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dallow_bg

Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,628
texas
Is there a reason we're focusing on buying adapters for internal SATA SSDs? I would have just bought a USB SSD like this one to avoid messing with an adapter and having an "exposed" drive sitting in my shelf looking ugly. Is there a reason not to?

Link to SSD on Amazon

You can buy an enclosure for the bare drives too.
It just gives you some flexibility.

The "exposed" drives are sleek looking metal drives already anyway.
 

VanWinkle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,092
This is wonderful. Exactly what I was hoping. You can just plug in a USB 3.1 SATA SSD (or a regular SATA SSD with a 3.1 enclosure) and get comparable load times to the internal drive with back-compat titles. So awesome.
 

JediTimeBoy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,810
If I understand your question correctly, then yes. Xbox One X enhancements were mostly just resolution bumps, so nothing that would require extra speedy load times. It's only when we start seeing "serious" enhancements/patches/ports for the Series S and X, as well as games written from the ground up for those consoles, that the games will be required to be installed on a fast (non-USB) drive.

Thank you.
 

Icky Thump

Member
Oct 30, 2017
637
Considering Rich worked about a week on this video and Sony just dropped a (rather uninteresting) video out of the blue the other day. I think it makes more sense for Rich to prioritise his work, finish his original video, and then move on to something else. A tear down of the physical console that he does not have his hands on is less interesting then working with a console which no one else has and answering key questions people actually care about. IMO - the tear down video is a lot of self explanatory imagery and does not have a lot of information. But I am also not one to cover such a video anyway.
This video is fascinating, and was literally the FIRST THING I wanted to see after the last Series X video you guys put out. Also your raytracing video was awesome. DF makes my favorite content in the industry, full stop. I can't I can't imagine how anyone who posts here could actually think you guys are biased towards a company or on someone's payroll. How utterly absurd.

That said, I also can't wait to hear what he has to say about the PS4 teardown since it is like the second or third time we have seen someone touching it, let alone the actual PCB.
 

4KLobster

Member
Dec 17, 2017
283
Japan
Thanks to DF for another high-quality and informative video (it actually supplements nicely the loading time tests that Sam did for Ars).
Looks like the small external SSD I had purchased for my OneX to shave a few seconds from those looomg Witcher 3 loads will be able to contribute much more fully thanks to the faster CPUs.

Can't wait for DF to get their hands on a PS5 and on a Series S!
 

Chettlar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,604
Is Digital Foundry going to cover anything PS5?

Sony just did a PS5 tear down and DF puts up an Xbox video instead. Are these paid videos by Microsoft?

In their 1 million livestream (there's a youtube vod) Richard expressed his stress that he couldn't cover that immediately because he was deep in another video, and wasn't sure whether he should stop doing that video and do the teardown right away, but they were talking about how they were a bit drowned in content to do. It's a lot of work given how they do their videos.

EDIT: seems this was why the decision was made. Seems like the best decision.

Considering Rich worked about a week on this video and Sony just dropped a (rather uninteresting) video out of the blue the other day. I think it makes more sense for Rich to prioritise his work, finish his original video, and then move on to something else. A tear down of the physical console that he does not have his hands on is less interesting then working with a console which no one else has and answering key questions people actually care about. IMO - the tear down video is a lot of self explanatory imagery and does not have a lot of information. But I am also not one to cover such a video anyway.
 

snipe_25

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,167
I started looking at SATA drives after watching this video, but after reading this thread I have no idea what to get.
 

neoak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,260
I started looking at SATA drives after watching this video, but after reading this thread I have no idea what to get.
If you want to go the easiest route, get whatever is cheapest to you between

Samsung T5
Samsung T7
SanDisk Extreme Go
SanDisk Extreme Pro
Western Digital P50
Seagate Barracuda Fast SSD
Crucial X8

Any of those external will work just fine
 

disco_potato

Member
Nov 16, 2017
3,145
Is there a reason we're focusing on buying adapters for internal SATA SSDs? I would have just bought a USB SSD like this one to avoid messing with an adapter and having an "exposed" drive sitting in my shelf looking ugly. Is there a reason not to?

Link to SSD on Amazon
Price.
For the same money, usually less, you can get an nvme with much higher speeds that you can later use in your pc/laptop/whatever.
 

neoak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,260
Price.


For the same money, usually less, you can get an nvme with much higher speeds that you can later use in your pc/laptop/whatever.


Only if you're talking 1-2TB drives.

Larger sizes are definitely more expensive in the m.2 format.


Pretty much


Got a SanDisk Ultra 3D 4TB off Amazon for 350+tax last time it was DOTD. Immediately went into a Satechi with the VIA controller. Try to get that capacity for a NVMe drive at that price lol
 

Fawz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,657
Montreal
I'm surprised the NVMe drive didn't perform better than it did compared to a standard SSD. I was going to get rid of my Samsung 550 but I might use it as an external drive for backcompat games instead
 

Kenzodielocke

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,840
I just got the expansion card. I'm not sure why I would need a USB drive too?
Because the expansion card will work on native XS/X/S games and should just be reserved for those, while an external sata ssd should be used for BC. You are not getting full speed of BC games from the expansion card, so the cheaper option is better. It's in the video.
 

RPGam3r

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,466
Because the expansion card will work on native XS/X/S games and should just be reserved for those, while an external sata ssd should be used for BC. You are not getting full speed of BC games from the expansion card, so the cheaper option is better. It's in the video.

I mean I guess I'm not worried about filling up that much space in such a short period of time (I also have not data caps with a gigabit so the expansion card was just me already over killing it).
 

Chettlar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,604
I mean I guess I'm not worried about filling up that much space in such a short period of time (I also have not data caps with a gigabit so the expansion card was just me already over killing it).

I guess in terms of wear and tear, I'd prefer to put more strain on the external. But I usually do my best to help my consoles last a long time.
 

RPGam3r

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,466
I guess in terms of wear and tear, I'd prefer to put more strain on the external. But I usually do my best to help my consoles last a long time.

I also keep my systems in great condition (when selling them back I usually get a "did you use this?"). With that said these drives are going to get used excessively regardless of me putting BC titles on them.
 

Chettlar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,604
I also keep my systems in great condition (when selling them back I usually get a "did you use this?"). With that said these drives are going to get used excessively regardless of me putting BC titles on them.

Right I just mean like, hey if you have the option, might as well throw shit on the external if you can. Not a huge deal but technically extending the life of the internal drive.
 

brain_stew

Member
Oct 30, 2017
4,727
Except Sata SSD is still not very cheap unfortunately.

As only read speeds are relevant you can buy pretty much any 1 or 2 TB SATA drive and you'll max out the USB interface.

2TB SATA drives can be had from Amazon for £130, if you insist on a mainstream brand name then more like £170 (although for this use case there'll be no difference in performance). You're looking at just over half of that for a 1TB drive and the Sabrent adapter recommended is only £8.

~£75 all in is far more reasonable than the £220 for the official expansion.

Worth bearing in mind though that even a mechanical drive is seeing much better results compared to the One X. The Jaguar cores were just so incredibly slow they were the biggest bottleneck to loading times.
 

brain_stew

Member
Oct 30, 2017
4,727
So an external mechanical drive on Series X loaded a save faster than an external SSD on Xbox One X in FFXV.

And not by a small margin either. This result was the most startling to me. This entire generation had been held back by those awful netbook CPUs. They're complete and utter trash.

Its why I've got few concerns about the Series S, the CPU is the big upgrade this generation and it's long overdue. The SSD is the 2nd major upgrade but these tests go to show that there would have been little benefit of going with an SSD last generation because the Jaguar cores wouldn't have been able to keep up. The slower GPU can easily be worked around by lowering (rendering/effects/texture) resolution. The core gameplay experience will remain the same and the CPU is the driving factor behind that.
 

eso76

Prophet of Truth
Member
Dec 8, 2017
8,107
If this is in regards to Auto-HDR, it is confirmed that this will not be available for every title. e.g. Fallout: New Vegas. It is on a game-by-game basis.

yes, they said auto-hdr would be disabled in those cases where it didn't look good, but it should be a 'all games, with exceptions' situation
 

Deleted member 20297

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,943
And not by a small margin either. This result was the most startling to me. This entire generation had been held back by those awful netbook CPUs. They're complete and utter trash.

Its why I've got few concerns about the Series S, the CPU is the big upgrade this generation and it's long overdue. The SSD is the 2nd major upgrade but these tests go to show that there would have been little benefit of going with an SSD last generation because the Jaguar cores wouldn't have been able to keep up. The slower GPU can easily be worked around by lowering (rendering/effects/texture) resolution. The core gameplay experience will remain the same and the CPU is the driving factor behind that.
This is what many people said right from the beginning when we heard about the Series S: the biggest benefits next gen are CPU and SSD. All the fud and concern around the S will most likely turn out to be nothing.
 

storaføtter

Member
Oct 26, 2017
952
I have been looking at Sata prices and to me it seems the one that gives the best value is
Seagate Barracuda ST4000DM004 4TB one. The Samsung and Crucial one are sleeker but way too expensive.

This one should still give a big performance boost compared to external ones? It cost 90 euros versus the others that are 120 for only 1 TB. I only care about BC use. I assume the others perform faster but as Rich said it is more about reading speed with these devices with the xbox.
 

MrKlaw

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,038
The pricing of SSDs makes this a tricky decision for me. They're pretty much $£100 per TB - often getting more expensive as capacity increases, rather than more cost effective. Currently going over 2TB just seems not an option.

SATA is oddly expensive and slow, so Nvme + enclosure seems the way to go. You don't need 'fast' SSD because even on Gen2 you'll be limited to 1GB/s. But that doesn't matter as the cheaper SSDs are still sticking to a similar price point as most of the others.

So - 1TB nvme for $100 + $25 for an enclosure. Hmm, bit small for cold storage, but price is attractive. Go up to 2TB and you're at the same price as an internal XSX card but you're getting twice the storage. Thats good, right? But you can play XSX games off it so its really for BC or fridge management.

Finding it hard to decide the best way forward. 2TB SSD for BC and fridge, just suck it up and get the 1TB internal for more options but less space, or a 4+TB HDD purely for fridge. I don't think I'll do HDD as my broadband is fast enough that I can redownload really old stuff, so will try and stick with SSD.
 

Fabtacular

Member
Jul 11, 2019
4,244
This video really makes me want to see the data management options on the series X. I hope I can just set all backwards compatible games to the external without having to manage them individually.
Yup. If there's not automated tools for managing storage/downloads/migration between drives then I feel like it's better to bite the bullet and just pay the $80 extra and get the adapter card.

Like, on the most basic level, if I'm downloading a game that's XSX optimized, and I don't have room on my SSD, it should allow me to designate which games currently on the internal SSD drive I want to move to cold storage on the external drive, and do the transfer/download in one step. (I.e.,I should be able to set it up and walk away while everything happens rather than first move the game and then have to come back once that's completed and start the installation.)
 

EvilBoris

Prophet of Truth - HDTVtest
Verified
Oct 29, 2017
16,680
Yup. If there's not automated tools for managing storage/downloads/migration between drives then I feel like it's better to bite the bullet and just pay the $80 extra and get the adapter card.

Like, on the most basic level, if I'm downloading a game that's XSX optimized, and I don't have room on my SSD, it should allow me to designate which games currently on the internal SSD drive I want to move to cold storage on the external drive, and do the transfer/download in one step. (I.e.,I should be able to set it up and walk away while everything happens rather than first move the game and then have to come back once that's completed and start the installation.)

Let's hope so.
There is a data field on the store API that designates where that game needs to be in order to function. An option to prioritise a specific drive for specific content would be useful
 

Fabtacular

Member
Jul 11, 2019
4,244
So - 1TB nvme for $100 + $25 for an enclosure. Hmm, bit small for cold storage, but price is attractive. Go up to 2TB and you're at the same price as an internal XSX card but you're getting twice the storage. Thats good, right? But you can play XSX games off it so its really for BC or fridge management.
And when you add $15 for the connector you're at $140 versus $220 for the internal XSX card. That's an $80 premium, but then you don't have to worry about managing what games go where.

Furthermore, I suspect that a lot of the games we're assuming will be BC games that clan be played from external will ultimately be XSX enhanced that we'll want to play from the internal.

Note that none of the BC games that have been tested by DF + others are first-party MS titles. I expect that's because those will take adavantage of the Velocity architecture and will be un-embargoed at a later date. So if you want to put Halo MCC / Gears 5 / Forza Horizon 4 on your internal drive things are going to get crowded pretty quickly.

So I'm thinking to just bite the bullet and get the internal.
 

JediTimeBoy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,810
Sorry if this sounds silly, but should an sshd's performance then, fall somewhere between that of an hdd and ssd in this case? Are they even still a thing...?
 

Fizie

Member
Jan 21, 2018
2,850
Considering Rich worked about a week on this video and Sony just dropped a (rather uninteresting) video out of the blue the other day. I think it makes more sense for Rich to prioritise his work, finish his original video, and then move on to something else. A tear down of the physical console that he does not have his hands on is less interesting then working with a console which no one else has and answering key questions people actually care about. IMO - the tear down video is a lot of self explanatory imagery and does not have a lot of information. But I am also not one to cover such a video anyway.
Ooof took the words right out of my mouth
 

neoak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,260
I have been looking at Sata prices and to me it seems the one that gives the best value is
Seagate Barracuda ST4000DM004 4TB one. The Samsung and Crucial one are sleeker but way too expensive.

This one should still give a big performance boost compared to external ones? It cost 90 euros versus the others that are 120 for only 1 TB. I only care about BC use. I assume the others perform faster but as Rich said it is more about reading speed with these devices with the xbox.
That's a Hard Drive, not an SSD.

A 4TB SSD would be around 450+ Euros
 

Miles Iz Ded

Member
Oct 28, 2017
320
So I have a uGreen USB 3.0 NVME enclosure, rated at 5 Gbps . They also do 3.1 version rated at 10 Gbps. Am I good to go if the SX ports max out at 5Gbps? The enclosure also supports UASP for boosted speeds, is this supported on SX does anyone know?
 

neoak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,260
So I have a uGreen USB 3.0 NVME enclosure, rated at 5 Gbps . They also do 3.1 version rated at 10 Gbps. Am I good to go if the SX ports max out at 5Gbps? The enclosure also supports UASP for boosted speeds, is this supported on SX does anyone know?
Nothing has been said about UASP yet. Yes, it should work.
 

PaulLFC

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,161
My thoughts when watching this were that since I don't already own an external SSD, unless I can find an excellent deal on one, I'd be best putting that money towards a storage expansion card when it goes down in price a bit, instead of an SSD. That way I can play both BC and current gen games from it. I can't justify one at the current price, though.
 

neoak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,260
My thoughts when watching this were that since I don't already own an external SSD, unless I can find an excellent deal on one, I'd be best putting that money towards a storage expansion card when it goes down in price a bit, instead of an SSD. That way I can play both BC and current gen games from it. I can't justify one at the current price, though.
1TB SSDs can be had for ~half the Expansion card cost right now
 

plagiarize

Eating crackers
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
27,511
Cape Cod, MA
I've got a large mechanical drive, and getting an SSD of the same size would be crazy expensive, so I'm sticking with that. I'll be happy enough with the moderate improvement in load times from the better CPU, at least for now.
 

MrKlaw

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,038
1TB SSDs can be had for ~half the Expansion card cost right now

right but then you can't play xsx games only move them back and forth or play BC games. that flexibility of the internal expansion could easily be worth the extra $100 to many people.

im on the edge. Will I have that many BC games to play? I might just keep my HDD for fridge and save up for the internal expansion too
 

andshrew

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,904
So I have a uGreen USB 3.0 NVME enclosure, rated at 5 Gbps . They also do 3.1 version rated at 10 Gbps. Am I good to go if the SX ports max out at 5Gbps? The enclosure also supports UASP for boosted speeds, is this supported on SX does anyone know?

You might benefit from a better controller on the newer 10Gbit model, on the basis that it has to be designed to be able to cope with double the throughput of the 5Gbit model. So the newer model may get closer to consistently reaching the 5Gbit limit.

But it needs extensive testing of different controllers and NVME drives before we'll know for certain, so I would just stick with what you have for now.
 

Prine

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,724
Can't help but think there's going to be small spike of purchases on a number of items mentioned in this video, would like DF to get some comission if possible, that Sabrent bridge is already sold out on Amazon UK. (I'm going with Samsung + Sabrent combo Rich used).