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IFIXIT's XBox One X Tear Down - Changing the hard disk voids the warranty

Meh3D

Member
I just finished reading IFIXIT’s article and I watched their YouTube video. The XBOX One X comes with a Seagate 1TB 5200 RPM had drive. According to the article, they had to remove a tamper resistant sticker before having access to the hard drive.

IFIXIT said:
We had to pull a tamper-resistant sticker off one of the screws on the rear case. If you venture inside your console, Microsoft might use that as a reason to void your warranty. More sad news: XBox One X hard drive replacements still require some tricky formatting.

Personally, I would want to change out the internal drive with a Seagate 2TB SSHD ( 95 USD currently. ) Yes, we can use an external hard drive however Digital Foundry in their Halo 5 XBOX One X video stated that load hitching got worse when using one. Although this seems to be game specific, I feel it would be pretty annoying having to manage storage if you happen to select a game with loading issues. This also feels like the chicken/egg problem. Do we criticize MS for using a standard 5200 RPM drive for what is suppose to be the ultimate XBOX or 343i for not going back and reworking those areas to take advantage of the expanded memory available?

I’m going to pick up an XBOX One X today and see how I can relatively quickly test an external 3.5 2TB 7200 RPM drive and an external Samsung T3 SSD. See if it makes a difference.

Overall not the end of the world for XBOX One X since when the warranty runs out there may be more 200 or less 1TB SSD solutions available. I have to ask though, has the ability to make the hard drive user accessible on the PS4 and PS4 Pro made a significant difference in the user's game experience?

What are your thoughts?

(I searched, found nothing, don’t hurt me.)
 

Bustanen

Member
I just finished reading IFIXIT's article and I watched their YouTube video. The XBOX One X comes with a Seagate 1TB 5200 RPM had drive. According to the article, they had to remove a tamper resistant sticker before having access to the hard drive.



Personally, I would want to change out the internal drive with a Seagate 2TB SSHD ( 95 USD currently. ) Yes, we can use an external hard drive however Digital Foundry in their Halo 5 XBOX One X video stated that load hitching got worse when using one. Although this seems to be game specific, I feel it would be pretty annoying having to manage storage if you happen to select a game with loading issues. This also feels like the chicken/egg problem. Do we criticize MS for using a standard 5200 RPM drive for what is suppose to be the ultimate XBOX or 343i for not going back and reworking those areas to take advantage of the expanded memory available?

I'm going to pick up an XBOX One X today and see how I can relatively quickly test an external 3.5 2TB 7200 RPM drive and an external Samsung T3 SSD. See if it makes a difference.

Overall not the end of the world for XBOX One X since when the warranty runs out there may be more 200 or less 1TB SSD solutions available. I have to ask though, has the ability to make the hard drive user accessible on the PS4 and PS4 Pro made a significant difference in the user's game experience?

What are your thoughts?

(I searched, found nothing, don't hurt me.)
No surprise there, had to remove a sticker from XBS when I replaced a rattling fan. I would be cautious voiding warranty from a $500 device as there's been a few duds reported.

It's nice that you can replace the drive on PS4 because 500GB is a joke these days, 2TB is the bare minimum IMO.
 

TLZ

Banned
Yea Sony had the HDD accessible since the PS3. I don't know why MS aren't doing the same.
 

Syriel

Member
Yea Sony had the HDD accessible since the PS3. I don't know why MS aren't doing the same.

I'll take native USB drive support over having to upgrade the internal any day.

Obvs having both options is best, but if I could only pick one, it would be USB all the way.
 

RVIDXR

Member
I'd rather slap an SSD or huge HDD internally for maximum performance and cleaner look. I bring my consoles with me because of how the local online multiplayer landscape looks nowadays, so an external makes less of a difference for me personally. I wonder if the upgrade internal HDD trick from the OG still works on the X.
 

F40

Neo Member
It allows external hard drive. That's the best thing.

That's my thoughts. 3.5" external drives will continue to increase in capacity. 8TB externals are starting come down in price. I would rather MS cut $50 of the price of the X and just put a 500GB drive it there. I'm just going to take my 4TB external from my S and plug into the X and never use the internal drive.
 
So can you install all games on an external ssd and get the benefits of said device? Are there tangible benefits of doing so?

Using a external SSD on the Xbox One X makes a big difference in load times.

Im sure having a Internal SSD on the X will be even greater since its fully supporting a sata 3 connection.
 

delete12345

Member
That's my thoughts. 3.5" external drives will continue to increase in capacity. 8TB externals are starting come down in price. I would rather MS cut $50 of the price of the X and just put a 500GB drive it there. I'm just going to take my 4TB external from my S and plug into the X and never use the internal drive.

500GB ain't gonna last you up to 4 games, so Microsoft didn't use 500GB internal drives as the standard for Xbox One X.

All Xbox One X game file sizes are around the range of 100GB to 150GB. maybe less, maybe more. This applies to those who embarks on a 4K journey.
 

MoogleMan

Member
I just swapped my launch ps4 hdd to the 2tb sshd in the op (caught on sale for $80). I'd much rather have an internal hdd than an external.

I'm impressed with the 1x as a gaming platform, but the policies I can't get behind. I'm glad I have a decent gaming PC so any microsoft "exclusives" I want to play, I get for PC.
 
Sometimes internal drives fail and would be nice to buy a new drive from the store and replacing it yourself instead of getting raped by manufacturing "repair" cost.

Well if it fails in warranty it's free.

If it fails after warranty, the sticker don't mean shit.
 
I stuck an EVO 850 in my Pro and it destroys my regular ps4 that has a WD Black 7200rpm drive. I'd prolly void the X warranty and stuff a big SSD in there lol
 

thelastword

Banned
I'll take native USB drive support over having to upgrade the internal any day.

Obvs having both options is best, but if I could only pick one, it would be USB all the way.
This is one of the strangest things I've read in a minute.....Having the external as an extension for your storage needs is superb, but if you have to choose just one the internal harddrive is superior in so may ways...I can see so many things going wrong with an HDD connected to a console by a USB cable out in the open, notwithstanding how much more space it takes up.....Putting a 4TB internal in a PS4 is also very easy to do.....
 

ShapeGSX

Member
I just swapped my launch ps4 hdd to the 2tb sshd in the op (caught on sale for $80). I'd much rather have an internal hdd than an external.

I'm impressed with the 1x as a gaming platform, but the policies I can't get behind. I'm glad I have a decent gaming PC so any microsoft "exclusives" I want to play, I get for PC.

What policies?
 

WaterAstro

Member
Usually I would say "1tb is enough. Just delete old games." But then I remember their insanely huge downloads and mandatory patches.
 

jts

...hate me...
Really liked the way they handled it with the 360. And it didn't void warranty. I'd like an improved version of that.
It was absolutely awful though, since they were massively overcharging for an HDD in a proprietary enclosure. And only much later they added external HDD support.
 
Someone on reddit put a 2TB same model Seagate drive in I saw. They just cloned it and then extended the extra space. Bad news was I gather the guid table still thinks it's a 1TB drive so a factory reset would cut it in half lol.

I think there's a way to do it still using the old 360 trick though so factory reset knows it's 2TB but so far 2TB is the largest size that can fit physically and has the table files kicking around to survive a reset.

Guess my plans for an SSD kinda fall flat for the time being lol
 

Meh3D

Member
Originally, I had my 1TB Xbox one vanilla at 44% full. I downloaded lot’s of updates and every disc that I had a play through with required 6 - 8 GB updates except for Gears of War Ultimate Edition. By the time all these updates finished I was looking at 64% out of 780 GB taken up on the internal storage. Of the few digital games I have, the only game that required a patch for 4K was KI. Quantum Break I have on disc and that one took the cake with a 40GB patch. Overall, not as bad as I thought however I feel for you if most of your games are digital. That’s not taking into account if GoW:U or Unity receive any 4K content updates.

I wished the Xbox went with a 1TB SSHD for performance or at least design the storage to be user accessible. We paid 500 USD for the ultimate version of the Xbox, and I feel at that price we should of allowed to take it further. I don’t like having the Xbox with a external drive attached to it. A state of the art device with a cheap WD Mybook Essentials attached to it...
 
This is one of the strangest things I've read in a minute.....Having the external as an extension for your storage needs is superb, but if you have to choose just one the internal harddrive is superior in so may ways...I can see so many things going wrong with an HDD connected to a console by a USB cable out in the open, notwithstanding how much more space it takes up.....Putting a 4TB internal in a PS4 is also very easy to do.....

What about VR headsets out in the open connected by a cord? Controllers? The $500 phone I charge on my nightstand every night? Worrying something might happen to your external (game) hard drive is laughable as a downside.

Personally I wouldn't want to open the case anyway. If they made an easy way to swap the HDD it would be nice, but their support for external is great and if you use an external you still get to keep the 1TB internal space as well. Any upgrade to the internal is a net loss of 1TB over using an external.
 

Gamerman1

Member
I stuck an EVO 850 in my Pro and it destroys my regular ps4 that has a WD Black 7200rpm drive. I'd prolly void the X warranty and stuff a big SSD in there lol

I did the same thing. I had a 1TB WD Black 7200rpm previously also. Much faster loading with the EVO and no extra heat.
 
This really isn't that surprising since you've never been able to fully legit swap an Xbox internal drive on any of them. This is definitely one of the better aspects of the PS3 and PS4 since the didn't have external drive support on either until the PS4 finally updated to support them.

I'm really starting to wonder if there's something in their OS tat they don't want anyone mucking with having a full, fresh install file available for public consumption.
 
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