The best SSDs for 2024

With pricing decrease than ever, operating your PC or gadget on a solid-state drive (SSD) is a should. Neglect laborious drives for something however long-term storage, and be taught what an SSD is and what putting in one can do for efficiency.

SSDs aren’t only for PCs, both. You’ll be able to install an SSD in your PlayStation 5, and the Steam Deck is simply begging for an even bigger SSD for bigger recreation libraries.

Whether or not you need to improve your inside drive or want an exterior storage resolution, an SSD will ship quick and dependable learn and write speeds. These storage units use flash reminiscence to retailer your knowledge, making them sooner than conventional mechanical laborious drives. Not all drives are constructed equally, nonetheless. For the quickest transfers, you will want probably the greatest SSDs — and we have examined dozens to create a definitive checklist of what you need to be shopping for as we speak.

Samsung 990 Professional

The Samsung 990 Professional is the most recent in Samsung’s line of high-end client drives, and it’s totally spectacular, certainly. This drive builds on the strengths of the 980 Professional with its excessive sequential learn/write speeds of seven,450 MBps, and 6,900 MBps, respectively. That’s restricted by PCIe 4 speeds, however it’s nonetheless a giant improve over the 980 Professional and is greater than sufficient to ship quick file transfers and recreation set up instances.

As for normal use and gaming, the excessive random learn and write IOPS rankings of 1,550,000 actually assist this drive stand out. They’re over 50% greater than on the 980 Professional, demonstrating that even with out the benefits of a brand new PCIe technology, this drive actually flies. It is an ideal match for anybody eager to get their PC prepared for DirectStorage games, or for these trying to improve their PS5’s present storage with one thing greater and sooner.

The 2TB mannequin is comparatively inexpensive at round $200 and provides the perfect efficiency of the vary. There’s larger sturdiness to be discovered with the 4TB mannequin, however it’s far more costly.

Teamgroup T-Drive Z540 2TB

If you’d like the quickest fashionable SSD on the market, then the TeamGroup T-Forze Z540 2TB is the drive for you. With an unprecedented sustained learn/write score of 12,400 MBps and 11,800 MBps respectively, there’s nothing on the market fairly prefer it. Its random learn/write score is spectacular too, managing 1,400,000 and 1,500,000 IOPS, respectively.

Whereas there aren’t many situations the place you’d be capable of make the most of such efficiency, it is a nice-to-have characteristic that future-proofs you in opposition to any of the advances made with DirectStorage-supporting video games within the subsequent few years.

This drive does require a PCIe 5 interface to perform at full velocity, although, so be certain your motherboard helps it.

Samsung 980 Professional 500GB

It won’t be Samsung’s flagship SSD anymore, however the 980 Professional continues to be a top-tier NVMe SSD. Boasting sequential learn speeds of as much as 7,000 MBps and sequential write speeds of as much as 5,000 MBps, the 980 Professional is an SSD that takes full benefit of PCIe 4.0. It’s nonetheless suitable with PCIe 3.0, however the drive enjoys twice the information switch fee on PCIe 4.0.

The value is greater than a few of its contemporaries, however Samsung SSDs present a superb mixture of high-performance operation and sturdiness, guaranteeing your SSD will final you a few years to come back. You will get the 500GB mannequin for much less, however there’s much more worth for cash within the 1TB mannequin. The 2TB mannequin is dearer, however it does supply extra sturdiness with a extra expansive TBW score.

The 1TB mannequin is priced pretty and affordably, and nonetheless provides wonderful efficiency. Seize it if you’d like probably the greatest PCIe 4 SSDs on the market, with out the excessive premium of newer designs.

Essential MX500 SATA 2TB

Whereas SATA connections aren’t as quick because the newer PCIe interfaces, the associated drives will be considerably cheaper. When you want a whole lot of storage however don’t need to sacrifice SSD advantages, this Essential drive provides an incredible 2TB of storage at an extremely inexpensive worth.

Sequential learn and writes are superb for a SATA mannequin at 560 MBps and 510 MBps, respectively. This mannequin contains safety in opposition to energy loss issues in addition to AES 256 bit encryption for safety.

You gained’t get the perfect specs on this planet with the Essential MX500 SATA, however it positive can maintain so much with out breaking your finances.

Western Digital Black AN1500 1TB

The Western Digital Black AN1500 is an attention-grabbing drive. It’s an add-in PCIe card that really comes with two Western Digital Black SSDs on board. As an alternative of accessing them individually, Western Digital has the drives arrange in RAID 0. This configuration permits the drive to “stripe” knowledge throughout two disks, splitting the workload between drives to achieve greater speeds.

That’s vital, because the Western Digital Black AN1500 makes use of a PCIe 3.0 interface. If in case you have an older machine, the AN1500 is a superb drive to extend your efficiency past most different SSDs with out investing in a brand new rig. The drive can attain sequential learn speeds of as much as 6,500 MBps and sequential write speeds of as much as 4,100 MBps, bypassing even the quickest PCIe 3.0 SSDs.

Corsair MP600 Professional LPX

There aren’t many SSDs that go as huge and as quick because the Corsair MP600 Professional LPX. This low-profile drive comes geared up with a thick warmth sink for warmth dissipation and an enormous 8TB capability. It maintains wonderful efficiency wat that measurement, although, with sustained learn/write speeds of seven,100 MBps, and 5,800 MBps, respectively.

It is one of many best SSDs for the PS5, too, so that you may give your system huge storage capabilities for those who do not thoughts paying double what you paid for the console within the first place. In any other case, it really works effectively with any desktop PC with PCIe 4 help or higher.

Sabrent Rocket 2230

If you wish to improve the SSD storage in your small laptop computer or transportable gaming system just like the Steam Deck, the Sabrent Rocket 2230 1TB is a superb alternative. It is compact sufficient to not trigger any clearance points throughout set up (, and but it nonetheless maintains wonderful efficiency for its measurement.

It has a sustained learn/write fee of 4,750 MBps and 4,300 MBps respectively, and random learn/write charges of 450,000 and 545,000, respectively. That drops it far behind the quickest SSDs, however it’s nonetheless a giant improve over the inventory Steam deck drive. There’s a 512GB mannequin you possibly can contemplate because it’s notably cheaper, however it’s not solely smaller — it is slower too.

Seagate Storage Growth Card for Xbox

You’ll be able to’t set up the Seagate Storage Growth Card inside your PC, however you may in your Xbox. It’s the perfect SSD for the Xbox Sequence X and Sequence S, providing you with a further terabyte of the identical ultra-fast storage contained in the console. The drive makes upgrading simpler than ever, too. All it’s worthwhile to do is slot it behind your console like a reminiscence card.

The Seagate Storage Growth Card allows a slew of Xbox options, together with sooner loading instances than exterior laborious drives, DirectStorage in supported video games, and Fast Resume, which lets you seamlessly swap between video games with out dropping your progress. It’s not fairly as quick as the inner storage, however it will get very shut.

When you’re unsure which certainly one of these SSDs is most suited to your functions, test our SSD buying guide that can assist you to determine the one which works for you.