Microsoft Xbox Series X|S Storage Cards

This iFixit is more about the internal storage of Xbox X|S devices, but thought it interesting enough to share: https://www.ifixit.com/News/46508/can-diy-storage-save-you-money-on-the-series-x-probably-not

It's partitioned similar to Xbox One/S/X drives -




Another consideration is that finding this non-retail, laptop-size drive is not easy. You can find a 2230 model half the capacity at Amazon, even smaller at Newegg, and none at Best Buy right now. It would be very easy to look at the more common option, the 2280, look at its connection pins, and think, “Hey, that might work.” Even if it worked, it would not fit on the motherboard. The last two numbers on m.2 storage refer to the drive’s length in millimeters—the 2280 is more than twice as long. Please don’t try to make it fit—but if you do, tag us on the socials.

It’s also a lot of disassembly to get to the storage in the Xbox Series X. And you’ll need to source and reapply some fairly specialized thermal putty to a whole layer cake of heat-dissipating components on your way back out. You’ll likely have to run some scripts to get the box to recognize a new drive. But it’s not soldered onto the board, as with the PlayStation 5. At some point, you could replace it if something bigger is available, or if it died.

Finally, and this is the most important point right now (made by Technical Writer Carsten Frauenheim during our teardown): there’s nothing you can really upgrade to at this point. It’s in an odd form factor, but Microsoft is not saddling you with cheap, slow storage that, if you were only brave enough, you could improve. One terabyte of storage, at these speeds, on a board this small, is the best you can fit into a $500 console (one Microsoft doesn’t make money on, no less). If you need more space, you can buy an external SSD and use it to store the games you’re not actively playing. Since you’re mostly playing backwards-compatible games right now, just after launch, there’s not much of a speed loss in using good external storage.

 

No word yet on 2TB expansion cards, but it looks like Seagate is soon to release their 512 GB expansion cards.

Reported @ https://www.windowscentral.com/new-seagate-512-gb-xbox-series-xs-storage-cards-appear-us-retailers

 

Maybe some progress is being made on the DIY-front for expansion. The expansion is around $40 and WD Blue CH SN530 is $130 refurbished. That would be $170 DIY vs getting official Seagate Expansion card on sale for $188. So questionable benefits right now. Maybe it'll make sense when they find a compatible 2TB nvme unit?

Here's one article about it @ https://www.tomshardware.com/news/coversion-adapter-for-m2-2230-ssds-for-xbox-series-xs

Conversion Adapter Lets You Install Short M.2 SSDs Into Xbox Series X, S
Cheap Xbox Series X|S storage upgrades possible with conversion adapter.

The adaptor has a major limitation, though. While it can house any short M.2-2230 drive with a PCIe interface, the consoles are only compatible with select SSDs featuring a specific firmware and internal format. For example, Western Digital's WD Blue CH SN530 is naturally compatible with Microsoft's consoles, but the WD Blue PC SN530 is not. This could be why you can't use typical CFexpress 1.0 Type-B cards to expand the storage in Microsoft's consoles. Unfortunately, it's currently unclear how many SSDs are on the market that fit these specific requirements.

 

Even more so when the Seagate Expansion Card 1TB can be had for $188 during sales. I really hope the 512 GB is no more than $120 MSRP.

 

So Seagate was ready to announce the 1TB External USB drive, but not the 512 GB Storage Card.

 

Yup. That's for older games or cold storage.