Every Xbox One owner will eventually find the need to purchase an external hard drive. With all the latest games taking up as much as 60GB, the 500GB of internal storage Microsoft included will not be around for long, unless you feel okay deleting older games to make room for new ones.
If that's not the case, you'll need to get yourself an external hard drive. Not only will this add to your storage space, but you'll also be able to install and load games a little bit quicker. But which external hard drive to choose?
The Xbox One has two USB 3.0 ports that allow you to use up to two external drives at a time. You'll need to get those with at least 256GB in size, which means some of the bigger flash drives will suffice. Also, make sure you buy a hard drive that has support for USB 3.0. The Xbox One won't work with anything lower because Microsoft says having only the latest USB standard ensures data transfer will be up to speed.
When buying an external hard drive for your Xbox One, there are basically three important things to consider: storage capacity, power source, and speed. Some of the lower-end models will give you 500GB of extra space, but the more expensive ones can offer up to 6TB, which not a lot of people will probably need. The middle ground is somewhere in the 1TB to 2TB range, or two to four times as large as your own Xbox One can give you.
Power source is also important since an external drive that has its own AC adapter runs faster than one that solely draws its power via USB from the console it is connected to. The hard drive's speed, obviously, is just as important. Speed is roughly measured by the drive's rotations per minute (RPM). The Xbox One has a 5,400 RPM drive, but if you want to go faster than that, there are also 7,200 RPM and 10,000 RPM drives.
However, keep in mind that, while higher RPMs demonstrate significant differences in speeds of desktop external drives, RPM does not have as much of an impact for the Xbox One, says Digital Foundry. That said, take a look at the following external hard drives for your Xbox One.
For $70, you get an external hard drive that delivers 7,200 RPMs and provides support for USB 3.0. This makes a great drive for someone looking to buy one for the first time.
If you feel like buying a drive from a brand you know, then you can opt for Toshiba, a household name, whose line of Canvio Basics external drives with USB 3.0 won't do you wrong. The drives come in 500GB ($47), 1TB ($55), and 2TB ($90).
Western Digital's (WD) My Passport USB 3.0 external drives are compact and portable, and come in a variety of colors. WD offers 1TB and 2TB variations for $80 and $92 respectively.
Not happy with a 1TB drive? Get the My Book USB 3.0 hard drive, also by Western Digital. Prices start at $96 for the 2TB version and go all the way up to $250 for the 6TB drive.
One study has shown Seagate to have a higher failure rate than the brands we discussed above, but if you're not happy with any of the above hard drives, then the Seagate Expansion still offers a pretty reliable storage solution starting at $92 for 1TB. Seagate also offers versions in 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, and 5TB.
Photo: Marco Verch | Flickr
