605
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #26,080 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
Do Your Research, You'll Come Out Very Happy!
****UPDATE 5/11/16: As of the latest PS4 firmaware update -- "suspend" mode now works with non laptop/3.5 inch mass storage drives. My 4TB Hybrid SSD now properly suspends. Thank you Sony gods!**********
Let me start off by saying that you, as a customer, must do your research when adding any hardware accessory that modifies the function of your PS4. Most reviews criticizing this unit for not allow you to use a hard drive with 5/6 TB's is not the limitation of this accessory, it's a limitation of the PS4. Will higher capacity drives work? Yes, but there's exception to the functions of your PS4, which is not permeated by this Nyko accessory, but by the PS4 operating system itself.
I believe Nyko could have done a better job educating the consumer in it's boxing/manual perhaps, however, I feel this is the responsibility of the consumer to research this prior to any modification to their console. It's like someone jail breaking their iPhone, but they don't know the potential negative affects of doing so, because they didn't do their research beforehand.
This accessory, essentially, allows you to use a standard 3.5 desktop hard drive. Currently, I use a 4TB SSHD by Seagate inside. From my research, people whom upgraded to anything larger than 4TB's have been having issues (sleep mode, power issues, restarts), which again, is not this accessories fault. You may see people stating that 5TB+ hard drives work, and they're not wrong. However, many (not all) run into functionality issues where bootup times are actually longer, access times for loading while playing games are longer, and other related issues. But this is NOT caused by the Nyko Data Bank!! It's an issue with the PS4's operating system of handling large volume storage.
Now on to my actual review of this unit:
Hardware -- It comes with a screw driver that you use to unscrew the single screw that's required to swap out the hard drive. The quality of the actual unit itself is on par with the PS4 itself. It's made of plastic, and in my estimation, feels exactly like the PS4's material. The fit of the unit is great; no forcing or struggling to slide and snap anything in. It slid into place and fit like a glove.
Functionality -- It does what it advertises, it allows you to upgrade your PS4's internal storage to that of a higher capacity, 3.5 inch, desktop hard drive. I formatted the hard drive FIRST to exFAT (PS4 plays very nicely with this format), slid it into place, safely and securely into the Nyko expansion bay (make sure the connection is solid and firm, it should not wiggle at all). I'm using a Seagate 4TB SSHD, and after doing a clean install of the PS4 firmware, I've loaded my restore data onto this hard drive, and everything works as normal, with the benefit of a larger capacity drive. No problems with sleep mode, no problems with restarts.
My tip for ANYONE questioning whether they should get this or not because of the other reviews.
1.) Do your research.
2.) Use hard drives 4TB's or smaller in capacity (a soft performance limitation caused by the PS4 OS, not Nyko's expansion bay)
3.) Using a PC, format your new hard drive as exFAT first, before putting into the Nyko unit
4.) Double check ALL connections prior to booting up your PS4 with the new hardware installed
***Problems you may run into NOT because of this accessory
1.) The PS4 OS, currently doesn't play nicely with large volume storage. This is why, for the meantime, Nyko recommends 2TB's. I'm currently using a 4TB drive which I'm happy with.
2.) You WILL have issues with suspend mode when using higher capacity drives, however again, this is NOT a problem caused by this Nyko unit, this is a limitation of the current PS4 firmware. Sony will need to put out an update that supports suspend/sleep mode with higher capacity drives. For now, you will just have to shut off your PS4 normally until then. If you're ok with this, then there isn't any issues.
June 2015 · Video Games · verified purchase