Switching to a solid-state drive is the best upgrade you can make for your PC. These wondrous devices speed up boot times, improve the responsiveness of your programs and games, and generally make your computer feel fast. But not all solid-state drives are the same. You can spend big to achieve read and write speeds that reach a whole other level, or you can find top-notch SSDs that offer solid performance without breaking the bank.
Many SSDs come in a 2.5-inch form factor and connect to your PC via the same SATA port used by a traditional hard drive. But tiny NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) “gumstick” SSDs that fit in an M.2 connection on a modern motherboard are becoming increasingly common, along with blazing-fast PCIe 4.0 (and now 5.0) solid-state drives for compatible PCs; you’ll even find SSDs that sit on a PCIe adapter and slot into your motherboard like a graphics card or sound card. No, picking the perfect SSD isn’t as simple as it used to be.
Why you should trust us: It’s in our name, PCWorld. Our reviewers have been testing PC hardware for decades. Our storage evaluations are thorough and rigorous, testing the limits of every product — from performance benchmarks to the practicalities of regular use. As PC users ourselves, we know what makes a product stand out. Only the best SSDs make this list. For more about our testing process, scroll to the bottom of this article.
See also PCWorld’s guide to the best external drives if you’re strictly looking for a portable storage solution.
Updated September 9, 2024 See our list of recent reviews below our recommendations to learn about other drives that didn’t make the cut. Also, our article on why two SSDs are better than one in your PC is worth pondering when you’re making a purchasing decision.
Samsung 870 EVO – Best SATA SSD
Pros
- Excellent performance, especially with small file operations
- Unlike the QVO, long writes don’t slow down
Cons
- A little expensive
If you’re looking to add some storage via a traditional 2.5-inch SATA drive rather than a tiny M.2 “gumstick,” Samsung’s spectacular 870 EVO is your best bet. It’s the fastest SATA SSD we’ve tested, it’s available in up to 4TB of capacity, and it’s exceedingly affordable given its speed. Enough said, really — though Samsung’s killer Magician SSD management software and long warranty period also deserve a shout-out. The EVO series is a legend among SSDs for a reason.
Crucial BX500 – Best budget SATA SSD
Pros
- Good everyday performance
- Low price per gigabyte
Cons
- Slows drastically when secondary cache runs out
The Samsung 870 EVO offers an intoxicating blend of performance and affordable pricing, but if you want as much capacity as possible for as cheaply as possible, consider the Crucial BX500. You can get its 1TB model for $70.50, almost $40 less than the equivalent EVO, while a 2TB version costs just $125.
The drive also comes in exceedingly affordable 240GB and 480GB capacities, but as we said in our review: “We recommend this QLC drive in the larger capacities for those who want good everyday performance for a budget price,” adding that “the smaller capacities will likely run into more slowdowns during heavy writes.”
Crucial P3 – Best PCIe 3.0 SSD
Pros
- Excellent everyday PCIe 3 performance
- Fantastically low price per GB
Cons
- Very low TBW rating
- Non-cached QLC writes are extremely slow
Sure, PCIe 4.0 SSDs scream during big file transfers, but if you’re still using an older system with PCIe 3.0, upgrading to an NVMe SSD still provides substantial benefits to your PC’s speed and overall responsiveness. Better yet, you don’t need to break the bank to take advantage. The Crucial P3 is a very good daily performer, but it’s available for a bargain rate of just $45 for a 500GB model or $65 for a 1TB model. Though it doesn’t have top-tier PCIe 4 performance and the TBW rating is pretty low, the P3 does have excellent real-world write times and unless you really stress the drive you shouldn’t notice much of a difference anyhow.
All told, this drive is an outstanding choice for anyone looking to snag a solid everyday SSD at a great price.
WD Blue SN5000 – Best budget PCIe 4.0 SSD
Pros
- Good everyday performance
- Very affordable
- Fastest NVMe SSD of any ilk we’ve tested writing 450GB
Cons
- Top performance requires HMB support
With PCIe 5.0 drives coming to market, we’re finally starting to see companies offering budget PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives at compelling prices. Our previous pick, the WD Blue SN580 NVMe SSD, has just been supplanted by WD’s Blue SN5000. At just $75 for a 1TB model at the time of writing, and with speedy transfers, you won’t likely find a better value PCIe 4.0 drive.
In our testing, this drive proved to be among the fastest Host Memory Buffer (HMB) SSDs we’ve tested. And unlike the SN580 before it, the SN5000 didn’t falter at the 450GB transfer test, but instead tied the record among all SSDs.
You can save a few more dollars by opting for the Kingston NV3. It’s competitive with the SN5000 Blue in many tests, and even faster at 450GB writes, but has a less generous warranty: three years as opposed to the SN5000’s five years.
Solidigm P44 Pro SSD – Best PCIe 4.0 SSD
Pros
- Fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD to date
- DRAM facilitates excellent random performance
- Synergy low-level Windows driver improves random performance further
Cons
- Inconsistent pricing on web
The Solidigm P44 Pro is the fastest PCIe 4.0 drive we have ever tested bar none. In fact, it finished within the top five fastest drives in our tests, and was only beaten by three next-gen PCIe 5.0 drives. Plus, it becomes even faster when you install the Solidigm Windows driver, which further improves random performance in small read/writes.
Not only does the Solidigm P44 Pro provide top-notch performance, but it also comes at a very reasonable price if you shop at the right place — we found that pricing varies widely online from retailer to retailer. This is one of the best SSDs on the market, and holds its own at the top despite stiff competition from a crowded field of other excellent PCIe 4.0 drives.
Our runner-up for the best PCIe 4.0 drive is the WD Black SN850X. It’s a screaming-fast drive, delivering top-tier performance. If you can find it at a competitive price to the P44 Pro, you’d be golden buying either SSD.
Teamgroup Z540 – Best PCIe 5.0 SSD
Pros
- PCIe 5.0
- Up to 4TB in capacity (soon)
- Second-fastest SSD we’ve tested overall
Cons
- Not particularly cheap
As with any PCIe 5.0 SSD, there are important caveats to bear in mind. For starters, you’ll pay a premium over extremely fast, and in some cases even faster NVMe PCIe 4.0 drives that employ a host memory buffer (HMB) design, as you can see in our review of the Solidigm P44 Pro — our pick for best PCIe 4.0 SSD.
But if you use multi-threaded software and your system sports a 13th/14th-gen Intel CPU (which the Phison PS5026-E26-52 controller inside this drive is optimized for), you can be assured of benchmarking-busting performance.
Now, in all fairness the Z540 isn’t the fastest PCIe 5.0 drive we’ve tested. It traded benchmark wins with our previous top pick the Crucial T705. But the Teamgroup Z540 has that competitor beat, decisively, when it comes to price, making it the clear pick for this category.
How can you argue with the Z540’s $143, $247, and $470 asking prices for 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB, respectively, compared with the T705’s $155, $280, and $515 prices, when performance is so close? That’s the kind of savings that pushes a close-second winner into the lead, in our book.
That being said, keep an eye on those prices, because they are always changing, and today’s alternative pick could easily become tomorrow’s best buy. Similarly, Corsair’s MP700 Pro SE offers very competitive performance that could make it a tasty option if its prices are to come down.
Bottom line: PCIe 5.0 shoppers have lots to choose from!
Crucial P310 (2230) – Best SSD for Steam Deck
Pros
- Fastest 2230 SSD we’ve tested
- Available with up to 2TB of capacity
Cons
- Low TBW endurance rating
If you’re looking to upgrade the storage in your Steam Deck, you can’t just go with any of the best SSDs available to PCs — you need a 2230 module, meaning one that measures 22mm wide, by 30mm long.
Luckily there are at least a few nice options to choose from, such as the the WD Black SN770M and Corsair MP600 Core Mini, and our favorite, the Crucial P310.
Why are we partial to the P310? Because it’s the fastest 2230 SSD we’ve tested, and by a rather large margin.
It bested our previous pick — the aforementioned WD Black SN770M — in every benchmark save for the 450GB transfer, where it lost steam at the 85 percent mark after running out of secondary cache. But large transfers are rare for most users.
The P310 is a little more pricey than the SN770M, too, but not by much more than $10 for both the 1TB and 2TB offerings.
If optimum speed is what you’re after, and you don’t foresee regularly moving large amounts of data, the P310 is the ticket.
Seagate Game Drive SSD – Best SSD for PS5
Pros
- Very good overall performance
- Excellent 4K performance
- Low-profile heatsink
- Twice the TBW rating of the competition
Cons
- A bit pricey
- No 4TB model
The Seagate Game Drive PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD was made specifically for next-gen consoles—the PS5 in particular. And it doesn’t disappoint. Instead of HMB, it features DRAM for primary caching duties, which is practically essential for Sony’s console system. This is important because the PS5 doesn’t support HMB, so a drive such as this with DRAM cache is a must. The drive comes in 1TB and 2TB models, which means you’ll have plenty of space to store all of your games should you need it.
While the Seagate Game Drive is optimized for a PS5, it’s no slouch as a regular SSD either. In our speed tests it did remarkably well, earning the spot as the second-fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD with random ops that we’ve ever tested. Seagate also provides a generous five-year warranty with the drive and it has an astounding 1,275TBW rating—more than double the industry norm. The drive is a bit pricey, but the special optimizations for PS5 means that console owners can rest easy knowing that their money is going to good use with the Seagate Game Drive.
Crucial X9 Pro – Best external SSD
Pros
- Super small form factor
- Great 10Gbps performance
- Handsome design
Cons
- Not the least expensive 10Gbps SSD available
With great everyday performance and an affordable price, the Crucial X9 Pro is our favorite external SSD. This svelte beauty will give you transfer rates of 10Gbps and comes in 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB capacities with reasonable prices for each. In our testing we found that the X9 Pro performed admirably against the other 10Gbps competition. It especially excelled in the real-world 48GB transfer test and the 450GB write time test where it smoked other similar 10Gbps drives we’ve tested.
Crucial also has an X10 Pro model on offer that gives you 20Gbps transfer speeds, but you’ll pay quite a bit more for that extra speed. Regardless, we think that the X9 Pro will serve the average user perfectly fine with excellent all-around performance and a cheaper price point. You can’t ask much more from a 10Gbps USD external SSD than what the Crucial X9 Pro gives you.
For many more external SSD recommendations, see our roundup of the best external drives.
Our latest external drive reviews
- Kingston NV3: This PCIe 4.0 SSD is proof that DRAM-less drives, meaning those that use a Host Memory Buffer (HMB) as cache, can offer competitive performance, while also saving the consumer some money. We just wish it had a more generous warranty.
- Adata 970 Pro: Gamers will love the heatsink and overall design of this PCIe 5.0 SSD. But it did turn in some middling single-queue performance benchmarks, making it a tough sell against the best of this ilk.
- Sabrent Rocket Nano 2242: Featuring a smaller form factor (22mm x 42mm), this good-performing drive was tailor-made for Lenovo’s Legion Go and Thinkpads — but it can also be used in a standard slot as well.
NVMe SSD setup: What you need to know
Be aware of what NVMe drives deliver before you buy in. Standard SATA SSDs already supercharge boot times and loading times for PCs, and for a whole lot cheaper. You’ll get the most use from NVMe drives, be it in a M.2 form factor like the Samsung 980 Pro or a PCIe drive, if you routinely transfer data, especially in large amounts. If you don’t do that, NVMe drives aren’t worth the price premium.
If you decide to buy an NVMe SSD, make sure your PC can handle it. This is a relatively new technology, so you’ll only be able to find M.2-connection motherboards from the past few years. Think AMD Ryzen and mainstream Intel chips from the 6th-generation era onward, for the most part. NVMe SSDs that were mounted on PCIe adapters were popular in the technology’s early years, before M.2 adoption spread, but they’re rarer now. Make sure you’re actually able to use an NVMe SSD before you buy one, and be aware that you’ll need four PCIe lanes available in order to use it to its full potential. You’ll need a newer Ryzen 3000- or 5000-series CPU, or an Intel 11th- or 12th-gen CPU, to run a PCIe 4.0 SSD to its full potential. PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs will work in a PCIe 3.0 computer, but at slower PCIe 3.0 speeds.
The Samsung 960 Pro NVMe SSD in an M.2 slot.
The Samsung 960 Pro NVMe SSD in an M.2 slot.
The Samsung 960 Pro NVMe SSD in an M.2 slot.
To get the most out of an NVMe drive, you want to run your operating system on it, so you must have a system that recognizes the drive and can boot from it. PCs purchased during the past year or two should have no problem booting from an NVMe drive, but support for that can be iffy in older motherboards. Do a Google search for your motherboard and see if it supports booting from NVMe. You may need to install a BIOS update for your board. If your hardware can’t boot from an NVMe SSD, your machine should still be able to use it as a secondary drive.
What to look for in an SSD
Capacity and price are important, of course, and a long warranty can alleviate fears of premature data death. Most SSD manufacturers offer a three-year warranty, and some nicer models are guaranteed for five years. But unlike the olden days of SSDs, modern drives won’t wear out with normal consumer usage, as Tech Report tested and proved years ago with a grueling endurance test.
The biggest thing to watch out for is the technology used to connect the SSD to your PC. We go into deeper details and buying advice in our guide on which type of SSD you should buy.
- SATA: This refers to both the connection type and the transfer protocol, which is used to connect most 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives and SSDs to your PC. SATA III speeds can hit roughly 600MBps, and most—but not all—modern drives max it out. (More on that in the next section.)
- PCIe: This interface taps into four of your computer’s PCIe lanes to blow away SATA speeds, to the tune of nearly 4GBps over PCIe gen 3. Those sort of face-melting speeds pair nicely with supercharged NVMe drives. Both the PCIe lanes in your motherboard and the M.2 slot in your motherboard can be wired to support the PCIe interface, and you can buy adapters that allow you to slot “gumstick” M.2 drives into a PCIe lane. PCIe 4.0 drives are significantly faster, but require an AMD Ryzen 3000-series or Intel Core 11th-gen (or newer) processor, along with a compatible PCIe 4.0 motherboard.
- NVMe: Non-Volatile Memory Express technology takes advantage of PCIe’s bountiful bandwidth to create blisteringly fast SSDs that blow SATA-based drives out of the water. Check out PCWorld’s “Everything you need to know about NVMe” for a nitty-gritty deep-dive.
- M.2: This is where things get tricky. Many people assume M.2 drives all use NVMe technology and PCIe speeds, but that’s not true. M.2 is just a form factor. Sure, most M.2 SSDs use NVMe, but some still stick to SATA. Do your homework. Many modern Ultrabooks rely on M.2 for storage.
- U.2 and mSATA: You may also stumble across mSATA and U.2 SSDs, but both motherboard support and product availability are rare for those formats. Some older Ultrabooks included mSATA before M.2 became popular, and drives are still available if you need them.
Speed matters, of course, but as we said most modern SSDs saturate the SATA III interface. Not all of them, though.
SSDs vs. hard drives
Do you need an SSD? “Need” is a strong word, but we heartily recommend that everyone upgrade to an SSD. Solid-state drive speeds blow even the fastest mechanical hard drives out of the water. Simply swapping out the hard drive in your old laptop or desktop for an SSD can make it feel like a whole new system—and a blazing-fast one at that. Buying an SSD is easily the best upgrade you can make for a computer.
SSDs cost more per gigabyte than mechanical hard drives, though, and thus aren’t often available in ultra-high capacities. If you want speed and storage space, you can buy an SSD with limited space and use it as your boot drive, then set up a traditional hard drive as secondary storage in your PC. Place your programs on your boot drive, stash your media and other files on the hard drive, and you’re ready to have your cake and eat it too.
How we test SSDs
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit running on an X790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of memory total). Intel integrated graphics are used. The 48GB transfer tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, which also contains the operating system.
Each test is performed on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that as any drive fills up, performance will decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, and other factors.
The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped as well as the capacity tested. SSD performance can vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to read/write across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching (writing TLC/QLC as SLC). Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report (systems being roughly equal), by all means—let us know.