News Xbox Series X/S SSD Cards Will Cost $220, Only External Way to Play Next-Gen Games

[Admin]

You can still use USB 3.1 HDDs with the Xbox Series X/S, but you’ll need a $220 SSD expansion card to play next-gen Xbox Series X/S SSD Cards Will Cost $220, Only External Way to Play Next-Gen Gamess without using internal storage.

Xbox Series X/S SSD Cards Will Cost $220, Only External Way to Play Next-Gen Games : Read more

 

[tummybunny]

Wow, this is going to be big. The main internal drive could well not last that long if it gets heavy use during games and people are also moving games off and on it a lot.

What's the warranty situation for the main ssd? How much will it cost to replace it? How long until a 2TB replacement version can be purchased?

 

[InvalidError]

Seems like every time standards are getting good, someone cannot resist the urge to slap a proprietary layer or two on top to prevent people from using commodity parts for repairs or upgrades.

 

[Shadowclash10]

Seems like every time standards are getting good, someone cannot resist the urge to slap a proprietary layer or two on top to prevent people from using commodity parts for repairs or upgrades.

Nailed it. Apparently, everything must be propietary.....

 

[deesider]

Wow, this is going to be big. The main internal drive could well not last that long if it gets heavy use during games and people are also moving games off and on it a lot.

What's the warranty situation for the main ssd? How much will it cost to replace it? How long until a 2TB replacement version can be purchased?

SSDs really don't wear out that fast. To exceed the typical endurance rating, someone would need to completely wipe and refill the drive every few days for several years. Storing games, even if regualrly swapped out, is one of the least demanding tasks an SSD can be used for.

 

[deesider]

Seems like every time standards are getting good, someone cannot resist the urge to slap a proprietary layer or two on top to prevent people from using commodity parts for repairs or upgrades.

True - but in this case it isn't really adding a proprietary layer to an existing product, since there is no equivalent to the SSD cards. The PS5 solution of using standard M2 drives is practical and achieves a similar result. But getting a screwdriver out and installing a piece of hardware isn't the same as just inserting a drive like you would a USB stick.

The closest available commercial product would be something like a Cfast memory card as used in proffessional cameras - but they are not as fast and are much more expensive. If these Xbox SSD cards became a new (and open) standard, videographers would be thrilled with such cheap access to fast media.

 

[nofanneeded]

$220 for 1TB ? half the price of the console ?!!??

 

[nofanneeded]

If these Xbox SSD cards became a new (and open) standard, videographers would be thrilled with such cheap access to fast media.

They wont , they consume alot of power and are not suitable for Cameras.

 

[nofanneeded]

What is the speed of Xbox series X USB ? 20Gb/s ?

If so , one can use NVME to usb 3.2 box with 2TB NVE SSD from intel (cheapest nvme in the market the 660p)

 

[timbozero]

The other issue which is perplexing is costs outside the US.
Take the Series X which is 499$ and is EU it’s £449 and 499€
Yet the 220$ Series XS SSDs are £220 and 270€ (all prices direct from MS Store)
Using the usual MS ‘exchange rates’ they should be £199 and 220€

 

[timbozero]

$220 for 1TB ? half the price of the console ?!!??

This to be honest isn’t too bad, compared to the Samsung 980 Pro of the same size they are in fact quite reasonable.
If anything it further highlights how good a deal we are getting with the Series X.

 

[nofanneeded]

This to be honest isn’t too bad, compared to the Samsung 980 Pro of the same size they are in fact quite reasonable.
If anything it further highlights how good a deal we are getting with the Series X.

and what makes you think that they are including the same 980 pro in it ? this is cheap entry level nvme SSD

 

[nofanneeded]

The other issue which is perplexing is costs outside the US.
Take the Series X which is 499$ and is EU it’s £449 and 499€
Yet the 220$ Series XS SSDs are £220 and 270€ (all prices direct from MS Store)
Using the usual MS ‘exchange rates’ they should be £199 and 220€

US prices online do not include VAT taxes ..

$499 is equal to 427 Euros without 20% tax , Add 20% tax that would be 512 euros.

there is no MS exchange rates here . Actually you are getting it 12 euros cheaper for 499 euros

 

[ThisIsMe]

and what makes you think that they are including the same 980 pro in it ? this is cheap entry level nvme SSD

This is probably very similar to the 1TB Seagate FireCuda 520 series PCIe gen 4 gaming SSD. It is not a cheap entry level SSD. It’s actually about the same price. Also, keep in mind the speeds Microsoft lists for the SSD’s specs are guaranteed sustained speeds. Peak or max speeds are of little use in to developers, so they don’t even bother mentioning them.

 

[deesider]

They wont , they consume alot of power and are not suitable for Cameras.

A lot of power? It's just a few Watts mate .

Even a compact cinema camera like the canon C300 runs at 30 Watts. Arri Alexa mini is 60 Watts!

There's enough to spare for an ssd. Not to mention the cameras that just plug in standard sata ssds.

 

[nofanneeded]

A lot of power? It's just a few Watts mate .

Even a compact cinema camera like the canon C300 runs at 30 Watts. Arri Alexa mini is 60 Watts!

There's enough to spare for an ssd. Not to mention the cameras that just plug in standard sata ssds.

Nvme SSD consumes alot of power . Xbox SSD is NVME. Nvme SSD needs between 4 to 6 watts. and thats alot compared to Cfast at 2 watts max.

 

[nofanneeded]

This is probably very similar to the 1TB Seagate FireCuda 520 series PCIe gen 4 gaming SSD. It is not a cheap entry level SSD. It’s actually about the same price. Also, keep in mind the speeds Microsoft lists for the SSD’s specs are guaranteed sustained speeds. Peak or max speeds are of little use in to developers, so they don’t even bother mentioning them.

not really ,it is Gen3 at 2.4GB/s Read speed.

 

[sizzling]

US prices online do not include VAT taxes ..

$499 is equal to 427 Euros without 20% tax , Add 20% tax that would be 512 euros.

there is no MS exchange rates here . Actually you are getting it 12 euros cheaper for 499 euros

You have missed the point. The ratio for the console pricing is different to these drives. At GBP 449 vs USD 499 the GBP figure is 90% of the USD figure. This includes VAT and no US taxes. Therefore a similar pricing model including the same tax logic the drive should be GBP 198-200 vs USD 220. The drives appear to follow a less favourable pricing model outside the US. Tax is not the issue here as the same tax ratios are applied in both scenarios.

 

[InvalidError]

The PS5 solution of using standard M2 drives is practical and achieves a similar result. But getting a screwdriver out and installing a piece of hardware isn't the same as just inserting a drive like you would a USB stick.

It can be practically the same, all you need is a hot-swap bay that connects to a hot-swap PCIe slot, which I suspect is fundamentally what those are. The only thing special I could find about the Xbox' Velocity storage is that the SSD is tuned for consistency instead of peak performance.

Unless there is a layer of proprietary cryptographic protection on the SSD to prevent people from using off-the-shelf SSDs, I wouldn't be surprised if the Xbox SS got hacked to use suitably fast generic drives... or it could be like the RED camera's Mini Mags and just be plug-and-play, 3D-print a housing if a bare SSD directly plugged in makes you nervous.

 

[deesider]

Nvme SSD consumes alot of power . Xbox SSD is NVME. Nvme SSD needs between 4 to 6 watts. and thats alot compared to Cfast at 2 watts max.

That 4-6 Watts is for maximum speed, which is close to 10 times that of Cfast... I bet the energy expended per bit copied is in favour of NVME ssd

 

[TerryLaze]

Wow, this is going to be big. The main internal drive could well not last that long if it gets heavy use during games and people are also moving games off and on it a lot.

What's the warranty situation for the main ssd? How much will it cost to replace it? How long until a 2TB replacement version can be purchased?

Depends on how many devs are going to shoot themselves into their foot by making an exclusively next-gen game losing all the business from ps4/xboxone/PC.
I can see it being only (some of) the sony exclusives that will really need this feature because everybody else will be trying to make money on all the platforms.

 

[InvalidError]

I can see it being only (some of) the sony exclusives that will really need this feature because everybody else will be trying to make money on all the platforms.

I can imagine some game devs engineering their asset-streaming games around 300-400MB/s storage so they can run off SATA6, USB3-gen1/2 and basic NVMe SSDs instead of requiring some of the fastest stuff currently available that almost nobody has. They aren't going to have much of a choice if they want to eventually port their games to PC until fast high capacity 4.0x4 NVMe SSDs become commonplace.

Also, if games are going to require GBs/s of asset streaming, one has to question how stupidly large they are going to be.

Since most of the asset streaming is likely going to be related to viewing distance, it shouldn't be too difficult to scale view distance and related details based on storage performance.

 

[ThisIsMe]

not really ,it is Gen3 at 2.4GB/s Read speed.

They’ve already stated it’s gen 4 when they mentioned iops and latency reduction. Again, those speeds are guaranteed sustained speeds, not peak speeds. This is for devs so they know they can always count on at least that speed, even after sustained load and increased temps. It will likely burst peak speeds at around twice that amount, which is usually the case with most SSD’s.

 

[nofanneeded]

They’ve already stated it’s gen 4 when they mentioned iops and latency reduction. Again, those speeds are guaranteed sustained speeds, not peak speeds. This is for devs so they know they can always count on at least that speed, even after sustained load and increased temps. It will likely burst peak speeds at around twice that amount, which is usually the case with most SSD’s.

iops does not even saturate GEN 3 .. can you please show me where they said it is Gen 4 PCIexpress?

 

[TerryLaze]

Also, if games are going to require GBs/s of asset streaming, one has to question how stupidly large they are going to be.

I don't think that it's about game size, I think it's more for fluid gameplay, games have to be divided into cells because the whole game can't fit into mem, and transitioning from one cell to the next takes a lot of coordination on a system with slow I/O to make it seamless, super fast I/O is going to make this much easier.
They released a video on how they made spider-man which is very informative.
Sure now they will be able to make everything even larger but that would mean that they would have to put this amount of effort into it, most devs will go the lazy route.

View: https://youtu.be/KDhKyIZd3O8?t=1119