Nyko Data Bank: a cheap and easy PlayStation 4 hard drive upgrade

A new weapon appears in the battle for more storage space on the PlayStation 4.

An upcoming product from gaming accessories company Nyko allows for a hard drive upgrade for the PlayStation 4 with minimal cost and fuss. With street prices as low as $70 for a 3.5-inch 2TB drive, and Nyko’s solution priced at $40, users can net four times the default storage at about $110. Nyko showed GamesBeat how it worked a big drive into a tiny system.

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The 500GB hard drive on Sony’s gaming console may sound generous, but it doesn’t last. It loses about a fifth of its storage space from the system operating system right out of the box, and each subsequent game installation chips away at large chunks of the remaining space, leaving players crunched for room pretty quickly. Some games can take 40GB or more of disk space. Bethesda Softworks’ shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order is 43.9GB, and NBA 2K14 takes up 41.8GB. Add in save files and other game data and it’s clear to see why disk management is a constant struggle for PS4 owners.

Coming this May for $40, the Nyko Data Bank uses a bit of a hardware workaround to adapt a larger drive to the PlayStation 4’s internal 2.5-inch disk interface. The upgrade process typically involves removing the glossy side plate of the system to reveal a hard disk housing that allows for easy slide in-style installation of a standard 2.5-inch drive. Nyko’s solution is brilliant: a plastic block fashioned to fit in this 2.5-inch drive slot works as an extension of the system’s drive connectors, allowing a 3.5-inch upgrade drive to connect just above the system. Slide in this adapter, replace the default system side plate with Nyko’s matching housing, slide in the upgrade disk, and pop on the cover. A pass-through power adapter draws power for the drive and uses the system’s default cord. It’s a simple, elegant solution.

The Nyko Data Bank does force owners to keep their PlayStation 4 in the horizontal position, as its housing adds about 2 inches of bulk to the system’s side. But it is nicely matched, blending in with the system’s matte and gloss black finishes. A HDD access light for the enclosure is a nice touch.

The PlayStation 4 uses a 2.5-inch hard disks, which cost a little more than same sized 3.5-inch drives do, and top out at smaller capacities. It also doesn’t permit the use of USB external hard drives as Microsoft’s Xbox One does.

Nyko director of marketing Chris Arbogast says that while upgrade sizes larger than 2TB seem to work just fine, they’ve encountered a small issue for those who use the PlayStation 4’s standby features — the system won’t wake up with a controller, requiring a system button press instead.  It seems that the PlayStation 4’s firmware isn’t necessarily geared for drives larger than 2TB. But everything else is fine beyond this, he says. A solution for drives larger than 2TB would be to simply switch the system on and off for each use. The workaround is worth the minor hassle for access to the wealth of storage options provided by inexpensive, large drives of 4TB or more.

But save your money and skip the fast drives, advises Arbogast. Nyko tested drives at 10,000 RPM and found no real advantage over less expensive 7,200 RPM drives.