With the amount of storage that games can now take, expandable storage cards are becoming more and more in demand. Although the price for one can get quite expensive, a cheaper one has been found on Best Buy.
Cheaper Storage Expansion
A new Western Digital 1TB expansion card for both the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles has been found on Best Buy. This might mean that Microsoft is partnering with other manufacturers to make expandable storage cards.
The one found on Best Buy is proceed at $179.99, which according to The Verge, is the first expandable storage card for Xbox that's not made by Seagate. Originally, the cards cost $219.99, which has not changed much since its release.
Seagate, which manufactured the expansion cards exclusively has had other options such as the 512 GB and the 2 TB. However, reports say that the prices are still high despite that, and the fact that storage expansion for PS5 consoles has lowered in price.
Xbox users might instead opt for cheaper versions, or get a PS5 instead wherein the 1 TB expansion would only cost around $79 like an internal Gen 4 SSD card. As of right now, it's still unclear when and if the Western Digital 1 TB expansion card will be available.
PS5 vs Xbox: Storage and Memory
With this kind of situation, debates between PS5 and Xbox users usually arise. While both are good consoles, they have ups and downs, and in some aspects, one console is better than the other with how fast it runs or how much storage it has.
For instance, the Xbox Series X has an internal SSD of 1 TB, and it has around 800GB of storage available and that's after the space the system software takes up. On the other hand, the PS5 only has about 700 GB left after the system software takes up storage,
Although, the Xbox Series X is only capable of reading speeds at 2.4GB per second, or 4.8 GB uncompressed, as mentioned in Pocket-Lint. With the PS5, it is capable of reading speeds at about 5.5 GB per second.
As for expandable storage, PlayStation supports third-party PCIe Gen4 SSD cards, which means that there are more options, and it can be cheaper to get expansion cards. Xbox exclusively uses the one that Seagate manufactures, which is why it can get pricey.
Read also: PS5 vs. Xbox Series X: Power and Hardware Differences, Specs and Which Console Should You Buy
Xbox Expansion Alternatives
There is an alternative created by a Chinese company in the form of a conversion adapter. It allows users to install certain M.2-2230 SSDs into the expansion slots of the console, which provides the option for cheaper expansions.
The device called DIY CFexpress Card PA-CFEM2-C only costs $29.99. But, it can be very limited since the console is only compatible with SSDs with a specific firmware and format, as mentioned in SirusGaming.
Ultimately, you might resort to deleting the games you've already finished to free up storage for more games. Just make sure you have your game progress saved on the cloud so you can revisit it if you wish to.
