PS5 storage is one of the first things new owners notice. The console ships with an 825GB custom SSD, which sounds generous until the system reserves roughly 158GB for the operating system and mandatory files. That leaves about 667GB for games, and with many PS5 titles landing between 50GB and 100GB, that fills up fast. This guide covers exactly what you get out of the box, what expansion options exist, and what to watch for when buying and installing an M.2 SSD.
What the PS5 actually gives you at the start
The 825GB figure is the raw capacity of Sony's custom SSD. It's not a standard NVMe drive size, and that's intentional: the number was chosen to match the console's internal memory bus architecture rather than a conventional storage tier. After the system partition and mandatory files, you're left with approximately 667GB of usable space. A handful of bundled titles or demo installs can shrink that further on day one.
PS4 games can be played directly from a USB external drive, but PS5 games cannot. PS5 titles must be installed on the internal SSD or the expansion M.2 slot. That distinction trips up a lot of buyers who assume a cheap USB hard drive will solve the problem. It won't, not for PS5-native games. For more on how the two storage categories behave differently, the guide on PS5 external hard drive vs M.2 SSD covers the full comparison.
The M.2 expansion slot: how it works
Every PS5 model (original disc, digital, Slim, and Pro) includes a single M.2 expansion slot. It sits behind a removable panel on the console and accepts standard M.2 NVMe SSDs in the 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280, and 2242 form factors. The 2280 size is by far the most common and widely available.
Sony's requirements for compatible drives:
- Interface: M.2 NVMe (PCIe Gen 4 recommended, Gen 3 accepted)
- Capacity: 250GB to 4TB
- Sequential read speed: Sony recommends at least 5,500MB/s for Gen 4 drives, though slower Gen 3 drives at around 3,500MB/s will work
- A heatsink is required: either a third-party drive with one pre-attached, or a separate aftermarket heatsink
The heatsink requirement is firm. Sony's slot does not provide its own thermal management, and an unheated SSD inside the PS5 can throttle or cause console cooling issues. Most drives sold specifically as PS5-compatible come with a heatsink included. If yours doesn't, a low-profile M.2 heatsink costs under $15 at most Australian electronics retailers.
Which drives are worth buying in Australia
The drives that dominate PS5 upgrade purchases right now are the WD Black SN850X and the Samsung 990 Pro, both Gen 4 drives with sequential reads comfortably above 7,000MB/s. At the 2TB tier, street prices in Australia generally sit between $180 and $260 depending on the retailer and whether a heatsink is bundled. The 1TB versions run roughly $110 to $150.
Gen 3 drives cost less but deliver noticeably slower load times. For PS5 gaming, the speed advantage of a Gen 4 drive is real, particularly in open-world titles where the console streams assets continuously. The article on PS5 SSD speed and whether it actually matters goes deeper on where those differences show up in practice.
Budget Gen 4 options from brands like Lexar and Kingston have improved reliability. Avoid no-brand drives with unverified controllers, particularly anything that doesn't publish its controller and DRAM cache specs.
How to install the M.2 SSD
The process takes about 15 minutes and requires only a Phillips head screwdriver. Sony has published an official installation walkthrough, and the steps are consistent across all PS5 variants (the Slim panel removal differs slightly from the original).
The broad sequence is: power off and unplug the console completely, remove the outer panel, locate the M.2 bay cover, attach a heatsink to the drive if needed, seat the drive at a 30-degree angle, press flat and secure with the included screw, replace the cover and panel, then power on. The PS5 will detect the new drive and prompt you to format it. Formatting takes under two minutes.
One common mistake: not fully seating the drive before tightening the screw. A partially seated drive will not be recognised. If the console doesn't detect the SSD after installation, power off, reseat, and try again before assuming a faulty drive.
Managing storage once you've expanded
After installing an M.2 SSD, the PS5 treats it as a second internal storage location. You can install games to either drive and move titles between them without deleting and redownloading. The system settings show usage for both drives separately.
Games can only run from NVMe storage (internal or M.2), not from USB. But you can store PS5 game installs on the M.2 drive and play them directly from there, with no meaningful performance difference from the original internal SSD assuming your expansion drive meets the minimum speed threshold.
PS4 games behave differently. They can be stored and played from a USB external drive, which makes a cheap external HDD a reasonable choice for a PS4 back-catalogue. The original internal SSD and your M.2 expansion are better reserved for PS5 titles where the speed is actually used.
The PS5 also offers cloud saves for PlayStation Plus subscribers, which doesn't expand local storage but does reduce the pressure of keeping every save file on-console. If you're hitting storage limits partly because of large game installs you've completed, deleting the game but retaining the save to cloud is a practical workaround before upgrading hardware.
What the PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro change
The PS5 Slim uses the same M.2 expansion slot and the same compatible drive specifications as the original. The panel removal process is slightly different but the drive installation itself is identical. The PS5 Pro also ships with an 825GB internal SSD and the same expansion slot, though its faster CPU and GPU push even greater demand on storage throughput during asset streaming in Pro-enhanced titles.
If you're deciding between models partly on storage grounds, the hardware ceiling is the same across all three. The difference is what's around the storage: resolution, frame rate, and GPU features. For a full side-by-side of the hardware, the breakdown of PS5 vs PS5 Pro vs PS5 Slim covers each model's trade-offs in detail.
How much storage is actually enough
A 1TB M.2 SSD added to the base console gives you roughly 1.5TB of usable NVMe storage total. For most players with 10 to 15 games installed at any time, that's sufficient. If you're a heavy user with a large digital library and don't want to manage installs regularly, 2TB is the more comfortable target.
4TB drives are available but their cost-per-gigabyte is poor at current Australian prices. Unless you have a specific reason for maximum capacity, a 2TB Gen 4 drive at the 1TB price point from two years ago is the practical sweet spot right now.
The external USB option remains worth considering for PS4 titles. A 4TB USB hard drive costs well under $150 and handles an entire PS4 library without touching your NVMe budget. Use the M.2 slot for PS5 games, and USB for everything else.