With the release of both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, game files are larger than ever. Fitting all of those fancy graphics and advanced mechanics into one file can make the file balloon, and unfortunately, the on-board storage for both consoles fills up quickly. External storage is going to be essential, and the ADATA XPG SE900G External Solid State Drive offers a solid (pun absolutely intended) solution to the problem.
Specifications
- Current Pricing: (Amazon)
- 512GB: $99.99
- 1TB: $159.99
- 2TB: $280.59
- Read Speed: Up to 2000 MB/s over USB 3.2
- Ports: USB-C: (USB 3.1 Gen 1.1)
- Speed Tests: USB-C (tested with PS5 and PC)
- Format: exFAT (can be reformatted if desired)
- Dimensions: 4.36 x 2.6 x 0.65 inches
- Weight: 5.64 oz.
- Requirements: Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X
- Warranty: 3 Years
The drive is small and compact, meaning it won’t be a huge eyesore should you decide to place it out of the way. I’m not sure why you would do that though, with the amazing RGB pattern that flashes on the top of the drive when it’s in use. The checker pattern mixed with the cascading color scheme is really pleasing to the eye, giving it a very pleasing aesthetic as it sits next to my consoles. I know RGB doesn’t add anything to the performance of the drive, but I appreciate manufacturers who put more effort into the lighting when they use it than just slapping lights on a device and saying “hey this thing glows, isn’t that neat?”
Putting It To The Test
Speaking of that performance, the box and website for this product boasts 2000 MB per second read speeds over a USB 3.2 Gen 2.2 port. Sadly I did not have access to that, but I do have a 3.1 Gen 1.1 port. As such I was expecting read and write speeds to hover around 1000 MB per second, and based on the ATTO speed test above that’s exactly what I was getting in read speed. The consistent speeds hovering around that 1000 MB/s are a beautiful thing, aren’t they? Unfortunately, write speeds weren’t quite getting to that 1000 MB/s mark, but a 934.31 MB/s top write speed is still impressive.
The CrystalDiskMark speed reflects the same results, although this test saw slightly higher numbers both in read and write speeds. Both the sequential and random read and write numbers are impressive, especially using a 3.1 port which admittedly does not unleash the full potential of the drive. If you have the latest USB-C drives on your rig, there’s no doubt in my mind that this drive will blaze to that 2000 MB/s rate with little effort.
Console or PC?
So the SE900G passed the read/write tests, but how does it perform in practice? That answer depends on what platform you’re using the drive on, and honestly, the console experience fared better in my opinion than keeping it a PC exclusive.
On the PC I downloaded three games to the drive: Fortnite, Magic Legends’s new beta test, and Darksiders III. Of the three Darksiders took the quickest to boot, taking about 10 seconds from my pressing Play to the screen going black. Magic Legends took slightly longer at about 15, while Fortnite took the longest at about 35 seconds. Having booted Fortnite first it made the other two games feel lightning-fast, but I definitely felt the drag of watching the Fortnite loading bar slightly raise.
I compared these times to the loading times of my on-board solid state drive (PNY Internal SATA SSD), which outperformed the SE900G in every case but not as much as I initially expected. Darksiders loaded in about seven seconds, Magic Legends in 12, and Fortnite in just under 30. Now obviously the SATA drive is going to read faster than the USB-C drive, but I was impressed with the SE900G after seeing how small the differences between the two drives were.
For the PlayStation 5 test I formatted the drive and added Tekken 7, Ghost of Tsushima, and Street Fighter V to it before loading each one up individually. Tekken 7 took 18 seconds from my pressing Play to the Bandai Namco logo screen, Street Fighter loaded the Capcom logo in about 14 seconds, and Ghost of Tsushima came in just below nine seconds between selecting it on the main menu and the first logo screen. Loading from the on-board PS5 solid state drive resulted in times that were about the same, with only Tekken 7 taking slightly longer.
Now you may be thinking “but those are all PS4 games, what about PS5 games?” Simply put the PS5 doesn’t allow external hard drives to store PS5 games, which is a bummer but that’s not the SE900G’s fault. More importantly, the SE900G was loading games just as fast as the on-board SSD, and PS4 or not that is an amazing feat. For someone not technically inclined the assumption would be that an external drive would perform far worse than the console’s internal memory, but that’s simply not the case here.
Final Thoughts
The ADATA XPG SE900G is well worth the price tag if you’re looking for some extra hard drive space for both game consoles and PC. The read/write tests look good, the game load times are impressive (though they fare better on the console), and the 1 TB storage space offers plenty of room for multiple games. I would recommend this be used for a console rather than a PC if you have the choice, but in either case the SE900G will serve as a great solution for a lack of storage. Plus, that RGB pattern is cool as heck, and sometimes that just sweetens the deal.
