What Is the Best External Hard Drive for PS4?
With the improvement of our gaming consoles and internet connections, the world of gaming is opening up more than ever before. That is saying something, seeing as though the games from a couple of years ago were already astonishingly immersive and have managed to entrance millions of players worldwide. Video games and franchises are expanding drastically, with improved graphics, spectacular and huge worlds, and more and more complex engines. Due to this, the frustration one might feel when they just don’t have enough space for more games and have to erase previous data can be easily understood. This is why the general consensus nowadays in most gaming communities is that an external hard drive is a must-have for any PS4 gamer. There is a problem, however: there is almost too much to choose from. In this article, we have collected the best hard drives you can get to improve your PS4 gaming experience since we know so many of you so often ask: what is the best external hard drive for PS4?
The best external hard drive for PS4 is the Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive. It is the best seller on Amazon in this category and is also reviewed on multiple tech-related websites as the best all-around option.
There is a lot more to choose from, though. A variety of external drives can be found for this very purpose, some with larger storage spaces, faster transfer speed, or better durability. This is one of the things we can thank capitalism for, the astounding diversity in products and companies’ incentive to try to make better and better products all the time. There is a tailored choice for every buyer, so if you are interested in a couple of great choices for PS4 external hard drives, this article is for you.
What is the best external hard drive for PS4?
As mentioned earlier, we believe the Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive to be the best option for most gamers who want to extend their storage space on their PS4. Not only do we believe the Amazon reviews which sent it to the #1 spot in best external hard drive for PS4 category, but also the tech forums and youtube channels where it has been praised continually. What’s more, we have also tested it. We tried testing it by connecting it to a laptop to check some general performance stats, then we connected it to our PS4 for the final test. It definitely met, maybe even exceeded our expectations.
First of all, let’s start with the aspect of this gadget that we have contact with first: the aesthetics. It is nothing special, no fancy game-like design, just a sleek, elegant and simple build. Seeing as though it isn’t going to spend a lot of time away from the console itself, it is perfectly reasonable not to want to design an extravagant product. No criticism to be found here.
The next, arguably most important aspect, is the performance. 2 terabytes of space is a lot. Like, fits all games you can imagine type of lot. But that isn’t the only thing to take into account, since a super slow external hard drive would be torture to use with today’s games which can be up to hundreds of gigabytes. That is why we tested the product and found it to be surprisingly fast for an HDD. A 10 GB file was transferred in about one minute, which isn’t bad at all.
One aspect of the analysis which did elevate the position of this product significantly is the price. For a 2TB hard drive, which is more than enough for any gamer, the $62 price tag on Amazon is unreal. The Seagate 2TB External Hard Drive really does offer a lot for the low price, which is why we would recommend it to a large majority of people. Realistically speaking, a person who requires more than 2 terabytes of storage space for their PS4 is quite rare, so for the general population, this product is going to be exactly what they need.
We want to mention a couple of honorable mentions, external hard drives that could deserve an equal second place rating. Here are some possible alternatives in the case that the Seagate isn’t available in your country or you just don’t feel the connection with that product.
WD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive is the second option we would like to mention. It is quite similar in its reviews to the Seagate HDD, which is the reason we wanted to put it on this list. This device is a great alternative for people who cannot put their hands on a Seagate or just like a somewhat different design. It also has really good pricing, usually a couple of bucks under the Seagate HDD’s pricing, and works just as well with the PlayStation 4.
To bring in a heavy-hitter, we wanted to mention Seagate Expansion 6TB Desktop External Hard Drive. This one really pushes some limits, since the PS4 and PS4 Pro can address 8TB of external space. 6TB is a massive, massive storage space, which might be really useful for people who like to game a lot, and who like to have a lot of games installed. The price of this product will probably be on the higher end of the spectrum, but for those few people who do need this much space, paying $120 for 6TB of space will sound more than reasonable.
A stylish and large alternative for the aforementioned devices is the WD_Black 5TB P10-Game Drive, Portable External Hard Drive. What stands out really much with this product is the design. The military-style black design might attract many players who do care a bit more about the looks of their hard drive than the average gamer. It also comes with 5TB of storage space, which will be more than enough to store quite a couple of high-quality shooter games.
Will an external hard drive make a PS4 faster?
Most newbies are scared to connect an external storage space to their PS4 due to fears of it possibly slowing down the machine, decreasing performance, and corrupting their gaming experience. However, external hard drives do not slow down these gaming consoles, on the contrary, some might even speed them up.
If you get a good enough external hard drive with a USB 3.0 connection, you might actually get a faster data transfer than the internal hard drive of the PS4 can deliver. Even if you don’t, do not be scared of expanding your storage space to accommodate your games, it will almost surely not slow down your console. Just make sure you don’t go below the 5400 rpm range in terms of speed since the PS4 built-in system delivers that speed and any lower can actually slow your console down somewhat if you happen to play a game from the HDD.
Is it worth getting an external hard drive for PS4?
Though it might now slow down the console, is it actually worth it to get an external hard drive for your PS4? Modern consoles do come with reasonably large storage spaces that work totally fine, moreover, the average gamer probably doesn’t need 6 or 8 terabytes of space, maybe not even 1. So, why get an external drive? Well, in our opinion it is a necessary investment in order to get the most out of your gaming experience. You might not need it now or in the upcoming 2 months, but if you do keep gaming, keeping all your data stored and not having to delete previous games or your progress is very useful and makes the experience all the more enjoyable. Furthermore, we have also mentioned that you might just increase the speed of your console somewhat if you do happen to invest in a good external hard drive.
That’s a couple of arguments for why to have external storage for a PS4, but an extra that we might which is a little off-topic but might be just as important is that if anything happens, you have a 1-8 terabyte storage readily available to you. Should you start attending university, working as a video editor, or just need a lot of space to store any data, you have a handy storage space that you can fit near anything on.
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