
This also lets us know that these drives use SMR technology, a controversial technique for layering magnetic storage that allows for higher capacities but also results in slower sustained read/write speeds than traditional CMR drives.

This removes the USB bottleneck and allows for marginally faster access times, which can be useful for decreasing game loading times or if you want to use these in a NAS, for example. I've not ordered anything from GameStop in about 15 years, but assuming they're not diabolical retailers I'd say this is a really good shout for anyone looking to beef up their external storage - whether to back up your PC's files in case of disaster, to create a high capacity media server or just back up unused game directories to save having to re-download them on slow internet lines.Īs you might expect from a high capacity external drive, people have tried 'shucking' them - that is, removing them from their enclosures to be used as an internal hard drive. Even if you don't need the Xbox branding and the front-facing USB ports, the raw value here is off the charts.


Looking for some external storage? You normally pay through the nose to get a super-high capacity drive, but right now GameStop are offering a capacious 8TB model for just $100.
