PS5 reportedly has 664GB of usable SSD space to store games

Finally! Concrete PS5 details are out in the wild, thanks to intrepid Japanese YouTubers being disgustingly polite and not acting like decent human beings. That’s not how YouTube works, dammit! After experiencing the console for themselves at a recent event, previews of the PS5 are now doing the rounds and here’s the pertinent bit of information before we get to those impressions: Out of the 825GB available on the PS5 solid state drive, only 664GB of it will be usable.

That’s the word via ResetEra, after an image surfaced on that forum of of the PlayStation 5 user interface. They’re worth taking with a tight-fisted pinch of salt of course, but the numbers seem solid. Once you’ve tallied up digital real estate, software, and the PS5 operating system, there’s not a lot of SSD change to be had. That sacrifice on the PS5 also gives the Xbox Series X another leg up: While Microsoft’s next-gen console features an entire terabyte of SSD storage that can be used for quick resume on games and quick loading times, only 802GB of it is usable.

Here’s some news on the PS5 that sounds good. If you can hear it that is, as the console is apparently stupidly silent. Unlike the PS4 and PS4 Pro that was mistaken for the gnarliest of manatee mating rituals or a SHIELD helicarrier crashing into a Yamaha music factory whenever it was asked to play some mildly taxing games, the PS5 won’t create a cacophony of noise when used. “[…] What was shocking to me this time was how quiet the fan was,” a write-up from Dengeki Online said. 

There must have been many people who were curious about this. It was so quiet!

Considering how loud the PS4 was (which strangely, I never really experienced with my base model but heard many horror stories of with later slim and Pro console models), that’s a welcome relief. It’s not too long to go now until the PS5 makes landfall: November is almost upon us, and you’ll be able to grab either a traditional disc-equipped model or you can embrace digital and grab the castrated console instead.

Last Updated: October 5, 2020