Nyko Announces PS4 Peripheral To Expand Console’s Internal Storage

Aran Suddi 37 Comments

Third party hardware company Nyko has announced a new peripheral for the PS4, and this will allow you to expand the console’s internal storage. Dubbed the Data Bank this piece of kit lets you put a 3.5 inch hard drive into it, any size of your choosing with the latest drives managing to hold 6TB of data, and then plug that into the console itself. The device is really more of a 3.5 inch drive housing, designed to replace the removable glossy plastic section of the PS4’s case, which then has a connector that attaches to the SATA port which ordinarily connects to a 2.5 inch drive.

NykoData

It’s a rather genius idea that can save time when expanding the consoles 500GB capacity, as it allows you to reach far beyond the current storage limitations of that form factor. The device is expected to release in the first half of this year, but a price is yet to be confirmed. While the PS4 does allow external hard drives to be connected to it Sony have so far taken the decision to not allow save data to be transferred to them, which is a bizarre decision that makes it difficult to create back ups of saves. Of course there is cloud storage for saves but the added security of another drive is welcome too.

EDIT: A belated edit for clarity. This replaces your internal 2.5 inch drive, and so is to all intents and purposes an internal drive. Apologies for any confusion.

Source: MCV

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37 Comments

  1. this will need to be competitively priced seeing as hard drives can be picked up relatively cheap nowadays!

    • Agreed. Bought a 2TB 2.5″ HDD for £68 and it’s now happily inside my PS4. No need for hideous enclosures sticking out of the original sleek parallelogram design.

  2. I can’t work out what this thing is, exactly.

    Is it just a bit of plastic that replaces the bit on the left where the harddrive goes? And sticks out a bit on top so you’ve got an extra bit of space to fit that extra inch in? It just gives the PS4 a bit more space? As if you’d taken that panel off, jammed a bigger drive in, and not bothered to cover it up, because the existing cover doesn’t fit?

    I guess it stops some dust getting in.

    • That’s exactly what it is, but it comes with an additional annoying LED light and branding on more wonderful glossy plastic. Oh, and a wrong angle at the back to make it look even more awkward. Yay!

    • It’s HDD casing/housing. The design just makes it look like it’s part of the PS4, and there’s firmware which will allow the drive to register as internal rather than external.

      It’s clever, but they’d have to price it right (we’re talking low here, quite low) and there’s nothing to stop Sony sorting the whole HDD debacle out. Also there’s little to stop people from just buying a normal external HDD and forgetting the whole ‘I can’t back up my save games’ issue.

      • Are you sure about the firmware thing? Doesn’t it just click into the existing bay either directly or via an adapter? The PS4 should handle the firmware itself. As far as it knows, it’s a harddrive like any other. Only thing keeping the system from using a 3.5″ is the size of the bay.

      • “this will allow you to expand the console’s internal storage without having to take it apart”

        “The device then makes the PS4 think that it is the internal storage rather than an external device”

        That’s what I interpret from it yes, unless TSA have reported inaccurately (or I’m getting it completely wrong). It’s likely not something heavy (not necessarily firmware as such), probably some light coding which alters Drive ID, possibly something that bridges the Drive ID if the ‘expand’ is anything to go by.

        I’d be surprised if 3.5″ drives are the only reason to buy this. There’s really sod all in benefits to 3.5″ HDDs these days (in my opinion).

      • Got a much clearer and detailed source here:

        http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2015/01/06/new-ps4-accessory-will-let-swap-larger-cheaper-hard-drives

        It does replace rather than technically expand storage. Also there is taking apart really, because as I understand it the original HDD is being literally replaced, and all for the sake of the 3.5″ format. I can’t see it being a success, as I’m not sure it can offset the slightly increased price of a 2.5″, and let’s be clear, a 2.5″ doesn’t cost that much more unless PC World/Currys have anything to bloody do with it.

  3. Internal memory? You mean internal storage? The 3.5″ harddrive won’t be used as memory but for storage right? Does that mean you can install games to this rather than just hold data like our saves or music???

    • Yes, storage. Using the Nyko adapter (what this is), you can install games on a 3.5″ HDD as it replaces the 2.5″ drive inside the system.

      • Does it “replace” or can you keep your internal one as well and run both?

        Just not enough info!

      • Replace.

      • Sorry for the confusion over that. I’ve corrected the article and booked Aran in for corrective terminology therapy.

  4. You just know it’ll look ugly in reality. I know there are benefits to a desktop drive, but I think I’d rather get a 2TB drive that fits in the PS4 as is and delete some stuff if it’s not enough until bigger drives are out.

    I’m currently using a 1TB hybrid, hopefully there’ll be something equivalent performance-wise in 2TB by the time it’s filled. If not, I’ll just get a standard 2TB drive.

  5. Nice idea, but the pros of a 3.5″ drive come nowhere near to outweighing the cons of having that monstrosity attached to my console :-P

    • It’s not the best looking bit of kit but if your running out of space and not got the fastest broadband connection it would save you downloading everything again, which you would need to do if you change the internal drive.

      • This *is* replacing the internal drive though…? So you would have to re download everything.

        As far as I can tell, all this thing does is allow you to replace the current 2.5″ drive with a 3.5″ drive.

      • In the post it says: “expand the console’s internal storage without having to take it apart”, it seems to me that it just sits on top of your ps4 and maybe plugs into usb post?

      • @camdaz that part of the article is wrong. Reading another article and watching an IGN interview reveals it’s a physical replacement rather than an expansion. Literally the only reason to buy this is the 3.5″ factor.

      • Cheers for the clarification. I cannot see it selling well unless it’s really cheap, even then I would rather just replace the original with a larger 2.5 drive.

    • does the PS4 have a limit on the speed of the hard drive, i think due to the amount of heat it generates, like the PS3 did?

      if there is and you can go over that limit with this, that might be a benefit.

      • Not entirely sure on that one. I’ve got a 7200RPM drive in my PS4 with no issues, but I’m not sure if it actually runs at full speed…

        To be honest, if the PS4 is designed to only spin the HDD at 5400RPM I can’t see this add-on making any difference as, essentially, all it is is a larger enclosure.

        Kinda like plugging a USB3 external HDD caddy in to a USB2 socket… Doesn’t matter how fast the peripheral will run, it’s still limited by the controller and the hardware it plugs in to.

      • I’ve seen reports that show quicker start-up and game loading with 7200rpm drives, and even quicker with hybrid drives.

  6. I see the article has been edited to say “internal storage”…thanks for that but can we confirm it either “replaces your storage” or “expands your storage”?

    Can you use both internal HD and this one?

  7. MQ03ABB300 is a newly announced 3TB 2,5″ disk from Toshiba which fits in a PS4.

    • I haven’t researched it but is that the only 3TB drive to do 2.5″?

      • It is, unless something else is announced this week at CES.

    • Unless I’m mistaken, that’s already twice the capacity of what was available at the PS4s launch.

    • That 3TB 2.5″ disk from Toshiba is 15mm tall, which is a relatively non-standard size. The way that they’ve managed to get that capacity is by having extra platters inside the drive, at the consequence of being much taller that the typical 9.5mm drive.

      In other words, the 2TB drive from Seagate/Samsung (which is the same company) is still the largest drive compatible with the PS4.

  8. I’m searching for that phrase all the kids use nowadays… fugly. Flipping Ugly.

  9. So this device will be useful if you can backup your existing internal harddrive and plop this in and restore to it but there is no backup mechanism for the PS4…I have a 1TB drive in my PS4 and it has 250GB free…stuff wiping out my 750GB of stuff just to add more storage.

    Why doesn’t the PS4 have a backup utility? Hmmm after using the PS3 one I can see why they never bothered in the PS4…the PS3 backup utility is shockingly bad.

  10. Is this the same Nyko that made cooling fan accessories for the 360 and ps3, which turned out making the consoles hotter? I think I’ll stick with my 500GB standard, and upgrade normally to a 2TB (or 3TB as Erroneus points out above), when and If I need to.

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