Laptop M.2 SSD choices 2024

[Hardcore Games]

I have many laptops with M.2 slots but my Dell XPS with a 4K panel is my main rig at present. My Dell has discrete graphics so heat is an issue to some extent.

The SSD is away from the cooling solution and the WIFI card on my Dell with it beside the pair of SO-DIMM slots on my Dell. Right now I have a Kingston NV2S SSD in the slot which has below par endurance and I was considering a WD green SN350 but I was wondering about 4TB SSD which are mostly PCIe 4.0 even at the low end of the market. I have an SN350 in my Lenovo T14 and it runs cool which is favorable.

My machines are all PCIe 3.0 so there is some limit to the bandwidth but no SSD has reached that so far. Maybe my next laptop will have PCIe 4.0 but I am not holding my breath.

Post CrystalDiskReport screenies as well as Report so I can make this thread useful for laptop users like me.

 

[bonehead123]

With the exception of being able to move it into a gen 4 machine later on, putting a gen 4 drive in a gen 3 slot/machine won't hurt anything but won't gain you anything either, except a little of extra heat, which seems to be your concern atm...

And yes, Kingston drives are not known for their stellar performance, in any gen, and although WD is normally better IMO, but it won't be like nite & day better.....this coming from someone who uses 2 & 4TB SN850X's exclusively, in (BTO) desktops, mini-me boxes, & lappies alike.

And posting screenies from our machines would only serve as a reference point, since every drive & every machine will produce different results... but I will post mine in the morning anyways, as it's already past my bedtime

 

[SalemTheKit]

If you could post your budget that would be great, but honestly these days it's hard for me to recommend anything other than the Corsair T500 just because it has, like, zero negatives. It runs cool, is single-sided, gen 4, great performance all around, PS5 compatible, and, anecdotally speaking, corsair SSDs tend to have the least reliability problems for me and for others that I recommend them to. The only real negative is that it tends to be on the higher side of SSD pricing and doesn't come in 4TB if that's really important to you.