Designed in partnership with Xbox to seamlessly play Xbox Series X and Series S games without sacrificing latency, the Seagate Xbox Series S|X 1TB expansion card is the accessory for you if your Xbox is running out of space with your ever-bulging game library.
SPECS
PRICE: S$330, available in Lazada and Shopee
STORAGE: 1TB
In case you don’t know, the Xbox Series X and Series S next-generation gaming consoles were launched in Singapore last Nov. While the Series X offers almost 1TB of storage, the Series S offers less than its built-in 512GB of storage for games.
I got the Xbox Series X (XSX) on launch day. Transitioning from my previous Xbox One S was easy, as the XSX works with external hard drives. I simply plugged in two USB hard drives of 4TB and 8TB, and the gaming console recognised it immediately for use.
FOR
+ Plug and play
+ Works just like the internal SSD
+ Can launch optimised games
AGAINST
– Expensive
– Only available in 1TB capacity
– Unable to save captured media
By doing so, I can reserve the internal SSD for game titles that has been ‘Optimised for Xbox Series X|S’. This includes games that feature Smart Delivery – free quality upgrade to based on features available on Xbox Series X|S.
But that means when a title is eligible for upgrade, they naturally consume more storage space upon downloading the patch. Over the past 7 months, more titles got upgraded and started filling up on the internal 1TB SSD. The alternative solution is to transfer games between the SSD and the external hard drives. But this housekeeping option is dreadful after a while.
At times, I could not launch a game because it needs to be transferred to the internal SSD first. Transferring a game takes time. For instance, a 60GB game takes about 20-30 minutes over a wired connection.
By May this year, I was left with less than 100GB of storage space, even after deleting those games that I seldom play. When E3 2021 came along in June, more optimised games were announced. So I had to resort to the next best solution in the market – the Seagate Xbox Series X|S expansion card.
This expansion card is quite expensive at S$330, but it is the quick fix I needed. Installation is easy, just plug it into the storage expansion slot at the rear of the Xbox Series X and it is ready for use.
Upon plugging into the console, you get about 920GB of additional storage. I could start reinstalling those optimised games which I had to deleted previously due to limited space.
But the feature that sets this accessory apart from other storage solutions is that I can launch optimised games immediately without transferring them to the internal SSD.
However, while I can set the expansion card as the default location for future downloads, I was unable to do the same for captured media. By default, the internal SSD is where all your in-game screenshots and clips are stored.
Instead, a message prompted me to reconfigure the expansion card. Seriously, it should have cautioned me when I plugged in the first time. I chose to forgo this, as I had already queued a few downloads and did not want to start from scratch again.
In addition, the expansion card is only available in a capacity of 1TB. And as you probably might guess, it will probably fill up rather quickly.
Hopefully, more storage capacity options become available soon before that happens. And I hope the new expansion cards will be more affordable.
VERDICT
If you primarily game on Xbox Series X or Series X gaming consoles, this is the accessory you need. Especially if most of the games in your library are optimised versions, or if you find transferring the games between drives a chore.
RATING: 8/10
