How many GB can the Xbox Series X hold?

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Jon Martindale

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Mar 25, 2021,12:51pm EDT|

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The Seagate Expansion Card is the only Xbox Series X and Series S storage upgrade that works as fast ... [+] as internal memory.

The Xbox Series X and S consoles come with some of the most expansive storage ever offered for a home games console (not to mention the fastest). But by modern PC standards and even many laptops, the one terabyte of space in the Series X, and especially the 512GB in the Series S, is quite diminutive.

Fortunately, Microsoft's new-generation consoles offer a few different ways you can upgrade and expand your Xbox Series X and S storage. If you need extra space to install more games or download more of your favorite movies and shows for offline viewing, here's how to upgrade the Xbox Series X and S storage.

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Compatible With Xbox Series X and Series S Games

Seagate Expansion Card

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Seagate Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S 1TB Solid State Drive

One of the best features of the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles is their internal NVMe SSD. Not only is it the first generation of Xbox to use SSD technology, but it's cutting edge NVMe SSD technology, offering data read and write speed close to 20 times that of previous-generation console hard drives. That enables faster game load times and makes room for potential gameplay improvements, with faster in-game locomotion, greater draw distances and no need for loading elevator segments being some of the benefits developers can take advantage of.

That demand for high-speed data does have one drawback though: it's necessary for the new-generation Xbox games. That means that if you want to expand your Xbox Series X or S storage to install more new-generation games (as well as upgraded Xbox One games) then your only option is the Seagate Storage Expansion card. With its own NVMe SSD and a proprietary connection technology, it offers performance that gets very close to that of the internal SSD found in both versions of the new-generation Xbox, guaranteeing very little difference in load time and zero effect on actual gameplay.

That said, there's nothing stopping you from installing non-upgraded Xbox One, Xbox 360 or original Xbox games on your Seagate Expansion card, and they may well load far faster because of it. The Seagate Storage Expansion card isn't cheap and it only comes in a 1TB capacity, so doubling the storage of the Xbox Series X (or quadruple that of the Series S) is the best you can do for now, though it's possible larger capacities will be available in the future. You can also swap between multiple drives if you need more space for your expansive Xbox Series X and S games library.

How to Use the Seagate Expansion Card on The Xbox Series X and S

The Seagate Expansion Card plugs into the Xbox Series X and S in a similar fashion to traditional memory cards. You'll find a proprietary connector called Storage Expansion next to the rear HDMI port. Plug the Storage Expansion card firmly into the slot.

The Storage Expansion Card plugs straight into its own dedicated slot on the Xbox Series X and S.

You don't even need to turn the console off to do this, which means you can hot swap different Storage Expansion Cards on the fly if you want to play something else. Once inserted, it should be immediately recognized by the console. Open up My games and apps and look at your overall storage size.

When you install games, you can now decide whether you want to install them to the internal SSD or to the expansion card. To see where your games are installed, go to My games and apps > See all > Games, then select Filter > All Storage, and choose the storage device to see what's installed on it.

For Older Xbox Games and Movies

Western Digital Black External Hard Drive

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WD Black 8TB D10 Game Drive

If you need additional space for Xbox One, Xbox 360, or original Xbox games, then an external hard drive can be a more affordable way to upgrade your Xbox Series X or S storage space. The WD Black 8TB D10 game drive gives you enough space for hundreds of older games and means that you'll always have your favorites close to hand. You can technically store Xbox Series X and S games on the drive too, but you'll still need to move them to the internal drive to play them. The advantage there is that you'll be able to install them more quickly in the future, so pre-downloading them can save you some time if you expect to play them later. This is a good way to expand your Xbox's storage without needing to invest in the Storage Expansion Card.

The downside with external hard drives like this one is that they are far slower than SSDs, especially the Xbox Series X’s internal NVMe drive and the Seagate Storage Expansion Card. This isn't necessarily a huge problem, as Xbox One and older games were designed with hard drive (or even physical disk) based play in mind, so you'll get a more authentic experience; likely one that's slightly better due to improvements in hard drive technology.

If you want to speed up your older games a little, you could opt for an external SSD instead. Those drives won't operate anywhere near as fast as the Storage Expansion Card or internal SSD, and therefore can't run Xbox Series X and S games, but they can help improve load times for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox games.

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SAMSUNG T7 Portable SSD 2TB - Up to 1050MB/s - USB 3.2 External Solid State Drive

The Samsung T7 is one of the fastest external SSDs you can buy and comes in capacities up to 2TB if you need a lot of external storage space. The last-generation Samsung T5 is a good alternative, as it's far cheaper, though it does run at about half the speed of the T7, which will reduce its impact on loading times, and game transfer times.

How to Use an External Hard Drive on The Xbox Series X and S

Most external hard drives and SSDs come with a USB-A cable attachment, so all you need to do is plug the drive in to your Xbox Series X or S USB port. The Xbox will immediately detect the external storage and will pop-up a prompt on screen to let you know so.

If you have previously used the drive with another Xbox console, such as the Xbox One, then you can bring your pre-installed games over without any other changes required. If the drive is new, or has been used on another platform, the Xbox Series X and S may wish to format the drive before use. Make sure to backup any important data on it before doing so, as you'll lose that during the format process.

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