XPG1TB GAMMIX S70 Blade - Works with PlayStation 5, PCIe Gen4 M.2 2280 Internal Gaming SSD Up to 7,400 MB/s (AGAMMIXS70B-1T-CS)

I originally sat on getting an SSD because they were so pricey. I get the 1TB SSD aren’t to steep in price but I feel like with PS5 and next gen 1TB isn’t enough and will take all that space up quickly. Especially if you are a gamer like myself. Plus I had a external 2TB hard drive(from the PS4 generation) granted you could only play PS4 games on it and store PS5 games but not play them. I finally pulled the trigger seeing the 2TB XPG Gammix S70 Blade was on sale for $249. Had some Christmas money to spend so out of pocket I paid maybe $125. This thing is a beast and worth my money if you ask me. I didn’t use the heat sink that comes with the SSD and instead opted to get the MHQJRH M.2 2280 SSD Heatsink, Double Sided Heat Sink With Thermal Silicone Pad For PC/PS5. The only part that was difficult was putting the heatsink and SSD together and installing it into the PS5 and even that isn’t very difficult. There are a lot of how to videos online and even on Amazon. The heatsink I mentioned has a video of someone installing that heat sink with a SSD and I went off that. Worked like a charm and I was able to install it my first try. When you boot your PS5 your prompted with a message saying you have a M.2 SSD and it needs to be formatted. I formatted it and I was given a read speed of 6270. Which is 700 more than the SSD on your PS5 motherboard. When I went to settings and checked the storage it was there with my external hard drive and it said I had 2.05TB free. Good to see that you actually get 2TB and a tad bit more. First thing I did was transfer games from SSD to SSD. I took Horizon Zero Dawn moved it from internal to the newly installed SSD and it transferred in 10 seconds. No joke 10 seconds. Than I took The Uncharted Collection from my external hard drive and transferred it to the new SSD that one took a bit longer due to the external not being no where near as fast as a SSD but even that took about 7-10 minutes. Last I took three games from my library Hollow Knight, Darksiders 3 and Far Cry 6 and installed them(not transfer actually install from scratch) and those three games took about 20 minutes tops. That being said this is a affordable SSD and it is legit in speed. I played Horizon Zero Dawn and Far Cry 6 and load times were identical to the mother board SSD. Can’t complain I’m a happy camper with my purchase. I now have the internal SSD of 667GB with a 2TB extra storage installed along with a external hard drive giving me 4.6TB of space. Which I personally think is more than enough to last the PS5 generation. That being said do yourself a favor and get this product it’s worth every penny if you ask me. Hardest part is the installation process but even than, it’s not that difficult.

Heat sink version works brilliantly in the PS5, intentionally WITHOUT the slot cover (read below). It fits clean under the system's outer shell, which is all that actually matters for space sake. Speeds are noticeably (but not by much) faster, than the built-in drive.What no one, save for those truly tech-savvy in these matters (i.e., have built high-performance or gaming PCs from components, or the like), seems to understand about the PS5's expansion drive slot cover, is that it is ONLY to protect the empty slot, and it is not needed (nor should it be used*) once a drive is actually installed. Why, you ask? One answer: AIR FLOW! Heat sinks work by drawing the heat of the device into itself, then allowing open air to flow through the heat sink and remove that heat (often supplemented by fans). The slot space has NO air flow available to it whatsoever. Just check around the inside of the space and you'll realize that there are no gaps or slots for air to enter or exit the space, especially when the cover is in place. Meaning? Any drive added to the slot, w/ or w/o a heat sink, will stew in its own heat while it is entombed in the slot w/ the cover on. *Moreover, the drive will run HOTTER than intended and likely begin to fail (run noticeably slower, until no longer accessing some, then any data) within months, depending on frequency of use. Also note that said slot, having no air spaces, also protects the PS5 from the heat of the drive, which has immediate access to the air duct on that side of the system (UNLESS the cover is in place). Take it for what you will, but we hardware tech-heads know that speeding up a microprocessor, RAM solid-state storage unit means causing it to run with more power and generate more heat, but for these NVMe super high-speed drives, skin-burning levels of heat are quickly and easily generated. Though they are spec'd for high heat, this much potential heat is likely failure-fatal. For a drive that can cost about half to 3/4s (or more) of the the price of the PS5, itself, it's your call...

I’m actually reviewing this because I recommended it to someone else and realize I forgot to write one! But perfect because that means I can share my thoughts after having it over a year. I am not a tech expert but what I can say is that the SSD has worked perfectly in my PS5 and the installation was easy. I don’t have access to any performance testing tools to test for certain but from my own personal experience I see no difference between games played on this and the internal SSD, as it should be.

Be aware, this is a double-sided M.2 drive, so it is on the thicker side in terms of compatibility & the size of thermal pads you need to use. I had to adjust the size of mine because of how thick it is.Other than that, this drive is amazing. Speeds stated are pretty close to accurate, price is really good for a 4TB Gen4 M.2 SSD, and it runs cool as well... granted, I have it in a X870E Strix board from Asus with one of the thicker heatsinks it has on it, but still, the thing idles at 29-30C and load temps don't pass 50C.No complaints, 5 stars.