Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
EDITORS’ NOTE
May 3, 2026: With this update, we removed the Samsung SSD 980 (Best High-Performance M.2 Drive for PCI Express 3.0 Upgrades), and recategorized the Crucial P3 as the Best M.2 Drive for PCI Express 3.0 Upgrades. We also removed the Samsung SSD 870 QVO as Best SATA 2.5-Inch Drive for Mainstream Upgrades, replacing it with the Samsung SSD 870 EVO. Our remaining SSD picks have been vetted for currency and availability. Since our last update, we have tested and evaluated four new SSDs for inclusion in this roundup and our other SSD roundups. We currently have storage products in PC Labs for testing from makers including Corsair, Seagate, and Orico.
- Available in both heatsink and non-heatsink versions
- Strong benchmark scores
- High-quality software included
- Compatible with PlayStation 5
- Fairly high cost per gigabyte
The Crucial T500 performed superbly against other elite PCI Express 4.0 SSDs in our benchmark testing, posting excellent results in both general storage and gaming tests. The T500, which is available in capacities up to 4TB, meets the TCG Opal security standard, and comes with useful software. With the addition of a compact heatsink, the T500 can be used with the Sony PlayStation 5.
Upgraders: The Crucial T500 is for users willing to pay a little extra to get the best PCI Express 4.0 SSD performance. Its results in both the PCMark 10 Overall general-storage and 3DMark Storage gaming-centric benchmarks are superb.
Gamers: The T500 served up impressive results on the 3DMark Storage gaming-oriented test, and you can configure it with a compact heatsink. Unlike many recent M.2 SSDs, the T500 has a full DRAM cache (as well as a top-shelf Phison controller and 232-layer TLC NAND flash), which could give it an advantage in sustained large-file transfers, as well as in use with the PS5.
Internal or External
Internal
Internal Form Factor
M.2 Type-2280
Interface (Computer Side)
M.2 Type-2280
Capacity (Tested)
2 TB
NAND Type
TLC
Controller Maker
Phison
Bus Type
PCI Express 4.0
Rated Maximum Sequential Read
7400 MBps
Rated Maximum Sequential Write
7000 MBps
Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating
1200 TBW
Warranty Length
5 years
Learn More
Crucial T500
Review
- Record-setting 4K results for SATA drives
- Strong write-durability rating
- Samsung Magician is the gold standard of SSD management software
- SATA drives still have a lower ceiling than PCI Express for large file transfers
SATA drives still have their place in the SSD world, as the primary storage in legacy systems and as supplementary storage in M.2 systems; they’re much faster than spinning hard drives. The Samsung SSD 870 EVO, our favorite SATA SSD, comes in capacities up to 4TB. In the PCMark 10 Overall benchmark, which measures general storage aptitude, it did better than some M.2 SSDs.
Upgraders: If you want to replace or upgrade the SSD in a legacy SATA-based computer, the Samsung SSD 870 EVO is the best we have encountered. It did particularly well in the PCMark 10 Overall general-storage benchmark, in tasks like booting Windows, loading game levels, and launching creative programs like Adobe with simulated projects housed inside. It can also give you give you a boost in capacity, up to as much as 4TB.
Desktop users seeking extra capacity: If your desktop computer lacks a spare M.2 slot, you can boost its capacity by adding a SATA drive such as the 870 EVO, connecting its data and power cables to their appropriate motherboard sockets. Another alternative is to put the 870 EVO in an inexpensive SATA drive housing, making it in effect an external drive that can be connected via a USB cable to your computer.
Internal or External
Internal
Internal Form Factor
2.5-Inch
Interface (Computer Side)
SATA
Capacity (Tested)
4 TB
NAND Type
TLC
Controller Maker
Samsung
Bus Type
Serial ATA
Rated Maximum Sequential Read
560 MBps
Rated Maximum Sequential Write
530 MBps
Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating
2400 TBW
Warranty Length
5 years
Learn More
Samsung SSD 870 EVO
Review
- Slightly exceeds its blistering rated speeds
- Good all-around benchmark performance
- 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption
- Includes free cloning-software download
- PlayStation 5 compatible
- Ships with graphene-embedded foam heat spreader rather than aluminum heatsink
The Acer Predator GM7000, the first PCI Express 4.0 NVMe SSD in the company’s Predator line, is every bit as lethal as its gaming laptop and monitor brandmates, performing well in our gaming and general-storage benchmarks. In addition to use with a desktop or laptop computer, the GM7000 easily meets Sony’s specs for use as a secondary drive for the PlayStation 5; Acer offers an optional aluminum heatsink that is compact enough for PS5 use. The Predator also delivers 256-bit AES encryption, and includes Acronis True Image data cloning and backup software.
Gamers: The GM7000 tallied some of the fastest throughput speeds we have seen in a PCI Express 4.0 SSD, and performed well in both gaming-centric and general-storage benchmark testing. As noted above, the drive easily meets Sony’s specs for use as a secondary drive for the PlayStation 5, and Acer offers an optional aluminum heatsink compact enough for PS5 use.
Creators and power users: As a feature-rich high-performance PCI Express 4.0 NVMe SSD, the GM7000 did very well in our general storage testing, turning in some of our highest scores for a PCIe 4.0 stick in our Adobe program loading trace testing. This versatile SSD can be used with a PS5, a laptop, or a desktop computer. The Predator, which is available with or without a heatsink (it does ship with a graphene-embedded heat spreader), includes hardware-based encryption, plus a free download of Acronis True Image cloning software.
Internal or External
Internal
Internal Form Factor
M.2 Type-2280
Interface (Computer Side)
M.2 Type-2280
Capacity (Tested)
2 TB
NAND Type
TLC
Controller Maker
InnoGrit
Bus Type
PCI Express 4.0
Rated Maximum Sequential Read
7400 MBps
Rated Maximum Sequential Write
6700 MBps
Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating
1200 TBW
Warranty Length
5 years
Learn More
Acer Predator GM7000
Review
- Available in capacities up to 8TB
- Screaming-fast random read/write speeds
- Exceptional PCMark 10 benchmark performance
- Includes Acronis True Image backup and migration software
- Meets TCG/Opal V2.0 security standard
- Requires a computer with a PCI Express 5.0 M.2 slot for full performance
Sandisk’s WD Black SN8100, soon to be rebranded as the Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 8100, is in the vanguard of a new breed of PCI Express 5.0 SSDs designed for both performance and power efficiency, enabling its use with compact heatsinks. It numbers among the best-performing internal SSDs we have reviewed to date. It chalked up new high scores in Crystal DiskMark’s sequential-throughput and 4K read tests, set a record high in our PCMark 10 Overall Storage testing, and came within a hair of a top score in the 3DMark Storage gaming benchmark. The SN8100 comes in capacities of up to 8TB.
Gamers: The SN8100 holds the record for the highest sequential read and write scores we’ve ever seen in Crystal DiskMark testing, and a near-record score in the gaming-centric 3DMark Storage benchmark.Since we reviewed the SN8100, Sandisk has added a version of the drive with a compact heatsink as well as an 8TB version of the drive, which should hold a trove of AAA games.
Content creators: The SN8100 outperformed all previous SSDs we have reviewed in the Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro launch trace tests of the PCMark 10 benchmark. Its 4TB and 8TB versions should ensure that you have all the room you need for storing and working with video files.
Internal or External
Internal
Internal Form Factor
M.2 Type-2280
Interface (Computer Side)
M.2 Type-2280
Capacity (Tested)
2 TB
NAND Type
TLC
Controller Maker
Silicon Motion
Bus Type
PCI Express 5.0
Rated Maximum Sequential Read
14900 MBps
Rated Maximum Sequential Write
14000 MBps
Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating
1200 TBW
Warranty Length
5 years
Learn More
WD Black SN8100
Review
- Comes with dual-fan heatsink in place
- Colorful RGB lighting
- Speedy performance, especially on gaming-centric 3DMark Storage benchmark
- Meets TCG Opal 2.0 encryption standard
- Requires PCIe 5.0-compatible desktop PC to get full performance benefits
- No 4TB version
The PNY XLR8 CS3150 is a PCI Express 5.0 internal solid-state drive geared to gamers, with searing speeds (if you have the right hardware) and a dual-fan heatsink. The latter includes RGB lighting that you can set to a range of patterns using downloadable PNY software. (Of course, to see the lighting, you will need a desktop with a see-through case.)
Gamers: The XLR8 CS3150 is primarily for users seeking an SSD with superior gaming performance. With its programmable lighting, it’s got the gamer aesthetic down pat. You do need to supply a PCIe 5.0-enabled rig that can show off the CS3150 for maximum effect.
DIYers: The CS3150 is a perfect component for enthusiasts looking to build a Gen 5 rig with a glass-sided case to show off the blinged-out RGB-lit components in its interior. Active cooling, in the form of its included fan-based heatsink, should keep thermal throttling in check.
Internal or External
Internal
Internal Form Factor
M.2 Type-2280
Interface (Computer Side)
M.2 Type-2280
Capacity (Tested)
1 TB
NAND Type
TLC
Controller Maker
Phison
Bus Type
PCI Express 5.0
Rated Maximum Sequential Read
11500 MBps
Rated Maximum Sequential Write
8500 MBps
Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating
700 TBW
Warranty Length
5 years
Learn More
PNY XLR8 CS3150
Review
- Moderately priced for an elite PCI Express 4.0 SSD
- Comes in capacities up to 4TB
- Compatible with PlayStation 5
- Includes compact heatsink
- Strong benchmark results and good durability ratings
- Lacks AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption
- DRAM-less architecture could affect sustained large-file transfers
The modestly priced Addlink AddGame A93, a DRAM-less PCI Express 4.0 SSD with TLC NAND, is available in capacities up to 4TB. It produced solid benchmark scores compared with other PCIe 4.0 drives in our testing. The A93 ships with an aluminum heatsink attached, and is compatible with the Sony PlayStation 5.
PS5 users: The AddGame A93’s aluminum heatsink is compact enough to fit in the secondary M.2 slot in a PlayStation 5. The drive, which comes in capacities up to 4TB, meets all of Sony’s guidelines for a PS5-friendly SSD, and put up competitive numbers in the gaming-centric 3DMark Storage benchmark.
Upgraders: The A93 is a good replacement for an older PCI Express 4.0 SSD. Its DRAM-less architecture keeps its price down in all of its capacities, and it put up good numbers in our benchmark testing.
Internal or External
Internal
Internal Form Factor
M.2 Type-2280
Interface (Computer Side)
M.2 Type-2280
Capacity (Tested)
4 TB
NAND Type
TLC
Controller Maker
Maxio Technology
Bus Type
PCI Express 4.0
Rated Maximum Sequential Read
7400 MBps
Rated Maximum Sequential Write
6500 MBps
Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating
3000 TBW
Warranty Length
5 years
Learn More
Addlink AddGame A93
Review
Best High-Performance M.2 Drive for PCI Express 4.0 Upgrades
WD Black SN850X
- Available in capacities up to 8TB, with or without a heatsink
- Exceeded both its sequential read and write speed ratings
- Aced PCMark and 3DMark storage tests
- Lacks 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption
Sandisk’s WD Black SN850X (soon to be rebranded as the Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850X) is an upgrade to Western Digital’s high-performance PCI Express 4.0 NVMe internal gaming SSD, the SN850. The SN850X improves on an already excellent drive by giving buyers the option for a 4TB version and an upgrade in flash-memory technology that boosts sequential read and write speeds. It turned in improved benchmark results in both gaming and general storage tests (including a new PC Labs record in the 3DMark Storage benchmark for a PCIe 4.0 SSD). You’ll definitely want to use a heatsink with this speedster; it’s available with or without one. About all it lacks is hardware-based security.
Upgraders seeking a balance of speed and capacity: With the raw speed of an elite PCI Express 4.0 SSD, the SN850X has proved its mettle with impressive scores in both our general storage (PCMark 10 Overall Storage) and gaming-centric (3DMark Storage) benchmark tests. Now available in capacities up to 8TB, the SN850X can host a large media or game library.
Gamers: The SN850X is a great choice for gaming as an elite PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD. It posted a record high score for a PCI Express 4.0 SSD, which still stands, on the gaming-centric 3DMark Storage benchmark. At the 4TB and 8TB levels, the SN850X can hold an abundance of AAA games.
Internal or External
Internal
Internal Form Factor
M.2 Type-2280
Interface (Computer Side)
M.2 Type-2280
Capacity (Tested)
2 TB
NAND Type
TLC
Controller Maker
SanDisk
Bus Type
PCI Express 4.0
Rated Maximum Sequential Read
7300 MBps
Rated Maximum Sequential Write
6600 MBps
Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating
1200 TBW
Warranty Length
5 years
Learn More
WD Black SN850X
Review
Best M.2 Drive for PCI Express 3.0 Upgrades
Crucial P3
- Available in capacities up to 4TB
- Low cost per gigabyte for all models
- Includes link for Acronis True Image cloning software
- Good benchmark results for a PCI Express 3.0 drive
- Relatively low write-durability (TBW) ratings
- Lacks 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption
The Crucial P3 is a good choice as a PCI Express 3.0 SSD to upgrade your system, performing well as such, and at a modest price. As the successor to the Crucial P2, the P3 offers higher capacities and much higher throughput speeds at a lower cost per gigabyte, thanks to Micron’s switch from TLC to QLC flash memory for this drive. The drawback is that the change lowers the P3’s write-durability rating, making it best for tasks that don’t consistently write huge amounts of data to the drive, day in and day out. The controller lacks a DRAM cache, which along with the choice of QLC NAND keeps its price down. That setup has caused a performance hit on some SSDs, especially with large file transfers, but the P3 generally scored well in the PCMark 10 benchmarks.
Users with older PCs: The Crucial P3 provides good performance in a PCI Express 3.0 NVMe SSD. Its QLC NAND flash memory keeps the P3’s price down while allowing capacities up to 4TB. It’s a spot-on pick for upgrading older PCs that don’t support PCIe 4.0.
Bargain hunters: The Crucial P3 is a cost-effective SSD option for users who don’t need the latest SSD speed, thanks to its PCI Express 3.0 interface and QLC NAND flash memory. Though it won’t set any speed records, it performed well for a PCIe 3.0 SSD in our benchmarks.
Internal or External
Internal
Internal Form Factor
M.2 Type-2280
Interface (Computer Side)
M.2 Type-2280
Capacity (Tested)
2 TB
NAND Type
QLC
Controller Maker
Phison
Bus Type
PCI Express 3.0 x4
Rated Maximum Sequential Read
3500 MBps
Rated Maximum Sequential Write
3000 MBps
Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating
440 TBW
Warranty Length
5 years
Learn More
Crucial P3
Review
- Available in capacities up to 8TB
- High durability rating
- Modestly priced at lower capacities
- Excellent PCMark 10 Overall score
- Cost per gigabyte is much higher for the 8TB version
- Low 4K (random) write and small-file copy scores
The TeamGroup MP44 is one of the few PCI Express 4.0 M.2 SSDs available in capacities up to a whopping 8TB, though you do pay a premium per gigabyte at that capacity. The MP44, a DRAM-less internal SSD equipped with a graphene heat spreader, demonstrated its capabilities in general storage tasks, achieving a notable score in our PCMark 10 Overall benchmarking test. Its durability rating is among the highest we have seen on an M.2 SSD.
Upgraders: Whether it’s general performance, capacity, or both that you’re looking for, the TeamGroup MP44 has your back. It achieved a great score for a PCI Express 4.0 SSD in the PCMark 10 Overall benchmark, which measures an SSD’s performance in a range of everyday storage tasks.
Capacity hounds: While many SSD makers have claimed that they have an 8TB version of their M.2 SSD in the works, Teamgroup is one of the few that has actually delivered. This makes it a good fit for both content creators and users who want more space for a game or media library. While we love the fact that the TeamGroup MP44 is available in capacities up to 8TB, the cost per gigabyte at that capacity makes it best for well-heeled shoppers with a lot of data to store. Its high durability rating makes it a good choice for users who frequently write and overwrite scads of data.
Internal or External
Internal
Internal Form Factor
M.2 Type-2280
Interface (Computer Side)
M.2 Type-2280
Capacity (Tested)
2 TB
NAND Type
TLC
Controller Maker
Maxio Technology
Bus Type
PCI Express 4.0
Rated Maximum Sequential Read
7400 MBps
Rated Maximum Sequential Write
7000 MBps
Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating
2500 TBW
Warranty Length
5 years
Learn More
TeamGroup MP44
Review
The Best Internal SSDs for 2026
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Buying Guide: The Best Internal SSDs for 2026
First, some context on the difference between internal and external SSDs. Most of what you need to know is obvious from the name. “Internal” means the drive goes inside a desktop PC’s or laptop’s chassis, while “external” means it connects to a computer via a cable. But it’s good to know some nuances regarding how fast each kind can be.
External SSDs have their own standalone enclosures, which plug into your laptop or desktop via a USB cable or (less commonly) a Thunderbolt cable. Most are built for portability, with some small enough to fit on a keychain. On average (because of the limitations of current bus technology), the fastest current interfaces offer sequential speeds in the range of 2,800 megabytes per second (MBps) for reads and 2,400MBps for writes for Thunderbolt 4. With USB4, you can get to 3,800MBps for reads and 3,200MBps.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
Internal SSDs are more complicated. You’ll see them in three main physical forms: (1) 2.5-inch drives, (2) M.2 drives, and (3) add-in-board (AIB) SSDs. Within those three physical forms, though, are some crucial variations. M.2 SSDs transfer data between the drive and computer via one of two bus types: the same Serial ATA bus used by 2.5-inch drives, or the PCI Express bus, the lanes and pathways of which can also be used by other hardware, such as graphics cards. (If you’d like a deep overview of all the SSD terms shoppers should know, check out our SSD dejargonizer for a full breakdown.)
When buying an internal SSD to upgrade or augment a system you own, you need to start by figuring out what your system can actually accept. Will it take a 2.5-inch SATA drive only? Does it have an M.2 slot? What length of M.2 drive can it take, and using which bus type? If you’re upgrading a laptop, in most cases you’ll only have the option to swap out the internal drive, not add another. If you can’t get the info off the web or from the manufacturer beforehand, you’ll need (in most cases) to open your laptop to see whether it has upgradable storage in the first place. (That is, if you can open it at all.) With laptop upgrades, you typically have much less flexibility than with desktop upgrades; your only option might be to buy a drive with a higher capacity than the existing one, since you’ll likely have only one M.2 slot or 2.5-inch bay to work with. (See our favorite SSDs for laptop upgrades.) Some laptops, note, have the storage chips soldered down to the mainboard and aren’t upgradable at all.
For a desktop, the right SSD to buy depends much more on what you are doing with your computer, and what your aim is. If you’re building a new PC from scratch, you definitely want an internal M.2 or 2.5-inch SATA SSD as your boot drive nowadays. A 2.5-inch SATA drive might make sense only if you’re upgrading or building from older hardware, because almost all new motherboards now have at least one M.2 slot of some kind, and these drives save lots of space in compact PC builds.
If you’re installing an SSD as a secondary drive and your PC’s case has the space, you can probably choose between 2.5-inch and M.2, especially if it’s a drive you will use for gaming or just backing up. At capacities of 4TB or higher, 2.5-inch SATA drives are often much cheaper than their M.2 counterparts. In these scenarios, choosing a SATA-based option that still keeps up in 4K random read and writes is the value move, and will give you more budget to play with when upgrading the rest of your system.
And if you’re simply replacing a hard drive as your boot drive, you’ll love the speed boost whichever kind you go with. We guarantee it.
What Form Factor of SSD Do You Need?
We’ve introduced you to M.2 drives and 2.5-inch drives above, but let’s get into them in a bit more detail.
2.5-Inch SSDs: The Basic Drive
The 2.5-inch Serial ATA SSD was one of the earliest consumer-facing SSD implementations and remains popular, especially for upgrading older PCs. While the drive electronics are much smaller than 2.5 inches, its enclosure will measure a bit wider (2.75 inches, despite the name), so it will fit into the same mounting brackets used for 2.5-inch hard drives on your desktop or laptop. That makes them your most likely choice for upgrading a platter-based boot drive in an older laptop. And almost any desktop PC nowadays will have 2.5-inch bays, or let you install a 2.5-inch drive in a 3.5-inch hard drive bay.
(Credit: PCMag)
If you’re upgrading an older laptop that has a 2.5-inch bay (most recent ones won’t), you’ll also want to account for the thickness of a 2.5-inch SSD. Almost all SSDs nowadays are 7mm thick, but older laptops with SATA hard drives may have drive bays with up to 9.5mm clearance. Some makers of 2.5-inch SSDs bundle a space-filling frame with their drives to keep a thinner 7mm drive from rattling around in a roomier bay. That’s less common today than in years past, though, so you may have to go the aftermarket route.
M.2 Drives: Stick-of-Gum Speedsters
M.2 slots are now near-ubiquitous in new desktop motherboards and common in late-model laptops (where the drives aren’t just soldered down and not upgradable). M.2 solid-state drives are the 2.5-inch drives distilled to their essence, extremely minimal in their design and implementation. But they’re also the most complicated to understand before you buy.
First, consider the bus type. M.2 drives come in SATA bus and PCI Express bus flavors, and the drive requires a compatible slot to work. Some M.2 slots support both buses on a single slot, but drives support just one or the other, so make sure the SSD you buy matches the bus type available on the slot in question. The vast majority of recent M.2 SSDs are PCI Express NVMe drives, so if you have an older computer with a SATA-only M.2 slot, finding a compatible SSD for it will require a bit more hunting.
M.2 drives also come in different lengths. Physically, the most common of the five M.2 SSD sizes is known as Type-2280, shorthand for 22 millimeters wide and 80mm long. (All SSDs you’ll see for consumer PC upgrades are 22mm wide; lengths range from 30mm to 110mm.) Most are merely circuit boards with flash memory and controller chips, but some M.2 drives (especially those of the PCI Express 4.0 and 5.0 variety) now ship with relatively large heatsinks mounted on top to keep them cool, or with heatsinks in the box as accessories.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
If you’re considering an M.2 drive with one of these special, big heatsinks, make sure your desktop’s motherboard has the clearance above and around it to accommodate the cooler’s bulk. For instance, some desktop motherboards place an M.2 slot right next to the ideal expansion slot for your graphics card, and the hardware can collide. Laptop designs typically can’t stomach a special, tall heat sink at all.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
What Bus Type of SSD Should You Buy?
Let’s get into the issue of bus type in a little more depth. Often, you won’t have a choice of which bus you need. But you need to know some background to figure out what you have and what you should buy.
SATA: The Old Standard
Serial ATA (SATA) is both a bus type and a physical interface. SATA was the first interface that consumer SSDs used to connect to motherboards, like the hard drives that preceded them. It’s still the primary cable-based interface you’ll see for 2.5-inch solid-state drives.
The SATA interface is capable of sequentially reading and writing a theoretical maximum of 600MBps in an ideal scenario, minus a bit for overhead processes. Most of our testing has shown that the average SATA drive tops out at roughly 500MBps to 550MBps; in sequential tasks, the real-world difference between the best SATA drive and a merely average one is pretty small.
(Credit: PCMag)
However, there’s also the matter of 4K random read and write performance speeds to consider. These speeds reflect how quickly the drive performs in day-to-day tasks. (Think booting Windows, launching games, loading levels in those games, or working in applications like Adobe Photoshop.)
For most gamers and general users, 4K random read/write speeds will determine how much you actually feel the “speed” of a drive. They should be the most important specs to keep in mind if you plan to turn your next SATA-based SSD into a boot drive or backup storage for your trove of games or creative projects.
SATA-based SSDs have shown that, specifically in 4K random read and write, SATA isn’t quite out of the game yet, offering performance for loading games or applications that’s on par with…
PCI Express: The Modern Speed Standard
The original implementation of the PCI Express interface for SSDs took the form of cards that occupied one PCIe slot on a desktop motherboard, and you can still find carrier cards that let you plug M.2 drives into a standard PCIe slot. Nowadays, though, the most popular PCI Express SSDs mount into an M.2 slot. As we said above, just make sure your M.2 slot or slots (assuming you have any) support PCIe drives before you make your purchase. On older boards, some support only the SATA bus, or support both. Newer boards mostly support PCIe.
A further wrinkle around the PCIe bus: All recent drives and slots support the NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) protocol. NVMe is a standard designed for flash storage (as opposed to the older AHCI, which was created for platter-based hard drives). In short, if you want the fastest consumer-ready SSD, get one with NVMe in the name. You’ll also need to be sure that both the drive and the slot support NVMe. (That’s because some early M.2 PCIe implementations, and drives, supported PCIe but not NVMe.)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Then there’s the difference between PCI Express generations. As you’d expect, drive speed increases with each successive PCIe generation. The relevant PCIe generations for modern SSDs are 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0.
When it debuted, PCIe 4.0 set peak-sequential speed records for consumer storage, and the more recent emergence of PCIe 5.0 drives (today’s fastest) has predictably blown these records away. PCIe 4.0 requires support from the specific desktop or laptop platform. PCIe 4.0 came to market with third- and fourth-generation Ryzen processors from AMD, and PCI Express 4.0 support is available on the Intel side with the Intel 500 Series chipset and later platforms (coinciding with 11th Gen or higher CPUs on the desktop). More recently, PCIe 5.0 has become available on late-model Intel and AMD desktop motherboards.
Most folks won’t need (or even be able to leverage) the blazing speed of PCIe 5.0 SSDs. On the market, you will find three main PCIe drive iterations in production right now: PCIe 3.0 x4, PCIe 4.0 x4, and PCIe 5.0 x4. (The “x” in each of these naming schemes refers to how many lanes the drive has available to transfer data.) PCIe 3.0 x2 drives exist, but avoid them at this point. A very basic choice nowadays among M.2 drives is a PCIe 3.0 x4 drive; you’ll want a faster PCIe 4.0 x4 model if your board supports it. Either way, you need a motherboard that explicitly supports PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 on an M.2 slot to get the speeds of those kinds of drives. (Check the specs for PCI Express 4.0 or 5.0 support, and on which slots, before you dive in.)
Even PCIe 3.0 is significantly faster than SATA in straight-up sequential tests, though. But that’s just sequential speeds, and how fast a drive can copy a folder from one part of itself to another isn’t all that matters these days. There’s also the issue of capacity.
What Capacity Do You Need, and What’s the Cost per Gigabyte?
Okay, you’ve figured out the bus type, interface, and form factor of the drive you need. The next factor to consider when determining your next SSD purchase is the drive’s capacity. A lightly used Windows or macOS machine shouldn’t need a drive larger than 250GB or 500GB as the main boot drive, but gamers and content creators will need at least 1TB to comfortably store enough games and 4K video. On a desktop, they may also want to consider offloading their game library or video scratch disks onto cheaper, roomier traditional hard drives, or maybe a low-cost, high-capacity SATA SSD.
That said, with games in popular series like Call of Duty requiring over 100GB of space just for one title, the drive could end up full again faster than you can line up a sniper shot. These days, if you’re looking for just one roomy drive (or maybe you have to, such as for a laptop), 2TB is the recommended size for gamers, while hard-core content creators dealing with 8K RAW footage will need far, far more. (A one-hour 8K RAW file will occupy 7.92 terabytes of space.)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
But big drives don’t come cheap (especially when you’re talking about SSDs rather than hard drives), so knowing the value of an SSD and how much it costs per gigabyte is another important factor to weigh in your next upgrade. Whether it’s 128GB or 4TB (or any capacity, really), the cost per gigabyte gives you a baseline for comparing one drive to another and determining whether it’s a good value based on its features and durability rating.
On average, an internal SSD can cost anything from 10 cents per gigabyte for a basic drive to 50-plus cents per gigabyte for drives made specifically for filmmakers or other niche use cases. (Note that starting in late 2025, we have seen substantial increases in the prices of commercially available SSDs due to the current memory shortage, which shows no signs of abating.) A general rule is that smaller drives (anything under 240GB) will cost more per gigabyte, getting cheaper as you go up to the 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacity tiers. Sometimes, though, a 4TB or 8TB drive will demand a price premium per gigabyte over the smaller-capacity models in a line.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The number of “layers” in an SSD has been a driving force in bringing costs down in recent years. SSDs (and the NAND flash-memory modules they’re made from) have seen a lot of innovation over the past half-decade, and one of those technologies is known as 3D NAND. The term refers to a fabrication process in which storage cells, rather than being laid exclusively on a horizontal plane, can be stacked in layers. The more layers, the more storage capacity fits in a smaller space, and thus the lower the materials cost.
Right now, the six main processes in 3D NAND are 32-layer, 64-layer, 96-layer, 128-layer, 176-layer, and 232-layer. More layers don’t necessarily bring a performance bonus, but they generally lower the price of drives of the same capacity.
Finally, the price of an SSD can also be affected by the memory element “method” used to store data. The four types are single-level cell (SLC), multi-level cell (MLC), triple-level cell (TLC), and quad-level cell (QLC), respectively storing one to four bits per cell. SLC is both the fastest and most durable of the four types, but it’s also the most expensive and rarely seen outside enterprise drives or as a chunk of cache used alongside one of the other technologies. MLC is less durable and a bit slower, but more reasonably priced, while TLC and QLC have pretty much taken over the mainstream; they are the least “durable” but also the cheapest. (More on drive endurance in a moment.)
How Fast Is the SSD I’m Looking at?
When an SSD manufacturer advertises the speed of a particular drive, it will usually be shown in one of two ways: the maximum theoretical sequential read/write speeds (expressed in megabytes per second) or the maximum theoretical random—or “4K,” as in four-kilobyte blocks—read/write speeds (expressed in IOPS or input/output operations per second). In practical terms, however, 4K read/write results can be expressed just as easily in MBps.
Sequential write speeds are generally (though not always) tied to the results you can expect while transferring large singular files (think of a high-resolution movie or an ISO optical disc image), while 4K read/write results are more reflective of things like game loading times or how quickly your operating system can fetch files.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The maximum theoretical sequential read speed for a SATA drive is 600MBps, though, as we said above, we haven’t seen any drives reach that limit, even in ideal testing conditions. The theoretical peak sequential read speed for PCI Express 3.0 x4 drives is much faster—3,940MBps—but the fastest one we’ve tested in-house is the Samsung SSD 870 EVO, which topped out at 3,372MBps in the Crystal DiskMark 6 benchmark.
As mentioned earlier, PCI Express 4.0 is faster still, but it requires a late-model AMD or Intel platform with PCIe 4.0 support in the chipset and on an M.2 slot or slots. Around 7,000MBps is the real-world ceiling for these drives, and that’s only in high-performance models. The only people who might actually notice (or even hit) that kind of sky-high throughput on a sustained basis are those transferring enormous files between two PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives installed on the same motherboard. (Otherwise, the source or destination drive will be a bottleneck.)
PCI Express 5.0 is the latest and by far the fastest. It offers substantial throughput increases, with maximum read and write speeds of up to 14,000MBps, effectively double those of the fastest PCIe 4.0 drives. Only the latest high-end desktops support this bus off the shelf, though, so you may have to build your own PC from scratch, or perform a motherboard-and-CPU transplant on an existing desktop. Intel users will need a 12th Gen or later Core CPU with a motherboard based on Intel’s Z690, Z790, or a later chipset. AMD fans must have a Ryzen 7000 or 9000 series processor on an AM5 motherboard with an X670, X670E, B650E, or later chipset. Note: The board must specifically have a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 slot, too; not every board with chipset-level support does. (Also know: Very few laptops can leverage the peak speeds of PCIe 5.0 drives, yet.)
Third-party reviews like PCMag’s, not vendor numbers, are the only substantial measures of SSD speed. In our testing of PCIe 4.0 drives (specifically via deep dives through the supporting data inside PCMark 10), we found that the sky-high sequential numbers advertised by PCIe 4.0 drive manufacturers often don’t have as proportional an effect on how a drive will perform when tasked with handling real-world scenarios like booting into Windows, launching games like Overwatch, or launching programs like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere. This is also true of the PCIe 5.0 SSDs we have tested.
In those tests, drives of every bus type, from PCIe 5.0 down to SATA 3.0, often can trade blows, and the best among them can take top marks away from drives that are much more expensive per gigabyte. If you’re trying to get the most gaming, application, or operating-system performance for the lowest cost per gig, you’ll even find SATA-based options out there that remain competitive enough for most uses.
That said, if you have an M.2 slot and are shopping in capacities of 2TB or below, the price per gig starts to even out between most SATA options and M.2 PCI Express. The PCIe drives are still faster in sequential read/write operations by a lot, which is important for moving large amounts of stuff around (backing up your PC each day, for example), and if you can find one that matches the price of a competing SATA option, the M.2 PCIe should take the front of the line. Often, though, especially if updating a laptop, you’ll have only one choice of drive form factor and interface.
What’s the SSD’s Warranty and Endurance Rating?
An SSD metric called terabytes written (TBW) indicates when a drive’s cells may begin to fail after a certain amount of data has been written to it. That means the available space on the drive will shrink as the drive electronics compensate and take the failing cells offline. The TBW rating of a drive is usually between 100TBW and 3,500TBW, depending on the manufacturer, capacity, and use case, but for most folks, this isn’t a figure that will affect daily use.
That said, those buying an SSD for professional applications such as filmmaking, server hosting, or anything else that involves large file transfers of hundreds of gigabytes daily will want to choose a drive that can withstand that kind of punishment for months, even years on end.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
This figure also folds into the warranty period for a drive, which (aside from a few fringe cases) will almost always be for three to five years or until you hit the TBW spec. Manufacturers have ways of reading a drive to determine how many terabytes have been written to it over its lifetime, so make sure, before you submit any warranty requests, that you haven’t already gone over your TBW before the warranty period has expired. Many manufacturers offer free storage management software for their products, such as Sandisk’s Dashboard and Samsung’s Magician, that keep track of TBW, and TBW figures can be viewed using their S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) feature.
Are an SSD’s Controller Type and Bundled Software Important?
Only ultra-geeks will make controllers a factor in buying an SSD, but they’re still important. The controller is a module on the SSD that essentially acts as the processor and traffic cop for the drive, translating firmware instructions into features such as error code correction (ECC) and SMART diagnostic tools, and modulating how well the SSD performs overall.
Some SSD makers use third-party controllers, while others manufacture their own. You may see the controller model mentioned on drive spec sheets or in reviews, but know that for casual buyers, it’s totally inside baseball. That said, we’ve started to see a trend in our tests: in-house-made controllers may deliver strong performance while also offering better value. But you’ll want to look at testing numbers before making any assumptions.
Software is another shopping consideration that’s probably limited to storage nerds. Regardless of which SSD maker you go with, though, any SSD software management dashboard should include at least a secure-erase option, a firmware-update module, and a migration tool that lets you safely move data from one drive to another. Most mainstream drives will have you covered there.
Internal SSD Outliers: What Are U.2, mSATA, and HHHL?
If you’ve read through this whole buying guide and a particular port or slot hasn’t been covered yet, it’s because you probably have one of the two less common ports installed in your system: U.2 or mSATA.
U.2 is rare in consumer PCs; it’s mostly made with enterprise customers in mind. A U.2 drive, like the now-vintage Intel SSD 750 Series, connects to a U.2 port on the motherboard via a special cable, or to a PCI Express M.2 slot via a special adapter. These drives almost always come in the 2.5-inch form factor. Unless you have a U.2 port on your desktop motherboard, you can ignore them. (And even if you do, you can still probably hook up an M.2 drive.)
mSATA, short for mini-SATA, is a predecessor to the M.2 form factor. It was primarily built into laptops, though some older desktop motherboards may have an mSATA slot aboard. With mSATA, the slots and drives use only the SATA bus, unlike M. 2, which may support PCIe, SATA, or both on a slot. For all intents and purposes, mSATA is a dead end, though you might run into it if you have a laptop or desktop more than a decade old.
(Credit: Zlata Ivleva)
Last of all is the “AIB SSD” mentioned earlier, which comes on a PCI Express expansion card, much like a small graphics card. Most use the HHHL (half-height, half-length) form factor, letting them fit into compact, low-slung PCs and plug into the same PCIe slots you’d use for any other expansion card. You’d only want to opt for one of these, though, on a desktop PC that lacks an M.2 slot or a SATA port/drive bay you can use.
Ready to Buy the Right Internal SSD for You?
Solid-state drives come in all shapes and sizes and are built for almost every purpose. Whether you need a drive whose first priority is dollar savings or one that loads a 4K movie in less than half a second, there’s an SSD made for the job.
We should mention that, although this is a roundup of the best internal SSDs, these days just about any such drive can be turned into an external USB drive with an SSD enclosure. These are often little more than durable housings of plastic or metal, and you can buy enclosures for almost any type of SSD: SATA 2.5-inch, SATA M.2, or PCIe M.2. Just make sure that the enclosure supports the form factor and bus type of the drive you want to “externalize.” Of course, you can also buy premade external SSDs; we’ve rounded up the best of them, too.
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