• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
Anyone in here who has received the beta invite, was it over email?
Yeah it will be an email. If you use Gmail, check the Promotions tab. Mine was in there. Did you sign up for it already? I was getting salty until I got my email yesterday, lol.

So far, no issues. I got the Aorus (also have the WD SN 850 with no heat sink, will decide if I get a heat sink or just stick it in one of my external enclosures) It fit in good, no fans ramping up yet. I have seen some ppl post about not using the NVMe slot cover with heat sinks that were too big.

Transfer speeds are the main reason why I use NVMe as external drives too. So...fast....

One weird thing I noticed is it formatted to 1TB...the external I use formatted to 918GB. My external is PCIe 3 tho. I thought that was strange. Also the M.2 has Other like the PS5 storage, thats interesting. My external doesnt.

And I think the best options might be a drive with no heat sink and you get your own. Save some money this way.


Look at the options.

😲
Yup. This is why off the shelf is great. And I have options for use: internal or external for my PC or PS5. I havent been keeping up with any negatives for using regular external drives for Series consoles....but I can use it for that too.

Options are great.
 
Last edited:

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
So far, I'll say this. The installation, as well noted, couldn't be easier.
WD SN850 2TB with 3rd party MHQJRH brand heatsink added fit into the NVME space perfectly with the cover able to be added. The read speed on the drive was detected as 6542.095 MB/s. I haven't yet got to test anything proper in varying game tests or anything. I'm moving about 550GB of files from extended USB storage from a standard WD Platter My Book drive, so I won't bother noting anything speed or time related there.

When I had the system open, I took the opportunity to thoroughly clean out the fins, main fan, and vacuum out the system through the dust ports. After adding back everything and getting to this point, the system is quite whisper quiet while doing the data transfer from USB to M.2 drive.
 

Imtjnotu

Member
My g
Yeah it will be an email. If you use Gmail, check the Promotions tab. Mine was in there. Did you sign up for it already? I was getting salty until I got my email yesterday, lol.

So far, no issues. I got the Aorus (also have the WD SN 850 with no heat sink, will decide if I get a heat sink or just stick it in one of my external enclosures) It fit in good, no fans ramping up yet. I have seen some ppl post about not using the NVMe slot cover with heat sinks that were too big.

Transfer speeds are the main reason why I use NVMe as external drives too. So...fast....

One weird thing I noticed is it formatted to 1TB...the external I use formatted to 918GB. My external is PCIe 3 tho. I thought that was strange. Also the M.2 has Other like the PS5 storage, thats interesting. My external doesnt.

And I think the best options might be a drive with no heat sink and you get your own. Save some money this way.



Yup. This is why off the shelf is great. And I have options for use: internal or external for my PC or PS5. I havent been keeping up with any negatives for using regular external drives for Series consoles....but I can use it for that too.

Options are great.
My guy. The email was right there in promotions off Gmail hahaha!

Thanks again. In the beta now boys
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
Some stats.

This is all estimated. didn't do anything scientific obviously. I used a stopwatch and tried my best to time out some things for a couple of items, and with a couple of games. It takes a bunch of time and patience to move files back and forth, time things..etc.:

2TB WD SN850 w/ 3rd party heatsink vs. Internal SSD:

Detecting games/apps in console storage: 8.7s
Detecting games/apps in M.2 drive: 1.4s

MLB The Show 21 60.21GB (Digital version):
Move from M.2 to Internal SSD: 4 mins 28s
Launch from Internal SSD to start menu: 24.62s
Move from Internal SSD to M.2: About 50s
Launch from M.2 drive to start menu: 23.32d


Hitman 3 62.02GB (Disc version):
Move from M.2 to Internal SSD: 4 M 33s
Launch from Internal SSD to start menu: 21.37s
Move from Internal SSD to M.2: 53s
Launch from M.2 drive to start menu: 21.05s

Edit: Perhaps this maybe shows that the internal drive has a slower write than the NVME? I'm not sure if that's true.. but.. maybe?
 
Last edited:

Md Ray

Member
Congrats, you're now certified to build a house.

Captain America Laughing GIF by mtv

Animated GIF
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Amazon sent this bad boy fast as in next day fast!
gRcvoDx.jpg


Here is a comparison pic with my XSX nvme drive...

qETEPTE.jpg


Luving those specs!

RSsDyGV.jpg
Let us know the read speeds if you're enrolled in beta.

Darn, that is better than the WD one specs wise and installs very cleanly too. On the other side higher sequential writes matters a bit less with PS5 for games as you mostly only load from the SSD (still faster installs and game copies). Why did KnackDaddy not go with it lol?
Got beta and installed it and the Aorus. Everything went good.

The read speeds were almost 6600.
 

Larlight

Member
I got a code for the beta test, but I think Im going to pass on it. Don't feel comfortable doing it. Is it possible to give the code to someone else? Or will this get that person's ps5 banned or my psn banned for sharing it?
 

MC68000

Member
When you receive your drive, make sure you install it in a PC first and update the firmware. I received my WD Black SN850 today and it was on an older firmware version.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
When you receive your drive, make sure you install it in a PC first and update the firmware. I received my WD Black SN850 today and it was on an older firmware version.
I was hoping not to have to do that hehe. Would the PS5 be able to update its firmware?

I do wonder how much responsibilities it does delegate to the SSD controller in the PS5 and how much firmware updates are needed in this case. Mmh… is there a Changelog? With only macOS based machines it would be a bit tricky to do.
 
Last edited:

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Aorus 2TB 7000s is 6850 Write Speed.
I do it think that for PS5 use you will see much more benefit going that much higher compared to the 5.5 GB/s I/O rating considering the priority levels really stress the reads from the drive.

Still, incredible how quickly these drives are going already, going with off the shelves solutions is paying off :).
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
When you receive your drive, make sure you install it in a PC first and update the firmware. I received my WD Black SN850 today and it was on an older firmware version.
Not trying to shit on your suggestion, but are Sony advising you need to do that? What benefits are you going to get on a closed architecture based console?

Understand formatting it for use in Windows and updating firmware for PC use just trying to work out if any difference will be noticed on PS5?

Edit: and I don’t have a adaptor to format it in anyway.
 
Last edited:
When you receive your drive, make sure you install it in a PC first and update the firmware. I received my WD Black SN850 today and it was on an older firmware version.

I highly doubt that It's necessary to do that.
The drives work right out of the box.

One issue with the SN850 was X570 motherboard related.

How are you supposed to update the firmware If you haven't a X570 motherboard btw??
 

Mithos

Member
I highly doubt that It's necessary to do that.
The drives work right out of the box.

One issue with the SN850 was X570 motherboard related.

How are you supposed to update the firmware If you haven't a X570 motherboard btw??
You just run the software** for said nvme and make the update it will update the firmware no matter what motherboard you have.

** For Kingston it's called "Kingston SSD Manager", for WD it's called "Western Digital SSD Dashboard".
 
Last edited:

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
You just run the software** for said nvme and make the update it will update the firmware no matter what motherboard you have.

** For Kingston it's called "Kingston SSD Manager", for WD it's called "Western Digital SSD Dashboard".
Not needed.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
I did not experience any issues installing the SN850 2TB model in the Playstation 5 out of the box. It detected appropriately and detected with a read speed in line with the speeds others have been posting. I'm not sure it would be necessary to do a firmware update. I can't say it would hurt either. If anyone has done an install of this drive without the firmware update successfully and then with the firmware update after and re-installed the drive, I'd be curious if it made any difference.
 

MC68000

Member
I was hoping not to have to do that hehe. Would the PS5 be able to update its firmware?

I do wonder how much responsibilities it does delegate to the SSD controller in the PS5 and how much firmware updates are needed in this case. Mmh… is there a Changelog? With only macOS based machines it would be a bit tricky to do.
Unfortunately the PS5 doesn't have that functionality in the OS. It would be awesome if they added it in a future release.

Not trying to shit on your suggestion, but are Sony advising you need to do that? What benefits are you going to get on a closed architecture based console?

Understand formatting it for use in Windows and updating firmware for PC use just trying to work out if any difference will be noticed on PS5?

Edit: and I don’t have a adaptor to format it in anyway.
The manufacturer recommends it. You don't even need to format it. Install the drive in the NVME slot and run the software.

I highly doubt that It's necessary to do that.
The drives work right out of the box.

One issue with the SN850 was X570 motherboard related.

How are you supposed to update the firmware If you haven't a X570 motherboard btw??
As someone else pointed out, you dont need a X570 motherboard. Any motherboard with a NVME slot will work.

Drive vendors release new firmware to address performance, wear and thermals etc. I think its a good idea, especially with drives that recently hit the market.
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
I don’t have a slot lol - use a laptop that has mechanical 2.5 inch hard drive. If anyone can recommend an adaptor so I can format it?
 

MC68000

Member
I don’t have a slot lol - use a laptop that has mechanical 2.5 inch hard drive. If anyone can recommend an adaptor so I can format it?
You don't need to format the drive, the PS5 will format it when installed. Also, you don't need to update the firmware for it to work, it's just good practice, if you have the ability.
 

graywolf323

Member
I don’t have a slot lol - use a laptop that has mechanical 2.5 inch hard drive. If anyone can recommend an adaptor so I can format it?
I was in the same boat and since I ordered the WD850 w/ heatsink already installed I couldn't just use an enclosure so I ended up ordering this off Amazon yesterday which should be delivered tomorrow


I'll let you know how it works, I'm only getting it to update the firmware
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Unfortunately the PS5 doesn't have that functionality in the OS. It would be awesome if they added it in a future release.


The manufacturer recommends it. You don't even need to format it. Install the drive in the NVME slot and run the software.


As someone else pointed out, you dont need a X570 motherboard. Any motherboard with a NVME slot will work.

Drive vendors release new firmware to address performance, wear and thermals etc. I think its a good idea, especially with drives that recently hit the market.
No, the issue he was taking about, x570 related, was about the only bug (related to write speeds) only reported against that chipset.

So, not sure you need to update the FW at all: the Read speed is what matters the most and nobody knows if the write speed issue happens on the PS5 console too.
 

NickFire

Member
Had beta invite in email from a few days back. Finally decided to get ssd but the ones attached heat sinks were sold out. Decided to buy ssd and heat sink separately today, and got wd sn850 plus grabbed heat sink. Got home, put code in. No download option. Do it again, says redeemed. Search everywhere to download beta. No option. Look again, and realize I had code for a PS4 beta, not a ps5 beta. Omg not cool.
 

MC68000

Member
Had beta invite in email from a few days back. Finally decided to get ssd but the ones attached heat sinks were sold out. Decided to buy ssd and heat sink separately today, and got wd sn850 plus grabbed heat sink. Got home, put code in. No download option. Do it again, says redeemed. Search everywhere to download beta. No option. Look again, and realize I had code for a PS4 beta, not a ps5 beta. Omg not cool.
Here is how you download the Beta firmware.
  1. Go to Settings > System > System Software > System Software Update and Settings.
  2. Select Update System Software (beta) > Update
 
Last edited:

MC68000

Member
My second drive arrived today. It was on an older firmware as well. I updated it and installed it in my other PS5. The Beta program is tied to the account, so if you have multiple PS5s, you can just log in and download the Beta from settings.
 

graywolf323

Member
My second drive arrived today. It was on an older firmware as well. I updated it and installed it in my other PS5. The Beta program is tied to the account, so if you have multiple PS5s, you can just log in and download the Beta from settings.
oh dang that's cool about it being account-based so you can test it on multiple systems

sadly I don't know if any of my friends got into the beta or I'd ask them to sign into my PS5 to update it X-P
 

NickFire

Member
Here is how you download the Beta firmware.
  1. Go to Settings > System > System Software > System Software Update and Settings.
  2. Select Update System Software (beta) > Update
Issue is I thought that I had a code, but after getting ssd realized it’s a PS4 beta and not ps5 beta code I got
 

MC68000

Member
oh dang that's cool about it being account-based so you can test it on multiple systems

sadly I don't know if any of my friends got into the beta or I'd ask them to sign into my PS5 to update it X-P
I am afraid to try and update my kids PS5s. Sony might think I am hooking people up and ban the PS5 or my account. Only I use my two boxes so its legit. The kids can wait. Besides, I didnt order them a drive. Such a horrible parent..lol
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
I did not experience any issues installing the SN850 2TB model in the Playstation 5 out of the box. It detected appropriately and detected with a read speed in line with the speeds others have been posting. I'm not sure it would be necessary to do a firmware update. I can't say it would hurt either. If anyone has done an install of this drive without the firmware update successfully and then with the firmware update after and re-installed the drive, I'd be curious if it made any difference.
Updating the fw on these drives for use on PS5 is not necessary.
 
Installed the 1TB WD SN850 Black last night, and it went as easily as I expected. PS5 stated the read at just shy of 6700. Definitely happy to have space on the PS5 again.

I didn't bother to update the SN850 firmware yet, but I may do so at some point.
 
Top Bottom