Which is good news, since SATA SSDs are dirt-cheap now.
However, that’s not an issue specifically when using these drives as expanded storage for a console.
you could even dare to go cheaper, as long as the read speed performance is still good enough.
If the SSD fails, at most you’ve lost game data that can just be downloaded again.
Save games are either stored in the cloud or on the main console.
Which means there’s a definite and noticeable uplift in game loading performance using these drives.
Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek | Best Buy | Miguel Lagoa /Shutterstock
So a USB SATA drive is useful for playing musical chairs with your games.
Over on Xbox Series consoles, you could use multiple drives at the same time.
One last tip worth remembering is that you don’t need to buy a specialized external SATA drive.
Corbin Davenport / How-To Geek
you could take any 2.5-inch SATA SSD and convert it to a USB drive using a cheap external enclosure.
Just verify you’re using SATA III for both the drive and enclosure to get the best possible performance!
Tim Brookes / How-To Geek
