XBOX One Internal vs External Hard Drive game loading tests - HDD, SSD tested
265This is a video showing the differences between the Internal HDD and 4 External drives
All external drives are 2.5"" form factor and USB powered.
Each drive was chosen due to different characteristics
The main reason for the test was to see if a SSD really did make a differences.
I've also seen other videos comparing load times with games such as Call of Duty and Fifa, with the results showing very marginal gains.
In my experience, these games are not disk I/O intensive and give almost a 'false' result.
Large open world games, usually will benefit more from faster drives and I think this video proves that.
The internal XBOX HDD is a slow old beast. Its actually based on a SATA II drive and therefore has a maximum throughput of 3Gb/s
USB 3.0 has a max theoretical throughput of 5Gb/s
So in theory, USB 3.0 drives will be able to achieve 5 Gb/s, which is nearly double the 3 Gb/s internal HDD.
0. 512GB Internal XBOX HDD
The internal XBOX HDD is a slow old beast. Its actually based on a SATA II drive and there for has a maximum throughput of 3Gb/s
1. 2TB WD Passport Ultra HDD
A common external USB 3.0 5400 RPM HDD that is cost effective and faster than the Internal HDD in all tests
http://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Passport-Premium-Portable-External/dp/B00Y0R953W/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1456061759&sr=8-7&keywords=WD+ultra+passport+2TB
2. 4TB Seagate Backup Plus HDD
A unique drive, that is actually 2 X 5400 RPM 2TB drives in a single housing, configured as a RAID0 stripe set. In theory this should be quicker than
a normal USB 3.0 HDD
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Backup-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B01127CY26/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1456061945&sr=8-2&keywords=seagate+backup+plus+4TB+2.5
3. 1TB HGST Touro HDD
One of the few 2.5"" USB 3.0 powered drives that spins at 7200RPM and as you can see from the results. It makes quite a differences
These are difficult to source now.
https://www.hgst.com/company/media-room/press-releases/hgst-gives-consumers-industrys-first-1tb-7200-rpm-25-inch-mobile
4. 500GB Samsung T1 SSD
One of Samsungs new flag ship USB 3.0 SSD drives. These are expensive, but as you can see from the results. The differences in load times are quite long, especially
in the GTA V test.
Summary
The Samsung T1 SSD wins hands down on every test, especially when compared to the internal XBOX One HDD. However it is a costly drive and may be out of the reach of your normal XBOX user.