Got an external HDD... well....XBOne

[Speedster911]

Right, so I finally caved in and got meself a 2TB WD "My Passport"as was getting sick of having to delete games constantly.

I've heard so many people say it speeds up games, faster loading, etc. But I haven't noticed any performance gains after loading up FM7. I transferred it though from my internal to the new external which took about 25mins - given the 98gb game size, which I'm generally pleased with.

So what kind of performance gains can I expect with the external? It's fantastic tho.. very small and lightweight, purrs quietly.

Model: WDBS4B0020BBK-WESN.

Read mostly positive reviews on Amazon and Best Buy so far.

 

[wolfsburgraz]

I'm not sure you will see any performance gain over the internal drive to be honest. Most of the cheaper portable drives use 5400 RPM hard drives, you probably won't see faster loading times unless you buy a 7200 RPM or SSD which will cost a lot more for a lot less space.

I have had a 2TB, 4TB and 8TB attached to my Xbox One and Xbox One X and they all seem the same or slower than the internal. It could be because I've got a RIDICULOUS number of games installed though...

 

[Scaff]

Not sure why you would expect gains from an external drive?

Replacing internal drives (on the PS4) with SSD's can provide gains, but I've personally never heard the same claim for external ones (nor would the basic hardware network involved support such a claim).

 

[wolfsburgraz]

Not sure why you would expect gains from an external drive?

Anecdotal, but an SSD external absolutely helps with load times. A friend that has been using an SSD for two years now always loads into PUBG matches before most lobbies are populated, my game doesn't often load until the plane is already flying over the drop zone. Geometry and textures load in faster for him as well. Another example was Ghost Recon Wildlands, he would always load 5-8 seconds earlier than a friend and I whenever our group would fast travel somewhere.

[EDIT] - Here's an article with some benchmarks:

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3253-xbox-one-x-external-ssd-worth-it-game-load-times

 

[ImaRobot]

Not sure why you would expect gains from an external drive?

Replacing internal drives (on the PS4) with SSD's can provide gains, but I've personally never heard the same claim for external ones (nor would the basic hardware network involved support such a claim).

I've heard the claim all over the place for USB 3.0 external hard drives, to be honest. It's the most common thing that is brought up when people ask or when you search google as well.

 

[MrCrynox]

I've honestly heard the claim all over the place for USB 3.0 external hard drives, to be honest. It's the most common thing that is brought up when people ask or when you search google as well.

Games definately loaded quicker using a USB 3.0 ext hd for me when I had an XB1S, but the same cannot be said for the 1X, it's about the same, ie internal is just as quick as external.

 

[Speedster911]

Thanks a bunch for the FB folks - sorry for the late reply. Got caught up with work and naturally, lots of games!

On second thought, now that I've had time to test out the external - it does seem to load stuff within games faster, but not by a very noticeably wide margin. All in all, a great investment and highly recommended to anyone looking to break away from the meek 500gig internal.

 

[doblocruiser]

Thanks a bunch for the FB folks - sorry for the late reply. Got caught up with work and naturally, lots of games!

On second thought, now that I've had time to test out the external - it does seem to load stuff within games faster, but not by a very noticeably wide margin. All in all, a great investment and highly recommended to anyone looking to break away from the meek 500gig internal.

2 years back I changed my internal drive for a 1 TB one, bought an external housing €8 for that 500GB HDD. I move games towards this disc. However I am starting to run out. I'll wait a bit with a new hdd but I'll keep the WD in mind