WD_Black C50 Xbox Series X|S SSDs have finally been revealed
Western Digital has finally announced the heavily leaked WD_Black SSD range for Xbox Series X|S, giving Xbox owners an alternative to the Seagate SSDs that have been available since 2020.
The WD_Black C50 starts at $80 / £90 for the base 512GB model, and then costs $150 / £150 for the 1TB model. There’s no counterpart to Seagate’s 2TB SSD at this time.
While slightly cheaper than previously expected, Seagate has already reacted since the WD_Black SSDs were leaked and dropped the price of their SSDs from the original £220 / $220 price point for 1TB, cutting the RRP down to $150. That’s a price that WD has now matched, but they’re skewing $10-20 cheaper, depending on retailer specific pricing – the 512GB Seagate can be found for £90 in Currys right now moment, so it’s a match in the UK.
It’s somewhat surprising that WD is only going up to 1TB with this SSD range. They’ve likely taken and adapted the M.2 2230 model of the SN740 for the Xbox’s proprietary SSD card, and that SSD goes up to 2TB in its original form. I’m sure someone will tear one apart in the coming days to reveal what is inside.
All of this comes in the shadow of plummeting SSD prices as companies have a glut of NAND to use up, and when the PS5 uses standard NVMe drives, that means you can currently get a compatible 2TB drive on Sony’s console for around the same price as 1TB on Xbox. It’s not plug and play, but offers much more value for money.
Source: press release
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