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Sony open up M2 SSD port to beta testers of system software

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
Excited for this. I'm already having to shuffle games. Will seriously consider the 2TB option, just to be done with it for awhile.
 
It's a fucking hard drive.

Where was this need for "memory cards" for the last 2 generations of consoles? And suddenly you want proprietary shite to return? Why?
I think we are starting to see why MS went the proprietary route. Doing it that way guaranteed compatibility and ease of use, things consoles are known for. It also was a working solution from day one. Looking at the prices for the NVME drives you really aren't getting the major savings the 'open' solution promised either. I hope that the differences in the drive type won't affect game performance but I'm certain there will be some variances. I suppose if the MS drive never drops in price or goes up in price while these drop we can at least get a price advantage at some point in time. I guess now the only real question is when will all PS5 owners be able to use the expansion bay. Maybe next month or the next.
 

hroerekr

Member
I'm so confused.
Is it worth buying a version without a heatsink + 3rd party heatsink? Are there risks here?
 
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ManaByte

Gold Member
Thanks for the refresher. People do not pay attention or have selective amnesia. Everything was said in that presentation, the SSD must be at least as fast as ours meaning 5.5GB/s and higher. People ran with the 7GB/s SSD for their narrative.

People ran with 7GB/s because that's what's available on the PC side..

I'm so confused.
Is it worth buying a version without a heatsink + 3rd party heatsink? Are there risks here?

No but you'd better know how to install the heatsink and thermal pads correctly.
 
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Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
I'm about to pull the trigger for this one. What heatsink you have?

Bam, only 7 left in stock. Didn't say that when I ordered earlier. LOL.

I do have to wonder whether it's kinda normal to have one of these held together by (maybe elastic?) bands:
media
media
 
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Tripolygon

Banned
People ran with 7GB/s because that's what's available on the PC side..



No but you'd better know how to install the heatsink and thermal pads correctly.
I will have to disagree with you on that one. 7GB/s SSD were not really on the market then. People ran with it because 7GB/s was on the slide when he was discussing what PCIE 3x4 vs 4x4 lanes will give you. 3GB/s vs 7GB/s. The claim people started making was you needed at least 7GB/s to make up for the 6 priority queues the internal SSD have. When what he said was you needed at least 5.5GB or a little extra.

I remember because people were making up numbers back then too, like for example this little nugget.

uhm, I'm pretty sure you will need way faster SSDs than this to work in the PS5. didn't they say you'd need a 8GB/s SSD in order to compensate for the fact that it has less access levels than the internal one?
to which I replied back then

No they didn't say that. Where did 8GB/s even come from?

What Mark Cerny said was that;

"and so the m.2 drive needs a little extra speed to take care of issues arising from the different approach"

I can understand if people claim 7GB/s because he did have that slide up that showed the full capability of 4x PCIE 4.0 drive. He never actually said that you need 7GB/s, what he said was any SSD you add "has to be at least as fast as ours" plus "a little extra speed to take care of issues arising from" having to arbitrate the extra priority level.
UANLg1h.jpg


I think people are misinterpreting what he said to mean you need at least 7GB/s.
 
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Tripolygon

Banned
They were on the market because I bought the WD one and it's in my PC right now.
Which one did you buy back then that was 7GB/s? Because I had been keeping track to compile lists of possible SSD that would be compatible with PS5. Back in 2020 the SSDs on the market then were around 6GB read at the highest end but majority were around 4 - 5GB/s read and much less write.
 
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FranXico

Member
I'm so confused.
Is it worth buying a version without a heatsink + 3rd party heatsink? Are there risks here?
The compartment is passively cooled, so the SSD needs a heatsink. Built-in or 3rd party, there needs to be one.
 
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JLB

Banned
This thing is going to confuse so many people.
I think its going to be better if Sony just provides a sticker to providers saying: "yeah, it works on ps5"
 

Topher

Identifies as young
They were on the market because I bought the WD one and it's in my PC right now.

Are we talking about at the time of Cerny's presentation or PS5 launch? The WD drive was released in October 2020.

This thing is going to confuse so many people.
I think its going to be better if Sony just provides a sticker to providers saying: "yeah, it works on ps5"

Mark Cerny said they would provide a list of tested compatible SSDs.
 
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ManaByte

Gold Member
Which one did you buy back then that was 7GB/s? Because I had been keeping track to compile lists of possible SSD that would be compatible with PS5. Back in 2020 the SSDs on the market then were around 6GB read at the highest end but majority were around 4 - 5GB/s read and much less write.

I have the 2TB WD SN850.


Are we talking about at the time of Cerny's presentation or launch? The WD drive was released in October 2020.

I'm talking about around launch.
 
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Md Ray

Member
I will have to disagree with you on that one. 7GB/s SSD were not really on the market then. People ran with it because 7GB/s was on the slide when he was discussing what PCIE 3x4 vs 4x4 lanes will give you. 3GB/s vs 7GB/s. The claim people started making was you needed at least 7GB/s to make up for the 6 priority cues the internal SSD have. When what he said was you needed at least 5.5GB or a little extra.

I remember because people were making up numbers back then too, like for example this little nugget.


to which I replied back then

No they didn't say that. Where did 8GB/s even come from?

What Mark Cerny said was that;

"and so the m.2 drive needs a little extra speed to take care of issues arising from the different approach"

I can understand if people claim 7GB/s because he did have that slide up that showed the full capability of 4x PCIE 4.0 drive. He never actually said that you need 7GB/s, what he said was any SSD you add "has to be at least as fast as ours" plus "a little extra speed to take care of issues arising from" having to arbitrate the extra priority level.
UANLg1h.jpg


I think people are misinterpreting what he said to mean you need at least 7GB/s.
"little nugget" :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Lmao... 8GB/s... Just straight up pulling numbers out of their backsides. Textbook e.g. of spreading FUD.
 
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Jigga117

Member
So we went from: “it will be available after launch”, it will be available by 2021 summer” to “we would like you to do the leg work of what we have been saying and should have already figured out with development of the system”. Wow okay
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
Mark Cerny said they would provide a list of tested compatible SSDs.
Perhaps that list will come out after all of the beta testers footing the bill to own all variants of M.2 NVME drives finish submitting their findings to Sony and then they filter through what's acceptable and what's the best to own. Who knows.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
Perhaps that list will come out after all of the beta testers footing the bill to own all variants of M.2 NVME drives finish submitting their findings to Sony and then they filter through what's acceptable and what's the best to own. Who knows.

Sony also said they are doing their own testing.
 
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Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
Sony also said they are doing their own testing. But you got with whatever narrative you want....
I was kidding man... mostly. /Sarcasm... y'know? I don't honestly believe that they would rely on crowdfunded research when they pay people for that stuff. If they relied on beta testers info, and something cause issues in devices, they'd be open to class action suits.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
I was kidding man... mostly. /Sarcasm... y'know? I don't honestly believe that they would rely on crowdfunded research when they pay people for that stuff. If they relied on beta testers info, and something cause issues in devices, they'd be open to class action suits.
Charlie Brown Christmas GIF
the big bang theory sarcasm GIF


I don't pick it up like I used to. Getting old!
 
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Woody337

Member
Perhaps that list will come out after all of the beta testers footing the bill to own all variants of M.2 NVME drives finish submitting their findings to Sony and then they filter through what's acceptable and what's the best to own. Who knows.
Sony should be the ones testing these drives since they have these requirements in place. At no level is it ok for the consumer to be guinea pigs for them.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
Sony should be the ones testing these drives since they have these requirements in place. At no level is it ok for the consumer to be guinea pigs for them.
I was kidding around. I don't believe this is really the case. Still, what could happen with this is that PS5 beta testers could share their info/experiences (even if there's something in place to say they shouldn't) and people draw their own conclusions.

Again though, I was just kidding, and would think that a manufacturer of the product using crowdsourced testing over their own wouldn't happen. It is interesting, however, that there is beta testing OS software with this included, unless, they needed to beta test the OS release and couldn't exclude it for some reason.
 

Mr Moose

Member
I think we are starting to see why MS went the proprietary route. Doing it that way guaranteed compatibility and ease of use, things consoles are known for. It also was a working solution from day one. Looking at the prices for the NVME drives you really aren't getting the major savings the 'open' solution promised either. I hope that the differences in the drive type won't affect game performance but I'm certain there will be some variances. I suppose if the MS drive never drops in price or goes up in price while these drop we can at least get a price advantage at some point in time. I guess now the only real question is when will all PS5 owners be able to use the expansion bay. Maybe next month or the next.
Or they could've sold an adapter that fits all types of m.2 drives in it and saved people money.
It's a 2.4GB/s drive.
You can get a 7GB/s 1TB for £165 + 10 for a heatsink.
 

reksveks

Member
Or they could've sold an adapter that fits all types of m.2 drives in it and saved people money.
It's a 2.4GB/s drive.
You can get a 7GB/s 1TB for £165 + 10 for a heatsink.

Might have fucked up the hotswap functionality though.

I will add, it might not matter for you or might.
 
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Neo_game

Member
I think we are starting to see why MS went the proprietary route. Doing it that way guaranteed compatibility and ease of use, things consoles are known for. It also was a working solution from day one. Looking at the prices for the NVME drives you really aren't getting the major savings the 'open' solution promised either. I hope that the differences in the drive type won't affect game performance but I'm certain there will be some variances. I suppose if the MS drive never drops in price or goes up in price while these drop we can at least get a price advantage at some point in time. I guess now the only real question is when will all PS5 owners be able to use the expansion bay. Maybe next month or the next.

The only good thing about Microsoft solution is that it is very dummy proof. It is both slower and expensive. Sony solution is definitely better if it works as intended. I doubt many are even going to guy the extra storage.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
People that expect fake 3D audio to be a big thing are just setting themselves up for disappointment. From shitty TV speakers it's got no chance of being even remotely believable.

On the SSDs, doing a beta of this is so incredibly weird. The console has been out for like 8 months, how have Sony themselves not tested it enough? Also the minimum required speed is a lot lower than some were told was absolutely necessary to run some PS games.
I get what you're saying but testing in real world conditions is going to provide different telemetry than controlled testing. Someone is always going to do something that you don't plan for.

What legit puzzles me is how anyone chooses to sigh up for a beta with hardware they've paid so much for. As much as I want memory expansion I don't want to brick my console or a $200 SSD I bought out of pocket to test this stuff for free.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Interesting that they don't have a hard requirement on speed, just a recommendation.

I want to see Ratchet tested with a slow M2 just for fun.
 

longdi

Banned
With Sony now porting everything to PCs, it's imperative that they dont push the SSD requirements too much.

You may be right. I guess that levels of speed with ps5 internal ssd, is in excess of what this gen of games requires.

Hence Sony is fine to leave a disclaimer of potential performance difference with various SSD you can use.
 
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Or they could've sold an adapter that fits all types of m.2 drives in it and saved people money.
It's a 2.4GB/s drive.
You can get a 7GB/s 1TB for £165 + 10 for a heatsink.
The Xbox is a console. Having to go out and buy an additional adapter isn't easier for the customer. Also the speed of the Xbox solution has been on par with what the PlayStation offers despite PlayStation's being so much faster on paper. It's also been proven that for the PS5 to fully take advantage of that speed it has to be specifically coded for. Also £165 is $230 is MORE than the Xbox card currently. I don't think that suggestion is better than what is currently available for Xbox now.

The only good thing about Microsoft solution is that it is very dummy proof. It is both slower and expensive. Sony solution is definitely better if it works as intended. I doubt many are even going to guy the extra storage.
The MS solution is fitting for a console. Consoles are proprietary by definition. The speed argument is meaningless when it doesn't equal to much in real world conditions. More than twice the speed of Xbox's card, are you seeing significantly faster loading on all games with the PS5 currently? If I remember correctly there has even been some games that have loaded faster on Xbox which is amazing. The price is the same or even less than what Sony's solution is offering right now. Well that and it works today and we have no idea when Sony's solution will become active. This is just an area when it sounded good on paper but as we can see the actual implementation is less impressive.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
The Xbox is a console. Having to go out and buy an additional adapter isn't easier for the customer. Also the speed of the Xbox solution has been on par with what the PlayStation offers despite PlayStation's being so much faster on paper. It's also been proven that for the PS5 to fully take advantage of that speed it has to be specifically coded for. Also £165 is $230 is MORE than the Xbox card currently. I don't think that suggestion is better than what is currently available for Xbox now.


The MS solution is fitting for a console. Consoles are proprietary by definition. The speed argument is meaningless when it doesn't equal to much in real world conditions. More than twice the speed of Xbox's card, are you seeing significantly faster loading on all games with the PS5 currently? If I remember correctly there has even been some games that have loaded faster on Xbox which is amazing. The price is the same or even less than what Sony's solution is offering right now. Well that and it works today and we have no idea when Sony's solution will become active. This is just an area when it sounded good on paper but as we can see the actual implementation is less impressive.

The price of standard SSD is going to drop over the course of this generation much more than proprietary solutions. That has proven to be the case time and time again generation after generation. So the price right now and the price years two, three, and so on into the generation are not going to be the same.

That is the advantage of non-proprietary. Is proprietary easier and less confusing? Yes. So there are pros and cons to each. Personally, as a PC gamer, I'll take standard solutions over proprietary every time.
 

dotnotbot

Member
This freedom hasn't shown savings, nor an ease of use advantage. It also still doesn't work yet. Consoles were supposed to be easy. I'm pretty sure the PS Vita solution worked from day one.

Significant savings if you keep price/performance ratio in mind. For the same price Microsoft gives you 2400 MB/s 1TB drive you can buy 5500-7000 MB/s 1TB drive for PS5.

It's not the first time you can upgrade internal storage in your console this way. PS3, PS4 and Xbox One all give you an option to exchange internal HDD with any you want. But now it's suddenly a huge problem because you need to use a screwdriver.
 
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Mr Moose

Member
The Xbox is a console. Having to go out and buy an additional adapter isn't easier for the customer. Also the speed of the Xbox solution has been on par with what the PlayStation offers despite PlayStation's being so much faster on paper. It's also been proven that for the PS5 to fully take advantage of that speed it has to be specifically coded for. Also £165 is $230 is MORE than the Xbox card currently. I don't think that suggestion is better than what is currently available for Xbox now.
Oh yeah, I forgot people were scared of screws last year when PS5s SSD bay was shown.
Cheapest Amazon US price for the SSD I mentioned was $179 in April.
 
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Tripolygon

Banned
Found a video of a user testing the M2 slot. Interestingly it shows you the current read speed of your drive when you are formating. You cannot use the M2 for videos and save files though.


Like I said, it looks like what they are looking for is read speed and not write speed. And welp, I hope that benchmark is not gonna lock out slightly slower SSDs if they don't match 5.5GB/s. Lmao
 
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