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The best external hard drives for Xbox Series X

James Holloway
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The Xbox Series X‘s 1TB internal SSD can fill up quickly with the install size of games designed to take full advantage of the hardware. 1TB sounds excellent on paper, but in reality, the console only offers about 802GBs of storage due to updates and the operating system. You may find yourself filling up your space quickly, especially if you’re looking to download every new title that becomes available on Xbox Game Pass. The latest Call of Duty alone takes well over 100GBs of storage — and with the system targeting 4K resolution, games will continue to grow in size.

The Xbox Series X is compatible with any external hard drive up to 16TBs of storage. Games optimized for the Xbox Series X can only be stored on, but not played from an external drive due to the game being designed to take advantage of faster loading speeds and Xbox Velocity Architecture. However, when it comes to storage for your Xbox Series X, there are many options to choose from as your game library expands. We have compiled a list of external drives that will make your gaming experience seamless. Note that they will come with the proper cables needed to connect to your Xbox console with each external drive mentioned.

Further Reading:

Seagate Storage Expansion Card

Seagate

The Seagate Storage Expansion Card is the first storage device designed specifically for the expansion slot found on the Xbox Series X console. This drive gives an additional 1TB of storage and features the same performance found in the internal storage allowing for plug and play of games optimized for Xbox Series X. It is made card is for anyone that is looking for the ultimate Xbox console experience.

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The Seagate storage solution embodies everything that Xbox envisioned for console performance. It plugs into the expansion card slot found on the console’s back and makes for a seamless experience; Seagate and Microsoft partnered to ensure that there is no performance loss. This is the first expansion card to take advantage of the Xbox Series X enhancements.

Samsung T5 SSD

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Samsung T5 SSD is a great external storage solution if you are looking to expand storage and increase loading speeds, with multiple storage size configurations. With most games not being optimized for Xbox Series X hardware, the T5 makes for a great way to save your Xbox Gamepass games on. The T5 features Samsung’s V-Nand Flash Memory, boasting speeds of up to 540MB/s.

Even though optimized games can not be played directly from this drive, it is an excellent solution for either cold storage for those games or a performance boost for games that suffered severely from long load times.

WD MY Passport

Western Digital

The tried and true WD MY Passport is highly reliable in everyday life, but they are also great for storing video games. With many storage size configurations, this external drive is the near-perfect solution to install your games on. If you want to add a little flair to your console-setup, there are multiple colors to choose from, and the MY Passport is compact enough to put in your pocket to take your games with you. The only caveat with this drive is the transfer speeds can be pretty lengthy by today’s standards.

Seagate Game Drive Hub

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Seagate Game Drive Hub was specifically designed to store Xbox games, as this is another product in which Xbox and Seagate collaborated for gamers. This drive boasts 8TB of storage, enough to download almost all of the games currently in Xbox Gamepass. Granted, you may never fill this drive, but if you like to keep games readily available, this huge external drive is the way to go.

The Drive takes up a considerable amount of space compared to the other drives mentioned beforehand, but the 200 plus games that can be stored on it make a huge difference. Because of this external drive’s size, it is AC-powered, meaning it will need to be connected to a wall outlet to provide power for it to work. Featuring two USB-A ports, this drive also serves as a hub for your Xbox console, so you can connect other Xbox peripherals to it without any issues.

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James Holloway
James Holloway
Home Theater Writer
James is a techie at heart; he covers Home Theater and Gaming for Digital Trends with a focus on how to get the best out of…
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