Extra playable storage for Xbox Series S

[irishbeast]

Don't know a great deal about Xbox hardware so please be kind!

 

My partners lad got an Xbox S for xmas which comes with a pretty pathetic amount of storage (512 gig) which got full up in no time. I recall from upgrading my PS5 that the NVME that allowed games to be run directly cost an arm and a leg, an amount of money which a 10 year old is unlikely to have access to if the pricing is similar.

 

there seem to be a few options when I google it but I have never opened one up so have no idea if an nvme is an option or if one of the rather pricey USB expansions is the best option. 

 

Can someone please recommend a budget friendly storage option which will allow games to be launches from, not just stored on. Ideally 1TB but 512 may suffice depending on price. Also I need to make sure that any solution is not going to affect the thermals of the system, as I don't want to fry his console. I recall having having to buy a drive for the PS5 with a heatsink on it, which added cost. I was told you could get away without it but I really didn't want to risk burning the whole system for the sake of £20

 

Thanks in advance

[demonix00]

External USB drives can only be used for certain series games (modern vintage gamer has done a video on this) as well as any xboxone, xbox360 and OG xbox games although I would recommend getting an external m.2 enclosure along with an m.2 NVME SSD since it appears that some games don't like running on spinning rust drives (Ori and the blind forest causes my xboxoneS to lock up and shutdown at the title screen and will only run properly from the internal storage on my series S, and stellaris will just up and crash after a while if run from an external spinning rust drive and that is on the series S with the series S specific version which is one that can be run from an external USB drive).

 

For anything else you'll have to rely on the storage cards which thankfully seagate doesn't have a monopoly on anymore since western digital has their black C50 expansion cards which are cheaper then the seagate cards (based on the price difference for the 1TB version through MS) the 1TB seagate can be had for the same price as the WD C50 1TB elsewhere and the problem with those third party cards is that you still have to source the SSD for it and you're only limited to one type which from each time I've looked appears to be unobtanium (because of driver limitations in the consoles OS).

[TomChaai]

Neither nvme or USB is the correct answer. The only one that works for Xbox S/X is the official expansion card via the CFExpress slot.

There has been an nvme to CFExpress adaptor that somewhat works, but it will require a very specific model of SSD.

[demonix00]

16 hours ago, TomChaai said:

Neither nvme or USB is the correct answer. The only one that works for Xbox S/X is the official expansion card via the CFExpress slot.

There has been an nvme to CFExpress adaptor that somewhat works, but it will require a very specific model of SSD.

Again the expansion cards are only needed for series games as anything in the back compat catalogue along with any series game that shows its console type as XboxOneGen9Aware and Gen as Durango can be run from a compatible USB drive (which is why I recommended solid state drives for that as they can make better use of the USB 3 interface unlike external spinning rust which will cap out at around 300mbps).

 

 

[Mavrick2k]

If I had a series S, my son does, the expansion card is the way to go.  You run out of space soo quick for playable games.  I have a series X and use external ssd for non series games but the series X has 1TB to start.

[TomChaai]

On 6/20/2023 at 7:51 AM, demonix00 said:

Again the expansion cards are only needed for series games as anything in the back compat catalogue along with any series game that shows its console type as XboxOneGen9Aware and Gen as Durango can be run from a compatible USB drive (which is why I recommended solid state drives for that as they can make better use of the USB 3 interface unlike external spinning rust which will cap out at around 300mbps).

 

 

Yeah I meant S/X games, older games can be run from USB drives just fine. 

[irishbeast]

On 6/21/2023 at 12:57 PM, Mavrick2k said:

If I had a series S, my son does, the expansion card is the way to go.  You run out of space soo quick for playable games.  I have a series X and use external ssd for non series games but the series X has 1TB to start.

Whe is the best place to get one? Are there any deals? Don't want hooky ones from Kazakhstan! 

 

I pr4esume the XBS games are not as big as t6eh XBX games amd certainly not as big as PC games. I had an XBX and own a Pc so i know the games can be huge iun size but baring in ming that the XBX can only output 1080p they should be much smaller. He said he can get about 5 games on it so another 512 would probably be fine.

 

On 6/21/2023 at 1:08 PM, TomChaai said:

Yeah I meant S/X games, older games can be run from USB drives just fine. 

I could then install a cheap SATA SSD/USB stick on the other USB port???

[demonix00]

From what I've seen, you can only get the WD black C50 storage cards directly from western digital and as for USB CCL currently have the crucial X6 external SSD for between £40 and £100 (500GB is £40, 1TB is under £60 and 2TB is a few quid over £90).

 

Just to note, you can have two USB drives connected along with the storage card.