Best SSDs for Xbox Series X|S: Seagate, WD & more

In the market for a high-speed SSD for your Xbox Series X or S? You’ve come to the right place – we’ve rounded up the top-performing SSDs for your Xbox.

The Xbox consoles from Microsoft are in a league of their own when it comes to console gaming. However, upgrading an Xbox’s storage can be a daunting and expensive task compared to PCs, Steam Deck, Switch, and PS5.

The Xbox Series X and S are a whole different ball game. These consoles require a proprietary internal drive for next-gen games or a USB external drive for classics from the Xbox One, 360, and original eras. You cannot use an NVMe SSD. Fortunately, Western Digital has recently released its own Xbox storage solution that undercuts the competition.

Gone are the days of shelling out a whopping $219.99 for 1TB. Western Digital’s drives are now available for just $149.99 for 1TB. While SSD prices are starting to drop, they may not be cheaper than an NVMe, but thankfully they’re no longer outrageously priced.

Western Digital launches Xbox Series X|S expansion drives

Over the weekend, Western Digital’s own version of the Xbox expansion drives began to surface online. Best Buy accidentally leaked the upcoming storage device a bit too early and eventually pulled it down.

There’s no release date attached to the listing, nor has Western Digital come out and officially announced the expansion drives for the Xbox either.

With this said, the pricing has come in, and it appears Seagate has responded in kind to the leaks by lowering the price of its drives to match.

How much are the Western Digital Xbox expansion drives?

Western Digital’s expansion drives for the Xbox will cost $179.99 for 1TB. If WD launches 512GB and 2TB versions to compete with Seagate, we expect these to also be considerably cheaper than the $139.99 and $399.99 prices attached to Seagate’s moment.

Western Digital is currently on a spree of offering proprietary storage options through different avenues. Recently, they partnered up with Framework to sell 2230 NVMe drives for the Steam Deck.

Best SSDs for Xbox Series X & S

At the time of writing, we’re going to say to hold off buying any expansion drives until Western Digital has finished launching its version. While Seagate is lowering prices right now, it’s still wise not to sprint toward them.

Seagate currently has a 2TB version that hasn’t seen any discounts, remaining at $399.99. This is massively overpriced for the hardware, with the only reason being due to its proprietary nature.

We expect that both companies will begin a turf war over this piece of Xbox hardware and the prices could lower even further during sales periods.

Outside of this, until there’s a non-branded or custom option to upgrade, you’re stuck with the following options. The reason we’re not particularly “picky” about which one to recommend, is that they all perform the same. It’s entirely dependent on whether you can afford it or not.

Best external storage drive for the Xbox Series X & S

Depending on your needs, the external storage situation for the Xbox Series consoles might come down to wanting as much bulk storage as possible. SSDs should give you faster loading and transfer times, but a lot of games you’ll be installing externally won’t be properly taking advantage of the hardware.

As such, it’s possibly ideal to get a slower HDD, which can be up to 8TB per drive and a maximum of three drives. However, some people have found 12TB to work as well. Microsoft isn’t exactly clear on the subject, so it’d be best to stick with what’s known.

If you’re someone – like us – is concerned with the lifespan of an HDD over the SSD, then you might find that going with an enclosure and now a much cheaper NVMe drive will be the best option. The ports on the Xbox Series X and S are USB 3.2, so you should also find that transfers don’t take all that long – even on an HDD.

Can you use external drives for Xbox Series X & S games?

No, you can’t use an external drive for Xbox Series X and S games. These games have been designed with particular console features that require a faster NVMe drive inside. As such, Microsoft has limited current-gen games from being installed onto the console’s external drives outside of original, 360, and One games.

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