Some good info here. More to come as DF tests these out.
Digital Foundry's latest recommendations for filling the PS5's SSD expansion slot with a compatible NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD.
www.eurogamer.net
For what it's worth, I installed a couple of drives to check they'd physically fit, and the process is very straightforward - take off the PS5's shell, unscrew the drive cover, remove the drive screw and spacer, put the spacer in the position marked 2280, insert the drive, screw it in through the spacer, then replace the drive cover and shell. All told, it'll probably take most newcomers only a few minutes to complete, so don't be too worried about it!
As you can see from the table above, there are quite a few requirements, particularly around the heatsink size, but there should be a good selection of compatible drives available very soon. We're still contacting drive makers to confirm which drives will 100% be compatible and we're looking forward to testing out the new functionality ourselves, but for now here are drives that meet Sony's listed requirements:
Seagate FireCuda 530 (heatsink version available) - $255/£200 for 1TB
Western Digital Black SN850 (heatsink version available) - $250/£218 for 1TB
Gigabyte Aorus NVMe Gen 4 7000S - $199/£188 for 1TB
Patriot Viper VP4300 - $225/£210 for 1TB
Samsung 980 Pro (requires additional heatsink) - $199/£178 for 1TB
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus (requires additional heatsink) - $199/£199 for 1TB
Corsair MP600 Pro (requires shorter heatsink) - $199/£185 for 1TB
Inland Performance Plus (requires different heatsink) - $189 for 1TB
Note that the Aorus NVMe drive is listed as being 11.4mm tall, just above the 11.25mm maximum height, but I tested the same heatsink with a drive inserted and it seems to fit OK, not preventing the drive cover from being installed. It's possible that Sony's threshold is a bit conservative, or that a small air buffer is needed for the drive to be cooled adequately. We're leaving it on our list of recommendations for now, and we aim to test this as soon as possible.
Similarly, the Corsair MP600 Pro is fast enough to work, but comes with a 15mm heatsink - thankfully, this is easily removable and can be replaced with a shorter alternative for a minimal expense (less than £10/$10).