Game downloads are huge these days and are showing no signs of shrinking. These gigabyte numbers continue to grow, so your storage, whether it’s hard drives, solid state drives or microSD cards, should match. Tomorrow and Wednesday (July 11 and 12) might be a good time to increase the capacity of your favorite console, as Amazon’s annual Prime Day event will offer discounts on a variety of excellent storage upgrades.
With that in mind, here’s a pointless, straight to the point list of great external and internal drive deals that will be snatched up on Prime Day this year. And if you’re reading this after July 11 and 12, 2023, the drivers listed below will continue to be great options and will be slightly more expensive than they were at the time of sale.
External SSDs for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S
External solid state drives offer one of the easiest ways to increase your storage; especially on PS5, otherwise you have to unzip it to paste it on an M.2 drive. Here are the best deals on external storage available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S right now.
We recommend: Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD (1TB / 4TB)
Not only does the Samsung T7 Shield stand out for its high speed, it’s also incredibly durable with IP65 dust and water resistance, so you can take it with you in the bathroom. (Actually, don’t do that).
This year’s Prime deals give you two capacity options:
Save money and space: Crucial X6 Portable SSD (2TB / 4TB)
Don’t let its small physical size fool you: the Crucial X6 is a competent external solid-state storage solution. It has a slower speed than the Samsung T7 Shield, but is slightly cheaper, and this small footprint can be useful if space is limited.
You can get the Crucial X6 in two sizes:
Internal SSD Upgrades for PS5
If you’re ready to open your PS5 to install a new internal SSD, the PS5 can accommodate an M.2 drive. Here are some internal M.2 drives that can meet the PS5’s high-speed storage requirements:
Our recommendation: Seagate Game Drive M.2 SSD (2TB) for PS5
The Seagate Game Drive M.2 is a great way to triple the internal storage size of your PS5. It’s also the more affordable of our two Prime Day picks.
For even more storage: WD_Black SN850x Internal Gaming SSD (4TB)
If you want to quintuple your internal PS5 storage it will cost you money, but also consider the fact that with 4TB you probably won’t have to worry about space for a long time to come.
microSD Cards for Switch and Steam Deck
If you’re looking to increase the storage capacity on your portable devices, here are two great microSD cards to consider. These work well on a Nintendo Switch or even a Steam Deck.
Most affordable: Samsung Pro Plus microSD cards (256GB / 512GB)
If you’re just looking for a little extra storage, the Pro Plus is a solid choice, with options ranging from 256GB to 512GB. These also come with a handy USB adapter. You’ll also be able to get 128GB for just $16.99, but you’ll definitely spend those few extra dollars getting 256GB instead.
Most storage: SanDisk Extreme (1TB)
If you’re looking for a larger storage upgrade, especially for something like the Steam Deck, you might want to consider placing it in full terabytes.
SanDisk Extreme microSDXC (1TB) – $95.99 – 11 and 12 July
External HDDs and Budget Options
While we recommend more modern, solid state drives for console use (internal or external), you can also find some reasonable deals for old-style mechanical spinning hard drives. Note that these will save you a penny or two compared to their SSD cousins, but they’re much, much slower. PS5 and Xbox Series X/S hard drives can only be used to store games, not play them; Stored games need to be copied to an SSD fast enough to be playable.
WD_Black 2TB P10 Game Drive
WD Black P10 on sale for just $62 for 2TB. Like other drives in the WD_Black series, this drive comes in a metal enclosure and works with PCs as well. Note that this is a mechanical HDD, not an SSD, so while it’s a nice way to store more games on your next-gen console, you can’t actually play them from that drive. The WD_Black 2TB P10 HDD will be available on both 11 and 12 July.
As mentioned above, for a little more money you can: Upgrade to 1TB SSD with Samsung T7 Shield.
Some pretty good sales. So what will you finally download when you have more space?
