Buying an SSD will be a nightmare when there are such a lot of fashions to select from, however the excellent news is that there’s by no means been a greater time to purchase one, as costs are down (particularly in case you’re eyeing up Amazon Prime Day offers proper now) and availability is excessive – which is why we’re right here that will help you in your quest to seek out the very best gaming SSD for you and your funds.
If phrases like SATA and NVMe this and M.2 and PCIe that make your head spin, you’re in the appropriate place, as under you’ll discover all of our present high picks, in addition to in-depth shopping for recommendation on how one can choose your subsequent SSD. Whether it’s for gaming, common efficiency or the quickest speeds cash should buy, we’ve bought you lined.
Best funds SSD: Crucial BX300
Crucial’s funds BX300 drives are glorious worth. Available in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities, that is the very best and most cost-effective method to give your PC a little bit of a lift, whether or not you’re in search of one thing small to put in Windows on or one thing a bit larger to carry a few video games as properly.
It is available in a regular 2.5in SATA3 type issue, so it is best to have the ability to slot it simply into most laptops and motherboard setups with out concern. If you’re shopping for it for a laptop computer, you additionally get a helpful stick-on plastic rectangle to assist bump up the BX300’s thickness, which can little question turn out to be useful in case your drive bay is a bit fatter than traditional.
You additionally get a cut-down model of Acronis True Image with this SSD, which helps you to clone your present Windows set up straight to your new BX300. It’s fast, simple and labored flawlessly once we tried it out for ourselves, permitting us to stand up and working very quickly in any respect.
In phrases of efficiency, the BX300 offers the Samsung 850 Evo (our high choose for UK patrons in the very best mid-range SSD class, which you’ll learn extra about under) an actual run for its cash, posting quicker random write speeds in our benchmark assessments, and solely barely slower random learn speeds. The Samsung 850 Evo tends to be higher worth at larger capacities, the place costs between the 2 drives are smaller, however within the 120GB and 240GB vary, the Crucial BX300 is difficult to beat for general worth.
Read extra in our Crucial BX300 review.
UK costs:
120GB: £39 from Amazon
240GB: £75 from Amazon
480GB: £100 from Amazon
US costs:
120GB: $43 from Amazon
240GB: $75 from Amazon
480GB: $130 from Amazon
Best mid-range SSD: Samsung 860 Evo
The Samsung 850 Evo had an excellent innings as our greatest mid-range SSD, however its successor, the 860 Evo, has now come down in value, making it my new go-to suggestion for these after a top-quality 2.5in SSD.
Admittedly, my testing exhibits that each the 850 Evo and 860 Evo are kind of about the identical by way of general velocity, however the 860 Evo’s fundamental benefit comes from its considerably improved endurance ranking, guaranteeing that you just’ll have the ability to write no less than 150TB-worth of knowledge on the 250GB model, and as much as a whopping 2400TB on the highest 4TB mannequin earlier than it doubtlessly offers up the ghost.
Compare that to the 850 Evo’s most ranking of 300TBW (terabytes written) for each the 2TB and 4TB fashions, and you can begin to see why Samsung thought it was excessive time to maneuver the aim posts a bit.
300TBW ought to nonetheless be greater than sufficient endurance on your common gaming PC, however people who find themselves often coping with modifying images and movies could properly profit from all these additional TBs you get with the 860 Evo within the long-term.
Read extra in our Samsung 860 Evo review.
UK costs:
250GB: £59 from Amazon
500GB: £89 from Amazon
1TB: £210 from Amazon
2TB: £399 from Amazon
4TB: £876 from Amazon
US costs:
250GB: $80 from Newegg
500GB: $118 from Newegg
1TB: $238 from Newegg
2TB: $498 from Newegg
4TB: $1051 from Newegg
Best premium SSD: Samsung 970 Evo
Yes, it’s one other Samsung. If you really need the very best of the very best SSDs that cash should buy, the Samsung 970 Evo is the best way to go. Technically, Samsung’s extra upmarket 970 Pro is the superior drive on this class, however you’ll hate your self so much much less by choosing the considerably cheaper and nonetheless blisteringly quick Evo mannequin.
Since that is solely out there in an M.2 type issue, you’ll want to ensure your motherboard helps it before you purchase one. Most trendy motherboards do, although, so supplied you’ve bought a spare M.2 slot prepared and ready, although, the 970 Evo is undoubtedly the very best and most reasonably priced method to get a style of what NVMe SSDs have to supply.
Available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB dimension capacities, the 970 Evo is a huge step up out of your typical 2.5in SATA Three SSD. Capable of dealing with a number of learn and write queues in over 2000MB/s, that is an SSD for the final word energy consumer. You don’t fairly get these types of speeds for smaller, on a regular basis duties, thoughts, however you’re nonetheless taking a look at considerably quicker learn and write speeds (28% and 42% respectively) than Samsung’s personal 2.5in 860 Evo. It additionally comfortably sees off the competitors from WD’s Black 3D NVMe SSD as properly, making it the very best worth for cash premium SSD you should buy at this time.
Read extra in our Samsung 970 Evo review.
UK costs:
250GB: £86 from Amazon
500GB: £159 from Amazon
1TB: £311 from Amazon
2TB: £600 from Amazon
US costs:
250GB: $110 from Samsung
500GB: $200 from Samsung
1TB: $400 from Samsung
2TB: $800 from Samsung
And the remaining…
Below is an inventory of each different SSD we’ve reviewed up to now (simply so that you’ve bought every thing in a single place), however the three we’ve listed above are the actual cream of the crop, each by way of worth and outright efficiency. I’ll be updating and including extra to this checklist as we get them in for testing, although, so anticipate extra new fashions to be showing within the coming weeks and months.
2.5in SSDs:
Samsung 850 Evo
Samsung 850 Pro
Samsung 860 Pro
Crucial MX500
WD Blue 3D NAND
NVMe SSDs:
Samsung 960 Evo
Samsung 960 Pro
Samsung 970 Pro
WD Black 3D NVMe SSD
External SSDs:
SSD shopping for information: Form elements defined
2.5in SSDs: The best drop-in substitute for the standard arduous disk is a 2.5in SATA mannequin. These are the identical dimension and form as a regular 2.5in arduous disk, and plug into a traditional SATA port in your motherboard. Most trendy PC circumstances have mounting factors for two.5in arduous disks, usually on the again of the motherboard tray. If yours doesn’t, you need to use a £5 adaptor (actually only a 3.5in-wide metallic plate with screw holes) to suit the SSD in a traditional 3.5in arduous disk bay.
To keep away from crippling the SSD’s efficiency, be sure to plug the SSD right into a SATA Three port in your motherboard, relatively than use SATA 2. SATA Three SSDs will work in SATA 2 ports, however you’ll seemingly lose round half the SSD’s efficiency.
The chief drawback of two.5in SSDs, in comparison with the mSATA, M.2 and PCI Express playing cards mentioned under, is that they use SATA 3: an interface that’s been round since 2009, and one which isn’t fast sufficient to deal with the quickest trendy SSDs. However, for many customers, a SATA Three SSD can be wonderful, and nonetheless a number of instances quicker than a mechanical arduous disk.
NVMe SSDs require an M.2 slot (above) in your motherboard
M.2 and PCIe SSDs: If you’re out there for a super-fast SSD that gained’t be encumbered by its interface, you could transfer past SATA to PCI Express, or PCIe (additionally referred to as PCIe NVMe or simply NVMe). Most PCIe SSDs are mounted on to the motherboard in an M.2 slot. If your motherboard doesn’t have such a slot, there’s just one method to unleash the velocity: a PCIe add-in card, or AIC. These add-in playing cards will slot in a spare PCIe x4 or x16 slot, and are monstrously fast, in addition to monstrously costly: whereas a 240GB SATA3 SSD will price you about £80, an equal dimension PCIe card can be over £150. This is the worth you pay for nearly 4 instances the efficiency in sure conditions.
If you will have a more recent motherboard with an M.2 slot, an M.2 SSD is a neater approach so as to add super-fast PCIe storage. Most M.2 SSDs are simply 22mm huge and 80mm lengthy (so a few third shorter than a stick of RAM) and screw straight into the motherboard – no extra having to route SATA and energy cables round your case.
However, the M.2 normal is a little bit difficult, mainly because of its versatility. For starters, there are a number of sizes of M.2 card, equivalent to 2280 and 22110: the primary two digits denote the cardboard’s width in mm, and the remaining numbers are the cardboard’s size. Fortunately, the vast majority of shopper M.2 SSDs are the 2280 dimension. What’s extra, in addition to PCIe storage, the M.2 slot also can assist SATA SSDs. These don’t have the efficiency benefit of PCIe M.2 drives, however rating for neatness, and are about the identical value as 2.5in SSDs. Check what requirements your motherboard helps, as PCIe SSDs is not going to work in SATA-only slots and vice versa.
The excellent news is that many motherboards assist each PCIe and SATA M.2 SSDs, supplying you with the flexibility to decide on between fast-but-expensive PCIe and slower (however nonetheless quick) and cheaper SATA. Bear in thoughts that the claimed speeds are for sequential transfers, relatively than random reads and writes, so must be thought-about a best-case state of affairs. It’s additionally value taking a look at a drive’s IOPS, or enter/output operations per second, ranking. This isn’t at all times listed in an SSD’s specs, however it could actually make a giant distinction to an SSD’s real-world efficiency. A drive with a excessive IOPS ranking can carry out many extra information reads and writes per second than a lower-rated mannequin, which might make an enormous distinction within the advanced information switch duties required by a contemporary working system.
mSATA SSDs: You’ll additionally see just a few mSATA SSDs on the market. The mSATA interface is an older interface that M.2 was designed to exchange. MSATA drives are tiny (51x30mm), have basically the identical efficiency as 2.5in and M.2 SATA Three drives, and are about the identical value. If you will have a motherboard (or laptop computer) with an mSATA connector, an mSATA drive is unquestionably value a glance.
What dimension SSD do I want?
One of the primary belongings you’ll discover when looking for an SSD is that they’re an terrible lot dearer than mechanical arduous disks. Spinning disks are astounding worth, with 1TB fashions out there for £40; if you need a terabyte SSD, you’ll have to seek out over £250. For this cause, in case you’re on any sort of funds, you’ll want to consider how a lot capability you want. The minimal dimension SSD I’d suggest is 240GB, as this will provide you with room for Windows, your productiveness functions and some video games.
If you will have a big picture and music assortment, it’s value bumping it as much as the 480GB mark (from £130 for a 2.5in SSD). I’ve 13,000 images and seven,000 music tracks on my PC, which take up about 100GB. With Windows (round 20GB), Office (round 3GB), 5 or so AAA video games and my footage and tunes, I’ll nonetheless have about 80GB left on such an SSD. Games are solely going to get larger, after all. If you prefer to have greater than a few huge titles put in without delay, take into account discovering the money for a terabyte SSD. Also, some high-performance SSDs are faster at bigger capacities, because of having extra flash chips for the SSD controller to entry in parallel.
If you want more room, it could be value utilizing your SSD alongside a traditional arduous disk, and even the arduous disk you presently personal. You can use the SSD for Windows, functions and video games, and put your space-hungry information on the arduous disk. By default the Windows Users folders, so Documents, Pictures, Videos and so forth, can be on the system (C) drive, however you may redirect them to a different disk by right-clicking every folder, deciding on Properties, then Location. However, redirecting your Users folders away from their default places can generally trigger issues; if I used to be going to make use of the SSD/arduous disk combo, I’d simply create normal folders for the large information I wished to maintain on the arduous disk, and keep away from the corresponding Users folders fully.
