PNY Technologies has you covered for the best, and easiest, upgrades you can make to your Sony PS5 with its XLR8 Gaming 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 x4 CS3140 solid-state drive, and with its XLR8 Gaming PS5 SSD cover with integrated heatsink.

Of course, the CS3140 SSD can run equally well in your PC or other devices that have a PCIe slot, delivering up to a searing 7,500MB/s read speed, 6,850MB/s write speed, and with a generous five-year warranty. Certainly, it’s a tremendous upgrade for any device and can boost your enjoyment of it - slashing boot times, app load times, and giving you cavernous storage.

However, PC owners likely know they can make this upgrade and how to do it. For a device like the PlayStation 5, you might approach such an upgrade with trepidation, but yet Sony and PNY have both made it really easy, and you can do it within 10 minutes armed only with a screwdriver.

While extra storage and high speeds are always a boon, it's especially important for the PS5 because while the PS4 and Xbox One could load games stored on external media like a USB hard drive, the PS5 will only load games stored on an internal drive. It will certainly allow you to store games on an external drive, but the games must be transferred to the internal drive in order to play them. Thus, you must carefully balance your limited storage and delete games when you acquire new ones - or, you could slot in PNY’s XLR8 Gaming 2TB NVME SSD and give yourself a vast amount of internal storage, and at high-speed too.

The key is to ensure your PS5 is upgraded to the latest firmware because Sony has added support for the latest, fastest models of SSDs. Sony even provides instructions how to install the drive so you can be assured your upgrade is officially sanctioned and supported.

Importantly, using a high-speed SSD with your PS5 console requires effective heat dissipation with a cooling structure which is where the PNY XLR8 Gaming PS5 SSD cover with integrated heatsink comes in. You really want both devices - the SSD for all the reasons above, and the SSD cover with heatsink to keep it running cool, ensuring your system’s stability and long-playing gaming sessions.

Once you have all the items - your PS5, the XLR8 Gaming CS3140 SSD, the XLR8 Gaming SSD cover with integrated heatsink, and a Phillips-head screwdriver - you’re ready to begin.

Put these on a table with clear lighting. Make sure the PS5 is completely unplugged. Touch a metal grounded object to remove any static electricity from your body.

Turn the console so the PS5 logo is facing down and the power button is facing away from you. Grip the bottom-right corner and top-left corner of the console and gently lift the cover up. Slide the cover off.

You'll find an expansion slot, and this is where your parts will go. The expansion slot currently has a cover, which is held in by one screw. Remove the screw, and remove the cover.

Remove the screw inside the expansion slot. Carefully install the SSD, aligning it with the notch on the expansion connector, and ensure it rests flush and is plugged in. Screw it in.

Now, replace the expansion slot cover with the XLR8 Gaming PS5 SSD cover with integrated heatsink; place it into position and screw it in. Now you have a fast solid-state drive, and you’ve protected it with an aluminium, anodised black heat sink, using 1.5W/mk thermal paste.

Put the PS5 cover back on, plug it back into power and to your television, boot it up, and format your brand new SSD drive. Next, from Game Library move games and apps to the new drive as desired. Use the Settings/Storage menu to check on your storage space.

Done!

Note, Sony advises the installation will not affect your warranty provided you install a drive that meets their specifications (which PNY’s drive does), and provided you install it correctly and carefully. Sony also advises you should remove the drive if you need to send the PS5 in for repair or replacement to avoid losing it.

The CS3140 M.2 NVMe SSD 2TB drive is available for $530.12 and also comes in 1TB and 4TB models.

The PS5 SSD cover with integrated heatsink can be found for $22.97.

See the process here: