Poll: *** Xbox Series X|S - General Discussion Thread ***
- Thread starter ic1male
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Soldato
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Guys, I'm really sorry for being lazy and not searching the thread.
I want to pick up the best console for my son. Which one is best spec, and where can I pre-order from?
TIA - I'm nightshift here and just spotted your thread title, which has grabbed my attention.
The best one is obviously the more expensive one
The cheaper one is digital only, 1080p, maybe 1440p machine. 500gb of storage but smaller games to suit, ~40% smaller MS said.
The expensive one has a disk drive and 1tb storage with 4k gaming.
Backwards compatibility will be a thing.
No new games will be dedicated to next gen gaming, and still playable on older consoles. It will be at least a year before we see a fully fledged 4k dedicated game for the Series X, those are MS's words too.
Halo is delayed till next year.
Gamepass is worth looking into. Monthly sub for a huge rotating library of games.
I'm equally disappointed.
For first party games, I doubt it matters. Most will receive specific updates for Series S/X as Microsoft have a team specifically for this task. But how many third parties are going to go in to their back catalogue and update a bunch of really old games? No doubt some will, for a select few titles. But many (most?) of the ~800 One X enhanced games won't receive any further updates. It'll be down to what the Series S hardware, and automatic enhancements, can pull off.
Witcher 3 is getting a free update. But will Witcher 2? It's probably one of the best "Xbox One Enhanced" titles. But would CDPR go this far back and spend time updating the game solely for Series S? If they do, I suspect they'll be a rare exception.
It'll be interesting to see how this game compares between the One S/X/Series S/X.
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Witcher 3 is getting a free update. But will Witcher 2? It's probably one of the best "Xbox One Enhanced" titles. But would CDPR go this far back and spend time updating the game solely for Series S? If they do, I suspect they'll be a rare exception.
It'll be interesting to see how this game compares between the One S/X/Series S/X.
Maybe they will update the controls
Soldato
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I'll wait for the price to be confirmed but that wouldnt suprised me. I've said before, people expecting to pay £150/tb for a very fast and proprietary SSD are being very hopeful. We know what MS have done in the past with drives for consoles ....
~£180 wouldn't be that bad for a proprietary PCIe Gen 4 SSD in a custom "plug and play" shell. A bare NVME with the same specs seems to cost around £150, so a ~£30 mark-up. Also avoids the problem of people installing an SSD of the wrong speed (which is bound to happen with PS5).
I've sat back and read pages and pages of posts and can't quite understand why the vast majority of posts are almost of the opinion of 'how dare Microsoft charge a high (reasonable market) price for accessories!'. It's always been the case with any console that accessories are full RRP on release (Sony, MS, Sega, Nintendo etc.) and there is no reason to discount a new product unless it's replaced with another SKU/upgrade.
With regards to storage, I'm using my 8TB external USB 3 drive (picked up ~2 years ago for £135) to download all my current One X games (I download a lot of the games that come up for reward point bonuses even if I don't care for playing through them properly), and then use a re-purposed 960Gb SanDisk SSD (picked up for ~£125 3 years ago) for those games that I play frequently and benefit from the reduced loading times. Microsoft have said many times that you will only need to use the Xbox Series X NVMe drive if you're playing Series X (and likely S 'next gen') titles. One X and backwards compatible games will run fine from an external USB 3/3.1 drive.
Regarding the looks, of either console, I've said it before but will say it again, who looks at the console when actually gaming. My One X isn't exactly hidden (right under the TV on a waist high desk) and I'm never looking at it thinking how it looks when in the middle of any gaming session.
The two consoles are perfectly suited for different markets, those with budget limits/young kids/no 4K TV/second console for bedroom etc. can get next gen capable gaming from the Series S. The Series X covers those who want the all singing and dancing 4K gaming and power that the console will have.
With regards to storage, I'm using my 8TB external USB 3 drive (picked up ~2 years ago for £135) to download all my current One X games (I download a lot of the games that come up for reward point bonuses even if I don't care for playing through them properly), and then use a re-purposed 960Gb SanDisk SSD (picked up for ~£125 3 years ago) for those games that I play frequently and benefit from the reduced loading times. Microsoft have said many times that you will only need to use the Xbox Series X NVMe drive if you're playing Series X (and likely S 'next gen') titles. One X and backwards compatible games will run fine from an external USB 3/3.1 drive.
Regarding the looks, of either console, I've said it before but will say it again, who looks at the console when actually gaming. My One X isn't exactly hidden (right under the TV on a waist high desk) and I'm never looking at it thinking how it looks when in the middle of any gaming session.
The two consoles are perfectly suited for different markets, those with budget limits/young kids/no 4K TV/second console for bedroom etc. can get next gen capable gaming from the Series S. The Series X covers those who want the all singing and dancing 4K gaming and power that the console will have.
That's very true but once you've experienced an SSD, you won't want to use a HDD at all except for storage. Everyone will be copying the games to the SSD purely for the faster loading times, less hiccups with texture streaming, etc. which is why I'm factoring in that extra 1TB SSD cart for XSX right from the get go.
At least the Xboxes are a decent shape so should be easy to fit in to a setup. The PS5 just looks like a modem in drag and the whole thing looks like an afterthought. Especially the stand.
True you don’t look at it when playing but same goes for cars when driving but design is one of the biggest selling points.
True you don’t look at it when playing but same goes for cars when driving but design is one of the biggest selling points.
You could buy a larger fast sata ssd for Xbox one games and use internal for Series X games.
I don't think the vast majority of current gen owners of an X or S use an SATA SSD for improving loading times, moving over to the Series X and S, they might realise the benefits but might not realise that they can use a SATA SSD for non-Series X or S games. SATA SSD's are far cheaper and will (in my opinion) be better value for money if you're wanting to reduce loading times on last gen games. I am awaiting Microsoft to confirm if the quick resume feature is only useable on the internal NVMe or if it works between external storage (with obvious impact on loading times). If quick resume works with external devices then even a SATA SSD won't perform like the demo's so far.
I daresay most of these questions won't be answered until the consoles are in our houses in November and people start trying out all these kinds of scenarios.
There'll be umpteen videos on YouTube comparing loading from the internal SSD, official SSD cart, USB NVME SSD, USB SATA SSD, USB 7200rpm HDD, USB 5400rpm HDD, etc.
There'll be umpteen videos on YouTube comparing loading from the internal SSD, official SSD cart, USB NVME SSD, USB SATA SSD, USB 7200rpm HDD, USB 5400rpm HDD, etc.
True though hopefully something will be answered in a Q&A interview or review (Digital Foundry looking at you) when they get hold of consoles.
On a side note, and without wanting to derail the Xbox thread, Sony's take on storage expansion is (as far as I understand) that users will be able to use any PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive just as long as it meets the criteria for the PS5. The costs for these drives will likely be as expensive as the Xbox expansion drive but where the user can shop around they may safe a few quid here or there, I don't see it being much cheaper until years down the line when costs have come down in NVMe drives. Also, the added potential for user error in buying a non-compliant drive for PS5 is there, at least Microsoft's expansion drive will be guaranteed to work without having to check.
On a side note, and without wanting to derail the Xbox thread, Sony's take on storage expansion is (as far as I understand) that users will be able to use any PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive just as long as it meets the criteria for the PS5. The costs for these drives will likely be as expensive as the Xbox expansion drive but where the user can shop around they may safe a few quid here or there, I don't see it being much cheaper until years down the line when costs have come down in NVMe drives. Also, the added potential for user error in buying a non-compliant drive for PS5 is there, at least Microsoft's expansion drive will be guaranteed to work without having to check.
Zoinks, I've just been browsing the Game Pass for Console list on the Xbox website. There are a tonne of games on there that aren't on PC that I would love to play again. Even to get through all those in BC mode would probably take me a year before I even start on the new games. 
Can't wait! Plus it means some of the games that I bought on Steam, I wouldn't have to rebuy them on Xbox because they're in Game Pass, too.
Can't wait! Plus it means some of the games that I bought on Steam, I wouldn't have to rebuy them on Xbox because they're in Game Pass, too.
Soldato
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I'm assuming you can use a USB external disk just to hold your downloaded games? The move them to the SSD when you want to play it.
I mean, it's faster than broadband.
I mean, it's faster than broadband.
You can exactly do this. The only thing you won't be able to use an external HDD/SATA SSD for will be to play Series X only titles which will require the internal (or expansion) NVMe.