Tiny, sleek, and styled as a companion to the Sony PlayStation 5, the Seagate Game Drive External SSD (starts at $129.99 for 1TB; $219.99 for 2TB as tested) provides a storage boost for PS5 users seeking more space to park their games. It’s a good performer for a USB 3.2 Gen 2 external solid-state drive, and while it provides capacity enough to hold a modest game library, it can also be used for general storage needs. You’ll want to note some caveats regarding playing games straight from the drive with a PS5, though. (More about that later.) Be forewarned that you’ll pay a substantial premium for its looks and gaming console tie-in compared with the far cheaper Editors’ Choice-winning Crucial X9 Pro.
Design: Tiny, Sleek, and PlayStation-Inspired
Measuring 0.4 by 2 by 3.8 inches (HWD), the game drive is suitably (though not unusually) small for a portable external SSD and can easily slide into a pocket. When stood on end, its slim rectangular form and matte-black back make me think of the monolithic PlayStation 2 console from 2000. That said, the front and sides are white; this color scheme evokes the original PlayStation look, with a strip of blue LED lighting completing the picture. The front includes both the Seagate name and the PlayStation logo. (It’s an officially licensed product.)
On the short end opposite the blue lighting strip are a USB-C port and a status light. The port supports the USB 3.2 Gen 2 standard, with 10Gbps maximum throughput speeds. This ensures compatibility with PlayStation consoles, as well as Macs, Linux machines, and Windows PCs.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
You do pay a premium for the Game Drive’s PlayStation branding and aesthetic. As of this writing, with both the 2TB versions of the Game Drive and the X9 Pro marked down considerably with holiday savings, you pay 48% more for the Game Drive at Amazon.
The Game Drive is offered in capacities of 1TB and the 2TB model we tested. With today’s AAA games often taking up 100GB or more of disk space, the larger-capacity model should hold a dozen or more recent games.
Another option for expanding a PS5’s storage is adding an internal SSD to the PS5’s M.2 slot. You will need to choose a drive that meets Sony’s exacting criteria for use with a PS5. Here are some of our favorite internal SSDs for use with the PS5. Of course, adding a PS5-friendly internal SSD doesn’t preclude you from using a Game Drive or other external SSD for extra backup.
Seagate warranties the Game Drive for three years, a common warranty period for external drives, although a few manufacturers—Micron and Kingston among them—give you a full five years.
Testing the Seagate Game Drive PS5: Strong General Storage and Gaming Results
We test external SSDs using PC Labs’ Windows external-storage testbed, a desktop built on an Asus Prime X299 Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition CPU, housed in a SilverStone case. The system has 48GB of DDR4 Corsair Dominator RAM clocked to 3,600MHz, and an Nvidia GeForce graphics card. We use the motherboard’s 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port for testing compatible drives such as the Game Drive; for Gen 2×2 drives, we test using a 2×2 port added via an Orico PCIe expansion card.
We put the Game Drive through our usual suite of external solid-state drive benchmarks, including Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Storage, 3DMark Storage, the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, and our own folder transfer test. The first three are run on the PC with the drive formatted in NTFS, and the latter two on an Apple MacBook Pro using exFAT.
Crystal DiskMark’s sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. The PCMark 10 Storage test measures an SSD’s readiness for various everyday tasks. The 3DMark Storage benchmark aggregates a drive’s performance on various gaming-related tasks. We compared the Game Drive with a group of USB 3.2 Gen 2 external SSDs, all of them portable drives powered over their USB connection. The exception is the SanDisk Desk Drive, which is a tabletop SSD that requires its own power source.
The Game Drive’s Crystal DiskMark sequential speeds align with our comparison Gen 2 drives, all scoring a bit below their read and write ratings of around 1,000MBps. On the PCMark 10 general storage test, the Game Drive had the highest score among the USB-powered SSDs, edging out the Crucial X9 Pro. (The SanDisk Desk Drive blew the Game Drive away, with a 33% higher PCMark 10 score.) In the gaming-centric 3DMark Storage benchmark, the Game Drive edged the SK Hynix Beetle X31, while lagging the top-scoring SanDisk Desk Drive.
This, of course, is performance on a typical Windows PC. Keep in mind that with a PlayStation 5, you won’t actually be playing PS5 games from the Game Drive, only copying them to or from the PlayStation or a computer. Per Seagate, the PlayStation 5 is designed to play PS5 games only from its internal NVMe SSD, not an external SSD or hard drive, though you can play PS4 games on a PS5 from an external drive. (See the link for an explainer.)
In our Mac-based testing, in the Blackmagic Disk Speed benchmark, the Game Drive’s results were a bit uneven, with it posting the highest score in write throughput among our comparison drives but the lowest score in read throughput. The differences between high and low scores on this test are relatively minor, though. It tied for the best score in the folder transfer test with more than half the other drives.
![Seagate Game Drive External SSD [for PlayStation]: with Box](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/04oHL2cWO4KIDi6Dao6Ii2W-2.jpg)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Verdict: A Pricey, Capable External SSD for PS5
The Seagate Game Drive External SSD cuts a fine figure for Sony PlayStation fans with design flourishes that make it a good match for the iconic gaming console. The 2TB version we tested has enough room to store a dozen or more current AAA games. It did well on our benchmarks for a USB 3.2 Gen 2 SSD, and it can be used for general storage tasks as well as PS5 gaming. Keep in mind that you do pay substantially more for the Game Drive than you would for non-branded external drives such as the Editors’ Choice-winning Crucial X9 Pro. But the Game Drive may be worth the extra outlay if you’re a PlayStation fan.
Seagate Game Drive PS5 External SSD
Pros
The Bottom Line
The Seagate Game Drive External SSD is pricey, but it’s a good performer and a worthy companion for the PlayStation 5, with looks and RGB lighting that evoke the history of Sony’s console.
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About Tony Hoffman
Senior Analyst, Hardware
