Thanks to the arrival of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S combo the idea of expanded storage for games has fundamentally changed. That is, if you’re gaming on the still hard to find next-gen consoles. The latest WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive SSD from Western Digital certainly lives up to its name, but with a few caveats.

Namely next-gen console support. A snippet.

And as install sizes for 4K-capable experience continue to chew up tens of gigaroons, the need for expansion hasn’t waned.

This is worth pointing out right away because even though the WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive SSD is noticeably faster than some of the many traditional USB drives we’ve seen over the years; its overall speeds fall short of the super-fast internal speed fund inside next-gen consoles. Even though it has SSD right there in the naming.

Western Digital is also positioning the WD_BLACK D30 as a solution designed for consoles, so its PS5 and Xbox Series chops factor into the equation. That’s not to say that you can’t connect it to a PC, in fact we recommend doing exactly that. On PC the 900 MB/s or so USB-C speeds are great for having a library you can take from rig to rig, without having to worry about long load-times.

Our Full WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive SSD Review