With the latest Xbox consoles adopting high-performance SSDs, Microsoft could've approached expandable storage in a few ways. Landing on these compact cards has provided a seamless solution that's guaranteed to work with all games on the system, even if limiting your options.

It's hard to find specific flaws in the Seagate Storage Expansion Card as a product, but the price remains a crucial hurdle detracting from its appeal. Microsoft raised the bar from storage this generation, meaning these drives are prohibitively costly, even for the smallest available configuration. I can't say the Seagate Storage Expansion Card is a great deal, yet I still wholeheartedly recommend it to those on the fence. The card measures a fun-sized 53mm by 32mm, seemingly based on CFexpress standard, almost on par with the average USB thumb drive. Unlike most external drives, it's cable-free and only slightly protrudes from the console's rear, preventing unwanted clutter around your desk or entertainment center. Each drive also comes with a protective sleeve, making these cards easy to move and store. Echtzeit as these are simple 'plug and play', can be switched out whilst the Console is 'on', You can always just buy another 2TB expansion and swap them out as and when required. As game file sizes grow, capacities from 512GB let you keep more of today’s top titles installed and ready to go.At least now there is more 'competition', it should help bring pricing down. On top of that, its easier to expand your storage. There is no limit to how many Cards you own (I own a 1TB & a 2TB card) so already have nearly 4TB's of Storage capacity - not including the 5TB HDD USB External Storage I have connected with my XB1 and older games stored on it. Pro's and Con's to both. MS may have a 'Proprietary' solution that is perhaps more expensive per TB, but makes up for it in terms of ease of use etc. Sonys may offer cheaper options, but its still 'limited' by the size, realistically needs a Heatsink (MS designed their system to not require this) and doesn't cover you if you something happens from a third party SSD - like it overheats and damages your PS5. trev666 USB 'works' if all you want to do is 'store' games and only run XB1 versions from it. The whole point of these Expansion cards are to be able to run Series S/X Versions from the 'Storage' instead of having to wait for them to transfer across to the internal storage to play. Whilst we will do everything we can to meet the delivery times above, there may be factors outside of our control and we cannot guarantee delivery within this time frame. Turn your console on, and plug the drive into one of the USB ports. You will get a pop-up that asks how you wish to use the storage device. If you want to use it for games storage, select Use for Games. You will be asked to name your storage device. Your Xbox will then ask if you plan to use the drive with multiple consoles.

Utilizing PCIe 4.0 was always an expensive bet, with today's pricing falling in line with our previous predictions ahead of release. While proprietary in design, pricing isn't far from equivalent PC drives leveraging the same interface. The technology should become more affordable in time, but until then it's a luxury, especially on consoles. If you don't want to spring for the Expansion Card, you can turn to external storage options. The Xbox Series X and Series S have three USB 3.1 ports, which is plenty of space for accessories, including an external drive with a minimum of 128GB of storage.

Storage supremacy

However, this route has some caveats. Speeds will be a lot slower, meaning an external HDD can’t be used to play games optimized for the Xbox Series X and Series S. You can certainly store these games on your drive, but you would need to move them over to internal or expansion card storage to play them. For now, the Xbox Storage Expansion Card is the proposed (and only) remedy, compacting the same speedy solid-state storage into standalone add-ons. It couldn't be more seamless on paper, adding an identical, secondary NVMe drive to the available storage. While Microsoft and Seagate first teamed up on a single 1TB Storage Expansion Card, the partnership has since introduced 512GB and 2TB capacities. This officially licensed Xbox expansion card is plug-and-play with your Xbox Series X/S, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility or opening your console to install. This officially licensed Xbox expansion card is plug-and-play with your Xbox Series X|S, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility or opening your console to install.