Look, we're not mad at the SN850P. It did it's job of adding another terrabyte of storage to our console and sped everything else up in the process. We just wish it didn't have to be so expensive to get results, especially when Western Digital's SN850X with exactly the same specs could be had for a whole lot cheaper. But if you're dedicated to getting something Sony has officially licenced, you can't go wrong with the WD_Black SN850P NVMe SSD.
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So, you’re looking to run Baldur’s Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, CoD: MW3, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on one PS5? Um, ackshually, no you’re not. Unless those are your only games, not even accounting for all the footage tucked away in your media gallery. Give it a couple of years, and gamers will be forced to pick up some third-party storage solution to make up for the abysmal performance of the custom 825GB SSD in the PS5.
We recently had the opportunity to whack in Western Digital’s officially licensed SN850P NVMe SSD (1TB) (though WD also sells 2,4, and 8TB models for considerably more money). While we had our grievances, we walked away feeling impressed by the SN850P’s performance. WD boasts read speeds of 7,300MB/s – a figure we never saw. Still, it was impressive, but it doesn’t help that it costs about an arm and a leg to get one.
Picking up even the smallest SN850P results in a price of at least R4,000. That’ll stretch up to R6,500 for double the storage. It’s a slap in the face for gamers looking to make up for PlayStation’s failings, and an even bigger slap to buyers when the functionally identical WD_Black SN850X is right there. Oh, it doesn’t have a PS logo on it? Well then. We stand corrected.
Too bad I’m not readin’ ‘em
Ignoring the price, the most terrifying aspect of picking a storage solution is the installation. Too many folks are afraid of opening up their at least R12,000 console – and rightfully so. We’ll admit we were even a bit scared of something going awry at first, but it (and we) soon proved to be made of tougher stuff. It also helped that installation was as difficult as unscrewing two (two!) different screws.
Even so, we’d recommend watching Western Digital’s video to get a better grasp of the process. Unscrew the screws, slot the SSD into the M.2 slot, screw them back in, and voila. It’s kitted with an improved heatsink design and a pretty PS logo (goodbye forever, we guess) when compared to something like the nearly identical SN850X – which can’t quite hit the 8TB figure because of this.
From there, usage is just as simple. Once installed, booting up the PS5 will immediately badger you to format the drive, and format it you must. Where PS4 gamers might have spent their lives moving games to and fro between their primary and secondary drives, not so with the SN850P. The PS5 can launch games straight from the new SSD. It’s not a huge time-saver, but you’ll definitely notice a couple of seconds saved here or there booting up games.
Time is money
In our testing, the SN850P did not hit the promised read speeds of 7,300MB/s, and we’re not going to give it the benefit of the doubt that it hit the 6,300MB/s write speed on the box, either. It’s not all bad news. WD’s efforts still massively outperformed the PS5’s original drive – hitting read speeds of 6273.47MB/s using the PS5’s built-in tester. It easily trumps the PS5’s 5,500MB/s speeds and provides a noticeable difference.
The problem, however, is the price. Paying nearly three times the price for a 1TB SSD that can’t even hit the speeds promised on the tin hasn’t gone over well for most. Drop that price and adjust the quoted performance specs and WD would immediately garner more customers.
If you don’t particularly mind about the SN850P not living up to its claims, or simply don’t understand what all those numbers mean (or the SN850X was out of stock), you’ll be more than happy with the performance on offer here. You’ll still need to copy games over to the drive, but once they’re there, you’re all set. Copying our roughly 600GB library of games from the PS5’s SSD took roughly 5 mins and 45 seconds.
Thankfully, those speeds also carry over to the PS5’s awfully long copy time when downloading a large game or update. What would often take longer than the download itself, the SSD can make mighty quick work of, shaving off at least a couple of minutes when dealing with some big updates. We noticed it first when downloading the 4K 60fps update for Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and got to gaming roughly 20 minutes sooner than we otherwise would have.
When booting up games, it showed a similar desire to run a lot quicker than we were used to. Games like Astro Bot are not what we would call slow but with the SN850P on board, we got to the ‘press any button to start’ screen at least 5 seconds quicker. That’s… not a lot, we get it. But it’s an improvement nonetheless.
WD_Black SN850P NVMe SSD Verdict
Overall, we came out liking the WD_Black SN850P NVMe SSD. It’s bogged down in the stores by the hefty R4,000 pricetag – helped only by the good-looking-but-essentially-useless PS logo slapped onto the front and it couldn’t quite live up to the Western Digital name. But we still recognise that it did its job, and did it well.
Still, it’s difficult to ignore Western Digital’s other SN850X NVMe SSD which reps mightily similar specs, missing the PS logo and a slightly outdated heatsink design. We’ve yet to test its capabilities, but if it’s anything higher than the P model’s real speeds, it’s worth the R2,000+ price. That’s if you can find one. But if the SN850P is all that’s available, you won’t be disappointed.