Application loading and responsiveness with this SSD will increase by 2.5x. The storage capacity of the device is enough to where an HDD is not needed. The drive has stable performance over extended use thanks to its TurboWrite technology.
Instructions aren't accurate.
One of the flagship SSDs on the market today. Easy to use and a very fast SSD with plenty of storage. It is guaranteed to increase the performance of your computer, and the installation speed of Windows and applications on your system will increase by several times.
2.5 Inch, 7mm
SATA 6 Gb/s Interface, compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s & SATA 1.5 Gb/s
1 TB (250 GB, 500 GB, 2 TB)
Up to 560 MB per sec / Up to 530 MB per sec
V-NAND flash
Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART), Auto Garbage Collection Algorithm, Intelligent TurboWrite
5 years limited
Easy to use and spacious SSD. The SATA interface improves access speed and performance, and the EEC algorithm ensures stable operation. Sleep mode support will save energy.
Complicated to install in laptops.
A great solution for PC and PS owners. The Samsung Magician utility allows you to quickly test and configure the drive. The disc is very compact and does not get hot during use. Easy migration from other drives.
2.5 Inch, 7mm
SATA 6 Gb/s Interface, compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s & SATA 1.5 Gb/s
1 TB (2 TB, 4 TB, 8 TB)
Up to 560 MB per sec / Up to 530 MB per sec
V-NAND flash
Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART), TRIM support, Auto Garbage Collection Algorithm, WWN Support, Intelligent TurboWrite, Sleep Mode Support, Samsung Magician 6.1 software compatible
3 years limited
The MTTF of this model is 1.75M hours, one of the longest for current SSDs. The same goes for its TBW parameter. Your data will be safe and sound for the longest time.
The software from WD to clone old drive only works with a WD regular hard drive.
This WD Blue solid state drive has passed a WD F.I.T. Lab certification, meaning it has proven the ability to offer its top performance in next to all systems. The reading and writing speeds will satisfy the most demanding users.
2.5 Inch, 7mm
SATA 6 Gb/s (compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s and SATA 1.5 Gb/s)
1 TB (250 GB, 500 GB, 2 TB, 4 TB also available)
Up to 560 MB per sec / Up to 530 MB per sec
TLC 3D NAND flash
Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART), TRIM support, WD F.I.T. Lab certified, WD Dashboard software for SSD management
5 years
At a high write speed, the device practically does not heat up. The SSD has a new platform in the form of a proprietary controller that accelerates the loading of programs and games.
Included disk cloning software is slow.
A reliable and fast SSD thanks to its Wear Leveling technology with durable hardware. The device performs well over long periods and is easy to install in a PS4 Pro. Increases the loading speed of demanding games and the operating system.
2.5 Inch, 7mm
SATA 6 Gb/s (compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s and SATA 1.5 Gb/s)
1 TB (250 GB, 500 GB, also available)
Up to 560 MB per sec / Up to 525 MB per sec
TLC 3D NAND flash
Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART), ECC, Wear Leveling
5 years
The Integrated Power Loss Immunity makes it virtually impossible to lose data due to a power outage, which can save the whole day's work in some cases.
Heats up when the load is high.
The Crucial MX500 SSD can boost your computer's performance in a way that is noticeable: copying data will take up far less time and the system, as well as apps, will launch in a blink.
2.5 Inch, 7mm (9.5 mm adapter included)
SATA 6 Gb/s (compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s and SATA 1.5 Gb/s)
2 TB (250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB also available)
Up to 560 MB per sec / Up to 510 MB per sec
TLC 3D NAND flash
Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART), TRIM support, Integrated Power Loss Immunity, Adaptive Thermal Protection, Crucial Storage Executive software for SSD management
5 years
Premium SSD
Ask any experienced computer tech or IT professional about which SSD brand is at the very top of the heap, and without deviation, you'll get the same answer from everyone. Samsung's EVO line of SSDs are renowned for their high performance and ultra-durability, and they stand at the top of the SSD mountain all alone. That is why no list of the best SSDs would be complete without having the Samsung 870 EVO 1TB VNAND Solid State Drive in the first place. This model is one of the flagship SSDs on the market today, with performance that simply can't be matched.
Going beyond all of the hype, a quick look at this model reveals that it is an easy-to-use and very fast SSD with plenty of storage, thanks to its capacity of 1 TB. Installing this drive is guaranteed to increase the performance of your computer, and the installation speed of Windows and applications on your system will increase by several times. This is accomplished thanks to the drive maximizing the throughput of the SATA interface with read speeds of up to 560 MB/s and write speeds of up to 530 MB/s. This basically makes this drive the fastest that you'll be able to accomplish through SATA. You will also find these speeds to be well above many of its competitors, so if performance is your number one issue, this is the drive to get.
TurboWrite Technology
One of the defining aspects of this SSD is Samsung's built-in TurbroWrite technology, which helps maximize the input and output speeds of the device to give performance well beyond what you'll get from many other drives. This technology allows the drive to analyse the location and volume of data and place it in locations on the drive where read and write speeds will be entirely optimized, ensuring that all applications that you run on your system load in record time.
Of course, you can't mention the high performance of this drive without going into its overall durability. SSDs have long been known to have a limit in regard to how many write operations can be performed in a block. But with this drive, you'll find the durability to be well beyond what has been offered in the past. Thanks to the advanced VNAND technology that the drive uses, you get this combination of high performance and durability, with the drive guaranteed to not wear out even after years of heavy use.
Installation of the drive is extremely simple and requires nothing more than what is normal for installing any other SATA HDD or SSD. Once installed, the bundled Samsung Magician software will help you manage the drive by giving you the tools that you need for troubleshooting and maintenance. Overall, you simply won't find a better SSD out there on the market.
Additional Info
| Last updated price | $169.99 |
| Stock | In stock |
| ASIN | B08QBJ2YMG |
Great for PC and PlayStation
It's not just PC owners who are looking to get a new SSD nowadays. Game consoles, including the PS4, also utilize SSDs in order to expand their storage capacity, allowing for more games and more data to be stored. Whether you are a PC or a PS4 owner, you will be quite pleased with the Samsung 870 QVO SATA III 2.5" SSD. This capacious SSD gives you both the storage and speed necessary to help improve your computer's performance, as well as give you a huge boost to your data storage needs, regardless of which system needs the extra boost in storage capacity.
First off, this drive uses a SATA3 interface for maximum compatibility, meaning that both desktop and laptop PC owners can equally make use of this drive. It should be noted, though, that installing the drive in some laptops may be a bit complicated, but this is actually true of most similar drives, so this problem isn't exclusive to this model. Having said that, the drive gives you plenty of data storage and retrieval speeds, allowing for read speeds of up to 560 MB per sec, and write speeds of up to 530 MB per sec, so you won't find this drive to be much of a bottleneck to your computer's overall performance. Overall, anyone will find the drive's performance to be near the top of the heap.
Easy Installation
Although we noted above that installing the drive may be a bit complicated in some laptops, you will find it a breeze to install in any desktop PC or game console that supports it. Along with its easy physical installation, you will find that every other task that is necessary to perform when installing a new SSD will be as simple as it can possibly get. The drive comes with the Samsung Magician software utility, which gives you some powerful tools for setting up and configuring the drive. This utility gives you the tools for tracking your drive's health, optimizing its performance, and customizing it in any way necessary in order to give you maximum drive performance and efficiency.
When it comes to all other aspects of this SSD, you will find plenty to love with this model. For instance, the drive allows for easy configuration and it is a breeze to use with most data import and export utilities, so you can easily migrate from an old drive to this new one. In a physical sense, the drive is quite light, so it won't add much additional weight to your laptop, nor does it get hot while in use, so you won't have to worry about heat issues cropping up. Overall, this SSD gives every PC and console owner a great way to increase your system's data storage without having to make any sacrifices in the process.
Additional Info
| Last updated price | $0.00 |
| Stock | In stock |
| ASIN | B089C73T72 |
WD's Breakthrough Model
The WD Blue is one of the most reliable SSD devices, with its Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) bordering on 1.75 million hours. That's almost 200 years of operation, can you imagine that? Of course, the actual lifespan depends more on the drive use and, therefore, such parameters as TBW (Terabytes Written) and DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) but the sheer number of 200 years is still impressive.
As of 2016, Western Digital (shortened to WD) is a parent company of SanDisk, which means they have similar, if not the same, technologies used in their products. Particularly in this solid state drive, WD has implemented the 3D NAND TLC flash created for them by SanDisk. The drive has 200 TBW and approximately 0.22 DWPD for 500 GB of capacity, which is not something we'd consider too over-the-top but is really good for the price and the 5-year warranty. The price is, by the way, exceptionally moderate, low even, all things considered.
Basically, at a price $100 for a 1TB SSD, you get the near-top reading and writing speed SATA interface can offer: 560 MB/s and 530 MB/s respectively. Some testers claim the drive even exceeds them, if only slightly to the point of being unnoticeable during the actual use.
Top Average User Bargain
This solid state drive for your desktop computer is a real energy savior: compared to its predecessor, the traditional non-3D WD Blue, this one consumes 25% less energy while performing way better.
The WD Blue 3D NAND internal SSD has been subjected to extensive testing by the company's labs to ensure that it works with basically any system without so much as a glitch. It also comes with the access to download the WD Dashboard, a free monitoring software with all the necessary tools for the drive management, including the Acronis True Image WD Edition that allows cloning the system. There is a catch here, though, and it is that this cloning tool, in particular, seems to only cooperate faultlessly when your regular hard drive is also the model from Western Digital; however, there seems to be no problem with all other tools and the general monitoring of the WD Blue drive.
This is the drive primarily for those wishing to upgrade to better manage their everyday computer-related tasks. It is not a gaming or video editing model, at least not for anything hardcore, but it does offer high quality, endurance, and better-than-nice speeds for just about anything else at a somewhat ridiculous price.
Additional Info
| Last updated price | $0.00 |
| Stock | In stock |
| ASIN | B073SBZ8YH |
What customers say about this product
Key Specs(4.4)
Features(4.3)
Reliable and Fast
There are two main concerns that people have when it comes to SSDs: their reliability as well as their performance. After all, the main advantage that an SSD has over a mechanical hard drive is in its much faster read and write speeds, something that has become more and more important for users of all types. Along with that, though, reliability is also a necessary concern, as a drive that needs to be replaced often just won't work well as a long-term storage solution. With the SK hynix Gold S31 1TB 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive, you get the best of both worlds, a highly reliable SSD that also gives you outstanding overall performance.
Thanks to its built-in Wear Leveling technology, this SSD gives you blazing fast performance that is right up there with the highest-end drives while also remaining durable enough to last many years through heavy usage. The device performs well even over long periods, so you won't notice any kind of performance degradation, and is easy to install in any device that can take a SATA SSD, including a PS4 Pro. With this drive installed, you'll notice that your operating system and games will load up in record time, so there won't be any long waits for the operating system to finish booting or for your games to become playable.
Low Heat Output
One other concern that many people have about SSDs is the amount of heat that they generate inside of a system. This is definitely a valid concern, as the increase in processor and graphics card speeds has also led to an increase in heat generation, which can severely shorten the lifespan of any system if it is not properly controlled. With this SSD, you won't have to worry about it generating a lot of heat. In fact, the device will barely get warm even with heavy usage, so those who have trouble managing the cooling inside their systems will find this SSD to be an ideal choice.
As far as the physical attributes go for this SSD, they are really no different than what you will find with most other models. One small exception may be the label, which has a cool-looking gold nugget logo along with its sleek silver body, so those who have gaming rigs with transparent shielding will love the look of this drive. Installation is as painless as it is for most other SSDs, with no special drivers needed to install. The drive comes with disk cloning software, but the performance of this software isn't the greatest, so some users may want to opt for their own solutions. Regardless, the overall attributes of this SSD make it a great choice for anyone looking for a combination of reliability and performance.
Additional Info
| Last updated price | $104.99 |
| Stock | May be out of stock |
| ASIN | B07SNHB4RC |
Unexpected Breakthrough
For the first time in a while, the Crucial brand is closing on the industry leaders, the Samsung SSD, not overcoming them yet but after the years of producing drives for lower tiers, their MX500 solid state drive wins in the price department against EVO 850, for example, so much that the differences in performance can be overlooked as not too substantial.
This MX500 is equipped with a 64-layer TLC 3D NAND which has elevated the performance a healthy 30% compared to the 32-layer 3D NAND; the contrast with the planar NAND is even more stark. This drive is faster and more durable, with 360 TB endurance for a 1 TB drive and 700 TB for a 2 TB one. While EVO 860 has 600 TB for the 1 TB drive, winning hands down, the EVO 850 only offers 150 TB there. That's something to consider if you are looking for an SSD to use under some load but aren't willing to cough up more than $200 for 1 TB.
The Crucial SSD offers 560 MB/s sequential reading and 510 MB/s writing speed. Both numbers are more or less average for the class. At the same time, the model shows a top performance in random reading, which is a good thing.
Crucial sells their MX500 solid state drive in four capacities: 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. The model is not the cheapest on the SATA market but is cheaper than models from more famous brands that offer near-similar performance.
Safe as They Come
The MX500 solid state drive offers top-notch data protection in a case of a power loss. The feature was present in the MX series before but now it has been slightly adjusted to enhance the protection quality by reducing power requirements to maintain the signal.
Here's more. While most TCL drives use SLC buffers, the one designed by Crucial here is dynamic instead of fixed. This means its capacity is flexible: it depends on how much data there is on the flash. When the SSD is in its idle period, the technology frees some capacity that will be used when the speed-up time comes. This way, your drive writes data faster and better.
Included with the drive is the Storage Executive software. This is a collection of tools to manage your MX500. In addition to the standard set of tools, there is a tool to up the overprovisioning, i.e. allocate some more space for the controller's background operation. This will result once more in the performance boost of the drive in general.
We've stated this at the beginning of this review but it won't hurt to repeat: the Crucial's MX500 is not the very best among the drives on today's market but its performance exceeds expectations for the devices of its price so the deal is more than nice in the end.
Additional Info
| Last updated price | $69.95 |
| Stock | In stock |
| ASIN | B0786QNS9B |
What customers say about this product
Features(4.5)
Key Specs(4.8)
Infographics
What Is a Solid State Drive?
If you want to buy a new computer or a laptop, you should take into account such individual components as the processor speed, RAM size, Wi-Fi availability, and of course, memory capacity of the hard disk. This parameter shows how much information you can save on your computer. Nowadays, if you want to record or store information on a hard disk drive (HDD), you can face some drawbacks. That's why we would like you to pay some of your attention to the newish technology - a solid state drive. A solid state drive or SSD is a non-mechanical storage device based on memory chips. It is designed to replace hard disk drives. The SSD is less energy-consuming and has a better resistance against mechanical effects.
You still need to keep an external hard drive, for when we face a lack of storage space, SSD can't help a lot. Hard drives can help us store plenty of media content and not affect PC's performance. In addition, if you're looking for a comfortable keyboard to type, take a peek at our review on ergonomic keyboards.
What Features to Compare
For many people, the choice of an SSD drive is quite difficult. How to choose the best SSD correctly? What parameters of a solid state disk should you take into account? In this review, we will try to give answers to many questions related to the choice of the SSD drive.
Capacity
First of all, you need to decide what capacity of the SSD drive will satisfy your needs. Maybe, you would like to use this device as the main memory in the computer? As the additional one? Or just for the installation of the operating system? The standard capacity of a solid state disk varies from 60 to 500 Gb. As the practice shows, it is extremely convenient to use the SSD just as an operating system storage. It is better to store all other data like movies, music, etc. on the hard disk. If you think it will be a suitable option for you, the disc capacity from 60 to 250 Gb is surely enough.
Form Factor
SSDs can have different form factor. Nowadays, most of the solid state disks have a 2.5-inch form factor. This size is great because you can install the SSD on almost any laptop or PC. Several models have a smaller form factor, but it shouldn't be a problem at all. You can simply buy the adaptor.
Connection Interface
Depending on the form factor, SSD drives can be connected to a PC or a laptop with the help of connection interface - PCIe or SATA (II or III). You should know that the data transfer rate of the SSD drive directly depends on the connection interface. If you are connecting the SSD solid via the SATA interface, it is better to connect it via the SATA III (up to 6Gb/s). You will see, the speed of the SSD drive will be much faster than with the SATA II (up to 3Gb/s). So, our suggestion - it is better to choose the drive with SATA III interface.
Read/Write Speed
Also, you surely need to pay attention to such a feature as read and write speed. The higher these figures are, the faster the work of the driver will be. However, you should notice that manufacturers indicate the highest possible speed characteristic. In reality, the drive probably will not work as fast (but still much faster than HDD).
In addition, you have to pay attention to the cycle index of re-recording. Nowadays, we can pick up two main types: MLC (Multi-Level Cell) up to 10 000 cycles and SLC (Single Level Cell) up to 100 000 cycles. All models in our SSD drive review are made on MLC technology. We would like to mention, that such type is the most acceptable in the quality-price relation. And don't forget about the warranty! The more, the better!
Did you know?
TBW, DWPD, MTTF—Which One Is the Most Important for an SSD?
Everything wears off after time, hardware does, too. For solid state drives, there are several parameters that showcase wearing and endurance. Same as with most products, the answer to the "Which one is more important?" question here depends on your needs and on how you plan to use the device. However, in our experience, the MTTF parameter is the one most often disregarded as irrelevant, both by customers and manufacturers. But still, let's define the terms before making a decision.
MTTF is the Meat Time To Failure of your drive. Basically, it's what it sounds like: the time before it stops working altogether. Do not confuse it with MTBF, Mean Time Between Failures. The latter is for devices that can be repaired and used again and again. Solid state drives are, as a whole, non-repairable. They don't have that many parts, to begin with, so when they fail, they fail for good. MTTF is expressed in hours it will take for the drive to fail under normal circumstances. Why is this parameter often overlooked? Because most drives have it in a number of hours equaling hundreds of years, longer than anyone uses them. This parameter is of importance for engineers working with critical systems, rarely for an average consumer.
TBW, or Terabytes Written, is the maximum amount of data you can write on the SSD before it fails. It is usually measured in hundreds of terabytes. It is not, per second, a capacity of your drive, which can be less than even 1 TB, let alone hundreds. The thing is, even when you delete data from the device, the amount of space it took up is still remembered in the core. So you write the data, then erase it and write something new. The capacity does not dwindle here, at least not much, but when, eventually, the TBW is exceeded, you won't be able to write more data even if there is actual space free there. The drive can still be read, though, most of the time.
DWPD, the Drive Writes Per Day. This is the parameter most directly connected to the warranty, capacity, and the TBW. It is, in a nutshell, the number of times you can re-write the drive in its full capacity every day for it to fail right on the day its warranty ends. For example, when the DWPD is 1, the warranty is 3 years, and the capacity is 1 TB, it means you can write and re-write 1 TB of data every day for the next 3 years, after which the drive will die on you. Usually, the DWPD is less than 1, it is calculated like this:
DWPD = TBW / (Warranty * 365 days * Capacity).
If you do not overwrite the drive completely (or in any significant part) every day, you may not worry about this.
Knowing all this, you can decide which parameter to turn to when you are buying a new solid state drive.
Sources:
1. Joel Lee 5 Things You Should Consider When Buying An SSD, MakeUseOf. August 7, 2015.
2. Solid-state drive, Wikipedia. November 9, 2016.
3. Mark Kyrnin SSD Buyer's Guide, Lifewire. October 9, 2016.
4. Adam Dachis The Complete Guide to Solid-State Drives, Lifehacker. February 7, 2014.