You’re on a budget: You might want to look elsewhere if you were hoping to spend less overall on an external SSD. Those few drives that do support the best Xbox Series X games are well worth your hard-earned cash. If only because they greatly expand the console’s approximate 800GB of workable storage. Yes, the box might claim 1TB from the get-go, but that’s not including the space required for the Xbox Series X’s operating system. It’s a similar story on the Xbox Series S, too, which only features roughly 364GB of operational storage despite the 512GB claim. The Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card is the first product that arises in conversations about the best Xbox Series X SSDs. Launching the same year as the console itself, it enjoyed a reputation as the be-all-end-all of storage expansion for Microsoft’s current-gen machine. That may not be as true now as it was before 2023, but it’s still a superb choice for gamers looking to greatly increase storage capacity. The Crucial X8 is a common recommendation for both PC and console use, simply because it’s both very cheap and a seriously speedy SSD. The limitations of the Xbox One’s USB 3.0 interface means you can’t actually make the most of the X8’s up to 1050MB/sec read and write speeds, but who cares when you can chop 30 to 40 seconds off the time it takes to load a saved game in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla or Red Dead Redemption 2. It doesn’t make so much difference when it comes to simply loading games, but the high transfer speeds make this a good bet if you’re thinking of upgrading to an Xbox Series console, where you can run your old last-gen games from the external drive. It’s a well-built drive with a tough anodized aluminium casing, and it even comes with both a USB Type-C cable and Type-A adapter bundled in. You don’t need to spend more on an Xbox SSD – and, at this price, there’s no compelling reason to pay less. Because of the design, it's a perfect replica of the Xbox Series X|S internal SSD, reaching speeds of 2.4GB/s (raw) data that enable games designed around the technology to load exponentially faster than was ever possible before. After thorough testing, we've found that there is absolutely no difference between having a game installed on your internal Xbox SSD or on the Seagate Expansion Card, so you get the same great performance either way.

You’re after more space: As it can’t run Xbox Series X|S games natively, you may want to opt for a HDD for more storage space overall. With a rating of 5,900 RPM, this massive external hard drive isn't branded in any special way, but it manages to stand out due to how large it is. Due to its size, this isn't a simple plug-and-play, as the drive needs its own power supply via an 18W adapter that's naturally included. Although Toshiba sells a gaming-specific version of its Canvio external HDD, the Canvio Flex is the current king when it comes to price, performance and value. It’s cheaper than most competitors, yet also one of the fastest portable HDDs we’ve tested. Our PC benchmarks place its sequential read/write speeds over a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A connection at 151.5MB/sec and 158.9MB/sec. When it comes to loading saved games on the Xbox One, it’s a second or two faster than the Seagate Expansion Portable and only just behind the Seagate Firecuda HDD in most of our test titles. It’s a great drive for hosting your Games Pass favourites if you don’t want to splash a lot of cash. You can also get 2TB and 4TB versions.

Too many games, too little storage? Our pick of the best external hard drives for Xbox One can give you all the space you need

It's worth keeping in mind that older games do benefit from increased speeds, reducing load times, so there is some benefit to installing them on something faster than a mechanical hard drive like Seagate's model, which runs at up to 120MB/s. By contrast, the proprietary Xbox Series X|S storage runs at 2.4GB/s uncompressed, which is quite the gulf.

We run two sets of tests when we’re looking at external hard drives for the Xbox One or One X. First, we connect them to a PC and run the CrystalDiskMark benchmark to test their raw sequential and random read/write speeds. Sequential speeds are an indication of how fast the drive can read or write large quantities of data in one sustained burst, which makes a big difference when you’re first running a game, loading a saved game, streaming in all the models and textures in a level, or transferring a game from one drive to another. Random read/write speeds cover smaller data transfers, and make an impact when you’re running a game directly from the hard drive. Besides our top two choices, you’ll still be able to store your Xbox Series X|S games on all of our other options. The difference is that you won’t be able to run the games from them. You’re after something cheaper: There’s no denying that the Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card is a pretty huge investment, potentially turning off buyers on a budget. If you do decide to invest, you will be getting a speedy drive that’s a touch slower than the one installed in the console out of the box. It’s nonetheless still a fantastic option for extra storage, especially for all the Series X|S enhanced titles that regularly land on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service. However, previous-gen Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles can be run from these drives with a slight bump in load times, though. Read on, then, to learn more about the best Xbox Series X hard drives and SSDs to help boost storage and performance for your console.

Game Drives for Xbox vergelijken

You want more space: Capping at a 1TB model, you won’t have drastically more storage space to work with. SSDs are typically much faster than HDDs, but that can mean they’ll typically be more expensive. SSDs typically also have smaller storage capacities overall, unless you choose to pay a princely sum for a larger capacity model. HDDs are much more space friendly, with some models offering up to 5TB or 8TB worth of space. They’re often cheaper, too, but perform slower on average than SSDs. Combining this with an expansion card that you can afford is most likely the best option in the long, as you get better performance for all of your games, not just mass storage. Naturally, price is going to be the limiting factor here. How to choose the best external hard drive for your Xbox One What are the most important things to look for?

So, what if you're not looking to spend a ridiculous amount of money, but you still need a fair bit of extra storage? If you're looking to reduce your problems with storing older titles, this 4TB hard drive from WD will remove most of your woes.Interface type: The Xbox One series of consoles supports up to two external hard drives, connected via a USB 3 cable. This is important: the Xbox One doesn’t support newer USB 3.1 gen 2, or indeed USB-C or other miniaturised versions of the USB connector (miniUSB or microUSB). Fortunately, most modern external hard drives have a USB 3 cable, so you won’t need to worry too much about this. You won’t actually notice much difference in terms of general gameplay, so the main advantage of an SSD is the significant reductions in your loading times. Here, much depends on the individual game. Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t really load any faster with an SSD than it does with an external HDD, but when loading saved games it’s a different story. While you could be looking at a nearly two minute (133 second) wait on Xbox One X with an external HDD, that drops to just 71 seconds with an SSD. The best external hard drives for Xbox One in 2023 1. Toshiba Canvio Flex: Best all-round hard drive for Xbox One