When shopping for an SSD these days, you’re probably looking for one to slap into your PS5 to extend its internal storage. There are a lot of benefits that come from expanding the PS5 storage by using an M.2 SSD. One of which allows you to install games on the device and play them without copying them to and from the storage like you would an external HDD. I used an external HDD for almost a year on my PS5 and it was painful. The Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7000S SSD is PS5 friendly and is most likely the easiest and one of the most affordable on the market.

I have covered a lot of SSDs in the past. One of which is my current PS5 SSD, the Samsung 980 Pro. However, Samsung has yet to release its heatsink model of that SSD in our region so if you’re picking it up, you need to install one yourself. It is easy to do but it’s also much easier to just buy an SSD with a heatsink installed already. This Aorus one, for example.

The Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7000s SSD comes in a range of sizes. You can pick up the 1TB for around R4000 and a 2TB for R6999 (depending on sales and stock level). In the US, this SSD costs $184 and $359 respectively. When you buy it, that’s all you need. If you are purchasing it for your PS5, it has the heatsink installed, and if you’re buying it for your PC then you’ll have the screws on your motherboard to install it.

The 7000s boasts what Gigabyte calls is a Nanocarbon coating that helps keep the device cooler than most SSDs. It is made for M.2 2280 slots with PCIe 4th gen and NVME 1.4. The 1TB model promises speeds of 7,000MBps read speed and 5,500MBps write speed. The 2TB has a slightly higher write speed at 6,850MBps.

As for the warranty, this 7000s comes with a 5-year one that covers its write performance.

Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7000s SSD Design

There’s nothing really fancy about the 7000s. It is pretty small, has some cool vents on the top and the black and silver design looks nice. If you’re slapping this into your PS5, it doesn’t really matter what it looks like, to be honest. You’re gonna seal the console back up and shove it on your counter. But if this is going in your PC, it will look cool attached to your motherboard.

The 7000s packs a double-sided form factor which is great because the heatsink helps keep both sides cool. If you would to purchase a double-sided SSD with no heatsink, you would then need to go and install two of them. The SSD is powered by Phison’s second-generation PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD controller. This is also called the PS5018-E18. This controller helps keep the SSD consistent thanks to the CoXProcesstor 2.0 tech. The CPU cores are Arm Cortex R5s that clock in at 1GHz.

Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7000s SSD Performance

Installing the 7000s into the PS5 was quick and simple. The faceplate slides off. I had to then remove the SSD compartment, unscrews the PlayStation symbol screw, slide the SSD in and screw it back in. I then sealed up the PS5 and the 7000s was happy in its new home. I hope.

The PS5 automatically detected that the SSD was installed. It then formatted it and ran an initial test. The results show a read speed of 5844.734MB/s. This is more than enough to meet the PS5’s requirement of at least 5,000 read speed. With the drive empty, I copied some installed games I had across from the internal PS5 SSD to the 7000s. Thankfully, I had a spare PS5 around that I could use to copy the same games across from the internal PS5 to my current SSD, the Samsung 980 Pro. Here are some of the test results:

Game Copying

Moving games from PS5 SSD to M.2 SSD

Gigabyte Aorus 7000s

• Far Cry 6 (117GB) – 01:45:24
• Elden Ring (45GB) –  00:39:32 
• Horizon Forbidden West (99GB) – 01:19:17

Samsung 980 Pro

• Far Cry 6 (117GB) – 01:49:56
• Elden Ring (45GB) –  00:41:95
• Horizon Forbidden West (99GB) – 01:35:78

Moving games from M.2 to PS5 SSD

Gigabyte Aorus 7000s

• Far Cry 6 (117GB) – 08:48:68
• Elden Ring (45GB) –  03:20:21
• Horizon Forbidden West (99GB) – 07:79:12

Samsung 980 Pro 

• Far Cry 6 (117GB) – 08:35:41
• Elden Ring (45GB) –  03:17:89
• Horizon Forbidden West (99GB) – 06:45:32

Now for the loading times. I booted up a handful of games on the Internal PS5 SSD, the 7000s and the Samsung 980 Pro to show the difference between these drives. In some cases, the internal PS5 SSD was slightly faster than the 7000s. But in other cases, it was almost identical. You can’t really complain about a few second difference. I especially found that loading PS4 games off the 7000s were a little faster than the PS5 SSD. However, some games like DOOM Eternal booted faster than the PS5 SSD. You can take a look at all the tests below.

Game Loading

Gigabyte Aorus 7000s

• Far Cry 6 (from home to menu) – 00:14:50
  • Loading Game – 00:09:85
  • Fast Travel – 00:07:71
• Elden Ring (from home to menu) – 00:12:30
  • Loading Game – 00:07:95
  • Fast Travel – 00:05:75
• Horizon Forbidden West (from home to menu) – 00:18:25
  • Loading Game – 00:07:61
  • Fast Travel – 00:05:02

Samsung 980 Pro

• Far Cry 6 (from home to menu) – 00:15:59
  • Loading Game – 00:09:36
  • Fast Travel – 00:09:51
• Elden Ring (from home to menu) – 00:12:71
  • Loading Game – 00:06:35
  • Fast Travel – 00:05:31
• Horizon Forbidden West (from home to menu) – 00:18:15
  • Loading Game – 00:06:45
  • Fast Travel – 00:06:56

To be completely honest, both drives are pretty much on the same level when it comes to loading, copying and general read/write speeds. I noticed a few slower speeds across the PS5 when moving files from the 7000s to the PS5 SSD. There were also some quicker load times on the Samsung 980 Pro. But these differences weren’t enough to sell any of the products specifically.

However, the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD does come with a heatsink already installed which is always a plus. I installed my heatsink on the Samsung SSD and it was fun but if you can simply pick an SSD up with one installed already, it is always easier. The Gigabyte Aorus 7000s is also cheaper than most SSDs on the market which is a better selling point than “it is a few seconds faster in some games”.

This Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7000s SSD review is based on a unit sent to us by Gigabyte. You can grab them in SA at Wootware.