Why a heatsink matters in the PS5
The PS5's expansion bay sits under a metal cover with limited airflow, and Sony explicitly requires effective cooling for the M.2 drive. Without a heatsink a fast Gen4 drive can thermally throttle during long installs or copies, and in some cases the console will warn you. A heatsink keeps temperatures and performance stable.
Buying a drive that already includes a heatsink is the simplest path: there is no separate part to source, no thermal pad to align, and the height is designed to clear the bay cover.
Factory heatsink versus add-on
A factory-heatsink drive (such as the Samsung 990 Pro Heatsink, WD_BLACK SN850X Heatsink or licensed SN850P) is guaranteed to fit and installs in one step. A good aftermarket low-profile heatsink performs similarly and can be cheaper, but you take on the job of confirming the combined height stays under 11.25mm.
Every drive in the table above genuinely ships with a heatsink (or is an officially licensed PS5 drive), ranked by price per terabyte. Bare drives are excluded, so you will not find a model here that needs a separate cooler.