Storage Expansion Card: More memory cards for Xbox Series X | S are on the way

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Seagate has exclusive rights to the storage expansion card for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Initially only available with 1 TB, versions with 512 GB and 2 TB storage space now follow. The prices are high compared to comparable SSDs. The memory card can be emulated with an adapter.

The two new models of the “Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X | S” are said to cost $ 140 (512 GB) and $ 400 (2 TB), while the 1 TB model ($ 220) is in the local trade is to have from 210 euros. The 512 GB model can already be pre-ordered at least from dealers in the USA; pre-orders for the 2 TB version will not follow until November. Since Seagate is targeting the Christmas business, the delivery should take place this year.

Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X | S (picture: Seagate)

When it comes to expanding the internal SSD storage of current game consoles, Microsoft and Sony are going completely different ways. While Microsoft is relying on a cooperation with Seagate, which provides proprietary SSD plug-in cards for expansion, Sony recently released the internal M.2 slot, allowing users to choose a compatible PCIe 4.0 SSD themselves.

< p class = "p text-width"> Seagate does not provide any information about the transfer rates of the memory expansion cards. But since these work with PCIe 4.0 x2, the maximum performance can be on the level of SSDs with PCIe 3.0 x4, which are much cheaper.

The connection turned out to be CFexpress

It quickly became apparent that the connection is expansion Card is not as proprietary as it was initially thought: It is basically the new CFexpress memory card standard, but in an adapted version with PCIe 4.0.

With this knowledge, a hobbyist from Asia has already set about building his own expansion card for the Xbox Series X | S. For this he has equipped a CFexpress-to-NVMe adapter with a small M.2 SSD with PCIe 4.0 x2, and the SSD was actually recognized by the Xbox Series S as a “Storage Expansion Card”. A commercially available CFexpress card for digital cameras that uses PCIe 3.0 again refused to work.

Emulated expansion card for the Xbox Series S (picture: Bilibili)

The attempt only worked with the WD removed from an Xbox Series X, however CH SN530, another version of the WD PC SN530 that uses PCIe 4.0 x2 instead of PCIe 3.0 x4. It remains to be seen whether other PCIe 4.0 SSDs can also be used in this way. So far, this method is only a feasibility study, especially since the adapter alone costs around 50 euros and a special formatting for the Xbox is probably necessary.