Seagate PS4 external HDD features comparison: Game Drive vs. Expansion vs. Backup Plus Slim

Game Idealist: "Seagate recently released the 2 TB Game Drive for the PlayStation 4. So how does this dedicated external hard disk drive compare to the other available Seagate options, the Expansion and Backup Plus Slim, for the PS4?"

[PhoenixUp]

I'm glad PS4 is the only console that let's consumers choose between internal and external HDDs of most types

[zeal0us]

Does everything have to be contest?

[PhoenixUp]

What's a contest? I'm saying it's great to have a lot of options

[LordCancer]

i agree its just a bummer the internal speeds are limited to sata II speeds and for whatever reason pros sata III is bottle necked. ssd speeds should be faster but are virtually the same on ps4 and pro. microsoft was good to allow uncapped external support from the beginning but i will never forget the overpriced hdd that didn't qualify for the bonus credit trade in and bs excuses why they limited 360 usb storage to 16GB. it was like going back in time when you needed a dozen memory cards to save games on playstation, n64, dreamcast, just awful.

[nitus10]

The following are the SATA 2 and 3 specs:

SATA II (revision 2.x) interface, formally known as SATA 3Gb/s, is a second generation SATA interface running at 3.0 Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 300MB/s.

SATA III (revision 3.x) interface, formally known as SATA 6Gb/s, is a third generation SATA interface running at 6.0Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 600MB/s.

It is definitely better to have a SATA 3 bus which the PS4pro has but you also have to take into account the performance of the devices on that bus and most hard disk drives (approx 100MB/sec burst read and 30~40MB/sec sustained reads) don't come anywhere near the overall performance of a SATA 2 bus so having a faster bus, in this case, is pointless.

If you want to use an SSD which is much more expensive than an HDD you will get read speeds of 500MB/sec and higher. To get the best performance using an SSD a SATA 3 bus is preferable although other factors come into play as well such as the performance of the software which in most cases is the main bottleneck.

BTW. The performance of USB 3 is about 640MB/sec so that is not a bottleneck.

[Cobra951]

An informed tech post on N4G! Thanks, nitus10.

LordCancer, the 360's external storage limit went up dramatically near the end of its run, to something like 2 TB per device, 2 devices supported. So archiving the contents of your 360's internal HDD should be possible. Save files can be copied too (with some unfortunate exceptions, in which case they can still be moved), something the Xbox One stupidly prevents.

[Trekster_Gamer]

You obvious troll the PS4 realized that the Xbox one was doing it right it's had this feature since launch not your precious PS4!!!

I'm glad Sony finally realize it should have been an option from the beginning and not a patch later!!!!

Maybe they'll wise up and do what Microsoft has done with backwards compatibility as well,,, greedy bastards!!

[Liqu1d]

Are you okay? The PS4 is the only console that supports expandable internal and external storage. And you do realise MS didn't invent BC? Sony actually did BC before MS, it just isn't possible for the PS4 to emulate all PS3 games.

[LordCancer]

WOW. somehow i expected more, like, read, writes, comparisons between the external drives and stock drives. 5400rpms only determines how fast the spindle speeds are. the actual read writes could vary drastically between which drives are used in each of those enclosures.

trying to decide whether wd black or seagate barracuda pro 4 or 6 TB but these drivers perform quite differently, both have specific strengths and weaknesses. i would love to see them bench marked on ps4.

euro gamer is suppossed to be doing a follow up to there last ps4 benchmarks but its been months so who knows if this will ever happen. likely just pull the trigger when the right deal hits and live with it.

[nitus10]

Here is an HDD intercomparison. http://hdd.userbenchmark.co...

Obviously, an SSD is going to be better (500MB/sec plus) but you are going to be paying considerably more.

The PS4 has a SATA 2 bus (up to 300MB/sec) while the PS4pro has a SATA 3 bus (up to 600MB/sec) so in the majority of cases, the main storage bottleneck will be the HDD. USB 3 is about 640MB/sec so we can ignore that as a potential bottleneck. The same goes for the Bluray drive (approx 27MB/sec) since it is not used to play games although it would be a bottleneck if it was used to play games.

[mogwaii]

Why would anyone pay more for exactly the same thing?!

[Kosic]

It's the branding. Because it's written for the ps4. The users who know nothing about hdds will pay the extra thinking it's the right choice.

I bought the Seagate expansion 2tb, then ripped that thing apart and put the drive inside my console. Was way before they released the external patch.

[Elwenil]

I learned a long time ago while building PC that the last thing you want is a Seagate HDD. WD FTW.

[superchiller]

I've owned (and still own) many Seagate hard drives, both internal and external, and haven't had any failures. My PS4 currently has an internal 2tb Seagate that was taken from the 2tb Seagate Slim external hard drive, and it's been working just fine. You can find many stories about failed hard drives from both companies, so I think it's not accurate to say that one is better than another.

[Elwenil]

I think you missed the part where I said I learned that the last thing you want is a Seagate. I have had many, many failures both in PC I have built and in PCs people have brought to me for service. I have never had a WD drive fail. It's nice that you have had good luck with Seagate drives, but in my experience, they are as unreliable as Toshiba drives.

[Injusticewarrior]

I've had 2 WD external 500 gig drives die.
Drives die, regardless of brand.

Just back up data that is important more then once.
With 30+ years working with computers. If it can fail, it will.