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Best SSDs of 2020: In-depth reviews from our PC experts
Switching to a solid-state drive is the best upgrade you can make for your PC. These wondrous devices obliterate long boot times, speed up how fast your programs and games load, and generally makes your computer feel fast. But not all solid-state drives are created equal. The best SSDs offer solid performance at affordable prices—or, if price is no object, face-meltingly fast read and write speeds.
SSD cheat sheet
Our quick-hit recommendations:
Many SSDs come in a 2.5-inch form factor and communicate with PCs via the same SATA ports used by traditional hard drives. But out on the bleeding-edge of NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) drives, you’ll find tiny “gumstick” SSDs that fit in M.2 connections on modern motherboards, SSDs that sit on a PCIe adapter and slot into your motherboard like a graphics card or sound card, futuristic 3D Xpoint drives, and more. Picking the perfect SSD isn’t as simple as it used to be.
That’s where this guide comes in. We’ve tested numerous drives to find the best SSDs for any use case. Let’s take a look at PCWorld’s top picks, and then dive into what to look for in an SSD. Quick note: This roundup only covers internal solid-state drives. Check out PCWorld’s guide to the best external drives if you’re looking for a portable storage solution.
Updated June 3, 2020 to add the Crucial P2 and Kingston KC2500 to our reviews section. We also mentioned the Kingston drive as an alternative in our best NVMe drive section.
Latest SSD news
- Ever since AMD’s Ryzen 3000 CPUs launched last fall with support for cutting-edge PCIe 4.0 storage, that support has been locked to pricey X570 enthusiast-class motherboards alone. Soon, B550 motherboards will bring the same capabilities to the masses, but leave backwards compatibility with older Ryzen chips behind. Look for them on June 16. We cover PCI-E 4.0 SSDs in our “Fastest SSD” section.
- DirectStorage—the backbone of the Xbox Series X’s ultra-fast storage technology—is coming to Windows…sometime. Microsoft hasn’t diven deep into what DirectStorage itself does, but the Xbox Series X’s “Velocity Storage” looks impressive indeed.
- Our latest review is of an SSD in a more portable form. The Adata SE800 Portable SSD is a compact, good-looking, very good-performing drive that can also stand up to the elements thanks to its IP68 rating. It easily earned our Editors’ Choice award. Again, check out our guide to the best external drives for more info on the portable SSD landscape.
Best SSD for most people
Samsung’s mainstream EVO series of SSDs has sat atop our recommended list ever since 2014, and the current Samsung 860 EVO is still a great option for people who want a rock-solid blend of speed, price, compatibility, and the reliability of Samsung’s 5-year warranty and superb Magician management software. But for the first time in recent memory, the king has been knocked off its thrown, and by a newcomer that isn’t really new whatsoever.
Most people would be better off buying the SK Hynix Gold S31. Not only is it among the fastest SATA SSDs we’ve ever tested, but the price is right too. At $46 for a 250GB drive, $64 for a 500GB drive, or $125 for 1TB, the Gold S31 costs much less than Samsung’s line, which charges $90 for a 500GB model. “When all was said and done in those real-world 48GB copies, the Gold S31 proved the fastest drive we’ve ever tested for sustained read and write operations,” our review proclaimed. Enough said.
Well, maybe not. Let’s talk a bit about the brand itself, since SK Hynix isn’t exactly a household name. Despite that, it’s one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers on the planet. The company has been developing NAND and controller technology since the get-go, and while it’s been the SSD manufacturer for numerous large computer vendors, it generally hasn’t taken a place for itself on the shelves. Now it has, and the results are sterling.
If you need larger capacities, though, still look to the Samsung 860 EVO, which is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models as well, albeit at steeper premiums.
Best budget SSD
Now that traditional multi-level cell (MLC) and triple-level cell (TLC) solid-state drives are plummeting in price, manufacturers have rolled out new-look quad-level cell (QLC) drives that push SSD prices even lower. The new technology lets drive makers stuff SSDs with hard drive-like levels of capacity while simultaneously coming close to the juicy SSD speeds we all love so much—most of the time. The first round of QLC drives, including the still-superb Samsung 860 QVO, saw its write speeds plunge to hard drive-like levels when you transfer dozens of gigabytes of data in one go.
The Addlink S22 QLC SSD doesn’t suffer from the same fate. While traditional TLC SSDs (like the ones mentioned in our “best SSDs for most people” section) still maintain a speed edge versus QLC drives, the Addlink S22 is no slouch, and it’s dirt-cheap for an SSD, at just $63 for 512GB or $104 for 1TB. Ludicrous—though it’s worth noting that SK Hynix’s Gold S31 now goes for about the same low rate.
If you don’t plan on moving around massive amounts of data at once and need more space, the Samsung 860 QVO is still a great option. It’s actually a wee bit faster than Addlink’s SSD. But it’s also more expensive, at $128 for 1TB, $250 for 2TB, or $480 for 5TB on Amazon. Lower capacities aren’t offered.
But what if you’ve got a newer motherboard that supports the faster, newfangled NVMe M.2 drives? Keep reading!
Best NVMe SSD
If performance is paramount, the Samsung 970 Pro or Seagate FireCuda 510 are the fastest NVMe SSDs you can buy—but most people should buy the Western Digital Blue SN550 NVMe SSD.
WD’s SSD isn’t the flashiest NVMe drive around, nor is it quite as fast as the alternatives mentioned above. But it costs far, far less. Despite its entry-level price—$55 for 250GB, $70 for 500GB, or $110 for 1TB—the WD Blue SN550 runs circles around other bargain NVMe drives and falls within spitting distance of the performance of those higher-priced enthusiast options. It’s from a known, established brand with a good track record for reliability, too, and comes with a longer-than-average five year warranty.
If you want just a wee bit more performance, the Addlink S70 NVMe SSD is another stellar option, earning our Editors’ Choice award. We slightly prefer its performance to the WD drive’s, but Addlink’s SSDs now cost more than its rival’s after receiving price increases, and the WD Blue SN550’s performance is more than enough for everyday computer users. Addlink isn’t as well-known as WD, but also offers a 5-year warranty on its drive.
The PNY XLR8 CS 3030 is another good option, offering fast performance at a good price. It gets bogged down during especially long writes, however, though it should be excellent for everyday use.
If you don’t mind spending up for faster, Samsung 970 Pro-level performance, the Adata XPG SX8200 Pro and Kingston KC2500 also run with the big dogs, but at more affordable prices. “While it didn’t reach the top step of the podium in any one test, the KC2500 was always within easy hailing distance of the leader,” we said in our review of the Kingston drive. “It’s available at about the same price as the competition and should be at the top of your short list when you’re shopping for a high-performance NVMe SSD.”
Fastest SSD
If performance is paramount and price is no object, Intel’s Optane SSD 905P is the best SSD you can buy, full stop. The drive doesn’t use traditional NAND technology like other SSDs; instead, it’s built around the futuristic 3D Xpoint technology developed by Micron and Intel. Hit that link if you want a tech deep-dive, but in practical terms, the Optane SSD 900P absolutely plows through our storage benchmarks and carries a ridiculous 8,750TBW (terabytes written) rating, compared to the roughly 200TBW offered by many NAND SSDs. If that holds true, this blazing-fast drive is basically immortal—and it looks damned good, too.
But you pay for the privilege of bleeding edge performance. Intel’s Optane SSD 905P costs $600 for a 480GB version and $1,250 for a 1.5TB model, with several additional options available in both the U.2 and PCI-E add-in-card form factors. That’s significantly more expensive than even NVMe SSDs—and like those, the benefits of Intel’s SSD will be most obvious to people who move large amounts of data around regularly. And the Optane SSD 900P actually uses the NVMe protocol to communicate with your PC, so you’ll need to meet some additional criteria to be able to boot from it—which we’ll cover next.
The step-down Intel Optane SSD 900P is like a miniature version of the 905P, still beating out traditional SSDs (albeit by a smaller margin) at lower capacities and prices—though at $390 for a 280GB version and $599 for a 480GB model, it’s still drastically more expensive than most NVMe drives.
Blazing-fast PCIe 4.0 SSDs are starting to become available now that AMD’s superb Ryzen 3000-series processors support the cutting-edge technology. You’ll also need a high-end AMD X570 motherboard. They promise much faster speeds than the traditional PCIe 4.0 SSDs mentioned here, though early evaluations show you’ll only see tangible benefits when moving massive files in the real world. Our PCIe 4.0 primer explains all.
Corsair, Gigabyte, and Sabrent rolled out the first PCIe 4.0 SSDs available, with all offering similar performance from 1TB models at around $200. We’ve yet to review any of them ourselves, however.
Coming up next: Everything you need to know to buy the right SSD for you
