performance of the Samsung (which is still perfectly reasonable for most people). However, after it was done, we started playing without an issue. We had some problems with larger games with better graphics and just more weight to them since the HDD had somewhat of a hard time handling those at the necessary speed, but it managed. We had slower loading times and one or two occasions of lagging, but that might have been due to a number of other factors as well so we won’t immediately write it down as Toshiba’s fault. All-in-all, it is a great device with an exceptional price, that will enable you to store 1 TB of games at a very low price, and also be able to use them with very minor problems. Check out the Toshiba Canvio Advance 1 TB HDD on Amazon here!

Other Good 1TB External Hard Drives PS4

These two previous categories will cover the needs of the majority of people looking for an external drive to improve their gaming experience, however, we thought it would be productive to include a couple of niche-specific devices which excel in a specific category, should someone be unsatisfied with the two options mentioned above. 

The Blazing Fast External Drive 

For the rare gamer who requires the highest performance available for possibly gaming in 4k or above, at extreme frame rates and at competition levels, the G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile Pro might be worth looking into. It is a marvelous piece of equipment that can handle an astonishing speed of 2800 Mb/s of transfer speeds. In other domains, such as video editing, this means real-time 8k footage editing at the highest frame rates. It is the peak of performance, probably even overkill for the PS4. However, if your demands are really all that high, definitely check this device out. 

It is shock-proof, well-designed, incredibly fast, and reliable. The only problem is that the cable you get with the device isn’t compatible with the PS4’s USB 3 input, so you will need an adapter which will not only cost you money, but also transfer speeds. Unfortunately, USB 3 can only handle a fraction of the speeds that the Thunderbolt 3 cable of the G-DRIVE device can, which means that the transfer speeds will be capped at around 5 Gbit/s instead of the 40 Gbit/s that the Thunderbolt could deliver. It is still a useful option to have around if you have some extra money you don’t know what to do with since it will serve you not only for PS4 gaming but probably future consoles too. Check it out here!

The Popular One

There are certain products in every industry that have a separate place in the hearts of people, like the Alfa Romeo in the car world or like iPhones in the smartphone industry. Even if they might have their cons, there is something about them that just makes it a whole new experience. The LaCie Rugged Mini Pro 1TB External Drive is one of these products. Every producer and video editor has one of these classical, orange, and grey external drives laying on their desk or in thor drawers. It is a statement piece. 

It might not be the best performing device on the market, seeing as though the performance of this 70 dollar device is nothing better than your average HDD (around 130 Mb/s), it does offer other types of benefits like the fact that it is rugged, so it will withstand dropping and shock and other types of possibly harmful situations. It is also very popular and a statement piece as we have mentioned earlier, which means that people might not actually buy this for the performance, but rather for the image and the reliability which is also associated with its name. If you are interested in this awesome LaCie device, check it out here on Amazon!

Sources: 

https://www.gamesradar.com/best-hard-drive-for-ps4/
https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-external-hard-drives-ps4-xbox-one
https://www.techradar.com/news/best-ps4-external-hard-drives
https://kagoo.co.uk/external-hard-drives/compare/toshiba-canvio-advance—1tb-vs-toshiba-canvio-basics—750gb
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/toshiba-canvio-advance-4tb-portable-hard-drive-review-3777128/#:~:text=Toshiba%20Canvio%20Advance%20HDD%20speed,s%20when%20transferring%20large%20files.
https://www.techradar.com/reviews/toshiba-canvio-advance-2tb
https://storage.toshiba.com/consumer-hdd/external/canvio-advance
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1408129-REG/g_technology_0g10311_1tb_g_drive_mobile_pro.html/overview

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