Xbox Series X | S Expansion Card: Review, Analysis and Opinion
If you think you need to expand the storage of your Xbox Series X or Series S, take a look at our review of the Xbox Series expansion card, as we have tested this small (and very expensive) expansion card that promises speed identical to the one offered by the internal SSD. And yes, after testing it, our opinion of the Xbox Series X external SSD has completely changed.
Almost a month ago, Microsoft put both Xbox Series X and Series S up for sale . These are his two new consoles and they marked the beginning of the new generation that, a few days later, was completed with the launch of PS5.
We have already spoken at length about both the Sony console and the two Microsoft machines - here Xbox Series X analysis and here Xbox Series S -, and now is the time to tell you our opinion of the expansion card of the new Xbox Series.
And, the base storage is somewhat short . 1 TB (which is just over 800 GB) for Xbox Series X is not bad at all, although it is not to rave about, but 512 GB for Xbox Series S is very, very little. In the visible part we find the Xbox logo and the storage capacity, which may indicate that they will launch versions with more TB in the future.
In the part that is inserted into the console we have the Seagate logo , a brand that has developed the device and that has a very good relationship with Xbox, in a metallic finish that helps dissipate the temperature.
This is a burden because SSDs get hot and this is still an encapsulated SSD that connects to a PCIe 4.0 port , so the more metal contact there is, the better for dissipation.
In our tests, after playing for an hour from this SSD and moving an 800 GB library twice between the internal and the card, we have obtained a temperature of 20º degrees in the external plastic part and 32º in the metallic internal part .
The cartridge weighs 22 grams and has dimensions of 5 x 3 cm . It is very compact and is one of those devices that makes you exclaim "have I really spent 250 euros on this?"
In addition, it is designed so that we "collect" it or that we take them to friends' houses or second consoles. Therefore, a small cap is included to protect the connection pins.
Now, you know that we like to know what is inside the devices and we open all the laptops that we analyze to check what elements are soldered to the board, what type of memory is mounted or the expansion capacity.
We have not opened the external Xbox SSD because we appreciate the unit and I would not like to break it so soon, but on the Spawn Wave channel they have been brave and have opened a unit and the truth is that the data we extract is quite interesting.
To begin with, the SSD is encapsulated between two metal plates and, connecting both we have a thermal paste that conducts heat . The application is quite generous to, as we said a few lines ago, minimize the heat of the unit.
And inside the board there is also more thermal paste that "connects" the PCIe interface with the internal aluminum module . Microsoft, since the Xbox 360 crashes, is taking heat dissipation very seriously and they have been tremendously cautious with Series X and Series S.
In addition, when we see the unit we have that the storage has been manufactured by SK Hynix with a very interesting management to put 1 TB in that space and, in addition, the PCIe 4.0 controller is from Phison .
This gives us more or less the same, but the interesting thing is that it is not the internal SSD of the console (which is a m.2 2230 NVVMe SSD), but more similar to a last generation CF Express card . Let's talk a bit about this.
CF Express cards are used in state-of-the-art cameras and video cameras because they can transfer 4 GB per second, a speed suitable for recording 4K video with a high bit rate. The connectors on those CF Express cards and those on the Seagate SSD are identical, while those on an m.2 PCIe are slightly different.
The Phison E19T controller that mounts Seagate's drive for Xbox Series offers a speed of 3.75GB per second , more than enough speed to match (even exceed) the internal SSD and, furthermore, considering that Phison is a Of the companies that leads the PCIe 4.0 interface, there is an effort on the part of Seagate when creating the device, and we also begin to understand that it costs 250 euros .
SSD storage is expensive and that is something that marks both the capacity and the technology . The smaller an SSD is, the more expensive it is because the company has to condense layers and layers of the storage cells in a smaller space and the truth is that it is impressive how SK Hynix has put 1 TB in that module .
As I say, after seeing the operation and internal design, I begin to understand the price. It's still expensive, I'm not saying no, but there really is a lot of "technology" in that tiny little module.
Plug & Play philosophy to provide the user with facilities
Proprietary technologies have good points and bad points . The "bad" thing is that they tend to be more expensive than universal ones. This is logical because it is something that you do exclusively for your system, you sign juicy development and distribution contracts without depending on external agents and you make sure that there is no competition, so you can set the price you want.
The good thing is that you can do, at a technological and compatibility level, whatever you want. Installing the Xbox Series X | S expansion card is very simple. We simply plug it into the rear port of the console and from then on, a second storage unit is created in the system.
You don't have to format anything, you don't have to manage drives , we don't have problems because the USB disconnects for no reason (which has happened to me in One X and Series X with some units) and, in addition, we can connect it to another Xbox Series no problem.
These days of use I have been taking it from the work console to the main one constantly since in one I have some games and in the other I had other games. That way, I copied the library from one of the Xbox to that external drive and had it, too, on the other console.
And, of course, I could take the unit to a friend's console without problem, although to play my digital games I would have to log in with my account on that console.
It is the same philosophy as the memory cards of a few years ago , those cartridges that were also very expensive and that left us 8 or 16 MB to save games. Now we have 1 TB (which is about 920 GB) to save games, since the games are saved in the cloud.
Load speed comparison with internal SSD, an external SSD and an external HDD
Let's start with the comparisons . The internal SSD of Series X has a speed that is not the highest of the generation (if we compare with the beastly SSD of PS5), but that has a speed and a data transfer rate of the most interesting.
It has the capacity to transmit 2.4 GB / s of compressed files and 4.8 GB / s of unzipped files . It has a PCIe 4.0 interface and the Seagate external SSD has been developed complying with those characteristics.
Microsoft's idea is that the two units (internal and external) offer the same experience . We have done some tests to see to what extent this is the case and in the first one we compared the opening time of the game from the console menu until we started playing. The internal SSD is a bit faster, but the card works really well too:
The results are certainly similar and you may be wondering why we have not compared the times with the external SSD / HDD. The reason is simple. When we have a game that appears as "Optimized" for Series X | S installed on an external drive that is not the official one from Seagate and Microsoft , an icon appears indicating that that drive does not work.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is one of those games and, as you can see, it doesn't let us start it on either the external SSD or the external HDD:
And, precisely, that is where the secret of the Xbox Series expansion card comes into play . Games optimized for Microsoft's new console, which are expected to grow more and more, only work on the internal SSD or expansion card.
This is because the high speed of the Seagate card, matching the speed of the internal SSD, is adequate to run the Xbox Velocity Architecture API of next generation games with guarantees.
If we test a game that does not take advantage of Velocity, we have the following load data (and we can compare with external drives, because we can play those games from an external SSD / HDD):
Something that also allows the expansion card to be done is to run Quick Resume without problems and with the same speed as the main SSD.
Quick Resume is that Xbox Series X | S function that allows us to switch between several games without having to go through the menu of each of them . It's like leaving the DOOM Eternal game to sleep to go play Ori and, if we get tired of Ori, return to DOOM Eternal in just a few seconds and at the same point where we paused the previous game.
In this case, we have one set installed on the external card and the other on the internal SSD and the system does not make a difference between the two units, offering a more than good Quick Resume.
And finally, we have tried to return to the console from sleep and start a game installed on the expansion card that we left paused when we turned off the console. Again, the experience is immediate and the same that we find in the internal SSD.
So, we can say that, indeed, the Xbox Series X | S expansion card offers the same experience as the internal SSD .
Game transfer time
The last test is the transfer speed test , which is really where we see the abysmal differences between a USB-connected drive and the PCIe 4.0 standard (and which also helps us understand that that beastly data-per-second rate is impossible with a drive. external by USB Type-A and therefore the optimized games do not work in those units).
We have copied several large games from one unit to another, but below we leave you the example of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, a game that weighs about 48 GB and is on the average of what large system games usually weigh (beyond authentic atrocities like Gears 5, Halo The Master Chief Collection or CoD Cold War).
If we have a Series X and a Series S, we can have a game that we play a lot installed on that external drive to play on the console we want without losing performance.
Is the Xbox Series X | S expansion card worth buying?
The million dollar question. In this analysis of the Xbox Series X expansion card, we have seen that the card really does what Microsoft promised .
The idea of the Redmond was to offer an external drive that would match the experience of the internal SSD and, apparently in the transfer times, Quick Resume, fast start of games from rest and load games, that's right.
It is the best method to expand the storage of Xbox Series X and, although in that console it is "optional", in Series S we see it practically mandatory considering the very little internal space of said machine.
I understand the price of 250 euros both for the speed and for all the technology there is . The PCIe controller is quality and from a warranty company, it is amazing that they managed to fit 920 GB into such a small module and the temperature is kept at bay under stress.
As I say, I understand the price and I see it necessary for Series S, but if you have a Series X I recommend that you learn to better manage the games you have installed instead of having many at once ... and wait for a possible price drop .
In the previous paragraphs we have seen the speed and performance characteristics and, in addition, we have provided you with a lot of visual tests. Now it is up to you to decide if the Xbox Series X | S SSD card is worth it because the characteristics of each player are different.
We believe that yes, that it is worth what it costs for the level of technology, but it is still an extra that costs 250 euros.
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