Reports of the compact disc's death may have been slightly premature, according to a new analysis from Stat Significant that finds CD sales as a share of U.S. music industry revenue have quietly stabilized after years of steep decline. RIAA data shows CD revenue share fell from 7.15% in 2018 to 3.04% in 2022 but has since flatlined at roughly 3%, coming in at 3.14% in 2023 and 3.06% in 2024.
Google search traffic for "CD Player" has ticked upward over the past 16 months after two decades of near-continuous decline, and a May 2023 YouGov poll found 53% of American adults willing to pay for music on CDs -- ahead of vinyl at 44% and online streaming at 50%. Respondents under 45 were more likely to express interest in buying physical formats than older cohorts. But on the supply side, Discogs data shows vinyl remains the dominant format for new physical releases; artists have not meaningfully shifted back toward CD production.
Western Digital this week laid out a roadmap that stretches its 3.5-inch hard drive platform to 14 platters and pairs it with a new vertical-emitting laser for heat-assisted magnetic recording, a combination the company says will push individual drive capacities beyond 140 TB in the 2030s.
The vertical laser, developed over six years and already working in WD's labs, emits light straight down onto the disk rather than from the edge, delivering more thermal energy while occupying less vertical space -- enabling areal densities up to 10 TB per platter, up from today's 4 TB, and room for additional platters in the same enclosure. WD's first commercial HAMR drives arrive in late 2026 at 40-44 TB on an 11-platter design, ramping into volume production in 2027. A 12-platter platform follows in 2028 at 60 TB, and WD expects to hit 100 TB by around 2030.
Imagine our surprise when we ended up on a site promoting that same Freecash app while investigating a “cloud storage” phish. We’ve all probably seen one of those. They’re common enough and according to recent investigation by BleepingComputer, there’s a
“large-scale cloud storage subscription scam campaign targeting users worldwide with repeated emails falsely warning recipients that their photos, files, and accounts are about to be blocked or deleted due to an alleged payment failure.”
Based on the description in that article, the email we found appears to be part of this campaign.
The subject line of the email is:
“{Recipient}. Your Cloud Account has been locked on Sat, 24 Jan 2026 09:57:55 -0500. Your photos and videos will be removed!”
This matches one of the subject lines that BleepingComputer listed.
And the content of the email:
“Payment Issue – Cloud Storage
Dear User,
We encountered an issue while attempting to renew your Cloud Storage subscription.
Unfortunately, your payment method has expired. To ensure your Cloud continues without interruption, please update your payment details.
Subscription ID: 9371188
Product: Cloud Storage Premium
Expiration Date: Sat,24 Jan-2026
If you do not update your payment information, you may lose access to your Cloud Storage, which may prevent you from saving and syncing your data such as photos, videos, and documents.
Update Payment Details {link button}
Security Recommendations:
Always access your account through our official website
Never share your password with anyone
Ensure your contact and billing information are up to date”
The link in the email leads to https://storage.googleapis[.]com/qzsdqdqsd/dsfsdxc.html#/redirect.html, which helps the scammer establish a certain amount of trust because it points to Google Cloud Storage (GCS). GCS is a legitimate service that allows authorized users to store and manage data such as files, images, and videos in buckets. However, as in this case, attackers can abuse it for phishing.
The redirect carries some parameters to the next website.
The feed.headquartoonjpn[.]com domain was blocked by Malwarebytes. We’ve seen it before in an earlier campaign involving an Endurance-themed phish.
After a few more redirects, we ended up at hx5.submitloading[.]com, where a fake CAPTCHA triggered the last redirect to freecash[.]com, once it was solved.
The end goal of this phish likely depends on the parameters passed along during the redirects, so results may vary.
Rather than stealing credentials directly, the campaign appears designed to monetize traffic, funneling victims into affiliate offers where the operators get paid for sign-ups or conversions.
BleepingComputer noted that they were redirected to affiliate marketing websites for various products.
“Products promoted in this phishing campaign include VPN services, little-known security software, and other subscription-based offerings with no connection to cloud storage.”
How to stay safe
Ironically, the phishing email itself includes some solid advice:
Always access your account through our official website.
Never share your password with anyone.
We’d like to add:
Never click on links in unsolicited emails without verifying with a trusted source.
Do not engage with websites that attract visitors like this.
Pro tip: Malwarebytes Scam Guard would have helped you identify this email as a scam and provided advice on how to proceed.
Redirect flow (IOCs)
storage.googleapis[.]com/qzsdqdqsd/dsfsdxc.html
feed.headquartoonjpn[.]com
revivejudgemental[.]com
hx5.submitloading[.]com
freecash[.]com
Update February 5, 2026
Almedia GmbH, the company behind the Freecash platform, reached out to us for information about the chain of redirects that lead to their platform. And after an investigation they notified us that:
“Following Malwarebytes’ reporting and the additional information they shared with us, we investigated the issue and identified an affiliate operating in breach of our policies. That partner has been removed from our network.
Almedia does not sell user data, and we take compliance, user trust, and responsible advertising seriously.”
We don’t just report on scams—we help detect them
Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. If something looks dodgy to you, check if it’s a scam using Malwarebytes Scam Guard, a feature of our mobile protection products. Submit a screenshot, paste suspicious content, or share a text or phone number, and we’ll tell you if it’s a scam or legit. Download Malwarebytes Mobile Security for iOS or Android and try it today!
Younger generations are increasingly ditching smartphones in favor of “dumbphones”—simpler devices with fewer apps, fewer distractions, and less tracking. But what happens when you step away from a device that now functions as your wallet, your memory, and your security key? In this episode, Tom and Scott explore the dumbphone movement through a privacy and […]
While older computers and storage drives might still use the common SATA or the older PCIe 3.0 interfaces to sling your bits of data around, more recent computing equipment typically supports the far faster PCIe 4.0 protocol. If you’re really lucky (or spent a lot of money), you might even have faster PCIe 5.0. But that’s a subject for another roundup.
We’ve tested nearly three dozen PCIe 4.0 SSDs and our list includes the best of the bunch for various needs. Whether you want to upgrade, or add more storage to your PCIe 4.0 computer, there’s an SSD for you. Read on to learn more, including what to look for in PCIe 4.0 SSD.
Why you should trust PCWorld for PCIe 4.0 SSD reviews and buying advice: We’re not called PCWorld for nothing. Our reviewers have been testing PC hardware for decades. Our storage evaluations are exhaustive, testing the limits of every product — from performance benchmarks to the practicalities of regular use. As PC users ourselves, we know what makes a killer product stand out. Only the best SSDs have made our list of picks.
WD Black SN7100 SSD – Best PCIe 4.0 SSD
Pros
Top-notch HMB performance
Affordable
Sexy name
Cons
Slower random performance than DRAM designs
Price When Reviewed:
500GB: $60 I 1TB: $90 I 2TB: $140
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
There can be a trade-off with HMB (host memory buffer) design SSDs, such as the SN7100. They are distinct for using the host system’s memory for primary caching duties, as opposed to packing their own DRAM. But while there may be some specific scenarios where DRAM drives excel over HMBs — such as in the writing of very large amounts of data — in the vast majority of applications, the two designs are very competitive and almost indistinguishable.
Among all HMB SSDs we’ve tested, we were flat-out wowed by the SN7100’s performance. The 2TB version that we looked at was the fastest such SSD that we’ve run through our gauntlet of benchmarks. And when it comes to price, compared to DRAM designs, it’s really no contest. Indeed, the SN7100 is close to $50 less than our previous pick, the Solidigm P44 Pro, for both the 1TB and 2TB capacities.
Combine that with an industry standard five-year warranty / 600TBW rating (terabytes that can be written) per TB, and you’re looking at probably the best PCIe 4.0 SSD for average users as well as gamers.
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
It’s true that the WD Blue SN5000 has a successor in the WD Blue SN5100, and that the newer drive does better in some tests, most markedly sustained throughput. But the SN5100 doesn’t outperform its predecessor in all tests. Indeed, given the close performance of the two drives, we’re still giving the nod to the SN5000 as our best budget pick, because when it comes to pricing, it’s the clear winner.
Case in point: a 1TB SN5000 can be had for $65 right now, while the SN5100 is $80 at the same capacity. In time we expect the prices for the latter to become more competitive, but until then, the SN5000 is the best value.
In our testing, the SN5000 ranked among the fastest Host Memory Buffer (HMB) SSDs we’ve tested. And unlike the SN580 before it, the SN5000 didn’t falter during the 450GB transfer test, ranking highly among all SSDs. Yes, you lose nothing in sequential performance these days with HMB.
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
If you need a small form-factor, 2230 (22 mm wide, 30 mm long) NVMe SSD for your Steam Deck or other device, look no further than the Crucial P310. It’s the fastest 2230 SSD we’ve tested, and by a rather large margin.
The P310 bested our previous favorite 2230 drive — the WD Black SN770M — in every benchmark save for the 450GB transfer, where it lost steam (pun intended) at the 85 percent mark after running out of secondary cache. But transfers this large are rare for most users, and unheard of in a Steam Deck.
The P310 is a bit pricier than the SN770M, but only by a tad more than $10 in 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 2230 ticket.
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
The Seagate Game Drive is a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD aimed specifically at next-gen game consoles — the PS5 in particular. It doesn’t disappoint, with DRAM for primary caching duties, which is almost essential to wring top performance out of Sony’s console system. The PS5 doesn’t support HMB, so without DRAM you’re relying solely on an SSD’s slower secondary caching. The Game Drive ships in 1TB and 2TB capacities, so you’ll have plenty of space to store all of your games.
While the Seagate Game Drive is optimized for a PS5, it’s perfectly viable for any computer. It did remarkably well in our performance testing, earning the spot as the second-fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD to date with random ops. Seagate provides a generous five-year warranty with the drive and it has an astounding 1,275TBW rating—more than double the industry norm. PS5 owners simply can’t go wrong with the Seagate Game Drive.
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
The Corsair MP600 Micro fills the niche of devices that can accommodate an SSD that’s larger than the 2230 form factor used by game consoles, but can’t accept a standard 2280 modules that are used in most PCs and laptops. We’re talking about the 2242 form factor — meaning 22mm wide by 42mm long.
Lenovo set off the 2242 trend with its Legion Go and Thinkpad portables and there are now some respectable options for storage upgrades — the best of which is the Corsair MP600 Micro.
The MP600 Micro isn’t the fastest PCIe 4.0 drive we’ve tested, but for its class of truncated drives, it churned out a very competitive test performance. Currently, you’ll only find the MP600 Micro in 1TB capacity. For shoppers who want more space, see the Crucial P310 above, which is a 2230 drive in up to 2TB — though it will require an adapter.
The Orico OS5 is marketed for the PS5, but uses a non-supported HMB design; the Lexar Play 2280 SE is an attractive and fast SSD sold exclusively through Costco, at least for now; the Teamgroup T-Create C47 stands out in super-long writes; the Lexar NQ780 makes a very good showing in a field of stiff competition; the Orico IG740-Pro is a fast enough, decently affordable SSD that ships with some nice-to-have extras; the PNY CS2342 is a 2230 small form-factor SSD sized for Steam Deck, which performs very well with light workloads; the Teamgroup MP44Q is a great everyday performer and a super bargain for the average user; the Addlink A93/S93 is a solid-performing PCIe 4.0, DRAM-less NVMe SSD that can save you a few bucks. But the A93 with its heatsink faces heavy competition from many similarly priced and often faster SSDs; the WD SN850X 8TB SSD is far faster than the previously tested 2TB version, but you pay a slight premium for it; the 990 EVO Plus is an update to Samsung’s 990 EVO hybrid drive that can use either the PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 interface — although the latter is limited to PCIe 4.0’s theoretical bandwidth; if you’re looking to stretch your SSD dollar, the T-Force G50 should be on your short list. It’s an inexpensive, solid performing PCIe 4.0 drive for everyday tasks; the Kingston NV3 is proof that DRAM-less drives — those use a Host Memory Buffer (HMB) as cache — can offer competitive performance, while also saving you some money; the Sabrent Rocket Nano 2242 features a smaller form factor (22mm x 42mm) that was tailor-made for Lenovo’s Legion Go and Thinkpads — but it can also be used in a standard slot as well.
How PCWorld tests PCIe 4.0 SSDs
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11, 64-bit running on an X790 (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 are integrated to the back panel and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. The 48GB transfer tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB of total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro which also runs the OS.
Each test is performed on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This can be less of a factor with the current crop of SSDs with far faster late-generation NAND.
Caveat: The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacity tested. SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report, by all means, let us know.
Jon Jacobi was around when computing meant flipping switches, and has witnessed storage morph from punch cards and tape to solid state drives. He’s been using and testing HDDs, SATA SSDs, and NVMe SSDs for PCWorld for more than two decades. To paraphrase a well-known commercial, you might say he’s seen a thing or two.
How to choose the best PCIe 4.0 SSD
There are a few things to look out for, but most importantly you’ll want to focus on capacity, price, and warranty length. Three-year warranties are standard with bargain drives, but nicer models are generally guaranteed for up to five years. And unlike the early days of SSDs and NAND, modern drives won’t wear out with normal consumer usage, as Tech Report tested and proved years ago with a grueling endurance test.
Another crucial thing to watch out for is the technology used to connect the SSD to your PC. For more details and buying advice you can read our in-depth guide on which type of SSD you should buy.
A few handy definitions
SATA: This older, slower technology is both a connection type and a transfer protocol, 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 and blows away SATA speed, to the tune of nearly 4GBps over PCIe gen 3 and well over 10GBps when you reach PCIe 5.0. The transport technology pairs nicely with the NVMe protocol (see the next entry) used by all modern M.2 PCIe SSDs. Both the PCIe slots in your motherboard and the M.2 slot in your motherboard are generally wired to support the PCIe interface, and you can buy adapters that allow you to employ “gumstick” (2280) M.2 drives in a PCIe slot. 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 and the unique properties of NAND to create blisteringly fast SSD performance. Check out PCWorld’s “Everything you need to know about NVMe” for a nitty-gritty deep-dive.
M.2: You might assume M.2 drives are PCIe/NVMe. You might not know, however, that before NVMe was a thing, some M.2 slots and SSDs were SATA. If you’re shopping to upgrade an older computer make sure which technology you need — NVMe or SATA.
mSATAand U.2: You may also stumble across mSATA in older equipment, and U.2 SSDs for enterprise-grade servers and the like, but consumer motherboard support is almost nil for the latter.
Speed matters, of course, but most modern SSDs, even the slower ones are ridiculously fast. Also, don’t overbuy. A PCIe SSD will only perform as fast as the generation of the device it’s installed in. In other words, don’t expect a PCIe 5.0 SSD to perform at its rated speed on a PCIe 3.0 computer.
Speaking of which, you can expect roughly 3.5GBps max from PCIe 3.0, 7.5GBps max from PCIe 4.0, and somewhere just north of 12GBps with PCIe 5.0 under optimal conditions — i.e., using benchmarks or software that supports NVMe’s multiple queues. Single-queue Windows limits all flavors to under 4GBps during normal transfers. Again, don’t overbuy in terms of performance.
FAQ
1.
What is the best PCIe 4.0 SSD?
PCWorld’s top pick for a PCIe 4.0 SSD is the WD Black SN7100. It comes in up to 4TB of capacity. The 2TB version that we tested was the fastest overall in our benchmarks. Because the drive uses a host memory buffer design for cache, as opposed to onboard DRAM, it’s competitively priced, making it an excellent price-to-performance value.
2.
What is the best cheap PCIe 4.0 SSD?
The best cheap SSD in our view is the WD Blue SN5000, followed closely by Kingston’s NV3. Both of these PCIe 4.0 SSDs are fast, and very affordable. However, when it comes to PCIe 5.0, the PNY CS2150 is your bargain choice.
3.
What is the best PCIe 4.0 SSD for a gaming console?
Essentially, gaming consoles are computers so the same SSDs that are best for PCs are the also best for gaming consoles. That said, the excellent performance and super-generous TBW rating of Seagate’s Game Drive PS5 SSD makes it our current choice. The DRAM design (which uses onboard memory for secondary caching) results in class-leading random ops performance, as well a full compatibility with PS5.
4.
What is the best brand for a PCIe 4.0 SSD?
If you want the best guarantees look to Seagate. Samsung and WD are also long-standing favorites with well-earned reputations for quality products.
That said,nearly all the second-tier vendors and even some of the top-tier companies use the highly competent industry bigwig Phison for their SSD designs. In other words, there aren’t any real dogs among relatively well-known SSD sellers.
5.
Are SSDs good for long-term storage?
SSDs are excellent for long-term storage, though that depends on what you consider long term. Theoretically, the NAND memory cells, which are voltage traps, could leak over time and become unreadable, but in the decade or so that SSDs have been in heavy use, we’ve not seen this type of degradation. Short answer, a couple of decades, yes; a couple of millennia, perhaps not.
Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the latest topics on our YouTube show or burning news from across the web? You’re in the right place.
I never thought I’d think on laptops with envy. But here I am, writing these words.
It comes on the heels of Intel’s deep reveal of Panther Lake, which is what Adam, Will, and Mark were learning about last week. (Such is the super sekret life of tech journalists.)
Mark’s quick rundown of the facts is extensive, as overviews go—there’s just that many details to cover. I highly recommend reading his deep dive as well, but among the highlights: Three chip families represented by one 8-core and two 16-core processors, with a claim of 50 percent better multithreaded performance over previous generations. The top-tier 16-core CPUs pack juggernaut-level integrated graphics, including dedicated support for ray-tracing. Said integrated graphics take the form of Xe3 GPU cores touted as 50 percent faster on average compared to last gen. Multiframe generation support (yep, “fake frames”).
Intel is also cramming in upgrades to the “image processing unit” in its integrated laptop processors to boost clarity and color fidelity of video during webcam calls. Inaccurate skin tones and grainy low-light calls should be less of a problem on a Panther Lake chip. But the feature I want in all chips, including desktop? Auracast, which not only lets you wirelessly play videos across two devices simultaneously, but also use the onboard Bluetooth radio to triangulate the location of a lost item—whether the laptop itself or a connected device, like earbuds.
So why the envy, when desktop could get Auracast (and likely will)? When kickass integrated graphics matter less, given the flexibility for discrete GPU support? When desktop processors outstrip performance on laptops?
Memory issues.
I mean of course the ominous reports of anticipated shortages and sharper rising costs for memory. In a recent interview, Phison’s CEO thought that demand from AI data centers for NAND-based products could create a dearth lasting as long as 10 years.
A whole-ass decade.
Blake Patterson
It’s not just NAND, either. DRAM is also expected to suffer from the same shortages and price hikes as demand skyrockets. (You can read Luke James’s excellent article over at Tom’s Hardware for more of a dive into the factors contributing to this bleak outlook.)
Here’s my thinking: CPUs and GPUs will continue to improve on desktop, yes. It’s likely features like Auracast will come to desktop processors, yes. But what good will that do me if I can’t afford to build a PC around those chips?
These days, I think of storage and memory as basic staples among hardware components—no different than the potatoes, rice, or bread of a meal. The idea of RAM and SSDs becoming both scarce and expensive makes me start to question what I can take for granted about desktop PCs and DIY building.
I wonder if interest in DIY building will slow a bit, due to the extra burden on budgets. If that will then lead to an equal slowdown in consumer CPU and GPU innovations. If that then increases the withdrawal from DIY building, leading vendors to pull back on the innovation and variety in cases, fans, and other such components.
I’m not predicting a death spiral, but I fear a period of dormancy that returns us to the mood and vibe of past eras—when desktop PCs were boring, bland, and not highly performant unless you had serious spare cash to drop.
For now, I’m preparing for austerity even as I look forward to seeing what else could come from Intel’s Panther Lake, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme, and future laptop processors. I love the idea of powerful mobile chips. I hate the idea that they could supplant desktop PCs as the only reasonable option for consumers.
In this episode of The Full Nerd
In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Will Smith, and special guest Edward Crisler, NA PR Manager at long-time GPU maker Sapphire Technology, discuss the current state of GPUs, including manufacturing challenges and benchmarking changes.
I should talk more about the actual episode here, but honestly, Ed always has great insights and you should definitely check out the whole conversation. More to the point, I’m still extremely preoccupied by the lollipop scorpions that Adam brought back as a souvenir for Willis.
Surely…that’s an HR violation? Isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be? (Willis, be careful!)
Willis Lai / Foundry
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Don’t miss out on our NEW shows too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition now! (Adam just dropped a new episode of Extra Edition related to Panther Lake!)
And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds.
This week’s packed nerd news
Intel’s Panther Lake chips definitely made the biggest waves in tech news this week, but other interesting, quirky, and downright unsettling tidbits popped up, too. I’m predictably wary after reading a new report about AI models being easily corrupted, but balancing out the scales is a rather delightful DIY take from Google on a keyboard.
Also, we got word of it a few weeks ago, but now it’s time to bring out the bugle—AOL’s dial-up service is now officially dead. Rest in peace, old friend.
It’s unusual, but I want one.
Google
Expect Thread Director changes in Intel’s Panther Lake: Mark wasn’t the only one who dug deep into Panther Lake while at the press briefings in Arizona. Will took a dive with Intel Fellow Rajshree Chabukswar into the upcoming improvements Intel is making to Thread Director for Panther Lake, too.
The only RAM config that PC gamers need? This advice from our colleagues over at PCWelt takes the pressure off to spend more to get better performance. But will the internet agree to a sensible take?
Keep it secret. Keep it safe: Google’s allowing end-to-end encrypted emails to be sent to non-Gmail recipients. It’s only available to Workspace users, but I like what it could mean for personal accounts down the road.
I’d try this rotary dial keyboard: It would be slow, yes. But I like what it could mean for accessibility options. (Though maybe voice typing is faster. Assuming it recognizes what you’re saying with any accuracy. And it’s not always necessarily as private as I’d like.)
Catch you all next week—if I manage to escape the boxes I’ll be swimming in, after taking inventory of my October Amazon Prime Day purchases. None of it is exciting, but I’m excited that I got a good deal on “boring” stuff. Yeah, I’ve reached that age.
~Alaina
This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.
Getting 1TB of lightning-fast external storage for just $74.99 might seem too good to be true, but there’s a real opportunity for that right now. The Crucial X9 Pro (1TB) portable SSD is still at its Prime Big Deal Days price, one of the best discounts we’ve seen for it so far. If you need a high-performance external drive, you don’t want to miss this one.
One of the biggest perks of the Crucial X9 Pro is that you can transfer data to it and from it super quickly, with read and write speeds up to 1,050 MB/s. Copying large files and folders is a breeze with this thing, and you’ll never have to sit there twiddling your thumbs again—even when moving 4K videos and massive photo collections.
The 1TB capacity is plenty for all but the most hardcore data hoarders, and I love that the Crucial X9 Pro has a compact form (for portability) and USB-C port (for wide compatibility with various devices). Use it directly with your phone or camera to record 4K or even 8K videos without losing any frames, or plug it into your PC or gaming console for storing your huge games and running them with great performance.
Going back to portability, this drive is super small (2.55 x 1.97 inches) and lightweight (only 1.34 ounces). You can slip this into your pocket and forget about it, and you won’t have to worry because it has IP55 water and dust resistance plus drop resistance from up to 7.5 feet.
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your computer’s storage, now’s the time to do it! October Prime Day is showing some insane deals, like this lightning-fast 1TB Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD on sale for $59.99 on Amazon. That’s the absolute lowest price we’ve ever seen for the 1TB model, making this an unmissable deal!
Back when we reviewed the Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD, it earned a solid 4-star rating for its performance and warranty. One of the main reasons why it lost out on that fifth star? Its retail price. It was hard to justify for $109.99. But with this 43% discount, it’s now a no-brainer.
The Samsung 990 EVO Plus offers superb everyday performance, with read speeds up to 7,250 MB/s and write speeds up to 6,300 MB/s. That translates to instant system bootup times, file transfers and backups, and app launches. And this SSD is compatible with both PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 5.0 x2, future-proofing your PC for years to come. The 1TB capacity is more than enough for everyone except the most hardcore power users.
If 1TB doesn’t feel like enough, you can instead opt for the 2TB model that’s on sale for $129.99 (was $176.99). The 4TB model was also on sale, but it has since run out as of this writing.
Samsung's lightning-fast 1TB SSD is going to sell out fast
Need more space for your games, media, backup, or just about anything else? The Western Digital 14TB External Hard Drive is on sale this October Prime Day for only $169.99 (reg. $279.99) on Amazon.
WD’s plug-and-play drive delivers not only an absurd amount of reliable storage at 14TB, but it’s also simple and quick to set up and use. Whether you’re saving large video files, loading up on games during Steam’s Autumn sales event, or backing up your system, 14TB is enough space to store all of it and more.
Plus, it won’t take up much room on your desktop as it’s only about the size of a standard book. It comes with both USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports and there’s no software to install, just plug it into your computer and you have instant access to reliable storage.
This deal is only available during Amazon’s Prime Big Deals Day, aka October Prime Day, which runs from Tuesday October 7 through Wednesday October 8. So grab this great deal on the WD External Drive while supplies last—it’s only available for one more day!
October Prime Day is gracing us with an awesome price drop for one of the best flash drives out there. The 256GB Samsung Type-C Flash Drive is only $21.99 right now, a sexy 33% discount from its original $32.99 price. This deal is only good for today, so jump on it quick!
A great USB flash drive should tick all these boxes: ample storage, fast transfer speeds, and wide compatibility with all (or most) of your devices. With USB-C being the standard connection type these days, it’s about time we all upgraded from USB-A flash drives to USB-C varieties—and if you’re going to do that, you might as well make it this one.
Samsung’s USB-C flash drive offers 256GB of storage space, which is a fantastic value for the price. The USB-C connector ensures that it works with modern laptops, phones, tablets, and even other devices like gaming consoles. And with up to 400 MB/s transfer speeds, it’s darn fast. You can move photos, documents, and save files in a snap.
The cherry on top? It’s robust and portable thanks to its ultra-compact design and protective casing plus cap. Rest assured that your data is safe as this flash drive is waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, and guarded against magnets, X-rays, and extreme temperatures. Drop it, bump it, toss it—it’ll survive and your data with it.
For those of us looking to upgrade our PCs, time isn’t on our side. Over the course of the year, prices have gone up on components, including SSDs…and reports say they’re set to rise further. (I miss the golden months of 2023, for sure.)
So if you’ve been itching to jump on an SSD deal, now’s your last chance to check out big discounts—Amazon’s October Prime Day sales end on Wednesday, October 8 at 11:59pm. But as always, these counters to higher component prices can sell out before then. If you see something you like, grab it ASAP.
SATA SSD pricing has been hit the hardest by current market forces, in part due to the greater popularity of NVMe SSDs. But if all you’re seeking is an upgrade to an old PC’s hard disk drive, you’ve got options.
SSD prices have been rising gradually—so while the best prices now don’t match historical all-time lows, you can still find good prices on well-regarded drives. The 2TB Samsung 990 Pro is a particularly nice find, with superb performance and a discounted price just $10 more than its all-time low.
Best October Prime Day 2025 deals on external storage
Crucial X9 Pro, 1TB USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSD – $75 (26% off)
Samsung T9, 1TB, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 portable SSD – $95 (32% off)
SK Hynix Tube T31, 2TB USB 3.2 Gen 2 slim portable SSD – $119 (26% off)
Samsung T7, 2TB USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSD – $130 (31% off)
Samsung T9, 2TB, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 portable SSD – $160 (33% off)
External storage sales are a surprising bright spot for discounts during October Prime Day. Samsung’s speedy T9 models in 1TB and 2TB capacities are down to all-time lows, as is the similarly zippy Crucial X9 Pro.
Other great October Prime Day deals
These aren’t the only October Prime Day deals being tracked by the PCWorld team. If you’re looking to supercharge your home setup with the juiciest tech sales, hit the links for only the best expert-curated picks we’ve found.
The balance between demand and supply has shifted. Most recently, data centers have begun buying up SSDs, shrinking the number of drives available to consumers. But while you can’t expect to see the incredible prices of 2023, deal periods like Prime Day help counteract cost increases.
2.
Do brands matter for SSDs and storage?
Yes, but only to a point. Major manufacturers are generally reliable—think Samsung, Crucial, Western Digital (aka WD), SK Hynix, Corsair, Kingston, and even newer players like TeamGroup and Solidigm. Outside of that, you may be playing a bit fast and loose with your data’s longevity.
However, everyone has that one horror story about a hard-disk drive that failed, and why they’ll never use, say, WD or Crucial again. That’s less commonly a manufacturing error, and more so a matter of luck. No drive is guaranteed to meet its life expectancy, which is why you should perform regular backups.
3.
Is an SSD better than a HDD?
SSDs are faster and take less room in a PC than a hard-disk drive (HDD), which gives them a strong edge. If you only have one storage drive in your PC, it should ideally be an SSD so you get faster boot times and quicker access to your files. A HDD as your primary drive will feel much slower.
But HDDs still have their advantages. First, they’re much cheaper. The going price of a 2TB HDD is about the same as the sale price for a 1TB SSD. You also can get them in higher capacities than SSDs. If you work with huge files, you can pick up an 18TB or 20TB HDD (and as mentioned, since HDD cost less, you’ll spend as much or even less as a 4TB SSD). If you need secondary storage and you don’t need it to be fast, HDDs are a fantastic option.
4.
How do I know if an SSD deal is good?
Here’s the guideline we use for picking deals: First, it should be for an SSD that performs well (or in select cases, performs well for its MSRP), and is a reasonable price when not on sale. The discount should also be significant for that particular model. Ex: For SSDs that almost never go on sale, a reduction of $5 to $10 is already hefty. For others, that might be closer to $20 to $30.
5.
Have tariffs affected SSD and storage prices?
Tariffs have caused small increases on computer components, but SSD pricing has been more affected by data centers. Demand has grown enough that supply available to consumers have shrunk, driving up prices. That said, tariffs could begin to affect SSDs and storage more notably after the holidays, which is when retailers’ pre-tariff stockpiles of goods is expected to run out—which means any new stock imported into the U.S. will be taxed at higher rates.
If you want a good-performing SSD that you can stick to the back of your MagSafe device, then the 10Gbps EX300U is the more affordable (albeit slower) choice than the company’s USB4 EX400U.
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Small, thin, and squarish SSDs seem to be in vogue these days, with Corsair as active in producing them as any company. Witness the EX300U, a less expensive, 10Gbps alternative to the USB4 (40Gbps) EX400U I reviewed about six months back.
It shares its sibling’s MagSafe magnetic circle on back for easy attachment to devices that allow it, though not its speed.
What are the EX300U’s features?
The EX300U is a 10Gbps USB drive inside a 2.5-inch square that’s roughly 0.5-inch thick. In appearance, it’s exactly like the faster EX400U, with the exception of the model number on the back label.
There’s the same circular MagSafe magnet on the back that will attach to any suitable surface, including many phones. Yes, auxiliary storage for many amateur videographers.
The only other difference is the weight — at only 1.4 ounces, the EX300U is palpably lighter than the 1.8-ounce EX400U. I was a bit surprised I could feel the difference, but I did.
The controller is a Phison PS2217-17 and the NAND is 3D, of course. Corsair wasn’t specific as to whether it’s TLC or QLC, but the minimum write rate in my tests was 450MBps so whatever it is (my guess is the latest QLC), the native write rate isn’t tragic.
The back of the EX300U, with its MagSafe ring. And yes, the label is slightly askew, as is the author’s photography (says the author).
Corsair includes a handy short, gray Type-C to Type-C cable with one of the connectors angled for a less obtrusive connection to phones and the like.
The warranty on the EX300U is three years, which is the usual for external SSDs, but the 250TBW (terabytes that can be written) per terabyte of capacity is a little stingy. Still, the odds of anyone exceeding that limit is rather low in a light-duty external 10Gbps USB SSD.
A three-year/250TBW warranty is more concerning in the EX400U, which is fast enough to see some heavy-duty write loads.
How much does the EX300U cost?
The EX300U is available in 1TB/$100, 2TB/$180, and 4TB/$340 capacities. At the time of this writing, that’s $10 cheaper than the 1TB EX400U, and $20 cheaper at the 2TB and 4TB capacities.
While a penny saved is a penny earned, I was honestly hoping that the EX300U would save you a few more given the reduced performance. Still, if you don’t have the faster port to take advantage of a USB 3.2×2 or USB4 SSD, you might as well save what you can.
How fast is the EX300U?
The EX300U is a good performer for a 10Gbps SSD. It’s different in shape, but comparable in size and weight to the two 10Gbps thumb drives (the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD and SK Hynix Tube T31) it’s compared to in the charts.
As already mentioned, the EX300U is, quite logically, far slower than its 40Gbps EX400U sibling. Even though that drive is itself slow for a USB4 SSD.
Regardless, the EX300U was easily faster in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential tests than the aforementioned 10Gbps competition.
The EX300U was easily faster in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential tests than the competition. Longer bars are better.
In CrystalDiskMark 8’s random tests, however, the Ultra Compact SSD cleaned the EX300U’s clock.
In CrystalDiskMark 8’s random tests, however, the Ultra Compact SSD cleaned the EX300U’s clock. Longer bars are better.
In our real-life 48GB transfers, the EX300U was back on top of the competition in many tests, though fell short in others. Totaled up, it’s still a win for the EX300U.
In our real-life 48GB transfers, the EX300U was back on top of the competition in many tests, while falling short in others. Totaled up, it’s still a win for the EX300U. Shorter bars are better.
While the T31 was a touch faster with FastCopy, the EX300U was tops with Windows Explorer in writing 450GB to its cells.
While the T31 was a touch faster with FastCopy, the EX300U was tops with Windows Explorer in writing 450G to its cells. Shorter bars are better.
Overall, I saw better performance from the EX300U than from the competition.
One aberration: CrystalDiskMark 8 wouldn’t run when the EX300U was attached to my Thunderbolt 5 port. It created the 64GiB file, but the numbers never changed from 0. Whether this was the BIOS, Thunderbolt 5/USB4 implementation, or the SSD is anyone’s guess and Corsair hadn’t determined the cause of the issue by the time of this writing. All my copy tests over Thunderbolt 5 went off without a hitch.
The EX300U also performed as expected with all the synthetic benchmarks when attached to the 10Gbps and 20Gbps USB ports.
Should you buy the Corsair EX300U?
Though not as quick as its 40Gbps EX400U cousin, the EX300U is easily fast enough for most users and most portable devices. And, it’s more affordable than the 20/40Gbps competition, albeit not by as much as I’d hope.
So, yes, if price is paramount or you have no faster USB ports to take advantage of faster drives, think EX300. But go with the EX400U if you want really top-notch small-and-square performance.
How we test
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Crucial 64GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (128GB of memory total).
Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated into the motherboard and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used.Internal PCIe 5.0 SSDs involved in testing are mounted in a Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 adapter card.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8.04 (and 9), AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks (to keep article length down, we only report one) to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag and drop to show what users will see during routine copy operations, as well as the far faster FastCopy run as administrator to show what’s possible.
A 20GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 is used as the second drive in our transfer tests. Formerly the 48GB tests were done with a RAM disk serving that purpose.
Each test is performed on a NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This issue has abated somewhat with the current crop of SSDs utilizing more mature controllers and far faster, late-generation NAND.
Note that our testing MO evolves and these results may not match those from previous articles. Only comparisons inside the article are 100% valid as those results are gathered using the current hardware and MO.
Glance at SK Hynix’s smallest external drive, and you might think at first it’s a USB stick. Nope! The South Korean company, which primarily produces storage memory for other companies, packed in NVMe speeds into this slim portable SSD. And if you’ve been hoping for a discount on it, good news: You can grab the 2TB SK Hynix Tube T31 for just $119 right now, or 26 percent off.
This deal comes during Amazon’s Prime Big Deals Day, aka October Prime Day, which runs from today, Tuesday October 7 through tomorrow, Tuesday October 8, ending at 11:59pm.
We awarded the SK Hynix Tube T31 a 4.5-star rating for its zippy performance, which particularly impressed us given its compact size. Though larger than your typical flash drive, you can still fit this into a pocket—which you can’t comfortably say about most other external SSDs.
As a USB 3.2 Gen2 external SSD, it’s rated for transfer speeds up to 10 Gbps, and it delivers on its specs. In our independent benchmarks, we found it’s capable of hitting those fast speeds, allowing us to move around files in just moments.
Don’t need a portable SSD quite so tiny? You can check out our round-up of the best SSD and storage deals during Prime Day—the Crucial X9 Pro and Samsung T9 also earned 4.5-star ratings from us. (The Samsung T9 on sale is the non-rugged version, but should perform similarly.) But whether one of these other portable SSD or this $119 2TB SK Hynix Tube T31 catches your eye, grab it soon. These deals only last for one more day!
Get an ultra-fast, super-compact 2TB portable SSD for just $119
Maybe your gaming laptop doesn’t have enough storage. Or you simply want an easy way to make your game library portable. An external SSD can fix both of these issues (and more) by providing an easy way to expand storage that you can take on the go.
But choosing an external SSD means sorting through a dizzying array of options, and making a poor choice can leave you feeling hard done by. Lucky for you, we’ve done the testing and can offer some sure-fire recommendations that are guaranteed to help, and not hinder, your gaming setup.
Scroll below our recommendations to learn more about our evaluation process and what to look for when buying an external SSD for gaming.
Why you should trust PCWorld for external drive reviews and buying advice: We’re PCWorld, that’s why. We’ve been putting computer hardware through its paces for decades. Our external drive evaluations are thorough and rigorous, testing the limits of every product — from performance benchmarks to the practicalities of daily use. As consumers ourselves, we know what makes a product exceptional. For more about our testing process, scroll to the bottom of this article.
Lexar SL600 Blaze – Best 20Gbps external SSD for gaming
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The competition is very close in the top tier of 20Gbps external drives, with the big-name contenders trading wins up and down the benchmark charts. But a winner is a winner, and in the end, the Lexar overtook our previous champ, Crucial’s X10 Pro, even if only by a hair.
The upshot is that you can expect excellent performance from the Lexar SL600. It also comes in a uniquely shaped form factor, complete with an opening to accommodate a lanyard, for easy toting. Gamers might appreciate that you can even add some bling by opting for the SL660 variant, which features RGB lighting within its miniature handle. The drive comes with the standard five-year warranty.
When performance is this closely matched among products, the determining factor should be price. And here, too, the SL600 is neck-and-neck with the Crucial X10 Pro, and priced slightly to significantly cheaper than some of its competitors, at least as of this writing — particularly at the 2TB level.
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If you tend to take your gaming drive everywhere, and/or you’re not the most careful person with hardware, a ruggedized external SSD is a practical answer.
The PNY RP60 offers more than just a rugged IP65-rated exterior that protects against dust and water droplets; and while very handsome and lightweight to boot, the drive is also an admirable performer, even besting one of the fastest 20Gbps drives we’ve tested — the Crucial X10 Pro — in a couple of our tests.
The RP60 is also competitively priced at $85 and $135 for 1TB and 2TB, respectively.
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If you’re after a very small SSD that you can easily fit into a pocket, the Sabrent Rocket Nano V2 is that. This USB 3.2×2 20Gbps drive measures a petite 2.73 inches long, 1.16-inches wide, and 0.44-inches thick. It weighs a dainty 1.7 ounces.
Of course, you’ll probably want to slide on its included shock-absorbing silicone jacket (shown in picture), which will add .06 inches to all its dimensions, while giving it a badass look.
But looks aside, the Nano V2 is a solid performer. It wasn’t quite at the same level as our top picks in everything, but it traded wins and losses within the pack. For instance it was second only to the Crucial X10 Pro in our 450GB write test. And it took the top spot in CrystalDiskMark 8’s random writes, and was very competitive in random reads.
This wee drive also comes in up to 4TB capacities, making it an all-around good choice if you’re looking to get a lot of storage and performance in a tiny package. We’re also fond of its five-year warranty and the nifty metal box it comes in, which can be repurposed for other uses.
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A USB4 external SSD isn’t for everyone. Not only does your PC need to support the spec in order to take advantage of the 40Gbps transfers, but you’ll also need to be willing to pay a premium for the privilege.
If you’re ready to enter the club, however, the Adata SE920 EX will reward you with the fastest USB4 performance that we’ve experienced, and at a much more affordable price than our previous pick for USB4, the OWC Express 1M2 — we’re talking $160 for a 1TB Adata SE920 versus $230 for the OWC drive. And if you want a lot of capacity, the Adata SE920 EX comes with up to 4TB, for a reasonable $450 (compared to OWC’s $550).
In almost every benchmark, the SE920 EX beat the OWC Express 1M2 at 40Gbps performance, albeit by small margins. It also comes with a nifty built-in fan, which is activated by sliding open the enclosure. This kept our drive noticeably free of heat during our benchmark tests.
The SE920 EX is also quite portable at 4.13 inches long by 2.52-inches wide by 0.62-inches thick, and weighing 7 ounces — another advantage it has over the bulkier OWC Express 1M2.
In the end, the choice for a USB 4 external SSD is clear.
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The LaCie Rugged SSD4 is the top choice for anyone looking to leverage the best performance from their USB4 or Thunderbolt 3 (or greater) ports.
In our benchmarks, the Rugged SSD4 proved to be the speediest 40Gbps USB4 overall that we’ve tested, albeit by a small margin. Even when tasking the drive to write several 950GB files consecutively, where you expect to see a drive slow down as its cache fills, the SSD4 never dropped below 1.65GBps — something videographers should take note of.
Its silicone jacket is IP54 rated for protection against dust and water spray, making it a good choice for anyone who needs storage out in the field. Its bright orange color makes it easy to find in a crowded bag or atop a cluttered workspace.
And while the SSD4 is not exactly cheap, it’s competitively priced.
The TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus 40 Gbps drive enclosure, populated with the NVMe drives of your choosing, is an interesting proposition, as is the Asus TUF Gaming A2 enclosure, which is also rugged; the Crucial X10 is a tiny, weatherproofed drive that can hold up to 8TB of storage in a small form-factor; there’s a lot to like about the Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 such as its handsome design and relative affordability, but connection issues and comparably lackluster 40Gbps performance left us unamazed; the Addlink P21 has a compelling combination of good performance and a striking design; while the Corsair EX400U is on the slow side for a USB4 external SSD, it’s also less expensive than the competition; the Seagate Game Drive SSD is targeted at PS4/PS5 owners, and the 10Gbps SSD is very fast for its class and attractively styled, complete with a Playstation logo, but it’s relatively pricey; the Lexar Armor 700 is a 20Gbps drive that can withstand some abuse — perfect for the gamer on the go, or the accident-prone; the Adata SD810 is a solid 20Gbps drive, save for writing large amounts of data, where it slows down. That being said, the 4TB capacity is a particularly good value at just $300.
How PCWorld tests external drives
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4,800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. SSDs involved in the test are mounted in either a HighPoint 7604A 16x 4-slot PCIe 5.0 RAID adapter card or a single-slot Asus ROG M.2 PCIe 5.0 adapter.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8, AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag-and-drop to show what you’ll see under Window, as well as the far faster FastCopy to show what’s possible. A two-drive 25GBps RAID 0 array on the HighPoint 7604A 16x PCIe 5.0 adapter card is used as the secondary source/destination.
Each test is performed on an NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This can be less of a factor with the current crop of SSDs with far faster late-generation NAND.
Caveat: The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacity tested. SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report, by all means, let us know.
Note also that some of the SSDs in this roundup were tested using other equipment and methodologies which you can read about in the standalone reviews.
Why you should PCWorld for external drive reviews and buying advice
We are PCWorld. Our reviewers have been putting computer hardware through its paces for decades. Our external drive evaluations are thorough and rigorous, testing the limits of every product — from performance benchmarks to the practicalities of regular use. As consumers ourselves, we know what makes a product exceptional. For more about our testing process, scroll to the bottom of this article.
Who curated this article?
Having started computing by flipping switches, Jon Jacobi has witnessed storage morph from punch cards and tape to solid state. He’s been using and testing HDDs, SATA SSDs, and NVMe SSDs for PCWorld for well over two decades. To paraphrase a well-known commercial, you might say he’s seen a thing or two.
FAQ
1.
What’s the fastest external interface?
The fastest PC external interfaces are as follows, in descending order: 80Gbps Thunderbolt 5, 40Gbps USB4/Thunderbolt 3 and 4, 20Gbps USB 3.2×2, 10GBps USB 3.2, then 5Gbps USB 3.x.
2.
What causes an external SSD to fail?
While mechanical hard drives are much more prone to failure than SSDs, it is still possible for an SSD to fail. Generally it’s the result of a controller failure, although that’s an increasingly rare occurrence; it’s also a relatively easy fix/reset for someone who knows the SSD’s internals such as a recovery service. SSDs will also eventually wear out, though this only precludes further writing to the unit. You can still read what’s on the drive, so it’s not the disaster a HDD failure can be.
3.
Why does Windows say my external drive is smaller than specified?
This discrepancy is due to the difference between the binary and decimal number systems, their nomenclatures, and a Microsoft miscue. Your 2TB drive indeed has two trillion bytes of storage, and if you look at the byte count that Windows displays in a drive’s properties dialog, this should be what you see. This, in the International System of Units (SI/decimal), is two terabytes, or 2TB. This is the standard language vendors use as consumers are far more familiar with base 10.
However, Windows uses the newer International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) binary multiples 2^10 (Kibibyte/KiB), 2^20 (Mebibyte/MiB), 2^30 (Gibibyte/Gib). Binary multiples are larger numbers (one KiB is 1,024) so when Windows divides the total bytes by the IEC system, the you get something like 1.8TiB for a 2TB drive. Alas, Windows labels this as 1.8TB, misleading the user.
Other reasons you might not see as much available storage in the properties tab are formatting or partitioning. The file system uses some storage for file location and size info, etc. Also, some drives come with a small partition containing software so the main partition will be smaller than the drive’s total capacity.
4.
How long will my external SSD last?
SSDs don’t wear out or break mechanically like a hard drive, but their cells can only be written to so many times. SSDs generally have a TBW (terabytes that may be written) rating, but this is rarely provided by vendors for external SSDs. Hint: They may not use the same SSD inside throughout the product lifespan.
Most internal M.2 NVMe TLC SSDs are rated for around 600TBW per terabyte, and QLC types for around 200TBW, though the type of NAND in use is also rarely provided by vendors. That’s a lot of data, and a lot of SSDs are rated well below what they might achieve. You can guesstimate by using a utility to see how much data you write to an SSD a day and then doing the math.
External SSD warranties are generally between three and five years, but as with all such things, it’s a financial risk calculation for the company. As is the TBW. Our best guess based on experience is perhaps a decade. However, certain models have had issues long before that — generally due to a flaw or failure in the bridge chip or controller.
5.
What is the best external SSD for gaming?
Gamers have a lot of excellent external SSDs to choose from. If speed is important, the best 40Gbps external drive is the Adata SE920 at 40Gbps; for 20Gbps performance, and a significant cost savings, consider the Lexar SL600 and Crucial X10 Pro.
The Steam Deck still reigns as the go-to pick for handheld PC gaming more than three years after its debut. But if you’re a PC gamer, you know those games can fill up a storage drive faster than you can say “This year’s Call of Duty is 160GB.” Fortunately, you can get a fantastically tiny (in the physical sense) and huge (in the figurative sense) 2TB SSD for your Steam Deck for just $139.99 on Amazon right now.
Surprisingly, you don’t need an Amazon Prime membership to score this deal. It’s available for all and sundry, huzzah.
The Western Digital Black SN770M seems to be one of the most popular options for the M.2 2230 (30mm long) form factor, and it’s perfect for devices like the Steam Deck, other portable gaming PCs like the Asus Ally or Lenovo Legion Go, and even some ultraportable laptops that demand the smallest drive possible. The PCIe Gen 4 drive is more than fast enough for gaming at over 5,000 MB/s, and it comes with a 5-year warranty. All you need to install it on the Steam Deck is a screwdriver. You can read more about this specific module in PCWorld’s review of it, where it gets a glowing recommendation.
Normally in the $180 range, today’s discount on this drive is a solid one, if not unbeatable. It’s a lot cheaper than most 2TB upgrades for handheld gaming PCs. (For example, Valve wants an extra $100 for the Steam Deck OLED model just to bump it up from 512GB to 1TB.) It’s probably the best upgrade you can make to your device in terms of value, so don’t be surprised if this deal goes out of stock quickly.
Get a 2TB SSD for your Steam Deck for just $139.99 right now
October Prime Day is here, and we’re excited about all the amazing discounts we’re seeing. We just love the Samsung T7 portable SSD, and we couldn’t ignore the fact that the 2TB model is down to the best price it’s had in years. You can get one of these for $109.99 right now, which is 41% off from its original $187.99 price.
That’s a solid price-performance value, especially given that this is a Samsung drive. It’ll give you the chance to back up all your pics and vids and documents offline rather than relying on spotty cloud services. Even better, you’ll be making all those file transfers in a blink because this thing supports data transfer speeds of up to 1,050 MB/s.
Equipped with a USB-C port, the Samsung T7 is highly versatile, allowing seamless connections to a wide range of devices. Not only can you connect it to your laptop and desktop PC, but it also works with your phone and gaming console. And for those passionate about recording 4K vids, you can just hook this up to your camera and record the vids directly onto the SSD without dropped frames.
For comparison, here are the going prices for all the other Samsung T7 capacities. It highlights how good this 2TB deal is:
Don’t miss out on this chance to get the 2TB Samsung T7 for $109.99 for Prime Big Deal Days because it’s a seriously good price. Or check out more amazing Prime Day deals on SSDs and storage. Here are some other cool portable SSD Prime Day deals we found:
All good things come to an end and this year’s October Prime Day is on its last day. You only have until until 11:59 PM PDT, October 8, to get all your shopping done for some of the best prices we’ve seen all year. We’ve been seeing some killer deals on everything tech, including flash drives. After all, everyone needs a great USB flash drive, and October Prime Day is an excellent time to grab one for cheap.
Why listen to my recommendations? I’ve been a journalist for 19 years, with 13 of those years focused on consumer technology. I love sifting through deals and spend every day hunting down the very best sales on the very best tech. With October Prime Day, I’m exercising those muscles to help you find the best USB thumb drives worth your money. These hand-curated recommendations take price, reviews, and brand reputation into consideration.
Best October Prime Day deals on 64GB to 256GB flash drives
The best deal of the lot is for the Samsung Bar Plus, which makes it possible to get 256GB of storage space for a mere $22. With transfer speeds of up to 400MB/s, you’ll move files in no time. The rugged metal casing will help protect your data from all sorts of bumps and drops, too. If you want to go for a USB-C flash drive, the Samsung Type-C is also a solid pick for $18 for 128GB.
Best October Prime Day deals on 512GB to 2TB flash drives
A superb pick from this list is the Ultra Flair from SanDisk. This is a flash drive with a USB-A connector, 128-bit AES encryption, and up to 150MB/s transfer speeds for a quick job on moving files around.
Other great October Prime Day deals
These aren’t the only October Prime Day deals being tracked by the PCWorld team. If you’re looking to supercharge your home setup with the juiciest tech sales, hit the links for the best expert-curated picks we’ve found.
This is a question that you need to answer yourself because it really depends on what you plan to use it for. If you’re only moving work documents around, a small capacity like 64GB will be fine. If you want to use a flash drive for backing up photos, videos, games, and other big files, then you might want to go 512GB or larger.
2.
What features should I prioritize when choosing a USB flash drive?
First of all, our recommendation is to look at the flash drive’s transfer speeds. To ensure you get fast read/write speeds, you should get a USB 3.0 or above. USB 2.x drives are sorely outdated.
Then, you have to make sure the flash drive can survive living in your pocket, getting crushed by your laptop, falling through your fingers, and so on. Aluminum casings will offer better protection in such cases.
If the flash drive offers 128-bit AES encryption or better, your data will also have some extra protection in case you lose it, as the drive will be inaccessible and block out others from reading your data.
3.
How did we find the best USB flash drive October Prime Day deals?
Finding great deals can be difficult because not all discounts are worth covering. When looking for good October Prime Day deals, we compare the prices on Amazon with the regular retail price and check pricing history to see if there have been any changes lately and that the price drops are truly noteworthy. We also check product reviews to see if they’re reliable in the long run and live up to their promises.
For those of us looking to upgrade our PCs, time isn’t on our side. Over the course of the year, prices have gone up on components, including SSDs…and reports say they’re set to rise further. (I miss the golden months of 2023, for sure.)
So if you’ve been itching to jump on an SSD deal, now’s a good time to check out your options—Amazon’s October Prime Day sales have a few good counters to higher component costs. The discounts last until Wednesday, October 8 at 11:59pm PT, but can sell out before then. If you see something you like, grab it ASAP.
SATA SSD pricing has been hit the hardest by current market forces, in part due to the greater popularity of NVMe SSDs. But if all you’re seeking is an upgrade to an old PC’s hard disk drive, you’ve got options.
SSD prices have been rising gradually—so while the best prices now don’t match historical all-time lows, you can still find good prices on well-regarded drives. The 2TB Samsung 990 Pro is a particularly nice find, with superb performance and a discounted price just $10 more than its all-time low.
Best October Prime Day 2025 deals on external storage
Samsung T9, 1TB, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 portable SSD – $95 (32% off)
Crucial X9 Pro, 1TB USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSD – $75 (26% off)
SK Hynix Tube T31, 2TB, USB 3.2 Gen 2 slim portable SSD – $119 (26% off)
Samsung T9, 2TB, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 portable SSD – $160 (33% off)
External storage sales are a surprising bright spot for discounts during October Prime Day. Samsung’s speedy T9 models in 1TB and 2TB capacities are down to all-time lows, as is the similarly zippy Crucial X9 Pro.
Other great October Prime Day deals
These aren’t the only October Prime Day deals being tracked by the PCWorld team. If you’re looking to supercharge your home setup with the juiciest tech sales, hit the links for only the best expert-curated picks we’ve found.
The balance between demand and supply has shifted. Most recently, data centers have begun buying up SSDs, shrinking the number of drives available to consumers. But while you can’t expect to see the incredible prices of 2023, deal periods like Prime Day help counteract cost increases.
2.
Do brands matter for SSDs and storage?
Yes, but only to a point. Major manufacturers are generally reliable—think Samsung, Crucial, Western Digital (aka WD), SK Hynix, Corsair, Kingston, and even newer players like TeamGroup and Solidigm. Outside of that, you may be playing a bit fast and loose with your data’s longevity.
However, everyone has that one horror story about a hard-disk drive that failed, and why they’ll never use, say, WD or Crucial again. That’s less commonly a manufacturing error, and more so a matter of luck. No drive is guaranteed to meet its life expectancy, which is why you should perform regular backups.
3.
Is an SSD better than a HDD?
SSDs are faster and take less room in a PC than a hard-disk drive (HDD), which gives them a strong edge. If you only have one storage drive in your PC, it should ideally be an SSD so you get faster boot times and quicker access to your files. A HDD as your primary drive will feel much slower.
But HDDs still have their advantages. First, they’re much cheaper. The going price of a 2TB HDD is about the same as the sale price for a 1TB SSD. You also can get them in higher capacities than SSDs. If you work with huge files, you can pick up an 18TB or 20TB HDD (and as mentioned, since HDD cost less, you’ll spend as much or even less as a 4TB SSD). If you need secondary storage and you don’t need it to be fast, HDDs are a fantastic option.
4.
How do I know if an SSD deal is good?
Here’s the guideline we use for picking deals: First, it should be for an SSD that performs well (or in select cases, performs well for its MSRP), and is a reasonable price when not on sale. The discount should also be significant for that particular model. Ex: For SSDs that almost never go on sale, a reduction of $5 to $10 is already hefty. For others, that might be closer to $20 to $30.
5.
Have tariffs affected SSD and storage prices?
Tariffs have caused small increases on computer components, but SSD pricing has been more affected by data centers. Demand has grown enough that supply available to consumers have shrunk, driving up prices. That said, tariffs could begin to affect SSDs and storage more notably after the holidays, which is when retailers’ pre-tariff stockpiles of goods is expected to run out—which means any new stock imported into the U.S. will be taxed at higher rates.
Between data centers sprouting up like daisies and formerly affordable DDR4 memory finally fading into the sunset, we’re looking at some rough times ahead for memory and storage prices—and that’s before general economic turmoil and tariffs complicate things even further. Now, one major flash hardware producer’s CEO is even warning that we could be looking at a decade-long shortage.
Said CEO is Pua Khein-Seng of Phison Electronics. Phison doesn’t get a lot of visibility in the consumer space, but it’s one of the planet’s biggest manufacturers of NAND memory controllers. (Pretty good odds that there are Phison chips in the gadget you’re using to read these words.) In an interview with Tech Taiwan, Pua predicted that we’ll be in a full-on memory shortage next year, with data centers made for increased capacity in general and “AI” products in particular creating an industry-wide dearth of hardware. That’s especially true as large data centers transition from conventional hard drives (the last major holdout for the decades-old tech) to solid-state drives.
That would inevitably push the price for flash-based memory and storage higher, and by extension, raise prices on more or less all consumer electronics, including phones, PCs, and graphics cards. Even devices with mostly “invisible” integrated electronics, like monitors or headphones, would be affected. With a wind-down of investment following the pandemic, immediately followed by surging demand for the AI bubble, Pua estimates that we could see a shortage that lasts as long as a decade, according to TechPowerUp.
I should note that the CEO of a major memory controller supplier isn’t exactly an unbiased source of information on the matter. Phison could be trying to spur investment or account for some rocky times in its own future. But speaking as someone who’s definitely on the consumer side of this equation, I don’t see anything that’s obviously wrong about a shortage prediction. Most other analysts are already predicting higher prices in the short term, and it’s certainly possible that the shortage could be sustained for multiple years.
SSDs, or solid state drives, have drastically improved the computing experience over the last decade or so. Thanks to them, once ponderous boot times now border on instantaneous, programs and games are far more responsive, and the frustratingly long waits to load large files are largely a thing of a past.
So… if you’re not yet using an SSD, what are you waiting for? If you already have an older SSD, you might consider upgrading it for the even headier performance offered by cutting-edge PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 designs. If your PC sports those technologies, of course.
That said, a premium drive may not deliver any more real-world performance than a bargain drive. Mainstream software, including Windows Explorer has yet to implement the numerous performance tricks, such as multiple queues, that NVMe SSDs offer.
One very large exception: FastCopy — a file copy and sync utility that allows your SSD to realize its full potential. We highly recommend it for transferring large amounts of data. It will save you tons of time, as will, oddly enough, the command line utility Xcopy if you want to exercise your inner geek.
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Our recommendations cover both internal SSDs (NVMe picks are listed first, SATA picks second) and external SSDs (listed last). See also PCWorld’s guide to the best external drives if you’re looking strictly for a portable storage solution.
Why you should trust PCWorld for SSD reviews and buying advice: 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 daily use. As PC users ourselves, we know what makes a product stand out. Only the best SSDs make this list.
Crucial P3 – Best PCIe 3.0 SSD
Pros
Excellent PCIe 3 performance
Fantastically low price per GB
Cons
Very low TBW rating
Non-cached QLC writes are extremely slow
Price When Reviewed:
500GB: $50 I 1TB: $90 I 2TB: $200 I 4TB: $250
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Who should buy the Crucial P3?
Bargain hunters will delight in the Crucial P3’s very good daily performance for minimal outlay. It did well in our testing and is available for just $45 in the 500GB capacity and $68 at 1TB.
Crucial P3: Further considerations
It’s only PCIe 3.0 (3Gbps), but many users are still on that older spec and won’t benefit much from the faster, but generally pricier PCIe 4.0/5.0 SSDs. The P3’s TBW (terabytes that may be written) rating is also quite low at 220 per terabyte of capacity (the unfortunate norm for QLC NAND), but we’ll forgive that in light of the price.
Though the P3 is cheap, prices have dropped on faster PCIe 4.0 models (5.0 still carries a premium) since this review, so newer technology might make sense in terms of future-proofing for you next machine. Regardless, all NVMe SSDs are subjectively lightning-fast, so the P3 can save you money without any sacrifice in satisfaction.
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Who should buy the WD Black SN7100?
Users who want the fastest 1TB to 4TB PCIe 4.0 SSD that won’t break the bank will want the WD Black SN7100. We were wowed by the 2TB version’s first-place finish among host memory buffer (HMB/DRAM-less) SSDs in our benchmarks. It also beat out a number of DRAM designs.
WD Black SN7100: Further considerations
The fact that it’s an HMB design, i.e. it uses your system’s memory for primary caching duties as opposed to featuring DRAM onboard, means the SN7100 is very competitively priced. We’re talking close to $50 less than our previous pick, the Solidigm P44 Pro, for both the 1TB and 2TB capacities.
Combine that with an industry-standard five-year warranty / 600TBW rating (terabytes that can be written) per TB, and you’re looking at the best PCIe 4.0 SSD for average users and gamers.
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Who should buy the WD Blue SN5000?
Gamers and non-gamers alike who are on a strict budget will save money without sacrificing top-flight performance with this PCIe 4.0 HMB (Host Memory Buffer/DRAM-less) SSD. At just $65 for a 1TB model at the time of writing, the Blue SN5000 is almost a steal.
In our testing, the SN5000 ranked among the fastest HMB SSDs we’ve tested. And unlike the SN580 before it, the SN5000 didn’t falter during the 450GB transfer test, placing highly among all SSDs. Yes, you lose nothing in sequential performance these days with HMB.
WD Blue SN5000: Further considerations
Yes, the WD Blue SN5000 has a successor in the WD Blue SN5100. And, yes, the newer drive does better in some tests, most markedly sustained throughput. But the SN5100 doesn’t outperform its predecessor in all tests. Given the close performance of the two drives, the SN5000 remains our best budget pick, because it’s the clear winner when it comes to price per performance.
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Who should buy the Teamgroup Z540?
Users looking for every last ounce of performance should be looking at this PCIe 5.0 SSD from Teamgroup. In all fairness, the Z540 traded benchmark wins and finished a hair behind our previous top pick the Crucial T705. But the Teamgroup Z540 beats that competitor when it comes to price, making it the new top pick for this category.
Teamgroup Z540: Further considerations
As with any PCIe 5.0 SSD, there are important caveats. For starters, you’re paying a hefty premium over extremely fast, and in some ways faster (real-world sequential performance) Host Memory Buffer NVMe PCIe 4.0 drives.
Only if you use multi-threaded software and your system sports a late-gen Intel CPU (which the Phison PS5026-E26-52 controller inside this drive is optimized for), can you be assured of benchmarking-busting performance.
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Who should buy the PNY CS2150?
Anyone who enjoys more for less will like this drive — serious coin can be saved on a PCIe 5.0 SSD by opting for a Host Memory Buffer (HNB) design such as PNY’s CS2150. Using the host system’s memory as the SSD’s primary cache instead of dedicated DRAM on the drive means significantly lower manufacturing costs.
PNY CS2150: Further considerations
HMB doesn’t stop the CS2150 from competing with more expensive SSDs. Indeed, the 2TB version that we tested placed 9th overall among all types of NVMe SSDs and it ran neck-in-neck with the Corsair MP700 — another HMB SSD whose performance impressed us.
PNY’s CS2150 trumps its Corsair peer by costing from $10 to $40 less than the latter in the 1TB and 2TB versions, respectively. You still get the industry standard standard five-year warranty and 600TBW (terabytes that can be written) guarantee.
If you have the PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot to support it, this SSD is an affordable way to performance future-proof your storage.
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Who should buy the Crucial P310?
Anyone looking to upgrade the capacity or speed of their Steam Deck storage should seriously consider the P310 — it’s the fastest (by a rather large margin) 2230 short-form-factor SSD that we’ve tested.
For a Steam Deck and many other small devices, you can’t use a commonplace 2280 (22mm wide, 80mm long) PCIe NVMe SSD — you need a 2230 type, meaning one that measures 22mm wide, by only 30mm long. Some will also accept the slightly larger 2242 SSDs.
Crucial P310: Further considerations
There are a few very close competitors, such as the the WD Black SN770M, the Corsair MP600 Core Mini — but the P310 is our top choice because, as previously mentioned, it proved the fastest 2230 type we’ve tested in every benchmark save for the 450GB write. It’s a little pricier than the SN770M, but by a mere $10 at both the 1TB and 2TB capacities at the time of this writing.
If optimum speed is what you’re after, and you don’t foresee regularly writing huge 450GB files, the P310 is the ticket.
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Who should buy the Seagate Game Drive SSD?
Those who want a great-performing SSD that will outlast the useful life of a PS5, should seriously consider the Seagate Game Drive SSD. It’s a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with a superb TBW rating that’s fully endowed with DRAM for primary caching duties. DRAM maximizes small-file performance in Sony’s console system, which doesn’t support the Host Memory Buffer technology (using system memory for primary caching) that many bargain SSDs employ.
Seagate Game Drive SSD: Further considerations
As to outlasting the console, Seagate provides a generous five-year warranty with the drive and spectacularly — a double-the-industry-norm 1,275TBW rating. TBW (terabytes that may be written) is the mitigating factor in SSD warranties, like the miles in an auto warranty. Exceed them and the SSD may become read-only.
The 1TB and 2TB Game Drive SSDs are a bit pricey, but the extra bucks bring you that TBW peace of mind. Note also, that while Seagate claims the Game Drive is optimized for a PS5, it’s no slouch as a regular SSD either. In our performance tests it was the second-fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD with random (small file) operations that we’ve ever tested.
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Who should buy the Samsung 870 EVO?
Users who are looking to add some fast storage via an old-school, but still effective 2.5-inch SATA SSD will want Samsung’s spectacular (for SATA) 870 EVO. It’s the fastest SATA SSD we’ve tested, is available with up to 4TB of capacity, and is exceedingly affordable given the speed.
Samsung 870 EVO: Further considerations
While not as fast as NVMe, 550MBps/fast seeking SATA still blows the doors off of hard drives. The 870 EVO’s price: $100 for 1TB, $170 for 2TB, and $260 for 4TB and speed speak for themselves — though Samsung’s excellent Magician SSD management software also deserves a shout-out.
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Who should buy the Crucial BX500?
Those looking to add uber-affordable storage via SATA, should consider the exceedingly cost-effective Crucial BX500. You can get its 1TB model for $60, almost $40 less than the equivalent Samsung 870 EVO, while a 2TB version costs just $110.
Crucial BX500: Further considerations
The drive also comes in nearly dirt-cheap 240GB and 480GB capacities. But be wary of smaller capacity QLC NAND SSDs if you regularly write large amounts of data, as they can slow drastically during such operations.
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Who should buy the Crucial X9 Pro?
The Crucial X9 Pro is a sure bet for anyone who wants the fastest 10Gbps performance at a still affordable price. A svelte beauty that delivers 1GBps transfer rates, the X9 Pro is sold in 1TB ($90), 2TB ($130), or 4TB ($237) capacities.
Crucial X9: Further considerations
In our testing, the X9 Pro performed admirably against the 10Gbps competition. Excelling especially in the real-world 48GB transfer tests and the 450GB write test — where it smoked the other 10Gbps drives we’ve tested.
Crucial also sells the 20Gbps X10 Pro, but you’ll pay quite a bit more for the doubled speed, and said speed is also dependent upon a USB 3.2×2 port. We think that the X9 Pro will serve the average user perfectly fine with excellent all-around performance at a significantly cheaper price point.
For many more external SSD recommendations, see our roundup of the best external drives.
While the following SSDs did not make our list of recommendations, some of them came very close: The Kingston Fury Renegade G5 was a close second in performance among other PCIe 5.0 SSDs we’ve tested; while the Kingston NV3 offers excellent PCIe 4.0 performance; the Lexar Play 2280 SE is attractive and fast, but not the best choice for a PS5; the Teamgroup T-Create C47 is particularly adept at long writes; the Samsung 9100 PCIe 5.0 SSD puts Samsung on the map once more; TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus enclosure is a path to fast, shiny, and cool DIY storage; same for the Asus TUF Gaming A2 enclosure, but with a rugged IP68 exterior; the Lexar NM1090 Pro is a fast PCIe 5.0 SSD, just not quite as fast as its peers; the Crucial T710 is a PCIe 5.0 stunner that can come with a beefy heatsink; the Lexar NQ780 is a buy recommendation at the right price; the Orico IG740-Pro compensates for merely okay performance with some cool extras; the PNY CS2342 is an awesome teeny-tiny SSD for Steam Deck; the XPG Mars 980 Blade has great performance in random ops, making it a good choice for running an OS from; the Samsung 9100 Pro is the fastest NVMe SSD you can buy, but it isn’t cheap; the WD SN850X 8TB SSD is the drive you want for fast speeds and large capacities; the Adata 970 Pro will appeal to gamers with PCIe 5.0 speed and a fan-cooled heatsink; the PNY CS2150 is a PCIe 5.0 value buy; the Addlink G55H belongs on your PCIe 5.0 short list.
How we test SSDs
All SSD are tested using a combination of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. To mimic a typical user experience, our real-world tests include 48GB transfers of both a single file and many small files, as well as a 450GB transfer.
The performance numbers we refer to 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. 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.
Having started computing by flipping switches, Jon Jacobi has witnessed storage morph from punch cards and tape to solid state. He’s been using and testing HDDs, SATA SSDs, and NVMe SSDs for PCWorld for well over two decades. To paraphrase a well-known commercial, you might say he’s seen a thing or two.
How to choose the best SSD
There are several factors that you should take into consideration when choosing an SSD.
Should I buy an NVMe or SATA SSD?
Only look for SATA if your computer or device doesn’t support the far, far faster NVMe. Note that an M.2 slot in an older computer might be mSATA rather than NVMe. Read your user guide or manual to see if it’s NVMe-capable/NVMe-bootable. It should be both to take full advantage of NVMe.
The other occasion when you might opt for SATA is in lieu or 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch HDDs, either existing, or in NAS boxes which still favor HDD bays for storage. That’s largely because they’re cheaper, and Ethernet limits throughput anyway so NVMe can be overkill.
Note that SATA SSDs are also available in larger capacities such as the $1700 VectoTech 16TB V-MAX, though that’s a rather unique product.
Should I look for a DRAM or HMB SSD?
SSDs using DRAM for primary caching offer faster random (small file) operations, while those that forego the cost of DRAM use a technique called host memory buffer (HMB). HMB does just what it sounds like, employs your computer (the host) memory for primary caching.
After a rough start, HMB has developed marvelous sequential-transfer performance as fast or faster than DRAM designs, though as just stated above, random operations still lag behind those DRAM designs.
If you want the best overall, and especially random performance, then you want a DRAM design. You’ll pay for it though: HMB designs are often half the price.
Which PCIe generation should my SSD use?
An NVMe SSD won’t perform any faster than the PCIe generation of the CPU/motherboard it’s installed in. Because of that, using a PCIe 5.0 SSD on a PCIe 3.0/4.0 system offers almost no benefit.
In truth, as Windows and most Windows software doesn’t support multiple queues — a major factor in NVMe performance — you can save a lot of money without sacrificing much real world speed by sticking with PCIe 4.0, even in 5.0 motherboards.
NVMe performance even on PCIe 3.0 is insanely fast. Basically, don’t overbuy.
How much capacity should I opt for in my SSD?
You want as much capacity as you can afford. SSDs currently ship in capacities from 250GB to 8TB. More capacity also means more NAND for secondary caching, and less chance you’ll see any slowdowns on long writes. We recently ran across the $1700 VectoTech 16TB V-MAX SATA SSD, but know of nothing in the NVMe world that matches it.
What type of warranty should I look for with my SSD?
Most internal SSDs are warrantied for five years, while externals are more likely to be covered for only three years. These numbers don’t vary much, but make sure it’s not less than that. The warranty can be overridden by the next topic: TBW.
What’s a TBW rating?
The TBW rating (terabytes that may be written), is the manufacturer’s estimate/rating of how much data may be written to an SSD before it morphs into a read-only device. This is due to cells, which are voltage traps, wearing out after a certain number of writes. Reads don’t wear on a cell like a write.
Average TBW rating these days is 600TBW (TLC) per 1TB of capacity. QLC SSDs tend to have much lower TBW ratings, generally 250TBW per TB or less. That’s still a lot of writes.
What should I look for in the way of BIOS support?
To get the most out of an NVMe drive, you want to run your operating system off of it, which requires a system that can boot from NVMe. Any modern PC will, but if you’re rocking older, but still viable hardware, read the specs.
FAQ
1.
What is the best NVMe SSD?
If we had to choose any one SSD to fill our system, it would be the WD Black SN7100. This PCIe 4.0 SSD comes in up to 4TB of capacity. The 2TB version that we tested was the fastest overall in our benchmarks. Because the drive uses a host memory buffer design for cache, as opposed to onboard DRAM, it’s competitively priced, making it an excellent price-to-performance value.
2.
What is the best cheap NVMe SSD?
The best cheap SSD in our view is the WD Blue SN5000, followed closely by Kingston’s NV3. Both of these PCIe 4.0 SSDs are fast, and very affordable. However, when it comes to PCIe 5.0, the PNY CS2150 is your bargain choice.
3.
What is the best gaming SSD?
Essentially, gaming consoles are computers so the same SSDs that are best for PCs are the also best for gaming consoles. That said, the excellent performance and super-generous TBW rating of Seagate’s Game Drive PS5 SSD makes it our current choice. The DRAM design (which uses onboard memory for secondary caching) results in class-leading random ops performance, as well a full compatibility with PS5.
4.
What is best SATA SSD?
Our current favorite SATA SSD is the Samsung 870 EVO. It’s fast and affordable. However, if you want top capacity, check out the $1700 VectoTech 16TB V-MAX.
5.
What is the best cheap SATA SSD?
The current best buy when in comes to bargain SSDs is the Crucial BX500. It’s fast enough, and dirt cheap.
6.
What’s the difference between an SSD and HDD?
An SSD, or solid state drive, is a non-mechanical device that uses non-volatile memory (generally NAND) to store data. An HDD, or hard disk drive, is mechanical and stores data on spinning platters as magnetic marks. Read/write heads traverse the platter to seek and transfer data. Because of all the moving parts on an HDD, they have a higher chance of failure over time.
7.
Are SSDs good for long-term storage?
SSDs are excellent for long-term storage, though that depends on what you consider long term. Theoretically, the NAND memory cells, which are voltage traps, could leak over time and become unreadable, but in the decade or so that SSDs have been in heavy use, we’ve not seen this type of degradation. Short answer, a couple of decades, yes; a couple of millennia, perhaps not.
8.
What is the best SSD brand for PC?
If you want the best guarantees look to Seagate. Samsung and WD are also long-standing favorites with well-earned reputations for quality products.
That said,nearly all the second-tier vendors and even some of the top-tier companies use the highly competent industry bigwig Phison for their SSD designs. In other words, there aren’t any real dogs among relatively well-known SSD sellers.
You can use Orico’s PCIe 4.0 OS5 NVMe SSD in the PS5 it’s marketed towards, however PS5 doesn’t support HMB so it will operate off secondary cache. Workable, but not as quick as a DRAM design.
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The OS5 NVMe SSD from Orico is a looker thanks to its stylish and beefy heatsink. It’s moderately fast for its ilk and will work fine, if not optimally in the PS5 it’s marketed for. That gaming console doesn’t support the host memory buffer (HMB) technology that the OS5 uses for primary caching duty on a PC.
Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best SSDs for comparion.
What are the Orico OS5’s features?
You’ll notice from the photo at the head of the article that the OS5 ships with a rather hefty heatsink to fit its 2280 (22mm wide, 80mm long) form. It’s a PCIe 4.0, NVMe SSD using a host memory buffer (HMB) for primary caching in place of DRAM.
The OS5’s controller is a Maxio 1602A and its NAND is 144-layer TLC (Triple-Level Cell/3-bit). Seemingly around 35 percent of that can be dedicated to secondary cache (Orico claims 20 percent), i.e., writing the NAND as single-bit SLC (Single-Level Cell).
Another view of the OS5 and its handsome heatsink.
Orico warranties the OS5 for five years, which is mitigated by a 600TBW (terabytes that may be written before read-only commences) per terabyte of capacity. That’s about average for the industry and 144-layer TLC.
Should you ever want to know how close you are to your TBW limit, download CrystalDiskInfo or a similar utility and check the “percentage used” number. As this only increases with writes, it’s likely going be a lot less than you might imagine. My last main computer was only at 1 percent after two years, albeit with heavy use of external storage for many tasks.
How much is the Orico OS5?
The OS5 is $90 in the 1TB capacity, $150 for 2TB, and $280 for 4TB (prices on Amazon are about $20 less than that). That’s quite a bit of capacity for a reasonable price given that the included heatsink is generally a $10 to $15 option with most SSDs. I wouldn’t call OS5 an outrageous bargain, but it’s certainly competitive.
How fast is the Orico OS5?
Using our new test MO and equipment, the OS5 turned in the fourth fastest PCIe 4.0/HMB score out of six SSDs. Not great, though the difference isn’t vast in most tasks, as you’ll see below. The upshot is that even slower NVMe SSDs are really, really fast.
The OS5 we tested was hurt by the fact that it’s only 1TB and nearly all the SSDs we test are 2TB or 4TB. Because of that, it ran out of secondary cache more quickly. This really took a toll in the 450GB write.
But the OS5 was certainly competitive in CrystalDiskMark 8, including the sequential transfer tests shown below.
The OS5 offers quite a bit of capacity for a reasonable price given that the included heatsink is generally a $10 to $15 option with most SSDs.
The OS5 was competitive in CrystalDiskMark 8, including the sequential transfer tests shown here. Longer bars are better.
CrystalDiskMark 8’s 4K numbers were much the same story. Hardly awesome, but good enough for government work.
CrystalDiskMark 8’s 4K numbers were much the same story, not ground-shaking but close enough for rock n’ roll. Longer bars are better.
When shuffling only 48GB around, the Orico OS5 was largely on par with the more capacious Lexar 2280 Play SE (another heatsink/HMB design marketed for the PS5), Teamgroup MP44Q, and WD Blue SN5100. Faster in some cases, a tad slower in others.
Note that FastCopy is a highly recommended file transfer utility that operates far nearer the pace you see in synthetic benchmarks than Windows Explorer.
When shuffling only 48GB around, the Orico OS5 was competitive with the more capacious PCIe 4.0/HMB SSDs. Faster in some cases, a tad slower in others. Shorter bars are better.
The 450GB write is where the OS5 was body-slammed by its competitors. The result of the already discussed lower capacity and lack of secondary cache. However…
Arrgh! With only 1TB on board, the OS5 was at the mercy of other 2TB/4TB SSDs with more secondary cache. Shorter bars are better.
…the long write news isn’t all bad. Once secondary cache is exhausted, the TLC still transcribes data to cells at a livable pace of around 1GBps. Believe me, I’ve seen worse. How about 75MBps in the early days of QLC?
This really isn’t that bad a pace for native writing. Twice SATA. Not ideal, but not one of the 75MBps to 150MBps horror stories we used to see.
Should you buy the Orico OS5?
Though not optimal for the PS5, like other HMB designs, the OS5 will get the job done adequately and for a lot less than a DRAM model. I like the look of the heatsink, so if you find the right price, have at it.
But to be honest, slapping a heatsink on HMB and then marketing the SSD as ideal for PS5 is not my favorite marketing schtick. That goes for Orico, but also Lexar with its Play 2280 series.
How we test
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Crucial 64GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (128GB of memory total).
Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used.Internal PCIe 5.0 SSDs involved in testing are mounted in a Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 adapter card.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8.04 (and 9), AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks (to keep article length down, we only report one) to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag and drop to show what users will see during routine copy operations, as well as the far faster FastCopy run as administrator to show what’s possible.
A 20GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 is used as the second drive in our transfer tests. Formerly the 48GB tests were done with a RAM disk.
Each test is performed on a NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This issue has abated somewhat with the current crop of SSDs utilizing more mature controllers and far faster, late-generation NAND.
Note that our testing MO evolves and these results may not match those from previous articles. Only comparisons inside the article are 100% valid as those results are gathered using the current hardware and MO.
RAM is one of the components that is often underestimated when gaming—but choosing the right RAM can bring tangible benefits, especially in the gaming sector. DDR5 has long since arrived in the mainstream. However, not every DDR5 RAM module delivers the same performance.
If you are setting up your system with speed and future-proofing in mind, you should focus on DDR5-6000 with low latency.
Current platforms such as AMD’s Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series or Intel’s Raptor Lake refresh benefit particularly strongly from this combination. DDR5-6000 hits the sweet spot here: the memory controllers work optimally at this clock rate. At the same time, voltage requirements and heat development are kept within limits.
Even more important, however, is the CAS Latency (CL). Kits with CL30 or CL28 timings deliver significantly better results than widely used standard kits with CL36 or CL40. The difference is particularly noticeable in CPU-limiting scenarios—for example in competitive shooters such as Valorant or in simulations such as Cities: Skylines II.
The memory latencies can be displayed and adjusted via the BIOS (here from MSI). This is crucial for the performance of DDR5 RAM with a low CL.
IDG
Various benchmarks show performance increases of up to 10 percent with the same CPU clock—simply by switching from a high-clocked, but slow-responding RAM to a finely tuned DDR5-6000 kit with low latency.
The system is also subjectively more responsive: programs start faster, loading times are shorter, and even the Windows desktop feels more direct.
For most users, a capacity of 32 GB RAM remains the sweet spot—more is currently of little benefit in everyday gaming. The quality of the modules is much more important: Those who rely on EXPO or XMP-optimized kits benefit from stable profiles that do not require manual fine-tuning.
The only important thing is that the mainboard and the BIOS or UEFI support these profiles correctly. A quick check on the QVL list (Qualified Vendor List) of the motherboard manufacturer provides clarity here.
DDR5-6000 (here from G.Skill) with low latency is currently the sweet spot for gaming PCs – fast, efficient and ideally matched to current platforms.
G.Skill
In short: DDR5-6000 with CL30 or lower is currently the most efficient and future-proof choice for demanding gamers and power users. If you upgrade now, you’ll not only ensure better performance, but also a stable foundation for future CPU generations.
You can never have too much external storage on hand, especially when it’s as portable and performant as this one. I’m talking about the 2TB SanDisk Extreme Pro Dual Drive, which is an eye-catcher for two reasons (more on that below). It’s currently on sale for $149.99 on Amazon (was $189.99), and that’s a great price for this absolute winner.
The first big advantage of this portable SSD is that it’s smaller than pocket-sized—extremely compact, extremely fast. You’re basically getting SSD transfer speeds in a flash drive form factor. With read speeds up to 1,000 MB/s and write speeds up to 900 MB/s, you’ll be transferring files (folders, videos, archives, etc.) in a snap. It also has 128-bit AES encryption, keeping your data safe against snoopers.
The second big advantage of this portable SSD is that it’s double-sided with both USB-A and USB-C connectors. That makes it supremely versatile, able to connect to pretty much any modern device. Just spin it around as needed, no adapters required. (The clever casing design keeps the unused end protected while it’s plugged in.) It’s the perfect all-in-one portable SSD for use with laptops, phones, gaming consoles, and more.
The SanDisk Extreme Pro Dual Drive is okay at retail price, but it’s downright fantastic with this discount. Get it now for $149.99 before this limited-time Amazon deal expires!
Get 2TB of ultra-portable SSD storage for $40 off while you can
External USB/Thunderbolt SSDs and/or hard drives (aka direct-attached storage, or DAS) are a super-convenient way to add storage capacity to your system as well as back it up. External drives are also extremely handy for transporting data between locations and devices in what used to be known as sneaker-net.
In a cloud-based, networked world, local storage still offers distinct performance advantages. Transferring 4TB of data across the usual home network is generally far slower than offloading it to a 20Gbps/40Gbps SSD, then walking it to its destination. Similarly, restoring a backup from local storage is far, far faster than pulling down your data from the web. We’re talking gigbytes per second instead of megabytes.
Whatever your needs or intent, these are the best external drives we’ve tested, both in terms of performance and budget.
Why you should trust PCWorld for external drive reviews and buying advice: It’s in our name! PCWorld’s reviewers have been testing PC hardware for decades. Our storage evaluations are thorough and rigorous, pushing the limits of every product — from performance benchmarks to the practicalities of daily use. As PC users ourselves, we know what makes a product stand out. Only the best external drives make this list.
Crucial X9 Pro – Best 10Gbps external SSD
Pros
Super small form factor
Great 10Gbps performance
Handsome design
Cons
Not the least expensive 10Gbps SSD available
Price When Reviewed:
1TB:$109.99 I 2TB:$179.99 I 4TB:$239.99
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Who should buy the Crucial X9?
Those on the hunt for speed at a lower price should consider the Crucial X9. It strikes a compelling balance between 10Gbps performance and affordability that should please the majority of users. In our benchmark tests, it traded top scores with some of its peers, but at a significantly lower cost — making it an indisputable win-win for consumers.
Crucial X9: Further considerations
The Crucial X9 Pro is also handsome, described by our reviewer as “a svelte object of desire.” More importantly, it feels well made, and is rated for IP55 dust and spray resistance, so you don’t have to baby this portable drive when you take it into harm’s way.
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Who should buy the Teamgroup X2 Max?
Anyone seeking top-performance in the classic fits-easily-in-a-shirt-pocket thumb drive form-factor should be looking to the Teamgroup X2 Max. It’s small even for a thumb drive, and just as fast as almost any 10Gbps SSD — small or large — that we’ve tested.
The X2 Max uses NVMe storage internally which accounts for the performance. Externally, it conveniently provides both captive Type-C and Type-A connectors so you don’t have to drag around cables or adapters.
Teamgroup X2 Max: Further considerations
It’s relatively pricey compared to a commodity thumb drive, but the performance is well worth it. Put bluntly — there’s no better option if fast thumb drive storage is what you seek.
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Who should buy the Lexar SL600?
Those seeking super-fast 20Gbps performance will do well with this attractive USB 3.2×2 (20Gbps) SSD from Lexar.
In addition to being a great performer, the SL600 is uniquely and ergonomically shaped, replete with a larger than normal opening that can serve as either a handle or lanyard attachment point.
You can even take the highly portable drive’s design a step further by opting for the SL660 variant that wraps RGB lighting inside said miniature handle. The SL600 is backed by a five-year warranty — two years longer than the norm for external drives.
Lexar SL600: Further considerations
The competition is fierce in the top tier of 20Gbps USB 3.2×2 external drives, with name-brand contenders trading wins up and down our benchmark charts. Nevertheless, when the synthetic and real-world results were totaled, the Lexar SL600 edged out our previous champ, Crucial’s X10 Pro, by a sliver.
That said, when performance is this closely matched among products, the determining purchase factor is price. In that respect also, the SL600 was neck-and-neck with the Crucial X10 Pro at the time of this writing. As always, compare prices yourself — they tend to change rapidly in the storage market.
Caveat: With all USB 3.2×2 drives, a 20Gbps USB port or USB4 port is required for top performance. On normal USB 3.2 and most Thunderbolt ports a 3.2×2 drive will perform at “only” 10Gbps.
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Who should buy the LaCie Rugged SSD4?
The LaCie Rugged SSD4 is the top choice for anyone looking to leverage the best performance from their USB4 or Thunderbolt 3 (or greater) ports.
In our benchmarks, the Rugged SSD4 proved to be the speediest 40Gbps USB4 overall that we’ve tested, albeit by a small margin. Even when tasking the drive to write several 950GB files consecutively, where you expect to see a drive slow down as its cache fills, the SSD4 never dropped below 1.65GBps — something videographers should take note of.
Its silicone jacket is IP54 rated for protection against dust and water spray, making it a good choice for anyone who needs storage out in the field. Its bright orange color makes it easy to find in a crowded bag or atop a cluttered workspace.
And while the SSD4 is not exactly cheap, it’s competitively priced.
LaCie Rugged SSD4: Further considerations
One nitpick about the Rugged SSD4 is that the little orange silicone plug that covers and protects the drive’s Type-C port when not in use is not captive. That makes it a lot easier to lose. At least it has the same benefit as the drive’s overall case: Being bright orange makes it much more visible.
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Who should buy the Addlink P30?
Those looking for USB4 performance without breaking the bank should be shopping Addlink’s P30. It’s priced more like a 10Gbps SSD than a 40Gbps model, and while it’s the slowest USB4 drive we’ve tested, that’s like saying it’s the slowest F1 car on the grid — it’s still plenty fast.
Additionally, the P30 is super handy for anyone looking to add semi-permanent external storage to a PC with a metal case — there’s a magnetic ring that allows you to “stick” the drive in place. Add in a small form-factor and good looks and you have yourself a winner.
Addlink P30: Further considerations
Using modern TLC, the P30’s write rate only drops to around 800Mbps when it runs out of secondary cache. That makes it a workable drive even for pros. It’s also one of the few drives that is likely a better bargain than rolling your own with an external enclosure such as TerraMaster’s D1 SSD Plus.
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Who should buy the SanDisk Desk Drive?
Anyone who needs lots of room for data plus the speed of an SSD should be shopping for the SanDisk Desk Drive, which is available with up to 8TB of capacity.
As the name suggests, the SanDisk Desk Drive isn’t nearly as portable as the other drives in this list. Partly because it’s a bit too bulky for a pocket or laptop bag, but primarily because it requires an AC adapter. It’s hardly a behemoth; it’s just not as convenient as a pure bus-powered unit for transport.
The Desk Drive is aimed at users with more sedentary work scenarios, to function as auxiliary storage and a fast backup medium. That’s also evident in the fact that it ships only in 4GB and 8GB capacities, priced competitively at $290 and $580, respectively. (Note that this is up from our previous look at the unit)
SanDisk Desk Drive: Further considerations
Granted, the Desk Drive costs a lot more per-gigabyte than you’d pay for a backup hard drive. But that surcharge buys you brisk 10Gbps performance, and the assurance that comes from an SSD’s lack of moving parts, i.e. susceptibility to wear and shock damage. In other words, its speed, ruggedness, and reliability make it worth more than an HDD.
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Who should buy the WD Passport, Works with USB-C?
Those looking for capacity without the price should be looking at 2.5-inch external hard drives, and this capacious drive in particular.
We can forgive the cumbersome name, and the fact that this drive, misleadingly, doesn’t actually feature a Type-C port, because there is a misconception among some that Type-C will make a hard drive faster. It won’t. In the end this drive has the best combination of price, capacity, and performance in its class.
For starters, the WD My Passport, Works with USB-C offers a ton of capacity — up to 6TB — and at a far more affordable price per terabyte than one can get from an SSD (a little less than $30/TB versus $60 to $80 for the latter). This makes the WD My Passport a natural fit for backup, particularly during off hours when an SSD’s superior speed won’t really save you any time.
WD Passport, Works with USB-C: Further considerations
As for the misleading moniker, the My Passport does indeed work with USB-C, but it’s by way of the drive’s bundled Micro-B to Type-A cable and Type-A to USB-C adapter. Yup, the port is the much older Micro-B. Mind you, WD’s My Passport Ultra drives, which actually do feature a USB-C port, don’t perform any faster than this drive, and cost a bit more.
In fact, the My Passport performs on par with the best of 2.5-inch hard drives we’ve tested, while being the best deal. If it’s a portable, high-capacity hard drive that you’re after — pick this one.
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Who should buy the Seagate Expansion Desktop?
Users looking for the most capacity for the least amount of cash, should definitely be checking out the 3.5-inch Seagate Expansion Desktop. It’s available with up to 28TB of capacity — more than three times the current maximum for SSDs
The Desktop Expansion also delivers twice the sustained transfer rate of the average 2.5-inch external hard drives — our 16TB test unit read and wrote at close to 280MBps. Nice.
As mentioned, all this storage comes at a very competitive price point, hovering around $20 per terabyte, compared to the $30 with most 2.5-inch portable HDDs, and the $70 per terabyte an external SSD costs.
Seagate Expansion Desktop: Further considerations
The relevant caveat with all HDDs is that they are more likely to fail than SSDs, and important data on them should be backed up regularly. Alternatively, you can run them in mirrored (RAID 1) pairs, though that cuts into the bargain price per terabyte by quite a bit.
As we said in our review of the drive: “If you deal with large amounts of data, you can’t beat a high-capacity hard drive for gathering it into one place.” This is the drive we’d pick for that job.
The TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus enclosure let’s you build your own 40Gbps SSD; while the Asus TUF Gaming A2 offers a rugged DIY external SSD option for USB3.2×2; the PNY Duo Link V3 is a good-performing 10Gbps thumb drive with both Type-C/Type-A connectors; the Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 is handsome, rugged, feels great in your mitts, and is decently affordable for USB4 — but connection issues might affect some users; the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD 10Gbps USB thumb drive delivers far better performance than generic 5Gbps or 400Mbps types and comes with some perks, such as free data recovery; the Lexar Go w/Hub is a pricey 10Gbps mobile drive that adds up to 2TB of storage and extra USB ports to your phone; the Corsair EX400U is not the fastest 40Gbps SSD out there, but this light and compact drive is very affordable and far more compatible across PCs and Macs than 20Gbps USB 3.2×2 SSDs.
How PCWorld tests external drives
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4,800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. SSDs involved in the test are mounted in either a HighPoint 7604A 16x 4-slot PCIe 5.0 RAID adapter card or a single-slot Asus ROG M.2 PCIe 5.0 adapter.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8, AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag-and-drop to show what you’ll see under Window, as well as the far faster FastCopy to show what’s possible. A two-drive 25GBps RAID 0 array on the HighPoint 7604A 16x PCIe 5.0 adapter card is used as the secondary source/destination.
Each test is performed on an NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This can be less of a factor with the current crop of SSDs with far faster late-generation NAND.
Caveat: The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacity tested. SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report, by all means, let us know.
Note also that some of the SSDs in this roundup were tested using other equipment and methodologies which you can read about in the standalone reviews.
Jon L Jacobi has witnessed storage morph from punch cards and tape to solid state. He’s been using and testing HDDs, SATA SSDs, and NVMe SSDs for PCWorld for well over two decades. To paraphrase a well-known commercial, you might say he’s seen a thing or two.
How to choose the best external drive
Yes, USB 4 will provide the same massive throughput as Thunderbolt 3/4.
SSD versus HDD
If you’re looking to treat your external storage as an extension of your internal storage, then performance is likely paramount. You’ll want an SSD, which can be 10 to 20 times faster — depending on the interface — of a hard drive. SSDs also offer sub-millisecond seek times where HDDs seek at tens of milliseconds.
On the other hand, if the primary role is backup, then you might want to opt for a hard drive (HDD) with its larger capacity and a significantly lower price per gigabyte/terabyte. Currently, single SSDs top out at 8TB, 2.5-inch HDDs at 6TB, and desktop 3.5-inch HDDs at 36TB.
SSD/HDD capacity versus price
The cost per TB of both SSDs and HDDs tends to drop as capacity increases. However, the latest, greatest (highest capacity) drives of both types tend to carry a premium, simply because the company knows some users want as much capacity as they can get and are willing to pay more.
Normally, you’ll get the lowest price per terabyte from the second-highest capacity drive, aka last years model. But do the math before you plunk down your hard earned money — you may find deals. Below you can see the phenomenon in terms of a WD 2.5-inch HDD.
The worst value for an external hard drive is typically the lowest-capacity drive.
IDG
Above you can see the general more capacity, cheaper per terabyte trend.
How much external storage capacity do you need?
If you’re extending your internal storage, you probably know better than we do how much you’ll need. Video sucks up space at a remarkable pace, especially at higher resolutions. With SSDs, traditionally we’ve recommended twice the capacity you think you’ll need as older types tended to slow down as they filled. Modern SSD controller design has mitigated this to a great degree, but it’s still our rule of thumb.
If you’re going for backup, then the more the merrier. Again, twice the amount of total data on the drives to back up is a good start. Remember, you’ll want at least one full system backup, then regular incremental, differential, or data-only backups.
That said, reinstalling Windows and your applications isn’t quite the insane drudgery it once was, and you can likely get away with just backing up your data. In that case twice the amount of essential data you have will do the trick. Sensing a 2X trend here?
Sensing a 2X trend here? Backing up to multiple media that you swap out isn’t a bad idea either.
Note that these are our minimum recommendations. The more the merrier, and the further back in time you can keep backups for.
Which external interface should you opt for?
Speed
If you’re buying an HDD, the interface is relatively unimportant — even older 5Gbps USB offers more than enough bandwidth to accommodate the 300MBps that is as fast as a modern HDD can deliver data. In fact, you’re unlikely to run across an external HDD that offers a faster interface unless it’s a multi-bay RAID box. Even then, 10Gbps is likely to be more than fast enough.
For SSDs, there’s a huge difference in performance depending on the interface involved. The internals of most external SSDs these days are NVMe rather than SATA, and capable of 3GBps. No matter what the internals, 5Gbps USB (3.0) limits the drive to just over 500MBps, 10Gbps USB (3.2) to just over 1GBps, and 20Gbps USB (3.2×2)/Thunderbolt 2 to around 2GBps, so you’re leaving performance on the table with any of those.
Of course, those may be all that your computer offers, so buy to match. However, if you’re rocking a newer computer you may have Thunderbolt 3/4/5 or if it’s really recent, USB4. Those will deliver around 3.5GBps unless they’re the still rare 80Gbps flavors in which case you’ll see around 6.5GBps.
Note that all those numbers are what you’ll see with synthetic benchmarks. Windows Explorer is a horrible performer in data transfers. We recommend using FastCopy or if you’re a command line type — Xcopy. Both of which are two to three times as fast as Explorer transferring large files.
Compatibility
Compatibility is a major concern and where 5Gbps and 10Gbps USB reign supreme. You’d be hard pressed to find a computer or device that won’t support them and they function on nearly every USB and Thunderbolt port in existence.
USB 3.2×2 on the other hand requires a dedicated 20Gbps port or a newer USB4 port to function at the full 20Gbps speed. They drop to 10Gbps on 10Gbps USB ports and most Thunderbolt ports.
Obviously, 40Gbps USB4 requires a USB4 port or Thunderbolt 4/5 port to reach maximum speed. But on USB4 ports, even that’s not guaranteed. We haven’t seen one yet, but full 40Gbps implementation in true USB Forum fashion, isn’t required, so there might be slower 20Gbps USB4 SSDs and ports.
Thunderbolt SSDs generally require a Thunderbolt 3/4/5 port or USB4 port to function at 40Gbps. In truth, USB4 is basically Thunderbolt 4 with some minor tweaks. 80Gbps Thunderbolt SSDs require a Thunderbolt 5 port, and/or the upcoming 80Gbps USB4 second gen.
USB4 SSDs are easily the most compatible (backwards to USB 2.x, forward to Thunderbolt 5) high-performance types, so they’re currently our recommended interface for speedy data delivery. That said, 80Gbps Thunderbolt 5 is pretty sexy.
What connector type should you use?
Though the industry is generally on board with Type-C connectors at this point, you may still find some older types around. From top to bottom in the image below: Mini-USB, Micro B SuperSpeed, SuperSpeed Micro B, Thunderbolt 2/mini DisplayPort, and Type-C. You’ll also find the occasional Lightning connector drive (not shown). More complete descriptions follow below.
While we of course recommend orientation-agnostic Type-C, you can find Type-C adapters or adapter cables for any type.
The top drive uses the older, slower Mini-USB interface. The second drive features the connector that replaced it: Micro B SuperSpeed. The Orange drive features both a SuperSpeed Micro B and Thunderbolt 2 (mini DisplayPort connector). The bottom drive features USB-C or USB Type C.
Connectors
USB Type-C, USB-C, Type-C is the latest USB connector and the one the world is standardizing on. It’s small, easy to insert, and you don’t have to worry about which side faces up as with Type-A.
Keep in mind that Type-C refers only to the connector itself. What is carried over the wires varies greatly: USB 2.0 High Speed (480Mbps) to USB 3.2 SuperSpeed 20Gbps, as well as USB4 and Thunderbolt 3/4/5 and any combination of them.
USB Type-A: You won’t find this familiar rectangular port on any drive, but you will still find it on plenty of PCs and laptops as well as the male version on the other end of most Type-B and Type-C adapter cables.
USB 3 Micro-B is the wider, flatter port that’s still very common on many lower-cost portable and desktop external hard drives. It’s actually the same Micro USB port used on older phones, but with more data lines to hit USB 3.0 speeds. It’ll do 5Gbps and is fine for hard drives and SATA (internally) SSDs. Micro-B cables are generally Type-A on the PC end.
USB 3 Type-B is the larger, squarer version of USB 3.0 Micro B. Type B ports are becoming rare, though you might find one on older 5.25-inch enclosures, printers, and scanners. It supports speeds up to 5Gbps and cables are generally Type-A on the PC side.
Thunderbolt 2 is dead at this point. It’s found on older Macs, but even Apple put it out to pasture in 2017. There’s no need to invest in a Thunderbolt 2 drive unless it’s for legacy support issues. That said…
…Apple sells a bi-directional Thunderbolt 1/2 to 3 adapter if you need to connect the one generation to the other. The adapter does not, however, carry power, so bus-powered external drives (no power jack) will require a powered dock.
eSATA is another legacy port that’s disappeared from newer devices. Created for attaching external storage to your computer’s SATA bus, eSATA was a cheap way in its day to move beyond the toddling 60MBps performance of USB 2.0.
5Gbps USB 3.0 put the last nail in eSATA’s coffin. As with Thunderbolt 2, the only reason to invest in an eSATA drive is for use with older computers.
Multiple drives for backup?
We discussed the rule of three for backup, but while the cloud is a great offsite option, you can also manage that with multiple external drives — storing them in different locations. Once upon a time, I used to regularly send copies of my recordings to my mom’s for safe-keeping.
If you’re using your external storage as a primary repository for important data, then you should have a second drive as a copy. You might even consider a dual-drive enclosure and run them mirrored, i.e. the same set of data written simultaneously to both. SSDs aren’t nearly as prone to mishap as hard drives, but even then…
Consumers have a lot of excellent external SSDs to choose from. If speed is important, the best 40Gbps external drive is the Adata SE920 at 40Gbps; for 20Gbps performance, and a significant cost savings, consider the Lexar SL600 and Crucial X10 Pro; for the best balance of performance and price, we recommend and the 10Gbps Crucial X9 Pro or Teamgroup X2 Max thumb drive.
2.
What’s the best USB thumb drive?
Currently, the Teamgroup X2 Max is the pick of the litter. It’s super slim, but capacious, cheetah fast, and has both Type-C and Type-A connectors.
HDDs (hard disk drives) are essentially boxes containing spinning platters with read/write arms that skim across them to detect the orientation of, or re-align particles in the magnetic material that coats the platters.
SSDs (solid state drives), on the other hand, use flash memory and have no moving parts inside the drive. Data is instead stored in cells — aka, voltage traps — which are interconnected in a matrix. The matrix approach allows for data to be pushed or pulled to/from many different places at once and significantly increases both read and write speed — on the order of 100 times faster currently.
Generally speaking, SSDs are a better bet for your external drives due to their smaller size, faster speeds, and far superior durability. The main drawback to SSDs is that you pay quite a bit more per terabyte of storage. As technology and production techniques improve, the price of SSDs has and will continue to drop.
5.
How often should you back up your data?
As often as possible, i.e. at roughly the rate that it changes. This is especially true if you are working on an important project or have data that you absolutely cannot afford to lose. The key point here is that if your drive goes belly up, everything added since your last backup is toast.
If you have your external drive connected to your computer at all times, it is a good idea to automate the backup process and have the drive back up your data as it changes, or every hour or so. Otherwise, connect and back up at least once a day. See our roundups of the best Windows backup software and the best online backup services to learn more.
Even if you work with your data in the cloud, a local backup is a very good idea. We know of no major service that’s lost data, but there’s always a first time.
6.
Why does Windows say my external drive is smaller than specified?
This is because of the difference between the binary and decimal number systems, their nomenclatures, and a Microsoft miscue. Your 2TB drive indeed has two trillion bytes of storage, and if you look at the byte count that Windows displays in a drive’s properties dialog, this should be what you see. This, in the International System of Units (SI/decimal), is two terabytes, or 2TB. This is the standard language vendors use as consumers are far more familiar with base 10.
However, Windows uses the newer International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) binary multiples 2^10 (Kibibyte/KiB), 2^20 (Mebibyte/MiB), 2^30 (Gibibyte/Gib). Binary multiples are larger numbers (one KiB is 1,024) so when Windows divides the total bytes by the IEC system, the you get something like 1.8TiB for a 2TB drive. Alas, Windows labels this as 1.8TB, misleading the user.
Other reasons you might not see as much available storage in the properties tab are formatting or partitioning. The file system uses some storage for file location and size info, etc. Also, some drives come with a small partition containing software so the main partition will be smaller than the drive’s total capacity.
7.
How long will my external drive last?
The lifespan of an external hard drive can be anywhere from three minutes to 10 years or more depending on make and model, as well as the amount of use and operating environment. They’re mechanical devices subject to wear and susceptible to shock damage, so they should be kept cool and treated gently. Reliability has increased dramatically over the last decade.
Alas, judging the likely lifespan of an external hard drive is a crap shoot. Of course check the warranty, but the MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) number is generally considered fantasy within the industry. Peruse user feedback which can provide insight into long term usage, and keep your ears peeled for strange noises, your fingers crossed, and don’t drop the thing! Our best guess is that you should get at least five years with careful handling.
SSDs don’t wear out or break mechanically, but their cells can only be written to so many times. SSDs generally have a TBW (terabytes that may be written) rating, but this is rarely provided by vendors for external SSDs. Hint: They may not use the same SSD inside throughout the product lifespan.
Most internal M.2 NVMe TLC SSDs are rated for around 600TBW per terabyte, and QLC types for around 200TBW, though the type of NAND in use is also rarely provided by vendors. That’s a lot of data, and a lot of SSDs are rated well below what they might achieve. You can guesstimate by using a utility to see how much data you write to an SSD a day and then doing the math.
External SSD warranties are generally between three and five years, but as with all such things, it’s a financial risk calculation for the company. As is the TBW. Our best guess based on experience is perhaps a decade. However, certain models have had issues long before that — generally due to a flaw or failure in the bridge chip or controller.
8.
How do external drives fail?
There are a few of ways that an external hard drive might fail. The motor might quit, the read/write heads might crash into the platter surface due to shock while operating, or the electronics might overheat and go belly up. You might get a warning in the form of strange noises such as a scraping or grinding sound. If the data is particularly important, turn it off immediately and call a recovery service. That scraping sound may be the coating on the platter being removed by a crashed head. This is unrecoverable. If you keep running it, back it up immediately and replace it.
SSDs generally go belly up due to the increasingly rare controller failure, which is a relatively easy fix/reset for someone who knows the SSD’s internals such as a recovery service. SSDs will also eventually wear out, though this only precludes further writing to the unit. You can still read what’s on the drive, so it’s not the disaster a HDD failure can be.
9.
What’s the fastest external interface?
In order, the fastest PC external interfaces are currently: 80Gbps Thunderbolt 5, 40Gbps USB4/Thunderbolt 3 and 4, 20Gbps USB 3.2×2, 10GBps USB 3.2, then 5Gbps USB 3.x.
10.
What’s the most compatible external interface?
In order of compatibility: USB4, Thunderbolt 3/4/5, USB 3.x, USB 3.2×2, USB 3.x, USB 2, and USB 1.1.
If you’re looking for a cheap, fast, durable, and reliable way to store or transfer your files, then you can’t go wrong with a trusty USB flash drive. The 256GB Samsung Bar Plus is a standout option in this category, and right now it’s on sale for just $21.99 on Amazon, down 33 percent from its original $32.99 price. Not bad, not bad.
Speed is one of this drive’s biggest strengths. The Samsung Bar Plus can hit transfer rates of up to 400 MB/s, which means you won’t be twiddling your thumbs while waiting on large files. (You can move a massive 100GB folder in under five minutes at that speed.) While 256GB might not sound like a lot of capacity in this day and age, it’s still plenty for a flash drive. Whether you’re dealing with 4K videos, photo albums, huge collections of documents, or massive ZIP files, this drive can handle it all.
I also love how durable this flash drive is. The Samsung Bar Plus has a rugged metal casing that protects your data against drops, bumps, water, dust, shocks, magnets, X-rays, and extreme temperatures.
This year’s October Prime Day event starts on October 7th and will end at midnight Pacific, October 8th — a two-day event rather than a four-day sale like we had in July. Still, we’re expecting killer deals on everything tech, including flash drives. After all, everyone needs a great USB flash drive, and October Prime Day is an excellent time to grab one for cheap.
Why listen to my recommendations? I’ve been a journalist for 19 years, with 13 of those years focused on consumer technology. I love sifting through deals and spend every day hunting down the very best sales on the very best tech. With October Prime Day, I’m exercising those muscles to help you find the best USB thumb drives worth your money. These hand-curated recommendations take price, reviews, and brand reputation into consideration.
Best early October Prime Day deals on 64GB to 256GB flash drives
The best deal of the lot is for the Samsung Bar Plus, where you can get 256GB of storage space for just $22. This is a super-fast flash drive that can reach up to 400 MB/s transfer speeds, comes with a rugged metal casing, and is even waterproof and shockproof.
Best early October Prime Day deals on 512GB to 2TB flash drives
A superb pick from this list is the Ultra Flair from SanDisk. This is a flash drive with a USB-A connector, 128-bit AES encryption, and up to 150MB/s transfer speeds for a quick job on moving files around.
Other great early October Prime Day deals
These aren’t the only October Prime Day deals being tracked by the PCWorld team. If you’re looking to supercharge your home setup with the juiciest tech sales, hit the links for the best expert-curated picks we’ve found.
This is a question that you need to answer yourself because it really depends on what you plan to use it for. If you’re only moving work documents around, a small capacity like 64GB will be fine. If you want to use a flash drive for backing up photos, videos, games, and other big files, then you might want to go 512GB or larger.
2.
What features should I prioritize when choosing a USB flash drive?
First of all, our recommendation is to look at the flash drive’s transfer speeds. To ensure you get fast read/write speeds, you should get a USB 3.0 or above. USB 2.x drives are sorely outdated.
Then, you have to make sure the flash drive can survive living in your pocket, getting crushed by your laptop, falling through your fingers, and so on. Aluminum casings will offer better protection in such cases.
If the flash drive offers 128-bit AES encryption or better, your data will also have some extra protection in case you lose it, as the drive will be inaccessible and block out others from reading your data.
3.
How did we find the best USB flash drive October Prime Day deals?
Finding great deals can be difficult because not all discounts are worth covering. When looking for good October Prime Day deals, we compare the prices on Amazon with the regular retail price and check pricing history to see if there have been any changes lately and that the price drops are truly noteworthy. We also check product reviews to see if they’re reliable in the long run and live up to their promises.
Kingston’s new Renegade G5 aced our performance testing, falling a hair shy of the overall top spot. But it took the top spot in Consumer grade SSD warranties with a 1PB per terabyte TBW rating.
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I find Kingston to be an amazing company. Not only does it produce outstanding bargain hardware, it also vends products that soar to the top of the charts. One example of the latter is the Fury Renegade G5 NVMe SSD. It’s not cheap, but it’s not prohibitively expensive either. It also has the most generous TBW rating outside of Seagate’s pro SSDs.
Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best SSDs for comparison.
What are the Kingston Renegade G5’s features?
The Renegade G5 (will it escape from your system to go on the warpath? Hopefully not!) is a PCIe 5.0 x4, NVMe SSD featuring a Silicon Motion SM2508G controller and stacked, 218-layer BiCS8 TLC NAND.
It’s also a DRAM design with, according to the chip number (Micron D8CJG) in our 4TB review unit, 1GB of the precious primary cache for every terabyte of capacity.
If you haven’t read it elsewhere, DRAM as primary cache is far faster at random operations than host memory buffer (HMB) designs, though the latter are just as fast in most cases with large file transfers.
Kingston provides a five-year warranty on the Fury Renegade G5. This is “limited” by one of the most generous TBW (terabytes that may be written) ratings in the industry — one petabyte (1PB/1000TB) per 1TB of capacity. 600TBW is the industry average, though that seems to be creeping up with the BICS8 NAND. Go, Kingston, go!
Note that TBW only applies to writes and deletions, there’s no limit to reads, which check the voltage of cells rather than changing it.
How much is the Kingston Fury Renegade G5?
The Renegade G5 is currently available in 1TB/$165, 2TB/$240, and 4TB/$450 capacities, with an 8TB version slated to show up in November. Those prices are the “discounted” ones we found on Kingston’s Amazon store as of this writing.
The discounted prices are competitive with the like-performing PCIe 5.0/DRAM rivals listed in the performance charts, and considering the generous TBW ratings, a pretty good deal.
How fast is the Kingston Fury Renegade G5?
The Fury Renegade G5 came within a cat’s whisker of wresting the top spot on the PCIe 5.0 chart from the WD Black SN8100. It was only fastest in a couple of tests, but placed near the top in all the others.
The G5 was excellent in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential throughput tests — as fast or faster than its rivals in three out of the four tests.
The Fury Renegade G5 was excellent in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential throughput tests. Longer bars are better.
Queued random performance wasn’t bad, but not as strong as the Renegade G5’s sequential writing (or the other drives). The WD Black SN8100 stood out here as likely the best SSD to run an operating system on.
Bearing in mind, of course, that Windows doesn’t use multiple queues with NVMe as it should. A sad situation.
Queued random performance from the Renegade G5 wasn’t bad, but not as strong as some others. The WD SN8100 stood out here. Longer bars are better.
It was a couple of wins in the Explorer portion of the 48GB transfer testing that gave the Fury Renegade G5 a good result. However, it was not quite as fast in FastCopy as the others.
As to that, though the results may look to be erroneous, the difference in copy speed between Windows Explorer and FastCopy is absolute fact. FastCopy has what Explorer should have — code from this decade. Grab it for large data transfer operations. See my comparison of Windows Explorer, FastCopy, and Xcopy to learn more.
It was a couple of top results in the Explorer portion of the 48GB transfer testing that gave the the Fury Renegade G5 a good result here. But it was not as fast in FastCopy as the others. Shorter bars are better.
The Fury Renegade G5 was top dog (by that whisker) in the 450GB write test. Again, the difference between Windows Explorer and FastCopy is readily apparent: 3GBps as opposed to around 10GBps.
The Fury Renegade G5 was top dog in the 450GB write test. Shorter bars are better.
As to sustainable sequential writing, I wrote a 950GB VHD three straight times in Explorer with no break in between and only managed to slow the Renegade G5 from 2.85GBps to between 1.8GBps and 2GBps. I can live with that. So can the average videographer.
The Renegade G5 is basically as fast, or faster in most ways as the PCIe 5.0 DRAM competition. Of course, you need a still-not-ubiquitous PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot to take advantage. Or a free PCIe 5.0 slot and an adapter card such as the Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5.
Should you buy the Kingston Fury Renegade G5?
Yes, you should buy it. The super-generous TBW rating breaks what is basically a performance tie in our books, even if the average user will never touch the limit of any of the drives. Still, it’s a winner from Kingston.
How we test
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Crucial 64GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (128GB of memory total).
Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used.Internal PCIe 5.0 SSDs involved in testing are mounted in a Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 adapter card.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8.04 (and 9), AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks (to keep article length down, we only report one) to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag and drop to show what users will see during routine copy operations, as well as the far faster FastCopy run as administrator to show what’s possible.
A 20GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 is used as the second drive in our transfer tests. Formerly the 48GB tests were done with a RAM disk.
Each test is performed on a NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This issue has abated somewhat with the current crop of SSDs utilizing more mature controllers and far faster, late-generation NAND.
Note that our testing MO evolves and these results may not match those from previous articles. Only comparisons inside the article are 100% valid as those results are gathered using the current hardware and MO.
If you’re about to spend money on a USB flash drive, maybe hold your horses and think about getting something even better for the same price. I’m talking about this SK Hynix Tube T31 portable SSD that’s fast, has tons of storage space, and is shaped just like a flash drive. Right now, you can grab the 2TB model for just $118.99, which is a 26 percent discount and the all-time lowest price it’s ever been!
In our review of the Tube T31, we gave it a 4.5-star rating and praised its ultra-compact design that resembles the oh-so-familiar USB flash drive and maximizes portability. It was so convenient that our reviewing expert Jon Jacobi adopted it as his own daily-use storage drive. If that isn’t a glowing recommendation, I don’t know what is!
And this portable SSD is no slouch when it comes to performance. It claims to offer transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps, and we independently confirmed those claims in our own speed tests. Between its sleek design, fast data transfers, travel-friendly form factor, and extra-large capacity, it’s the best of all worlds—especially so with this discount.
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