- #CAN I FORMAT WD EASYSTORE FOR BOTH XBOX AND PC INSTALL#
- #CAN I FORMAT WD EASYSTORE FOR BOTH XBOX AND PC UPGRADE#
- #CAN I FORMAT WD EASYSTORE FOR BOTH XBOX AND PC PC#
- #CAN I FORMAT WD EASYSTORE FOR BOTH XBOX AND PC WINDOWS#
Using RAID 0 for performance isn’t new, but the WD_Black AN1500 SSD is preconfigured for ease of use. The WD_Black AN1500 SSD has been out for a while now, but I’ve been intrigued by it for a while. However, it’s still cheaper than replacing the CPU and motherboard of a PC. That obviously adds to the price compared to a single large SSD, and the AN1500 is definitely an expensive addition. The AN1500 comes with two SSDs, but it's treated as a single drive in Windows.
This is how the AN1500 offers much faster drive speeds, but there are drawbacks, primarily with price. These stripes can then be simultaneously written and read to the SSDs, drastically speeding up the performance of the drive. Unlike some types of RAID configurations where several drives are used together as backups, RAID 0 is all about speed.Įssentially, the AN1500 uses RAID 0 and two SSDs to split data into blocks (also known as ‘stripes’). How does it do this? Well, within the metal chassis of the AN1500 are two WD SN730 NVMe SSDs set up in RAID 0 with an enterprise-grade controller. Western Digital have a rather unique product that could help solve my issues…
At that point it’s almost worth just buying a new PC. That’s not just an expensive upgrade, but an absolute pain as well.
#CAN I FORMAT WD EASYSTORE FOR BOTH XBOX AND PC UPGRADE#
Of course, with my current hardware setup, PCIe 4.0 drives are out of the question, unless I upgrade both my CPU and motherboard.
#CAN I FORMAT WD EASYSTORE FOR BOTH XBOX AND PC INSTALL#
Sure, that’s not bad, and it’s much faster than any SATA III drive would be (they top out at around 600MB/s – see why I wouldn’t want to install a game on that?), but it could be faster. A quick benchmark of my current gaming M.2 drive gives me speeds of 3,402MB/s read and 3,319MB/s write. However, my rig has the Intel Core i9-9900K, a fine 9th generation processor, but it is limited to PCIe 3.0.
The PS5 has been built around having a speedy SSD of that quality, and an increasing number of games are now being designed with those kinds of speeds in mind. These drives are transforming the way many people play – and design – games. I’d been eying up the speeds of the new breed of PCIe4 M.2 SSDs that promising incredibly high speeds of 7,000MB/s. However, this is where the hardware limitations I spoke about earlier come into play. Obviously, that’s the route I decided to take. My options, then, are to install games on the slower drive (no thanks) or start filling up my boot drive with games (eew). Formatting it would mean having to redownload a lot of games.Īnother issue is that at 1TB, it’s starting to fill up. It seems like the only option would be to format the drive, but the problem there is that other apps, such as Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store, have no issue with it. It’s a particularly frustrating state of affairs, and I’ve tried a few things to fix it.
#CAN I FORMAT WD EASYSTORE FOR BOTH XBOX AND PC PC#
However, as is always the way with PC gaming, there’s a few annoying quirks, and also room for improvement.įor some reason, both Steam and the Xbox Game Pass on PC no longer let me install games on the M.2 SSD.
#CAN I FORMAT WD EASYSTORE FOR BOTH XBOX AND PC WINDOWS#
This setup has worked pretty well for a while, with Windows 11 loading in a few seconds, and games generally starting up quickly as well. I also have a larger SATA III SSD for storing files, lighter apps and generally anything that doesn’t need super-speedy file transfer speeds, due to SATA III being a lot slower than PCIe 3.0.
I have several SSDs installed, two speedy M.2 PCIe 3.0 drives, one for Windows 11 and intensive apps, and the other for game installs. But… I am also a sucker for new hardware. My main gaming rig remains an absolute beast and I have absolutely no issue with its performance. This is the position I’ve found myself in.