**Upgrading Your PS5's Storage with the Rocket 4 Plus**

The latest innovation in console storage has arrived, and it's specifically designed for the PlayStation 5 (PS5). The Rocket 4 Plus is an external M.2 SSD drive that can be installed into the PS5 to provide a massive boost in storage capacity. In this article, we'll delve into the installation process, test its performance, and explore how it compares to the PS5's internal storage.

**Installation**

To install the Rocket 4 Plus, you'll need to follow these steps:

"First up, make sure you have an M.2 drive that fits the ps5 slot and is about 80 millimeters long. Install the drive just like any other m2 drive and replace the emi shield and pop the base back into place unfortunately our video capture card couldn't capture any of the screens while formatting the drive so still images will have to do the first time we turn on the console we can either format the drive or turn the ps5 back off we chose to format and the system shows our drive passes sony's read speed recommendation with flying colors"

The Rocket 4 Plus is a plug-and-play solution that makes installing an M.2 drive in your PS5 relatively straightforward. However, if you're not comfortable with DIY installations, this might be a point of contention for some users.

**Performance Testing**

To test the performance of the Rocket 4 Plus, we've used three popular games: Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2. We've also included the PS5's internal storage for comparison.

"First up is marvel's spiderman remastered we've synced up our videos so that you can see side by side there's no discernible difference between the console's built-in storage and the rocket 4 plus the game goes straight from the save game screen to swinging around manhattan in both cases"

The results were surprising: there was no noticeable difference between loading games on the Rocket 4 Plus and the PS5's internal storage. The game loaded seamlessly, with no discernible delay.

"Next up is final fantasy 7 remake we've synced up our videos so that you can see side by side there's no discernible difference between the console's built-in storage and the rocket 4 plus the game goes straight from the save game screen to adventuring in midgar in both cases"

The same results were observed for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The loading time was minimal, with no noticeable delay.

"Finally let's take a look at tony hawk's pro skater 1 and 2. this time the ps5 does have a quick loading screen which is a little surprising after the first two games but it's pretty short-lived and then we're into a level it doesn't matter if it's the rocket 4 plus or the internal storage the weight is about the same the ps5 is using the drive as fast as it can and that's all we can ask for"

The results were consistent across all three games. The loading time was minimal, with no noticeable delay.

**Comparison to PS4**

We've also included the PS4 version of each game in our testing. As expected, the load times were significantly longer on the PS4 than on the Rocket 4 Plus or internal storage.

"The ps4 versions are slightly worse but they do show how much time can be saved with this upgrade especially if you have a older console like the dreamcast or playstation"

The results highlight the significant improvement in loading times offered by the Rocket 4 Plus and the PS5's internal storage. If you're due for an upgrade, this is definitely something to consider.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, the Rocket 4 Plus has proven itself to be a fantastic external M.2 SSD drive for the PlayStation 5. It provides a massive boost in storage capacity, minimal loading times, and excellent performance. While installation can be a bit messy, it's still a relatively straightforward process. If you're due for an upgrade or want to add more storage to your PS5, this is definitely something worth considering.

**About the Author**

I'm Ben Funk, and I'll be hosting Hot Hardware from now on

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everybody this is ben funk for hot hardware sony's playstation 5 shipped in november of 2020 somewhat incomplete while the hardware had an m2 slot for pci express solid state drives the software didn't know what to do with it worse only around 667 of the 867 gigabytes of storage are available out of the box and that's only around three copies of call of duty sony then got to work on m2 storage support in firmware it took around eight months to get to a point where a ps5 beta could start to use that slot for additional game storage with a final release with m2 storage support around the corner we teamed up with the folks at sebrint to put an incredibly fast ssd to work in the latest software beta while sabrin provided our test drive today the company had no editorial input or influence over our findings or our conclusions sony's ps5 beta program requires signing up and eventually being picked as a beta tester we went through that process and it took about a week from the time of signing up to being picked once we were selected as a beta tester sony sent an email with a code redeemable on the playstation store that code opened access to the beta and we could update the firmware sony says it's important to not install an m2 drive to update to the beta and only install it after updating we followed those instructions to the letter installing the update and then upgrading the console with our drive the drive for our tests is a sabrent rocket 4 plus this ssd has physon's latest e18 drive controller and two terabytes of fast flash storage retailing at approximately 360 dollars it's not a cheap way to add storage but smaller versions of the driver available at lower prices that includes a one terabyte version for around a hundred eighty dollars the rocket four plus is a really fast ssd we ran some quick benchmarks and found that with atto and with crystal disk mark that read speeds max out at well over 6 gigabytes per second sony specs out a 5.5 gigabyte per second speed for recommended drives and this clears that mark the rocket 4 plus also has some great i o performance be sure to check out the full charts on hot hardware sabran included a robust cooling solution for the rocket 4 plus which is available separately for around 25 in this case however the cooler is too large to fit into the ps5 so we went with a slimmer heatsink available on amazon for around ten dollars it fits nicely and over the last couple of weeks it has worked well to stave off heat and prevent the drive from running too slowly inside the console to upgrade the playstation 5 storage all you need is a number zero phillips head screwdriver and the ssd itself with the heatsink already installed we're using a digital edition of the ps5 but the instructions are identical for both versions of the console on sony's website upgrading the ps5 requires flipping it over onto its top with the screw hole for the vertical stand facing us then lift slightly on the far side of the lid and slide it back the top slides off with a couple of clips giving loose in the plastic and doesn't require a lot of force if it's resisting coming off for you you probably just need to adjust your pull angle once the bottom of the console comes loose use the screwdriver to remove a large retaining screw for an emi shield exposing the m2 slot first we test the fit to make sure the retaining screw is in the right position the rocket 4 plus is an m2 2280 drive which is 80 millimeters long install the drive just like any other m2 drive and replace the emi shield and pop the base back into place unfortunately our video capture card couldn't capture any of the screens while formatting the drive so still images will have to do the first time we turn on the console we can either format the drive or turn the ps5 back off we chose to format and the system shows our drive passes sony's read speed recommendation with flying colors to test whether the m2 drive can give the same seamless performance that the ps5's internal storage provides we could bust out a stopwatch but there's a lot of variability in that instead it's easier to just show side-by-side comparisons of loading from the console storage and then loading from the rocket 4 plus we're doing that in three games marvel spider-man remastered final fantasy 7 remake and tony hawk's pro skater 1 and 2 remastered this also provides a great way to see how far the latest in console storage has come so we'll also test out the ps4 versions of these games to show just how much time can be saved versus the last generation first up is marvel's spiderman remastered we've synced up our videos so that you can see side by side there's no discernible difference between the console's built-in storage and the rocket 4 plus the game goes straight from the save game screen to swinging around manhattan in both cases spider-man was a masterful sandbox superhero title where just traversing the city is tons of fun and it has some great combat mechanics and larger-than-life villains it's also got some excellent ray trace reflections in the glass of just about every building while this is fresh in our minds let's load up the game on the ps5 from a sata ssd which itself is much faster than sony's 5400 rpm drive in the ps4 pro we get a loading screen first off and around a 15 second wait time before we ever get into the game nobody's gonna miss these screens on the ps5 and the same is true on the pc once pc games start to use directx 12 ultimate's direct storage api the game still looks nice on the ps4 and great for the hardware but the level of detail is lower and there's no ray tracing the frame rate is also capped at 30fps next up is final fantasy 7 remake this is the first episode in square enix's reimagined legendary classic rpg from the playstation 1. once again there's no load screen we go straight into the game with minimal delay when we do the same thing with the ps4 version of the game we're stuck once again with a lengthy load screen some of that is the fact we're using slower storage than the m2 slot in the ps5 but most of it is due to the ps4's inability to handle all that data quickly finally let's take a look at tony hawk's pro skater 1 and 2. this time the ps5 does have a quick loading screen which is a little surprising after the first two games but it's pretty short-lived and then we're into a level it doesn't matter if it's the rocket 4 plus or the internal storage the weight is about the same the ps5 is using the drive as fast as it can and that's all we can ask for this upgrade if you had a playstation or sega dreamcast or a gaming pc in 2000 or so it's almost a sure thing that you've sunk hundreds of hours into kickflips 900s railgrinds in these two games vicarious visions did a great job remaking these titles for a modern age when we swap back to the ps4 version however the load times are more than doubled the game still looks good but the ps5's lighting is better however the weight is the worst part overall the sabrint rocket 4 plus is an upgrade to the playstation 5's internal storage and it's a huge success installing an m2 drive in the ps5 is a little messier than just buying one of microsoft's internal storage expansions for the xbox series x but sony's solution is also a little bit cheaper and a lot more flexible the most important part however is that loading games from the rocket 4 plus did just as well as the internal flash memory in the ps5 the rocket's faison e18 controller is the fastest around and our benchmark showed it anybody who needs to add more storage to a playstation 5 or a fast gaming pc would do well to pick one up if you've enjoyed this video please be sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel and hit the bell to be notified of new videos as they go live once again i'm ben funk and this is hot hardware thanks for watching youhi everybody this is ben funk for hot hardware sony's playstation 5 shipped in november of 2020 somewhat incomplete while the hardware had an m2 slot for pci express solid state drives the software didn't know what to do with it worse only around 667 of the 867 gigabytes of storage are available out of the box and that's only around three copies of call of duty sony then got to work on m2 storage support in firmware it took around eight months to get to a point where a ps5 beta could start to use that slot for additional game storage with a final release with m2 storage support around the corner we teamed up with the folks at sebrint to put an incredibly fast ssd to work in the latest software beta while sabrin provided our test drive today the company had no editorial input or influence over our findings or our conclusions sony's ps5 beta program requires signing up and eventually being picked as a beta tester we went through that process and it took about a week from the time of signing up to being picked once we were selected as a beta tester sony sent an email with a code redeemable on the playstation store that code opened access to the beta and we could update the firmware sony says it's important to not install an m2 drive to update to the beta and only install it after updating we followed those instructions to the letter installing the update and then upgrading the console with our drive the drive for our tests is a sabrent rocket 4 plus this ssd has physon's latest e18 drive controller and two terabytes of fast flash storage retailing at approximately 360 dollars it's not a cheap way to add storage but smaller versions of the driver available at lower prices that includes a one terabyte version for around a hundred eighty dollars the rocket four plus is a really fast ssd we ran some quick benchmarks and found that with atto and with crystal disk mark that read speeds max out at well over 6 gigabytes per second sony specs out a 5.5 gigabyte per second speed for recommended drives and this clears that mark the rocket 4 plus also has some great i o performance be sure to check out the full charts on hot hardware sabran included a robust cooling solution for the rocket 4 plus which is available separately for around 25 in this case however the cooler is too large to fit into the ps5 so we went with a slimmer heatsink available on amazon for around ten dollars it fits nicely and over the last couple of weeks it has worked well to stave off heat and prevent the drive from running too slowly inside the console to upgrade the playstation 5 storage all you need is a number zero phillips head screwdriver and the ssd itself with the heatsink already installed we're using a digital edition of the ps5 but the instructions are identical for both versions of the console on sony's website upgrading the ps5 requires flipping it over onto its top with the screw hole for the vertical stand facing us then lift slightly on the far side of the lid and slide it back the top slides off with a couple of clips giving loose in the plastic and doesn't require a lot of force if it's resisting coming off for you you probably just need to adjust your pull angle once the bottom of the console comes loose use the screwdriver to remove a large retaining screw for an emi shield exposing the m2 slot first we test the fit to make sure the retaining screw is in the right position the rocket 4 plus is an m2 2280 drive which is 80 millimeters long install the drive just like any other m2 drive and replace the emi shield and pop the base back into place unfortunately our video capture card couldn't capture any of the screens while formatting the drive so still images will have to do the first time we turn on the console we can either format the drive or turn the ps5 back off we chose to format and the system shows our drive passes sony's read speed recommendation with flying colors to test whether the m2 drive can give the same seamless performance that the ps5's internal storage provides we could bust out a stopwatch but there's a lot of variability in that instead it's easier to just show side-by-side comparisons of loading from the console storage and then loading from the rocket 4 plus we're doing that in three games marvel spider-man remastered final fantasy 7 remake and tony hawk's pro skater 1 and 2 remastered this also provides a great way to see how far the latest in console storage has come so we'll also test out the ps4 versions of these games to show just how much time can be saved versus the last generation first up is marvel's spiderman remastered we've synced up our videos so that you can see side by side there's no discernible difference between the console's built-in storage and the rocket 4 plus the game goes straight from the save game screen to swinging around manhattan in both cases spider-man was a masterful sandbox superhero title where just traversing the city is tons of fun and it has some great combat mechanics and larger-than-life villains it's also got some excellent ray trace reflections in the glass of just about every building while this is fresh in our minds let's load up the game on the ps5 from a sata ssd which itself is much faster than sony's 5400 rpm drive in the ps4 pro we get a loading screen first off and around a 15 second wait time before we ever get into the game nobody's gonna miss these screens on the ps5 and the same is true on the pc once pc games start to use directx 12 ultimate's direct storage api the game still looks nice on the ps4 and great for the hardware but the level of detail is lower and there's no ray tracing the frame rate is also capped at 30fps next up is final fantasy 7 remake this is the first episode in square enix's reimagined legendary classic rpg from the playstation 1. once again there's no load screen we go straight into the game with minimal delay when we do the same thing with the ps4 version of the game we're stuck once again with a lengthy load screen some of that is the fact we're using slower storage than the m2 slot in the ps5 but most of it is due to the ps4's inability to handle all that data quickly finally let's take a look at tony hawk's pro skater 1 and 2. this time the ps5 does have a quick loading screen which is a little surprising after the first two games but it's pretty short-lived and then we're into a level it doesn't matter if it's the rocket 4 plus or the internal storage the weight is about the same the ps5 is using the drive as fast as it can and that's all we can ask for this upgrade if you had a playstation or sega dreamcast or a gaming pc in 2000 or so it's almost a sure thing that you've sunk hundreds of hours into kickflips 900s railgrinds in these two games vicarious visions did a great job remaking these titles for a modern age when we swap back to the ps4 version however the load times are more than doubled the game still looks good but the ps5's lighting is better however the weight is the worst part overall the sabrint rocket 4 plus is an upgrade to the playstation 5's internal storage and it's a huge success installing an m2 drive in the ps5 is a little messier than just buying one of microsoft's internal storage expansions for the xbox series x but sony's solution is also a little bit cheaper and a lot more flexible the most important part however is that loading games from the rocket 4 plus did just as well as the internal flash memory in the ps5 the rocket's faison e18 controller is the fastest around and our benchmark showed it anybody who needs to add more storage to a playstation 5 or a fast gaming pc would do well to pick one up if you've enjoyed this video please be sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel and hit the bell to be notified of new videos as they go live once again i'm ben funk and this is hot hardware thanks for watching youhi everybody this is ben funk for hot hardware sony's playstation 5 shipped in november of 2020 somewhat incomplete while the hardware had an m2 slot for pci express solid state drives the software didn't know what to do with it worse only around 667 of the 867 gigabytes of storage are available out of the box and that's only around three copies of call of duty sony then got to work on m2 storage support in firmware it took around eight months to get to a point where a ps5 beta could start to use that slot for additional game storage with a final release with m2 storage support around the corner we teamed up with the folks at sebrint to put an incredibly fast ssd to work in the latest software beta while sabrin provided our test drive today the company had no editorial input or influence over our findings or our conclusions sony's ps5 beta program requires signing up and eventually being picked as a beta tester we went through that process and it took about a week from the time of signing up to being picked once we were selected as a beta tester sony sent an email with a code redeemable on the playstation store that code opened access to the beta and we could update the firmware sony says it's important to not install an m2 drive to update to the beta and only install it after updating we followed those instructions to the letter installing the update and then upgrading the console with our drive the drive for our tests is a sabrent rocket 4 plus this ssd has physon's latest e18 drive controller and two terabytes of fast flash storage retailing at approximately 360 dollars it's not a cheap way to add storage but smaller versions of the driver available at lower prices that includes a one terabyte version for around a hundred eighty dollars the rocket four plus is a really fast ssd we ran some quick benchmarks and found that with atto and with crystal disk mark that read speeds max out at well over 6 gigabytes per second sony specs out a 5.5 gigabyte per second speed for recommended drives and this clears that mark the rocket 4 plus also has some great i o performance be sure to check out the full charts on hot hardware sabran included a robust cooling solution for the rocket 4 plus which is available separately for around 25 in this case however the cooler is too large to fit into the ps5 so we went with a slimmer heatsink available on amazon for around ten dollars it fits nicely and over the last couple of weeks it has worked well to stave off heat and prevent the drive from running too slowly inside the console to upgrade the playstation 5 storage all you need is a number zero phillips head screwdriver and the ssd itself with the heatsink already installed we're using a digital edition of the ps5 but the instructions are identical for both versions of the console on sony's website upgrading the ps5 requires flipping it over onto its top with the screw hole for the vertical stand facing us then lift slightly on the far side of the lid and slide it back the top slides off with a couple of clips giving loose in the plastic and doesn't require a lot of force if it's resisting coming off for you you probably just need to adjust your pull angle once the bottom of the console comes loose use the screwdriver to remove a large retaining screw for an emi shield exposing the m2 slot first we test the fit to make sure the retaining screw is in the right position the rocket 4 plus is an m2 2280 drive which is 80 millimeters long install the drive just like any other m2 drive and replace the emi shield and pop the base back into place unfortunately our video capture card couldn't capture any of the screens while formatting the drive so still images will have to do the first time we turn on the console we can either format the drive or turn the ps5 back off we chose to format and the system shows our drive passes sony's read speed recommendation with flying colors to test whether the m2 drive can give the same seamless performance that the ps5's internal storage provides we could bust out a stopwatch but there's a lot of variability in that instead it's easier to just show side-by-side comparisons of loading from the console storage and then loading from the rocket 4 plus we're doing that in three games marvel spider-man remastered final fantasy 7 remake and tony hawk's pro skater 1 and 2 remastered this also provides a great way to see how far the latest in console storage has come so we'll also test out the ps4 versions of these games to show just how much time can be saved versus the last generation first up is marvel's spiderman remastered we've synced up our videos so that you can see side by side there's no discernible difference between the console's built-in storage and the rocket 4 plus the game goes straight from the save game screen to swinging around manhattan in both cases spider-man was a masterful sandbox superhero title where just traversing the city is tons of fun and it has some great combat mechanics and larger-than-life villains it's also got some excellent ray trace reflections in the glass of just about every building while this is fresh in our minds let's load up the game on the ps5 from a sata ssd which itself is much faster than sony's 5400 rpm drive in the ps4 pro we get a loading screen first off and around a 15 second wait time before we ever get into the game nobody's gonna miss these screens on the ps5 and the same is true on the pc once pc games start to use directx 12 ultimate's direct storage api the game still looks nice on the ps4 and great for the hardware but the level of detail is lower and there's no ray tracing the frame rate is also capped at 30fps next up is final fantasy 7 remake this is the first episode in square enix's reimagined legendary classic rpg from the playstation 1. once again there's no load screen we go straight into the game with minimal delay when we do the same thing with the ps4 version of the game we're stuck once again with a lengthy load screen some of that is the fact we're using slower storage than the m2 slot in the ps5 but most of it is due to the ps4's inability to handle all that data quickly finally let's take a look at tony hawk's pro skater 1 and 2. this time the ps5 does have a quick loading screen which is a little surprising after the first two games but it's pretty short-lived and then we're into a level it doesn't matter if it's the rocket 4 plus or the internal storage the weight is about the same the ps5 is using the drive as fast as it can and that's all we can ask for this upgrade if you had a playstation or sega dreamcast or a gaming pc in 2000 or so it's almost a sure thing that you've sunk hundreds of hours into kickflips 900s railgrinds in these two games vicarious visions did a great job remaking these titles for a modern age when we swap back to the ps4 version however the load times are more than doubled the game still looks good but the ps5's lighting is better however the weight is the worst part overall the sabrint rocket 4 plus is an upgrade to the playstation 5's internal storage and it's a huge success installing an m2 drive in the ps5 is a little messier than just buying one of microsoft's internal storage expansions for the xbox series x but sony's solution is also a little bit cheaper and a lot more flexible the most important part however is that loading games from the rocket 4 plus did just as well as the internal flash memory in the ps5 the rocket's faison e18 controller is the fastest around and our benchmark showed it anybody who needs to add more storage to a playstation 5 or a fast gaming pc would do well to pick one up if you've enjoyed this video please be sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel and hit the bell to be notified of new videos as they go live once again i'm ben funk and this is hot hardware thanks for watching you\n"