GRcade

jawafour wrote:I wonder if there could be some mix-up between hard drives and solid state drives?

Well whatever it is, it's certainly faster than the X1 drive.

jawafour wrote:

Death's Head wrote:

Rapidly-Greying wrote:Any links to a cheap but suitable external drive will be much appreciated.

4TB for £100? -> http://www.shop.bt.com/products/maxtor- ... 06278b7d04

That is a decent price for 4Tb but I wonder about Rapidly's need for a cheap price. It may be preferable to go for a 2Tb drive as that can hit the sweet spot between a good amount of space and cost. I picked up a Maxtor 2B drive from Amazon for £63. I'm sure other folk could find it cheaper off the beaten track.

Oh, Rapidly, just a couple of pointers - the drive has to be USB 3.0 compatible (older USB 2.0 drives won't work) and you may prefer to go for a 2.5 inch drive as they can be powered through the USB cable; 3.5 inch drives require a separate power supply (and are often noisier).

Go for a 'Portable' external hard drive, they get powered via USB 3.0

No worries; I think we may all be loudly agreeing that the ability to use an external drive (on PS4 and XBO) is excellent!

Having "gone digital" for my PS4 games, it's great to finally be able to have quick access to games that I've bought. I know that some folk are keen to delete a game once they've finished it, but I like to be able to delve back into older games now and again :-).

Photek wrote:

jawafour wrote:I wonder if there could be some mix-up between hard drives and solid state drives?

Well whatever it is, it's certainly faster than the X1 drive.

Do you know the speed of your external drive? Maybe it is 7,400 RPM instead of 5,600 RPM (or whatever is standard in the XBO). I replaced my internal PS4 drive with a 1TB hybrid drive but it doesn't really feel that much faster than the old drive (admittedly I've never done a side by side comparison).

As a PS4Pro owner I tried loading up a few older games to see if Boost Mode makes any discernable difference on a 1080p screen.

Hmmm.

The Division recently received a PS4Pro patch to make the game (on PS4Pro obviously) always run at 4K output (presumably then downsampled to 1080p for those not using a 4K TV). What with that and having the console set to always run in Boost Mode I was struggling to see the visual improvement. Don't get me wrong, the games looks pin-sharp, never drops a frame and all appears to be working fine, but if I think about it The Division always did look pretty good to me, even on my previous standard-issue PS4.

Project Cars - not sure what Boost Mode is adding here, if anything. Digital Foundry seemed to think it might add a few barely discernable improvements...I dunno. Looks great, plays great.

I just think it's going to get increasingly difficult to discern visual or gameplay improvements over time when we have a combination of developer-specific PS4Pro patches and now Sony's own proprietary Boost Mode all presumably working to improve final output.

Re: HDD - I'm thinking about that. I don't yet have a need to add an external drive, but I've got my eye on a fetching little Passport USB3 2TB should the urge take me. It is great to finally have the option. All in all a great patch for the PS4Pro

Cal wrote:...Re: HDD - I'm thinking about that. I don't yet have a need to add an external drive, but I've got my eye on a fetching little Passport USB3 2TB should the urge take me. It is great to finally have the option...

I believe that you have moved over to digital downloading on PS4, Cal? With a 1Tb drive in your Pro, I'd thought that you would have been champing at the bit to gain additional storage!

jawafour wrote:

Cal wrote:...Re: HDD - I'm thinking about that. I don't yet have a need to add an external drive, but I've got my eye on a fetching little Passport USB3 2TB should the urge take me. It is great to finally have the option...

I believe that you have moved over to digital downloading on PS4, Cal? With a 1Tb drive in your Pro, I'd thought that you would have been champing at the bit to gain additional storage!

TBH, honest I struggle to find enough games that I find genuinely engaging enough to keep permanently on my Pro's 1TB HDD. Alien Isolation (and all its DLC), of course (goes without saying) and perhaps Rainbow Six Siege...and then I start to struggle find games that I consider worthy of a full-time home on my HDD. The Division is probably another (I like to dip in and out of that one)...

It's great to know I can always hook up some more storage, but doubtful at this stage that I'll ever really need it.

Cal wrote:As a PS4Pro owner I tried loading up a few older games to see if Boost Mode makes any discernable difference on a 1080p screen.

Hmmm.

The Division recently received a PS4Pro patch to make the game (on PS4Pro obviously) always run at 4K output (presumably then downsampled to 1080p for those not using a 4K TV). What with that and having the console set to always run in Boost Mode I was struggling to see the visual improvement. Don't get me wrong, the games looks pin-sharp, never drops a frame and all appears to be working fine, but if I think about it The Division always did look pretty good to me, even on my previous standard-issue PS4.

If a game has a PS Pro patch then boost mode has no effect, it only makes a difference on games that haven't had PS4 Pro specific patches already.

From what I've read, graphically it won't make much if any difference - it'll give more stable frame rates on games that drop frames like say Witcher 3 and if games run at dynamic resolutions that scale up and down to keep the frame rate high, they might spend more time at 1080p etc..

Cal wrote:Alien Isolation (and all its DLC), of course (goes without saying)

What are the corridors like in Pro mode, Cal?

Dem corridors

Cheers for the advice chaps.

Just spotted a little snippet on the PS Blog:

You need to connect the HDD directly to your PS4. A USB Hub cannot be used in between.

That's a shame, as the PS4 struggles for USB ports. On a Pro it's not too bad as you can plug the drive into the rear USB port (unless you're using that for PSVR!) but it's tougher on the standard model as there are only the two USB ports on the front; and they may need to be juggled with PSVR, a headset key, the headset charger and a joypad charger. Even my Xbox 360 and Wii U have more USB ports available!

But, hey, that's a relatively minor frustration in light of being able to store more stuff :-).

Yeah the PS4 is definitely lacking on USB ports, I always wished it had 4 on the front. If I connect my Headset USB adapter that's one front slot taken on a more or less permanent basis, and the rear slot on my Pro is taken by PSVR on a permanent basis, so that leaves just one slot which is normally used for the charging cable for the pads/headset and I can only charge one at a time from the PS4 in rest mode.

jawafour wrote:Just spotted a little snippet on the PS Blog:

You need to connect the HDD directly to your PS4. A USB Hub cannot be used in between.

That's a shame, as the PS4 struggles for USB ports. On a Pro it's not too bad as you can plug the drive into the rear USB port (unless you're using that for PSVR!) but it's tougher on the standard model as there are only the two USB ports on the front; and they may need to be juggled with PSVR, a headset key, the headset charger and a joypad charger. Even my Xbox 360 and Wii U have more USB ports available!

But, hey, that's a relatively minor frustration in light of being able to store more stuff .

I charge my pad and headset through the TV's USB sockets.

KjGarly wrote:I charge my pad and headset through the TV's USB sockets.

I've had TV's with usb sockets for years and this is the first time I've even considered that .

Now I think about it, my sofa has usb sockets I could use....

Peter Crisp wrote:

KjGarly wrote:I charge my pad and headset through the TV's USB sockets.

I've had TV's with usb sockets for years and this is the first time I've even considered that .

Same! This has never even crossed my mind!

Lagamorph wrote:Now I think about it, my sofa has usb sockets I could use....

Why the hell does your sofa have USB sockets?

Moggy wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:Now I think about it, my sofa has usb sockets I could use....

Why the hell does your sofa have USB sockets?

Because I don't live in the past.

KjGarly wrote:

jawafour wrote:Just spotted a little snippet on the PS Blog:

You need to connect the HDD directly to your PS4. A USB Hub cannot be used in between.

That's a shame, as the PS4 struggles for USB ports. On a Pro it's not too bad as you can plug the drive into the rear USB port (unless you're using that for PSVR!) but it's tougher on the standard model as there are only the two USB ports on the front; and they may need to be juggled with PSVR, a headset key, the headset charger and a joypad charger. Even my Xbox 360 and Wii U have more USB ports available!

But, hey, that's a relatively minor frustration in light of being able to store more stuff .

I charge my pad and headset through the TV's USB sockets.

What witchcraft is this?