Replacing the hard disk (HDD) of your PS4 with a solid state disk (SSD) will make your videogame console reduce the charging times of your games. That will make you see those “Loading” screens fewer times. In this post we show you how to do it.
HDD vs SSD, what is the difference between them?
The storage device that comes installed on your PlayStation 4 when you buy it is a HDD or hard disk drive. This was invented in 1954 and has been the standard form of data storage for many years. So it is likely that, if you have ever own a portable hard drive, this was an HDD. However, the storage device that we propose you to make your console faster is a SSD or solid state drive. This one has been commercially available since 1991 but has not been economically attractive to the population until a few years ago. Both devices do the same exact thing: data storage. But the main difference between them relies on the way they work.
A HDD stores the data on metal plates that are spinning all the time. And, when the computer wants to record or retrieve some information, the device uses a small component that looks like a needle. This component either locates an empty spot on the plate to save the data or locates the position where the information is stored.
SSDs, on the other hand, have no moving plates. They have chips and non-volatile flash memories. And they store the data creating blocks of information of variable size. This way, every time the computer wants to access it, the SDD uses those chips and flash memories to quickly remember where the block of information that is needed is located and retrieve it.
Pros and cons
The solid state drive is the fastest, most reliable, and longest-lasting storage device of both of them. For example, PS4 startup time can be reduced by up to 50% with an SSD. It even consumes less energy. But is also has one main disadvantage. There is a real limit in the number that the data can be rewritten.
Does a SSD really speed up a PS4?
People tend to believe that this storage device upgrade implies also that the PS4 will have a higher processing potential, but that is not true. The benefit comes from the reading potential of the SSD.
Over the past few years, we have seen that processors have increased their processing speed and capacity. But nevertheless, the read speed of hard drives has remained fairly stable. This, therefore, has made this component a bottleneck. Therefore, SSDs have arrived to fill this gap. Now, more than ever, are being used in both computers and video game consoles, because their price has been falling for the past few years and today they can be purchased for a competitive price.
To sum up and to answer the question, a big yes. An SSD will make any gamer feel that the PlayStation software loads a lot more quickly than with HDDs because there will be shorter moments of waiting for the games to load.
How to upgrade your PS4’s storage device
If you want to take your system up a level and and allow PS4 games to load faster, then here you have how to do it. There is no technical background knowledge required because the process is quite easy.
Changing the storage unit of the PlayStation 4 is something really quick and easy, as the console itself allows you to change it without opening the whole machine. There are many guides on the Internet that can help you step by step doing this task. However, this following video tutorial is the one I recommend you in order not to break or cause any malfunction in the console. But I remind you again the easiness of this process.