After spending 24 hours with the Seagate SSD Expansion Storage Card, it's clear it was built with the Xbox Series X|S in mind. It's speedy, accessible and adorable with its minute size, making for an excellent choice for anyone who is already clutching for space on their next-gen system.
Immediately off the bat its size is evident and can even fit in the palm of my hand, so don't pop it somewhere in which it could be misplaced. Its slick memory card style design comes equipped with a cover to protect the card, an excellent feature for anyone looking to consistently travel around with the expansion card.
It couldn't be easier to use set up, too. A simple click into the dedicated storage slot on the back of the console allows for easy access, and once it's clicked in, it's good to go. Although, it's worth noting from my experience that the console did not recognise the card if inserted before turning on. It needed to be fully powered and inserted to show up.
Once it's connected, no setup is required and owners can quickly get to downloading on the system. While the card and box state it comes equipped with 1TB of storage, my Xbox Series X showed it increased storage by roughly 920GB, coupling the total storage into one. Games would first install onto the internal SSD until filled and then shift over to the Seagate SSD Expansion Storage Card. Downloads took the same amount of time to install as they would have on the internal, seamlessly blending the storage into one.
One of the reasons the card operates so fast is due to the fact the Seagate SSD Expansion Storage Card also incorporates the same Velocity Architecture - a custom SSD that offers 2.4 GB/s of raw I/O throughput, which is said to be 40 times faster than the one residing within the Xbox One. Since the card uses the same technology, it embraces the same speed and efficiency found within the Xbox Series X|S.
It's also immensely easy to move storage around as and when. By entering the 'manage game' option, titles can be moved from the internal to the Seagate SSD Expansion Storage Card, or vice versa. Speeds are insanely quick, with titles such as Destiny 2 swapping over in a minute or so. For anyone looking to delve deeper into each of the SSD's storage options, the Xbox settings menu also allows access to both storage devices and the ability to move, copy or delete content at your heart's content. Having the quick, simple steps to shifting content is going to be great for people who want to take their digital games around to a friend's house - once the pandemic has blown over, of course.
But how do games run on the Seagate SSD Expansion Storage Card? The answer: flawlessly. Comparing the load times to Dirt 5 on the internal and external card showed little to no difference in load times. On one or two instances the difference would be mere seconds, but it's nothing that's going to be instantly noticeable unless you're watching eagle-eyed with a stopwatch.
It's impressive how accessible the Seagate SSD Expansion Storage Card actually is, and while its price point may be enough to put many off, it's clear the money is well spent on how seamlessly it interjects with the rest of the console. Many players may not need one now, but as 2021 rolls in and next-gen ramps up into full gear with consistent releases, it could prove to be a necessary and viable purchase to store the games we love.
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Comments 30
That $ to £ conversion rate though...
I have visions of the kids knocking the box over and snapping the drive. Probably enough to stop me getting them. The drive however I'll definitely be buying.
Very pricey and a luxury at the moment but I'm already finding mine quite useful. I have my Series X and S set up in different rooms so using this to store games I'll play on both is a big time and storage space saver.
My personal recommendation would still be for people to just use a regular hard drive or SSD and copy over backed up games from there as it only takes a few minutes.
But for those that want the absolute best tech, this definitely works as well as advertised.
Mine arrived today and is going back tomorrow. 😭
given the speed it's very expensive. NVMe SSDs with these specs costs about half a price
We are getting royally shafted here in the UK. $219 is £164. I’ll get one when prices come down. Also once I’ve actually got a series X!
I’ll just manage my space until these come down in price. £220 is a big ask especially after dropping £450 on the console itself.
It’s expensive, but I love the design & the easiness of plug and play. And prices will come down in time.
I’m glad Microsoft thought of this solution ahead of time. I’m sure PS5 owners & their memory misery would love this option.
I was able to purchase this with points from my credit card; there was a discount on gamestop gift cards. The price is high, thought it is super stinking cute, super easy to set up, and doesn't cause there to be an extra corded-attachment hanging out of the xbox. I'm happy with the purchase.
@Nermannn
Plug and play, as it should be. No taking apart the console is needed. 👍🏻
Will probably get one when I really need one.
It’s a great idea but a bit pricey at the moment.
But so are all new toys with high demand.
As a newbie to Xbox being absent these last 8 years, the Drive is excellent, I have just about to breach my internal storage (I'm grabbing so much in Game Pass).
It means I can just crack on, I guess I could have picked up an SSD but this is neater and I managed to get £20 off so seems fair considering the general SSD cost of this spec.
Problem is you only got expansion for one of these, and it's over $200 for 1TB of added storage. I've been using a 2TB external drive for my PS4 and it's amazing how fast that fills up, couldn't imagine having less than that, thus is the nature of having so many 100+GB games these days. I got a 4TB external drive for my One X and that seems perfect. The price definitely needs to go down on these with the storage going up. At the very least I would want a 2TB expansion for the Series X for that price.
@Darth_Stofi Bought a PCIE 4.0 NVME a few weeks ago, faster than PS5 (so almost 3 times the speed of the Xbox drive) 1tb for the same price as these drives.
@Nexozi why?
I’m definitely getting one of these, probably in a few months. I think I’m good for a while, even allowing for games like Cyberpunk (reportedly 70gb) and the Destiny 2 upgrade, both due in December. Saying that, if this was to appear in the Black Friday sales...🤔
@Nightcrawler71 My series X died on me. WiFi connection was awful and when racing in dirt 5 it would stutter like mad. Originally modern warfare was unplayable. Tried on playing from the external and then moved to the internal. Then uninstalled and reinstalled. Was slightly better but still quite a bit of stuttering. Also had an issue with tetris, after I had downloaded in to the internal drive it wouldn't start. Uninstalled and reinstalled and it started working. Then on Monday morning went to turn it on and was getting nothing to the TV. So it's away back to Microsoft and I've requested a refund. Will stick with the one X and try another series X some time next year. Had ordered this as it is a must have if you're not wanting to keep uninstalling and reinstalling games. Might be on offer black friday 2021. There should also be others released by then. As Samsung only has a set time of exclusivity.
One thing I wish for is a filter in the installed games screen to filter Internal + Expansion rather than just one or the other. I'd like to see all my SSD installed games at once rather than just half at a time.
@StonyKL What the pictures don't show you is that the drive slot sits directly beneath the HDMI and LAN slots, and next to the Power slot. if the system were to knock hard against the back, the cables would almost certainly take the impact before the drive which is generally only as long as the plug and strain relief.
Now, that doesn't mean the kiddies won't break the HDMI port that way. But that's not the SSDs fault
Ridiculous and insanely outrageous prices for what it is and offers. No way in hell that I'll be buying one of these, before they go down in price by at least half their current cost. And even then I'd still find them expensive...
For someone like me who has a 2TB Xbox One S along with a 8TB external HD hooked up and all 10TB just about full, this will NOT help me right out of the gate with bringing forward my entire Xbox library of games!! They gotta do better than 1TB cmon jeez!
@StonyKL was never a issue back in the day....this is just a memory carrd like the ones we use to use in the gamecube xbox ps2 era and before...we have come full circle again... also the serries x would need a good hit to knock it overr the things bottom heavy and not a light plastic toy.
It would probably work out better and more cost effective to just get a second system for the bedroom and download different games to that system.
@AJDarkstar Yes they can, not suggested otherwise, just that it was not as neat or convenient and there is an element of future-proofing once a year or so in.
I've been saving my Microsoft rewards points, cashed them in for £95 yesterday, so one of these for £125 is pretty good value. No way would I pay the full price for one.
Surely everyone here, on a gaming website is in the rewards program by now? It's been a brilliant money saver for years. I would assume many 'casuals' are not, but 'hardcore' Xbox gamers surely are?
@JetmanUK
The rewards scheme is good but it really depends on how much you spend digitally in the first place, since you don't get a great deal for quests or polls/quiz.
I mostly cash mine in every couple of months to take £10/15 off a game digitally.
Out of curiosity, how long have you been saving to get that amount?
@blinx01
I do the rewards on PC, I use Bing for my searches (phone and PC), I do most, but not all the weekly and monthly quests each month, I only buy digital games, have done for a long time. I also buy the odd movie too, so yeah, I'm quite a spender on the store so I rack up points quickly.
I'm not sure how long this took as I bought my consoles from Microsoft too, not sure if they gave me points for that purchase too. I had also preordered an expensive game, which I don't often do. Either way as a big digital buyer the rewards scheme is a great add on for me.
I think i'll wait for it to go on sale
I may end up buying it since I have a 10% off coupon and several Best Buy reward certificates but I have to agree with others that 1TB is just not enough.
@roe How easy is it switching between the 2 systems?
@XBontendo oh it's super easy. As Daniel mentions in the hands on, you just plug it into the back and the games are there ready to start a second later.
The RRP on the MS site is £219 (Sale price £185) not £255 so think Amazon are trying to make the discount sound better.
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