Upgrading your Xbox One Hard Drive with an Solid State Drive - is it worth it?
We have come along way with storage technology. Gone are the days when we had cartridges to load our favourite games, now we need real storage, fast and large.
We get asked a lot about ” should I upgrade my Xbox hard drive with an SSD ” and the answer is yes… but.
In this article we share the pro’s and con’s of upgrading your Xbox hard drive to an SSD, we dispel some myths and finally answer the question if it you should upgrade your Xbox hard drive to an SDD.
Obviously an SDD drive has a much faster seek and response time than a standard hard drive, especially the Seagate drive that are shipping with the Microsoft Xbox S and Microsoft Xbox X models.
However there are a few factors which you must consider, which might not be that obvious.
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Should I upgrade my Xbox hard drive with an SSD
Things you need to know
Although very similar, the Xbox One S and Xbox One X differ in more ways than just processor speed and graphics power. Their internal I/O architecture is also different meaning the way they cache and transfer data is different. Hold that thought.
Getting back to the theme of hard drives, the original Xbox had a SATA II interface, and the good news is both the Xbox One S and Xbox One X have a SATA III interface. What does that mean?
Well, the fastest possible data transfer rate you could ever possibly achieve in an Xbox One S or X is 6.0GB/s – great news as most SATA drives have the same 6.0GB/s transfer rate.
So you would think that installing an SDD into your Xbox One S or X is a no brainer right? Well, not exactly..
Limitations
So, we know the Xbox One interface runs at 6.0Gbs, and the hard drive interface runs at 6.0GBs, so what is the problem? Well, put simply the Xbox One I/O architecture.
You see, the processor and cache inside an Xbox One is not like that of a PC or Laptop, in that it designed for processing fast graphics primarily and that comes with some downsides.
Alongside the bespoke Xbox processor is a Southbridge chip. The Xbox Southbridge chip is responsible for controlling the inputs and outputs of all the components on the Xbox motherboard, including the hard drive controller, making sure they all harmonise together and are all getting the information they need to perform their operations.
And this is where our problem lies. As designed, the Xbox One gives priority to the graphics and main bespoke processor, meaning there will always be a pay off to other components on the motherboard, and in this case the data transfer speed of the hard drive.
By design, the data transfer speed of the hard drive is limited, as to not over power (and over heat!) the Southbridge chip.
So, should I upgrade my Xbox hard drive with an SSD
Although throttled by design, there still is a speed benefit from installing an SSD into your Xbox One S or Xbox One X. Let’s take a look at the benefits:
- On average, console boot time will improve, saving you an average of 10 to 30 seconds console boot time (depending on your OS version and number of apps you have installed).
- Most games will run quicker, but not all. For testing, the latest edition of Call of Duty booted 15 seconds quicker, but game play speed was not increased. Where as we only noticed a 5 second saving on boot time with the latest edition of Halo.
- Reliability – we all know that an old mechanical drive will eventually start having issues, where as the non moving parts of an SDD is much more reliable.
- Quiet – Your gaming palace will be more peaceful without the whirring of that old mechanical HDD.
Overall, the decision to upgrade or not will boil down to finance. If you are an avid gamer that has an additional few pennies spare then the benefits are certainly there.
If however you are someone who only plays once in a while, then for the limited speed increase it probably is not worth your while unless your original hard drive has died and you need to upgrade anyhow.
Xbox SSD Options
Lets take a look at our most tested and reliable SSD options. The options below are our recommendations.
Best Performance SSD for Xbox One
Best Budget SSD for Xbox One
Most Popular SSD for Xbox One
Our thoughts
We have installed SSD’s into around 5 or 6 Xbox consoles and each time we have been pleasantly surprised with the reduction in console boot time, however were left dissapointed with some games just not improving that much.
Having said that, the realiablty is a massive plus point – we have replaced many more old mechanical hard drives for our friends and family members, so knowing that there is such a big improvement in reliability, we see upgrading your Xbox hard drive to SDD as a no brianer.
Installation
If you have some understanding of taking electronics apart and have a few tools, replacing your old mechanical hard drive with an SDD is pretty straight forward.
Luckily we have an article on that exact topic, so do not forget to check it out here
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