Installing MLB 2K9 to the Hard Drive

When the NXE update for the 360 came out back in November I analyzed the benefits that were seen when installing games and playing them from the hard drive. You can check out those results here. That was apparently a popular feature as I have received numerous requests to do the same with MLB 2K9.

While I can’t speak yet to any marginal performance improvements that may or may not come with the install I did compare loading times for the game when played with the disc vs the hard drive.

Size of install- 6.7 GB
Time to install- 9:51

Loading to the start screen
Disc- 30 seconds
Hard Drive- 14 seconds

Loading into a game
Disc- 15 seconds
Hard Drive- 4 seconds

Loading out of a game to menu screen
Disc- 3 seconds
Hard Drive- 1 second

So the benefits in this case are actually relatively significant. I can tell you that even without timing it I noticed how much quicker things were loading. In that first set of games I tested you could sense the improvements but they weren’t as pronounced as how it felt while going through MLB 2K9. Installing also offers the opportunity to play with a quieter system as the drive does not have to be constantly accessed and that in turn may place less strain on the hardware. So for those of you who have the hard drive space to do so you’ll appreciate the benefits of installing the game and playing from the hard drive.