Review: Seagate Game Drive for Xbox SSD cuts loading times in half

Gamers — no matter whether they play on PC or consoles — want the best performance. One issue that hinders both experiences is loading times. Have you ever wished for Destiny 2 or Monster Hunter: World to start faster? While the easiest solution to fix this is to purchase a solid state drive, they are quite expensive. Even if you were to invest in one, certain consoles present limitations. For example, on Xbox One X, you can’t just open the case and replace it without potentially voiding your console’s warranty because you’re adding third-party parts. Apart from that, you risk damaging the internal components during the process. We’ve never had to argue with Microsoft about console repairs when it comes to such modified devices, but we do know of a few gamers who ended up with unusable machines.

The solution to this is to use the Xbox One X’s support for external hard drives. However, instead of buying a traditional rotating hard drive, you can choose to get an external solid state drive. Unlike mechanical drives, solid state drives have no moving parts. They’re completely silent, more durable, don’t generate as much heat, and consume less power.

Many companies offer these devices, but they come with less storage when compared to the price of a mechanical hard drive. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the Seagate Game Drive for Xbox SSD and how it handles games on Xbox One X. Are the improvements worth it? Let’s take a look.

The Seagate Game Drive is currently priced at $129.99 for the 500 GB model. You can also get the 1 TB version for $239.99, but we tested the 2 TB model over the past two months. The design is very compact and rather stylish. The whole body is black, with a smooth metallic pattern on the front. While it’s unlikely you’ll subject the device to multiple drops and other abuse, it’s still reassuring to know it’s rugged. The durable body seems to protect it from drops.

The Seagate Game Drive features an array of innovative features and technologies which give it up to 540 MB/s read and write speeds. The Xbox One X supports USB 3.0 and this drive is fully compatible. A regular hard drive can only do around 100 MB/s. This means that games load much faster.

This also means that the drive is incredibly light. Let’s say you want to take a few games over to your friend’s house. You can just save them on the drive and slip it into your pocket. You won’t believe just how portable it is.

Just how much faster is the Seagate Game Drive? We tested it out with an Xbox One X and on average games loaded in half the time. Massive titles with known loading issues knocked off a good minute. We’ve probably tested this drive with over a hundred games at this point and the performance is stupendous to say the least. It also beats other cheap SSDs available on the market because they offer roughly 440 MB/s read and write speeds like offering from ADATA. The above table reveals the different loading times in minutes.

Overall, it’s up to you if you consider the speed improvements worth spending $129.99 or more depending on the model. We believe that the decrease in loading times is that significant. You can purchase one with less capacity if you only use it to store games you’re currently playing. For example, we installed Destiny 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Overwatch on it. Those are the games we’re currently playing and want them to load faster. Other titles are on the internal hard drive. It’s up to you to decide how you want to use it. However, if you wanted to know if the speed improvements are that noticeable, the answer is that they are. We just wish it wasn’t so expensive.

9/10

Seagate Game Drive for Xbox SSD

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