SSD Inside Xbox Series X Is an M2 Drive By Western Digital, can be replaced by the user

Xbox fans all over the world are already receiving their Xbox Series S / X. So it's no surprise that teardown are starting to show up on the internet. One of these teardown has appeared on Twitter revealing that the internal SSD drive on the Xbox Series X is a standard M2 NVME drive by Western Digital.

[Kados]

This might be why MS went with PCIe 4.0 instead of 3.0. It should allow users to upgrade to a full speed PCIe 4.0 NVME.

[phoenixwing]

that's not how it works i think. if it's a 4x1 slot it only goes at a set top speed of bandwidth you can't just upgrade it to higher speeds. sure you can put a faster m.2 in but it won't reach higher than the bandwidth of 4x1

what can happen though is you can buy a bigger size to put in it like a 2tb

[Kados]

It is a 4.0 x4 slot afaik. The current M.2 drive that it ships with is only a PCIe 3.0 drive. Both the internal m.2 slot and the external expansion slot should support up to 7GB/s.

[darthv72]

2tb series S/X is all but certain in the coming months/years.

[RaidenBlack]

So ... since MS has said, they'll eventually let other 3rd party to create external drives, in time, some 3rd party company is bound to release a memory expansion adaptor. Where it plugs into XSX's external expansion slot and lets you mount a compatible PCIe 4.0 module on the adaptor. DIY Plug'nUse SSD expansion.
So ... users can replace the current SSD the XSX ships with a compatible higher capacity one like 2TB or even 4TB. And use the SSD that shipped with XSX on the Expansion Adaptor and use it as an 1TB expansion module.
For PS5, its even simpler, just wait for Sony to green flag certain PCIe SSD card and plug it directly to the slot. No adaptors required. But the 5.5GB/s 825GB SSD stays as is.

[Rhythmattic]

Just the facts

There is a teardown of the SX seagate expansion drive I saw on YT.... can't remember who, but shouldn't be hard to find.

[phoenixwing]

I'm surprised to hear it's a 4x2 I heard it was 4x1

[Kados]

If it was x1 it would be limited to around 1.9GB/s. It has to be atleast x2 for the included drive to work at full speed.

[Ju]

There only 2 possibilities this is: Gen 3 x4 or Gen 4 x4. It could be a Gen 4 slot with a Gen 3 drive (hence the "lower" 2.5GB/sec specs but can be upgrade to a Gen 4 drive. There is no such thing as a nvme x2 slot. It's either x1 or x4. x1 is not speced for drives (mostly for things like Wifi only). I would be surprised if this isn't a Gen4 slot, Ryzen has enough PCI lanes (especially in an APU without x16 slot) to connect a gen 4 drive, in fact the it has 24PCIe lanes by default. But of course this is a customized silicon; but that 4.0 controller is part of the CPU.

[Weapon_of_choice]

It's maximum bandwidth is 4.2GB to be precise. Pretty good but not possible to go higher.

[phoenixwing]

Okay but 4x2 is still limited to it's bandwidth. It doesn't magically mean you can put a faster pcie4 than x2

[Kados]

Assuming it is limited to x2, then it would cap at just under 4GB/s. It may be an x4 for all we know though. I cannot find any information on it currently.

[gravedigger]

That M.2 drive in XSX according to specs is PCIe Gen3 drive

https://www.westerndigital....

Go to specs section

[Kados]

Yes, the drive is 3.0, as i already mentioned above. The socket on the board is 4.0 though, which means it will be possible to upgrade to a faster M.2 drive. Either 4GB/s if it is an x2, or 7GB/s if it is an x4.

[Ju]

I though it would be.

[aragon]

Good luck to the average person with swapping that out. That’s a lot of taking apart. I’m sure it’s not meant to be taken apart other than by Xbox repair people.

[Weapon_of_choice]

Leave it to the pros, for a small contribution of course 😎

[KingofBandits]

Thats not how this would work. There is no guarantee that the controller on the board could handle the 4.0 if it was only a 3.0 thats why intel has a whole new board gen coming out with 4.0 (AMD has been supporting that) you would have to verify that it is indeed 4.0 capable. I'm just saying this because I would hate to have someone drop money on a 4.0 and then find it doesn't work.

[sinspirit]

But, will it allow you to replace it with a different SKU drive? Hopefully no software lock on any replacement other than the officially included SKU.

[Knightofelemia]

The disc drive is usually the one that has issues when you swap it out because on the 360 and after Microsoft made the disc drive married to the board for security. I doubt the SSD will be married to the board you'll run into issues if you buy the wrong SSD for the Series S or X .

[Phoenix76]

Just looked up a 1tb drive M2 2230 and found it going for £235. Still slightly cheaper and much more easier to install if you just buy MS add on

[ExBee]

I do like the fact that MS make it customisable but it still is easier if you just buy the extension they offer, and with time hopefully they become cheaper

[Tsar4ever01]

If it works then good. Lets just hope it doesn't "Kill Your Warranty" if something goes AFOUL!! Cuz it's not being worked as how it was designed to work.

[Bender6502]

Here's my take, for what it's worth. I have commented on this before, and do have some knowledge in this area, but feel free to correct me as I'm no expert. I'm not going to explain the speeds and bus operation - you can research that yourself if you really want to know that level of detail.

Firstly, each generation of PCIe(lower case 'e' is correct btw. Just as NVMe -lower case e) roughly doubles the bandwidth of the preceeding generation, for each PCIe lane - though you must allow for different coding methods and other overheads. So, PCIe gen4 x2(two lanes), which is what SX uses, translates 'roughly' to an PCIe Gen3 x4(four lanes) in terms of overall bandwidth. Bearing in mind that PCIe is a serial bus.

Logically, therefore, the internal M.2 (which describes the connector type/slot, since the bus type is PCIe) will be a PCIe Gen4 x2, the same as the external, because we have already been told by MS that they are identical in order to match speeds and operation.

What surprises me in all of this is MS went for a x2, when generally PC's and PS5(not 100% on PS5) went for the more usual four lanes, giving greater overall bandwidth. Maybe MS used more lanes for GPU or something. Anyway, if it's a standard M.2 under the hood which it appears to be from the exploded diagrams we have seen, then you should be able to upgrade okay. BUT it will, just like PS5, need to match what's expected for both internal and external.

I've edited this bit because of other comments I have now read:
Since slot is X2 you can't upgrade hardware to x4 etc. You can of course upgrade size of SSD, but using a X4 SSD will just mean the SSD will reduce to X2 speeds, because it only has to lanes in the hardware available to it

[ChasterMies]

But when you replace the internal drive, how do you load the firmware? Sony has a process for this and a site to download the firmware.

[Kados]

Shouldn't need to. The firmware is stored on NAND flash, soldered to the main board. It would be no different from putting a new HDD in a PS3. Just insert the drive and turn on the system, it should automatically detect the new drive and format it.

[jukins]

Yea sony got suckered by the loudmouths telling them they hate proprietary stuff. Sony went and tried to please those people and now we have to wait for ssd expansion. Where if they stuck with their traditional guns we'd probably have expansion storage day 1. Oh well I won't complain at least until I have to start deleting and adding games

[gravedigger]

During March in Road To PS5 showcase, Cerny said, SSD's won't be supported at launch. Anyway, from Verge :

"and not a single one was able to tell me their drives will actually work with the PS5. Two suggested that Sony’s compatibility testing program hasn’t actually kicked off yet."

https://www.theverge.com/20...

PS5 box mentions that nextgen games will be movable to cold storage, but that's not possible yet on the current firmware.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[ziggurcat]

"... can be replaced by the user"

You void your warranty doing that, though.

[dumahim]

Only if whatever failed was due to whatever you did inside. Opening something does not void a warranty.

[hadowajp]

*in the US and at least a couple EU countries*

[Sophisticated_Chap]

That is pretty cool. This is definitely their best console from a design perspective, by a long shot.

[IRetrouk]

Why do they call the ssd a pcie gen 4 part if its actually a gen 3 drive they are using🤔

Nobody gonna call that out no?

the drive is easy to plug in, why didn't they just use a pcie gen 4 drive like they said they are🤔
It does explain why its only got 2.4gbs speeds though.

Que the excuses in 3...2..1.

[GamerRN]

And ironically still beats the PS5 in load times of some games 🤷🏼‍♂️

[IRetrouk]

Excuse one....
May wanna recheck those times🤷‍♂️

[GamerRN]

Facts are excuses?

You can watch the videos and check the times yourself.

[IRetrouk]

You can also watch gamespot contradict their own times🤣
And digital foundry....
Try again please.

[B1uBurneR]

ok, if I had the tool I would make 3rd party adapter and use one of those thermal dots thingy ms used on the One X memory or something equivalent ... whats that white rubber thermal like paste used in the Xbox One brick. Back to the topic. 3rd party adapter 2Tb M.2. find a place to rest the stick with the thermal. close it back, call it a day. I gotta admit MS has a bad history with making their hardware user friendly. 2nd plan just create a external adaptor for expansion slot add you own sized M.2. PS5 is better at shgit like this. (the g is silent)

[gravedigger]

In XSS is a different size of course, and different to SSD in bigger brother XSX. Also, it is a lower specd :

They told us that XSX shares the same SSD with XSS
Guess what - they lied again...
In XSS is different SSD than in XSX ( WD SN530)

https://twitter.com/apoloni...

Specs are :

Flash Type: 3D TLC NAND flash
Type: M.2 2230
Interface: PCIe® NVMe™ Gen3 x4
Seq. Read: Up to 2,000 MB/s
Seq. Write: UP to 1,100 MB/s
Features: TCG/AES
Capacity: 128GB/256GB/512GB

https://www.ssstc.com/produ...

[porkChop]

Western Digital? I watched Spawn Wave take the SX apart, and I could swear his said Sandisk.

[Stanjara]

That is all fine and dandy, but...
Did anyone tried to replace standard hdd from Xbox one?
It has so much data partitions, software hiccups and headache that is much easier to just plug in external drive.
You have to format it through specific software and have a step by step ytube video.