The very best SSDs in 2025

In case your laptop is beginning to really feel a little bit sluggish, otherwise you’re bored with ready for video games and apps to load, upgrading to among the finest SSD choices on the market is usually a game-changer. Strong-state drives (SSDs) are a lot quicker than conventional onerous drives, serving to your system boot up in seconds, load massive recordsdata immediately and make on a regular basis duties really feel snappier. Whether or not you’re upgrading a laptop computer, constructing a gaming PC or simply need further storage for work or artistic tasks, the best SSD can significantly enhance efficiency.

However with so many specs to think about — PCIe Gen 4, Gen 5, SATA, NVMe — it’s simple to get misplaced within the jargon. That’s the place we are available in! We’ve rounded up the perfect SSD choices that can assist you discover the best stability of pace, capability and worth, so you will get the improve you want with out overpaying for options you gained’t use.

Desk of contents

Greatest SSDs in 2025

Essential

Capability: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | Connection: M.2 | Learn pace: 11,700MB/s | Write pace: 9,500MB/s

I don’t advocate shopping for a Gen5 NVMe, even when you’ve got the {hardware} wanted to run one. The learn speeds would possibly look spectacular on paper, however the actuality is that few video games and apps can make the most of these capabilities proper now.

Nonetheless, if you happen to’re set on outfitting your laptop with the quickest doable storage, I believe the Crucial T700 provides a compelling mixture of worth and efficiency. The T700 is among the quickest NVMe drives in the marketplace proper now, and after launching at $180, it’s doable to search out it on sale for about $143. Notice that in case your motherboard didn’t include a heatsink in your NVMe drives, you have to to purchase the T700 mannequin that features one, which additional will increase the fee.

Execs

• Very quick
• Helps DirectStorage
• 5-year guarantee

$140 at Adorama

WD_BLACK

Capability: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB | Connection: M.2 | Learn pace: 7,300MB/s | Write pace: 6,300MB/s

Offered you personal the mandatory {hardware}, Gen4 NVMe drives supply fairly good worth proper now. After testing just a few totally different fashions, I ended up shopping for the Western Digital WD_Black SN850X for my very own system. It’s very quick, delivering learn speeds of as much as 7,300MB/s, and I used to be in a position to pay lower than $100 for the 1TB mannequin throughout a sale.

For those who’re set on shopping for a Gen4 mannequin, however wish to avoid wasting cash, Western Digital provides the extra inexpensive SN770. It’s not as quick because the SN850X, but when your system has one Gen4 NVMe slot, it’s nice for storing Home windows and your most necessary apps.

Execs

• Quick
• DirectStorage help
• 5-year guarantee

$94 at Amazon

Essential

Capability: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | Connection: M.2 | Learn pace: 3,500MB/s | Write speeds: 3,000MB/s

A earlier model of this information advisable the Essential P2 as an excellent price range Gen 3 NVMe decide, however as Gen4 and now Gen5 NVMe drives have entered the market, producers like Micron have discontinued a few of their entry-level Gen4 fashions. The excellent news is that their outdated high-end Gen3 drives at the moment are extra inexpensive than ever. Take the Crucial P3, as an illustration. Micron initially priced the 1TB mannequin at $90, however in latest months, it’s been on sale for as little as $40. That’s nice worth for a drive that provides 3,500MB/s learn speeds.

Execs

• Reasonably priced and incessantly on sale
• 5-year guarantee

Cons

• Could possibly be quicker
• Endurance stats usually are not the perfect

$60 at Adorama

SABRENT

Capability: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | Connection: M.2 | Learn pace: 5,000MB/s | Write pace: 4,300MB/s

For those who’re assured sufficient to open your Steam Deck to put in a brand new, larger capability NVMe, the Sabrent Rocket 2230 is a good small-sized NVME. It is going to slot into the Steam Deck’s M.2 slot with out problem, and also you don’t want to fret about it overheating. With latest reductions on this mannequin, it’s dropped sufficient in worth the place you can lower your expenses by shopping for the 512GB Steam Deck OLED mannequin and putting in extra storage later.

Cons

• Costly relative to full-sized NVMe drives

$100 at Amazon

Corsair

Capability: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB | Connection: M.2 | Learn pace: 7,100 MB/s | Write pace: 6,800MB/sec

Engadget has a separate information devoted to the best PlayStation 5 SSDs, however if you happen to got here to this web page searching for a suggestion on what NVMe to purchase in your PS5, look no additional than the Corsair MP600 Pro LPX. It meets all of Sony’s compatibility necessities and comes with a pre-installed heatsink, which means all you have to do is set up it into your PS5 and also you’re good to go.

Execs

• Good PS5 compatibility
• Pre-installed heatsink
• Simple to put in

Cons

• Cheaper so as to add your personal heatsink

$170 at Amazon

Essential

Capability: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | Connection: USB-C | Learn pace: 1,050MB/s | Write pace: 975MB/s

For carrying recordsdata on the go, the Crucial X9 Pro is a conveyable SSD with the correct mix of efficiency, options and price. There are technically quicker choices on the market, however its 10 Gbps speeds must be fast sufficient for the backups and file transfers most individuals do with an exterior drive, and it outpaced most different fashions inside its efficiency class in our benchmark assessments. It’s tremendous tiny and sufficiently rugged on high of that, with an IP55-rated case constructed from aluminum and rubber. A five-year guarantee helps as properly. Simply be aware that the included USB-C cable is pretty brief, and there’s no adapter for USB-A ports within the field. — Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter, Shopping for Recommendation

Execs

• IP55-certified water and dirt safety
• 5-year guarantee

Cons

• No USB-A cable included
• Not the quickest

$89 at Amazon

SAMSUNG

Capability: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB | Connection: USB 3.1 | Learn pace: As much as 400MB/s relying on the mannequin | Write pace: As much as 400MB/s

The Samsung Fit Plus has about all of the options you can need on a USB drive. It connects to your laptop over USB 3.1 and helps file switch speeds of as much as 300MB/s. The Match Plus can be compact and has a helpful slot for attaching it to your keychain. The one draw back of Samsung’s USB drive is that it’s on the expensive aspect.

Execs

• USB 3.1
• Smooth design
• 5-year guarantee

Cons

• Is likely to be too small
• No indicator mild

$23 at Adorama

How we take a look at SSDs

I’ve both examined or personally use each day each storage drive advisable on this record. Out of our high picks, I purchased 4 with my very own cash after doing a couple of dozen hours of analysis. Individually, Engadget Senior Reporter Jeff Dunn has additionally examined a handful of our suggestions, together with the Essential X9 Professional listed above.

What to search for in a PC SSD

Probably the most inexpensive manner so as to add quick space for storing to a pc is with a 2.5-inch SATA drive. It’s additionally one of many best if you happen to don’t wish to fear about compatibility since nearly each laptop made within the final 20 years will embody a motherboard with Serial ATA connections. For that cause, the perfect SATA SSDs are a wonderful selection if you wish to lengthen the lifetime of an older PC construct. Set up is simple, too. When you’ve secured the interior SSD in a drive cage, all you have to do is to attach it to your motherboard and energy provide.

The one draw back of SATA drives is that, by way of responsiveness, they’re slower than their high-performance NVMe counterparts, with SATA III limiting information transfers to 600MB/s. However even the slowest SSD might be considerably quicker than the perfect mechanical drives. And with high-capacity, 1TB SATA SSDs costing about $100, they’re an excellent bulk-storage possibility.

In case your PC is newer, there’s an excellent probability it contains area for a number of M.2 SSDs. The shape issue represents your ticket to the quickest SSDs in the marketplace, however the tough half is navigating all of the totally different requirements and specs concerned.

M.2 drives can characteristic both a SATA or PCIe connection. SSDs with the latter are often known as Non-Unstable Reminiscence or NVMe drives and are considerably quicker than their SATA counterparts, with Gen3 fashions providing sequential write speeds of as much as 3,000MB/s. These drives depend on NVMe NAND know-how for his or her superior efficiency and sturdiness. You will get twice the efficiency with a Gen4 SSD, however you’ll want a motherboard and processor that helps the usual.

For those who’re operating an AMD system, meaning a minimum of a Ryzen 3000 or 5000 CPU and an X570 or B550 motherboard. With Intel, in the meantime, you’ll want a minimum of an eleventh or twelfth Gen processor and a Z490, Z590 or Z690 motherboard. Take into account that Gen4 SSDs sometimes price greater than their Gen3 counterparts as properly.

Dearer nonetheless are the newest Gen5 fashions, which provide sequential learn speeds of as much as 16,000MB/s. Nonetheless, even when your laptop helps the usual, you’re higher off shopping for a extra inexpensive Gen4 or Gen3 drive. For the time being, only a few video games and purposes can make the most of Gen3 NVMe speeds, not to mention Gen4 and Gen5 speeds. What’s extra, Gen5 NVMe drives can run sizzling, which might result in efficiency and longevity points. Your cash is healthier spent on different parts, like upgrading your GPU, for now.

As for why you’d purchase an M.2 SATA drive over a equally specced 2.5-inch drive, it comes all the way down to ease of set up. You add M.2 storage to your laptop by putting in the SSD straight onto the motherboard. Which will sound intimidating, however in apply the method entails a single screw that you simply first take away to attach the drive to your laptop after which retighten to safe the SSD in place. As an added bonus, there aren’t any wires concerned, making cable administration simpler.

Notice that you would be able to set up a SATA M.2 SSD into an M.2 slot with a PCIe connection, however you possibly can’t insert an NVMe M.2 SSD right into a M.2 slot with a SATA connection. Except you wish to proceed utilizing an outdated M.2 drive, there’s little cause to make the most of that characteristic. Talking of backward compatibility, it’s additionally doable to make use of a Gen4 drive by means of a PCIe 3 connection, however you gained’t get any of the pace advantages of the quicker NVMe.

One last item to think about is that M.2 drives come in several bodily sizes. From shortest to longest, the widespread choices are 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 and 22110. (The primary two numbers signify width in millimeters and the latter denote the size.) For essentially the most half, you don’t have to fret about that since 2280 is the default for a lot of motherboards and producers. Some boards can accommodate multiple dimension of NVMe SSD due to a number of standoffs. That stated, verify your laptop’s documentation or firmware earlier than shopping for a drive to make sure you’re selecting up a appropriate dimension.

For those who’re shopping for a alternative SSD for the Steam Deck or Steam Deck OLED, issues are simpler. For Valve’s handheld, you have to a 2230 dimension NVMe. Easy. For those who don’t wish to open your Steam Deck, it’s additionally doable to increase its storage by putting in a microSD card. Engadget has a separate guide dedicated to SD card storage, so verify that out for extra shopping for recommendation.

I alluded to this earlier, however the perfect shopping for recommendation I can supply is don’t get too caught up about being on the bleeding fringe of storage tech. The sequential learn and write speeds you see producers record on their drives are theoretical and real-world efficiency benchmark assessments differ lower than you suppose.

In case your price range forces you to decide on between a 1TB Gen3 NVMe and a 512GB Gen4 mannequin, go for the higher-capacity one. From a sensible standpoint, the worst factor you are able to do is purchase a kind of SSD that’s too small for wants. Drives can gradual dramatically as they method capability, and you’ll most likely find yourself buying one with the next gigabyte capability sooner or later.

What to search for in moveable and USB flash drives

Transportable SSDs are a considerably totally different beast to their inside siblings. Whereas learn and write speeds are necessary, they’re nearly secondary to how an exterior drive connects to your PC. You gained’t get essentially the most out of a mannequin just like the SanDisk Excessive Professional V2 and not using a USB 3.2 Gen 2 x 2 connection. Even amongst newer PCs, that’s one thing of a premium characteristic. For that cause, most individuals are greatest off shopping for a conveyable drive with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 or Thunderbolt connection. The previous provides switch speeds of as much as 10Gbps. The very best exterior onerous drives additionally help you switch information out of your Home windows PC to a Mac, or different system, if appropriate. Remember to take into account this beforehand if you happen to plan to make use of your moveable drive throughout a number of gadgets.

Moreover, if you happen to plan to take your drive on journeys and commutes, it’s worthwhile to purchase a mannequin with IP-certified water and dirt proofing. Some firms like Samsung supply rugged variations of their hottest drives, together with the Samsung SSD T7 Protect, with a excessive endurance ranking. For added peace of thoughts, 256-bit AES {hardware} encryption will assist stop somebody from accessing your information if you happen to ever lose or misplace your exterior SSD.

A few of the similar options contribute to an excellent thumbstick drive. Our favourite picks for greatest price range exterior SSD fashions characteristic USB 3.0 connections and a few type of {hardware} encryption.

A be aware on console storage

If PC gaming isn’t your factor and also you personal an Xbox Sequence X|S or PS5, outfitting your fancy new console with the quickest doable storage is way extra simple than doing the identical on PC. With a Sequence X or Sequence S, your choices are restricted to choices from Seagate and Western Digital. The previous provides 512GB, 1TB and 2TB fashions, with essentially the most inexpensive beginning at a not-so-trivial $90. Western Digital’s Growth Playing cards are cheaper, with pricing beginning at $80 for the 512GB mannequin. The excellent news is that each choices are incessantly on sale. Your greatest wager is to set an alert for the mannequin you need by utilizing a worth tracker like CamelCamelCamel.

With Sony’s PlayStation 5, upgrading the console’s inside storage is barely extra concerned. As a substitute of using a proprietary resolution, the PS5 makes use of NVMe storage. Fortunately, there aren’t as many potential configurations as you’d discover on a PC. Engadget maintains a comprehensive guide to the best SSDs for PS5; in brief, your greatest wager is a high-capacity Gen4 drive with a built-in heatsink. Take a look at that information for a full record of gaming SSD suggestions, however for a fast go-to, take into account the Corsair MP600 Professional LPX I like to recommend above. It meets all of the reminiscence specs for Sony’s newest console and also you gained’t run into any clearance points with the heatsink. Corsair provides 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 8TB variations of the drive. Count on to pay about $110 for the 1TB variant and about $200 for 2TB.

For these nonetheless taking part in on a earlier technology console, you will get barely quicker sport load instances from a PlayStation 4 by swapping the included onerous drive to a 2.5-inch SSD, however going out of your manner to take action most likely isn’t value it at this level and also you’re higher off saving your cash for one of many new consoles and updating your working system as an alternative.

SSD FAQs

What dimension SSD is greatest?

There isn’t a one dimension suits all rule for SSDs, however we usually advocate getting a minimum of a 1TB SSD if you happen to’re trying to improve PC or sport console storage, or wanting so as to add an exterior drive to your toolkit. A 1TB drive might be a lot for most individuals who want further space for storing for pictures, paperwork and applications. For those who’re a hardcore gamer, it’s possible you’ll wish to put money into much more storage contemplating many high-profile titles immediately can take up a ton of area.

Is a 256GB SSD higher than a 1TB onerous drive?

The brief reply is that it is dependent upon what you want your drive for. Basically, SSDs are quicker and extra environment friendly than HDDs, however HDDs are often cheaper. We advocate springing for an SSD for many use circumstances immediately — upgrading a PC, saving necessary pictures and paperwork, storing video games long run, and so forth. However if you happen to’re targeted on getting essentially the most quantity of additional area doable (and sticking to a price range), an HDD might be an excellent possibility for you.

Does greater SSD imply quicker?

Getting an even bigger SSD doesn’t at all times translate right into a quicker drive general. A much bigger SSD will present the next storage capability, which suggests extra space for storing digital recordsdata and applications. To know how briskly an SSD might be, you’ll wish to take a look at its learn/write speeds: learn speeds measure how briskly a drive can entry data, whereas write speeds measure how briskly the drive can save data. Most SSDs record their approximate learn/write speeds of their specs, so you’ll want to take a look at these numbers earlier than you make a purchase order.