When Microsoft In December 2019, it partially and then in March 2020, it completely introduced its most powerful game console in history to the world in the form of the Xbox Series X. In addition to its performance, it also impressed gaming enthusiasts with a new type of storage expansion. Instead of the classic external SSD/HDD drives that previous generations of Xbox consoles relied on, it opted for a novel solution in the form of storage expansion cards that can be easily inserted into the back of the console and thus expand its storage. There would probably be nothing so unique about this if this expansion were not literally full-fledged and the expansion card did not offer the same speeds as the console's internal storage. The catch was that the price of expansion cards was relatively high from the beginning, but now the situation is different. Expansion cards from new manufacturers are slowly flowing onto the market, which help to correct the initial high prices. Western Digital recently introduced one such solution under its gaming brand WD_Black. And since I am an Xbox lover, I could not help but test this new productchat to miss.
You could be interested in
Technical specifications and design
The WD_Black C50 for Xbox is available specifically in 512GB and 1TB versions, with the fact that in both cases the expansion card uses the Xbox Velocity Architecture platform, thanks to which it provides more or less the same performance or, if you prefer, speed, as the internal storage of the Xbox Series X or S. If you're wondering why the same storage speed is important, it's simply because only these storages can store games optimized for next-gen Xboxes. They cannot be stored on any other SSD or HDD, and you cannot play them other than from the console's internal storage, i.e. from an expansion storage card.
This is honestly what I was looking for after switching from Xbox One The S on the Series X was quite annoying because I was used to using classic SSD/HDD drives for expansion, which had been sufficient for storing games without any problems until then. But here, you had to radically rethink your game storage style, and even that was sometimes not completely possible. nestačilo. Xbox games One or 360 without optimization for Series X, I logically kept them stored on external SSD/HDD, but given that the 1TB of internal storage in the Xbox Series X is definitely not inexhaustible, instead of a wide game library, I became an "uninstaller", because Halo Infinite alone, together with the latest Forza, took up a third of the disk capacity. It is therefore great that Microsoft It allows manufacturers to come up with extensions through a licensing program that will fix the console's problems.
As for the appearance of the expansion card, it is based on the design language of the entire WD_Black brand. So you can look forward to a disk with a black body slightly resembling, for example, the surface of shipping containers, on which the inscription WD_Black is printed in bright white. However, the black body is largely just a card cover that slides into the console body from behind. After inserting it, you can see roughly a quarter of the product as a result, so you won't really have to deal with or perceive the design here. But it is perhaps a bit of a shame - the product itself is really beautiful!
Gallery
Installation and testing
As I wrote above, the principle of using an expansion card is essentially very simple. You just need to insert it into the rear slot of the Xbox Series X or S, and once you do so, the console will just ask you whether you will use the card only with this console or whether you want to use it on multiple devices (yes, it is possible, but more on that later). It will be configured according to your choice and you can then start using its storage to its full potential. Well, almost to its full potential. The 1TB expansion card I tested has “only” 920GB of space available, at least according to the system data offered by the Xbox Series X settings. On the other hand, when you buy an Xbox Series X, after turning it on, you will find that although it is listed as having 1TB of storage, it hasonec is only 802GB, so the absence of some 80GB on the card is something I'm happy to forgive Western Digital for. 198GB would really hurt a lot more.
To write that the card actually enables what the manufacturer promises – i.e. to save games optimized for Xbox Series X and S – would be quite nonsense in my opinion, because that is certainly clear to everyone. So I will at least confirm on that front that games stored on the card do indeed launch and run just as fast overall as when you launch them from the Xbox's internal storage. I tried to "boot" this way and play a whole range of titles, starting with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, continuing through Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and ending with Forza or The Witcher 3, and in all cases the gameplay was exactly what I'm used to from the internal storage. And that includes the Quick Resume feature, which is only supported by Xbox internal storage and expansion cards. So if you have games that you like to "jump" between and that it's nice to always have ready to launch quickly, this storage expansion is just the thing for you. So I immediately set the card as the default storage for installing Xbox Series X/S games.
As I already wrote above, the limitation of saving games optimized for Xbox Series X and S only to internal storage and expansion cards can sometimes seriously annoy, for example, due to the need to uninstall titles due to lack of space and the like. Personally, however, this limitation also annoyed me because I could not easily transfer games for the new generation of consoles from console to console, which was previously possible with external drives. You simply disconnected them from your console, then connected them to another console, and after logging in or inserting a disc, you could play. And that is now fortunately possible again, even in exactly the same format. What does that mean for you? For me personally, being able to pull the card out of my Xbox Series X, then plug it into my brother's Xbox Series S and continue playing the title I was playing on my home console. It is necessary to take into account the necessity of authentication, either by logging into your account in the case of the digital version of the game, or by inserting a disc in the case of the physical version of the game (which, of course, cannot be done with Series S consoles due to the absence of a drive), but we are still talking about extremely easy transfer of modern games across consoles.
Summary
So how do you finally evaluate the WD_Black C50 for Xbox? Actually, it's quite simple. There simply isn't a better storage expansion for the Xbox Series X or S at the moment. So if you want to enjoy playing on the next-generation consoles as much as possible and your Xbox's internal storage is no longer enough for you, nestIf so, this expansion is exactly the product you need. The price of 2799 CZK for the 512GB version and 3999 CZK for the 1TB version is not cheap, but I must honestly say that in my opinion it is really worth a try. This card simply cannot be compared to classic SSD/HDD disks connected to the console via USB ports.
