Priced at only $210 for the tested 2 TB version, the Silicon Power UD70 is highly affordable, yet offers good performance thanks to the combination of Micron 96-layer QLC flash and Phison E12 controller. Unlike some competing value-oriented drives, a DRAM cache is included, too.
The Lexar NM620 uses a custom DM620 flash controller from Lexar. In our real-life performance testing, we saw good performance results despite the lack of a DRAM cache chip. With over 200 GB, the pseudo-SLC cache is also large enough to handle all bursts in write activity.
The Team Group T-Create Expert comes with 12 years of warranty and a mind-boggling 12,000 TBW endurance rating. That's 12 Petabytes, probably more than all the data you've consumed in your life up to this point. We take a closer look at the chips they use and run it through our extensive real-life testing suite.
The Corsair MP400 is one of the fastest QLC-based SSDs we've reviewed so far. With its 2 TB capacity, it offers plenty of space for all your apps and games, and achieves real-life performance that's comparable to many TLC-based SSDs.
The Neo Forza eSports NFP075 M.2 NVMe SSD is powered by the combination of a Phison E12 controller and YMTC 3D TLC flash, and a DRAM chip is included, too. Performance results are excellent, matching the fastest PCIe Gen 3 drives in our test group, and pricing is good, too.
The Team Group T-Force Cardea IOPS 1 TB SSD comes with two heatsink options: a super-thin heatspreader foil for laptops and other slim devices and a large metal heatsink that can soak up plenty of heat. We tested both, with surprisingly good results.
The Zadak Spark RGB M.2 SSD comes with a gorgeous RGB implementation that neatly synchronizes with all the big motherboard brands. In the motherboard software, the SSD will show up as an additional, individually controllable RGB element, no additional cable is required.
The ADATA XPG Gammix S70 M.2 NVMe SSD uses a PCI-Express 4.0 controller from Innogrit, for transfer rates of over 7 GB/s. Since this drive targets the enthusiast and gamer market, ADATA preinstalled a large heatsink on the drive, which makes a huge difference for temperatures.
The Samsung 980 Pro achieves transfer rates of up to 7 GB/s thanks to support for the PCI-Express 4.0 interface. Unlike its predecessor, Samsung's new SSD uses TLC flash instead of MLC, which affects speeds during intense bursts of write activity. Is the switch from MLC to TLC worth it?
The WD Black SN850 is the fastest SSD we ever tested thanks to support for the fast PCI-Express 4.0 interface. In our extensive real-life testing it beats the Samsung 980 Pro, the Phison E18-based Corsair MP600 Pro, and even the MLC-based Samsung 970 Pro.
The Corsair MP600 Pro is the fastest SSD we've ever tested. It is based on the brand-new Phison E18 controller, which has support for the PCI-Express 4.0 interface that doubles maximum throughput. At $225 for the 1 TB version, the Corsair MP600 Pro is quite expensive, but could it be worth it?
The ADATA XPG Gammix S50 Lite is one of the most affordable PCIe Gen 4 SSDs on the market, with a price of $260 for the 2 TB version. In our testing, we saw great random IO results for both read and write. Thanks to a preinstalled heatsink, temperatures remain low even when heavily loaded.
The HP EX900 Pro SSD is sold at just 11 cents per GB, which is a highly competitive price. Unlike many competitors, HP does include a DRAM cache at that price point, which helps improve performance, especially in random write situations.
The Kingston KC2500 promises to offer higher transfer rates than the Kingston KC2000, which it is based on. Due to a new firmware, Kingston was able to unlock additional performance. We measured almost 3 GB/s in writes and well above that in reads.
The Team Group Vulcan G SSD is priced extremely competitively: just $80 for the reviewed 1 TB version, it is more affordable than other entry-level SSDs. The Vulcan G is also considerably faster than the Samsung 870 QVO and Crucial BX500.
The Lexar NM700 SSD is based on a Marvell 88SS1092 controller, a refreshing change from all the Silicon Motion and Phison drives on the market. We're testing the NM700 on our updated Ryzen-based SSD bench, with several new and improved benchmarks.
Crucial's P5 M.2 SSD is finally a design for the high-end NVMe market. The drive uses a completely new controller made by Micron we've never seen before. While synthetic results are just alright, the real-life performance numbers in our Crucial P5 review paint a much better picture.
The Samsung 870 QVO is the company's new QLC-based SSD that reaches capacities of up to 8 TB. In our Samsung 870 QVO review we're taking a close look not only at synthetics, but also real-life performance, which is surprisingly weak, especially considering they want $115 for the reviewed 1 TB variant.
In our Seagate BarraCuda 120 review we'll take a look at synthetic and real-life performance of this 2.5" SATA SSD. According to our test results, the drive is among the fastest you can buy in this form factor, and write sustainability is pretty much perfect, there is no TLC write hole.
The Sabrent Rocket is powered by the combination of a Phison controller and Micron TLC flash, and a DRAM chip is included too. Performance results are good, especially write speeds are high, and pricing is low at $150 for the reviewed 1 TB version.
The Kingston A2000 has recently received a firmware update, which makes a big difference in performance. It now rivals the Samsung 970 EVO, at much better pricing. With just $128 for the tested 1 TB version, or 13 cents per GB, the A2000 offers better value than most SSDs on the market.
At just $115 for the 1 TB version, it'll be hard to find a more affordable M.2 NVMe drive than the ADATA Swordfish. Despite the low price, performance is still very decent; there's now very little reason to buy a SATA drive instead of an NVMe SSD.
Last year, we found a bug in Kingston's SSD firmware, which inflicted a significant performance penalty. Now, a software fix is publicly available, and it makes a big difference. The Kingston KC2000 is now the fastest SSD we have ever tested; it even manages to beat the Samsung 970 Pro.
The ADATA Falcon SSD is priced at just $130 for the 1 TB version, or 13 cents per gigabyte, which makes it one of the most affordable SSDs on the market. In our review, we found decent performance that beats QLC, and ADATA is even including a small heatsink that helps with thermal throttling.
Priced at just $132 for 1 TB, the Silicon Power P34A80 SSD is one of the most affordable high-performance TLC drives on the market. It uses the fast Silicon Motion SM2262 controller, paired with 3D TLC flash from Intel/Micron.
Lexar's NM610 is built using a Silicon Motion SM2263XT controller, paired with Intel 3D TLC flash. The pseudo-SLC cache is rather large at 128 GB, which ensures big write bursts get handled at full speed. Pricing at $155 for a DRAM-less SSD seems a bit high, though.
We test a new firmware update for the HP EX950, which fixes a performance issue and makes the drive the fastest SSD we ever reviewed, beating even the Samsung 970 Pro in real-life tests. With a price of just $270 for the 2 TB version, the EX950 is very affordable, too.
Team Group's MP33 SSD is based on 96-layer TLC NAND from Toshiba paired with a new Phison controller that achieves impressive sustained writes and has the best thermals we've ever seen. Even when fully loaded, without airflow, there is no thermal throttling.
Priced at $130 for the 1 TB version, the Sabrent Rocket Q SSD is one of the most affordable SSDs on the market. It uses a new Phison E12S controller, which has better thermal performance and can operate with smaller DRAM cache. Write speeds are impressive due to 250 GB of pseudo-SLC cache.
The Addlink X70 RGB SSD lets you control its lighting through motherboard software from all the big vendors, so you can sync it to the rest of your system. Performance is good, too, especially random and sequential writes. The preinstalled heatsink works well, keeping temperatures in check.
Western Digital's WD Red SA500 is a solid-state-disk optimized for NAS usage, either as cache drive or for primary storage. With a price of $140 for 1 TB, the SSD is priced more aggressively than Seagate's IronWolf 110 NAS competitor, yet offers similar performance and still retains the five-year warranty.
The Team Group Delta Max RGB SSD offers truly impressive RGB illumination that can be synced with your motherboard's lighting effects. Each of the LEDs can be controlled separately, both in color and brightness. Performance is also very decent due to the combination of the SMI controller with some Samsung TLC flash.
With just $50 for the tested 512 GB model, the BIOSTAR M700 M.2 NVMe SSD is the most affordable SSD we ever reviewed, even cheaper than most 2.5" SATA drives. Thanks to its fast PCIe x4 3.0 interface paired with an SMI controller, performance is good, too. Is there any reason left to buy a 2.5" SATA SSD?
The Team Group T-Force Vulcan SSD is priced extremely competitively with $50 for 500 GB, yet delivers outstanding performance. What's surprising is that the drive comes in both TLC and MLC variants, at the same price, but there's no way to know before buying. We tested both models in our review, with surprising results.
The Seagate FireCuda 510 SSD impresses with transfer rates reaching 4 GB/s; random reads go up to 475k IOPS. Under the hood, the drive uses Toshiba 3D TLC flash paired with Hynix DDR4 DRAM. Sustained transfer rates are excellent, even when the large SLC cache is exhausted, and thermals are good, too.
The ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G is the first M.2 SSD with adjustable RGB lighting effects. It not only looks great, but performs well, too. Thanks to 3.3 GB/s read and 2.3 GB/s writes, delivered real-life performance is comparable to the fastest NVMe SSDs on the market.
The Team Group Cardea II M.2 NVMe SSD comes with a large pre-installed heatsink that adds excellent cooling capability to prevent any sort of thermal throttling. Another highlight is the good sustained write performance, which ends up at over 1 GB/s even though TLC flash is used.
Priced at just $89.99 for the 1 TB version, the Patriot P200 is the perfect solution for users wanting large affordable storage to keep all their games on SSD. Even though it's based on TLC, sustained write performance is amazing, and there is no visible speed drop.
AMD's new Ryzens are the first desktop processors to support PCI-Express 4.0, which doubles transfer rates over PCIe 3.0. We test real-life performance gains using the 2 TB Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD, which reaches over 5 GB/s in sequential speeds.
The Seagate IronWolf 110 SSD is the first solid-state drive optimized for use in a NAS. It comes with the best and most consistent write speeds we've seen in a long time. On top of the five-year warranty, Seagate includes a data recovery service that will recover your files in case of failure.
Priced at a stunning $110, the ADATA SX6000 Pro 1 TB is one of the most affordable NVMe drives on the market, and a heatsink is included, too, to help avoid thermal throttling. In our performance testing, we see decent performance that's within a few percentages of other, more expensive M.2 SSDs.
The WD Blue NVMe is WD's new entry-level SSD using the M.2 PCIe x2 interface and 3D TLC flash. With a price of only $73 for the reviewed 500 GB version, it's one of the most affordable drives on the market that still delivers very decent performance. We saw no thermal-throttling, even when fully loaded and completely uncooled.
Team Group's MP34 M.2 NVMe SSD comes at exceptional pricing of only $80 for the tested 512 GB version, which is less than 16 cents per GB. This puts it really close to SATA drives and QLC M.2 SSDs, with better performance at the same time.
WD Black NVMe is Western Digital's premium M.2 SSD for demanding gamers and enthusiasts. It uses an 8-channel SSD controller paired with SanDisk 3D TLC flash. Priced at $105 for the reviewed 500 GB version, it comes at reasonable pricing, and offers outstanding performance.
The Apacer AS2280P2 is an M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 x2 SSD built using Toshiba 15 nm 3D TLC flash and a Phison PS5008-E8 controller. Priced at around $100 for the 480 GB version, this solid-state drive is one of the more affordable ways to join the NVMe crowd.
Team Group's MP32 SSD comes in the compact M.2 2280 form factor and uses NVMe over a PCI-Express x2 interface. Another important change is that for cost-optimizations, a DRAM cache chip is not used, which definitely helps with pricing.
The ADATA SX8200 Pro comes with a faster controller, which improves the performance of TLC significantly. Especially heavy writes see big improvements with results that almost make this drive look like MLC. Pricing is extremely reasonable, too: only 21 cents per GB. The SX8200 Pro is both faster and cheaper than the Samsung 970 EVO.
The HyperX Fury RGB SSD features full RGB control using 75 bright LEDs, which, once connected to the RGB header of your motherboard, can be adjusted to the exact color and brightness you want to match other components in your system perfectly.
Crucial has finally released their first M.2 NVMe solid-state drive. The Crucial P1 SSD is built using QLC NAND flash, which is the next generation in flash memory, promising lower cost per GB than previous technologies. In our testing, we see good results that are competitive with popular TLC drives like the Samsung 970 EVO and Intel 760p.
The Samsung 970 EVO is the company's offering for users who want the blazing speeds of NVMe, but aren't willing to pay premium for the 970 Pro. Read speeds of the 970 EVO match the 970 Pro; writes are lower, but still very good at 1.7 GB/s.
Samsung's 970 Pro flagship SSD offers incredible performance, especially when it comes to writes, where it tops the charts with up to 2.4 GB/s because of MLC flash. Reads are even faster at 3.5 GB/s. If only the SSD was more affordable: $200 for 512 GB is not exactly cheap.
Seagate's new BarraCuda SSD lineup marks the company's return to the SSD world. The drive comes with a 5-year warranty and is available at a highly competitive price of $79 for the reviewed 500 GB version. Seagate uses 64-layer 3D TLC flash from Toshiba, and a DRAM chip is included, too.
Crucial's new BX500 SSD comes at a great price point of just $80 for the reviewed 480 GB version, making it one of the most affordable drives on the market. It is a DRAM-less design that's built around a Silicon Motion controller with Micron-made 3D TLC NAND.
The Intel SSD 760p uses 3D TLC NAND paired with a Silicon Motion SM2262 controller to deliver great performance at reasonable pricing. Our reviewed 512 GB version currently costs $153, which is cheaper than many competitors.
With just 16 cents per GB, or $81 for the tested 500 GB version, the Mushkin Source is among the most affordable SSDs on the market. It is a DRAM-less design, which means some compromises have to be expected in terms of performance. Our review of the Mushkin Source 500 GB looks exactly into that.
The Toshiba OCZ RC100 is one of the most affordable M.2 NVMe drives on the market. It comes in a super compact form factor barely half as long as normal M.2 drives. The RC100 is also highly integrated, using a single IC that combines SSD controller and NAND flash, but lacks DRAM.
Team Group's Delta RGB SSD is a unique solid-state drive due to its amazing RGB support. It connects to your motherboard's RGB header, which then gives you full control over the LEDs for mixed colors, patterns, and custom lighting effects. Performance is good too, so is pricing, with just $80 for the 250 GB version.
The ADATA SX8200 SSD ushers in new performance records for our SSD reviews. Despite the use of TLC, speeds are incredible. The SX8200 has a generous 128 GB SLC write cache, which ensures even large write batches get completed at the drive's full speed. Pricing is awesome too, with only $170 for the tested 480 GB version.
The Kingston A1000 is a cost-effective NVMe x2 drive priced at just $150 for the 480 GB variant. Using two PCI-Express lanes keeps cost down due to a cheaper controller and simpler PCB design. This makes the A1000 barely more expensive than a SATA SSD and has it offer higher performance.
Crucial's MX500 is one of the most successful SSDs on the market due to its great performance at an amazing price point. At launch, only 2.5" SATA models were available, but now, the M.2 form factor drives are shipping, too - with no price increase.
In our initial review of the Crucial MX500, we were impressed by how well the new TLC chips work on these drives. There's barely any write-hole and warranty has been increased to a reassuring five years. Now, we test the 500 GB version, which sits right at the sweet spot of capacities currently in demand by consumers today.
Kingston's KC1000 is the company's premier NVMe M.2 SSD solution. It it built using a Phison controller, paired with Toshiba MLC flash, which is great for all those TLC haters out there. We take the 240 GB version for a spin through synthetic and real-life benchmarks.
With just $140 for the 525 GB version, the Crucial MX300 is one of the most affordable M.2 drives out there. Instead of NVMe, it uses the slower SATA interface, though. Our review will take a closer look at how much of a difference that really makes and whether the MX300 M.2 is a good alternative to 2.5" SATA drives.
The Intel 600p SSD is one of the more affordable M.2 PCIe x4 based NVMe drives on the market. It uses an SMI controller paired with Intel's own 3D TLC flash. Despite the relatively low synthetic results, our real-life testing shows that the drive is a decent choice for typical consumer workloads.
ADATA's Gammix S10 SSD is built using a Silicon Motion controller paired with 3D TLC flash. The SSD is cooled by a sexy red heatsink that not only looks pretty but also keeps the drive cooler than other NVMe SSDs we tested before. Priced at $210, it's one of the most affordable PCIe x4 drives on the market.
The Team Group Cardea Zero is a high-performance M.2 2280 SSD using the PCI-Express x4 3.0 interface. Sequential reads reach almost 3000 MB/s, which is amazing. Writes are good, too, with nearly 1200 MB/s consistently thanks to the use of MLC flash chips, which don't suffer from TLC's write hole.
ADATA's SX8000 SSD uses a high-performance PCIe x4 3.0 interface in the M.2 2280 form factor. During testing, the drive delivered excellent performance results, which, combined with the excellent price of $220, make this an excellent choice if you want to join the NVMe crowd.
Today, Crucial released their new MX500 Series of SSDs. The new lineup is built using 64-layer 3D TLC NAND made by Micron, Crucial's parent company. Unlike previous models, an SMI controller is used, which delivers good performance that actually feels very much like that of an MLC drive.
The Crucial MX300 2 TB is the biggest SSD in the company's lineup. It provides a staggering 2050 GB of capacity, which should be plenty for everyone. Thanks to its good performance and outstanding price of 27 cents per GB, this is the drive you want if you need tons of fast storage.
The ADATA SU900 sticks to proven MLC flash chips in a market where most of the budget drives are TLC, with low sustained write performance and low endurance. In our review, we see good performance results that are on par with competing drives from Samsung and Crucial.
Crucial's new BX300 SSD is not only affordable, but also impresses with excellent performance that's right up there with the best SATA drives in our test group. The secret sauce is clearly the use of MLC flash, which offers better write performance than TLC, lasts longer, and is trusted by users.
Crucial's MX300 introduces TLC flash to the MX Series. We tested the 750 GB version, which delivers decent performance at incredible pricing of only 23 cents per gigabyte. Performance per dollar is also fantastic, claiming a top spot in our charts.
OCZ's new VX500 SSD is built around a Toshiba controller paired with Toshiba 15 nanometer MLC flash chips. The drive offers excellent performance at even better pricing, making it a great candidate if you want to stay away from TLC drives, but don't want to break the bank.
Angelbird's Wings PX1 adapter lets you install M.2 SSDs in the motherboard's PCI-Express slots. This approach unlocks full bandwidth for older chipsets. The adapter also comes with a nice metal heatsink that prevents thermal throttling on high-performance M.2 SSDs like the Samsung 950 Pro.
OCZ's Trion 150 is one of the most affordable SSDs on the market today, with only 27 cents per gigabyte. Performance has also been improved significantly over the Trion 100, which makes the Trion 150 an excellent candidate for a low-cost system upgrade to boost performance.
Crucial's BX200 SSD comes at an incredible price point Micron's new triple-layer-cell (TLC) flash chips make possible. In our testing, the drive delivers decent performance, which, combined with pricing, results in a leading price/performance position for the BX200.
The Toshiba HK3R2 is an entry-level enterprise SSD that has been built around Toshiba's own controller and NAND chips. With its 960 GB capacity, it offers plenty of storage for all business applications, and our MySQL database testing reveals excellent performance in read-heavy scenarios.
OCZ's new Trion 100 SSD is built around brand-new TLC NAND chips from Toshiba, using a Toshiba TC58 controller. Thanks to TLC technology, the drive competes with Crucial BX100 in pricing, which is less than 40 cents per gigabyte.
Kingston's new HyperX Savage 240 GB is built around a Phison controller using 19 nanometer flash chips. With a price of only $120 for the 240 GB version, it sits right on the magic $0.50-per-GB mark.
Intel's new 750 Series SSD is a technological marvel. It is built on an 18-channel controller using a PCI-Express x4 3.0 interface with the NVMe protocol. This provides transfer rates of well over 1 GB/s, which clearly impresses. With a price of $1 per GB, the drive is also not prohibitively expensive.
OCZ's new Vector 180 adds power stability monitoring capability, which helps protect the drive's data in case of a power outage. OCZ has also announced a new SSD software suite, which is more user friendly and comes with additional features. The OCZ Vector 180 240 GB retails at $150.
Crucial's new BX100 SSD is a cost-optimized solid state drive that can be had for an ultra affordable price. Built around a Silicon Motion controller, it delivers fast, consistent performance that's just within 1% of the Crucial MX100.
Crucial's new MX200 SSD can utilize portions of its flash capacity in super-fast SLC mode, which makes it the fastest SSD we ever tested. Once the disk gets fuller, the drive automagically switches to MLC mode, block-by-block, all in the background, so you can maximize its disk-space usage.
Crucial's new MX100 SSD is super affordable, yet provides excellent performance that can easily compete with the big boys. It uses brand-new 16 nanometer flash chips from Micron, paired with a proven Marvell controller. Hands down the best SSD you can get!
Today, AMD enters the SSD market with their Radeon R7 SSD, which is built using OCZ technology. Using a Barefoot 3 controller and Toshiba 19 nanometer flash chips, the drive is designed for consumers and gamers alike. AMD has also extended the warranty of their R7 SSD to four years.
Angelbird is a young solid-state drive manufacturer from Austria. Their new SSD, wrk, is built on the Silicon Motion SM2246 controller which delivers good real-life performance in our testing. While a price of $300 for 512 GB won't shock the market these days, the drive is affordable overall.
Toshiba's new HG6 Series is an incremental update over the HG5d Series and claims the performance throne in our new real-life SSD benchmarking suite. Toshiba's latest model is also cheaper than the predecessor, which even makes it an excellent choice for value-oriented buyers.
Crucial's new M550 SSD is based on an updated version of the Marvell controller, which means it no longer uses overprovisioning: you get to use the whole capacity. In our real-life testing we also see a slight performance improvement, which is great, especially considering the M550's competitive pricing.
OCZ's new Vector 150 is a direct replacement for the Vector using the same Indilinx controller. The only major change is that flash chips from Toshiba instead of Micron are used.
The Vertex 450 is OCZ's replacement for their Vertex 4 and uses OCZ's own in-house Indilinx Barefoot controller. In our testing, we see performance that matches the Vertex 4, at a lower price. The included TrueImage HD software makes migration easier than before, especially for less experienced users.
Corsair's new Force LS SSD is a value-oriented alternative to SandForce drives. The solid-state disk is based on a Phison flash controller with Toshiba 19 nm flash and delivers quite decent performance.
Plextor's M5 Pro is the company's current flagship SSD, based on a Marvell flash controller and Toshiba 19 nm NAND flash. In our testing, we see solid results that can easily compete with other high-end drives. The included five year warranty is another bonus.
Seagate is trying to establish a strong presence in the SSD market using their new 600 and 600 Pro SSDs, which are based on a Link-A-Media controller. Clocking in at $400 for the 480 GB version, our testing shows good price/performance, at affordable storage cost.
We recently tested the 512 GB version of Toshiba's latest SSD with 19 nm flash chips and a rebranded Marvell controller. Today, we are looking at the 256 GB version to investigate whether the smaller capacity reduces performance, or if it too manages to claim the performance throne.
Crucial's new M500 SSD is built on an upgraded Marvell flash controller with new 20 nanometer 128 Gbit die MLC flash. This combination makes for a very affordable drive that also provides excellent performance in both synthetic and real-life performance testing.
The Samsung 840 SSD is the first solid-state drive using TLC flash technology, which promises higher data density for a lower overall cost. Our testing sees decent performance that turns into "outstanding" when taking into account performance per dollar and price per GB.
Toshiba recently released new solid-state drives based on their own 19 nm flash chips and a rebranded Marvell controller. In our testing, we see amazing real-life performance results that easily beat drives from other well-known vendors, like Samsung, Corsair, and OCZ.
Kingston's HyperX 3K SSD is positioned at a more affordable price level than its blue non-3K sibling. Our performance testing reveals surprising numbers: the drive actually ends up being faster than the regular HyperX.
The Mushkin Chronos 240 GB comes at an amazing price of just $165, which makes it one of the most affordable drives out there if you want to get going with SSDs. But does such a value oriented SSD offer the performance you need?
The 840 Pro SSD is Samsung's current flagship solid state drive. It comes with increased performance and better steady state long-time endurance. We pit the 840 Pro against ten other SSDs, including the OCZ Vector.
