Buying a good laptop is an intimidating affair, as you need to check the TGP of the discrete GPU (if it has one), the speeds of the SSD, and the generation and performance of the memory. The memory crisis (and the associated NAND shortage) means laptop makers are making even more compromises in their builds, and this has left room for Chinese-made SSDs to finally hit the mainstream.

As reported by Notebookcheck, its review sample of the Lenovo ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL is kitted with an SSD from YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp.), as opposed to the Samsung, Western Digital, or even Kioxia ones you might otherwise expect.

The fact that a relatively unknown brand can partner with a big one like Lenovo is a testament to what the memory crisis has done to laptop manufacturers. Like we pointed out with Chinese DRAM earlier this year, these alternatives will likely function as intended, but that doesn't mean you are getting a bargain with them as an end consumer—although big manufacturers are likely to secure good deals in bulk.

Notebookcheck got hands-on with the YMTC 512 GB SSD in its ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL review and notes the performance figures are below average for an SSD in an office laptop, with sequential read/write speeds of 3950 and 2514 MB/s, respectively.

One can assume Lenovo went with YMTC here as it was cheaper than going for more established brands, and that is how Lenovo (and likely others) has chosen to tackle the crisis. Selling similar rigs with cheaper parts, so as to make up for part of the rising cost of components.

In the grand scheme of things, YMTC is a relatively new company. It was founded in 2016 thanks in part to government funding. YMTC reports having over 8,000 employees worldwide and was valued at $22 billion just last year. Those are impressive figures, but wider adoption by non-Chinese brands could establish more of a foothold for the fledgling NAND creator.

Though that is good news for YMTC, it does mean just one more thing to check when you're buying a laptop. You might still be getting an SSD, but with reportedly reduced speeds, you will have to decide if the performance cut is worth it.

That we're in something of a crisis when it comes to PC storage and memory prices isn't news. But the pricing and specifications of SanDisk's new gamer-focused SSDs for PC and console are still pretty shocking.

The dubious fun kicks off with the SanDisk Optimus GX 7100X. It's a PCIe Gen 4 M.2 drive rated up to 7,250 MB/s for reads and 6,900 MB/s for writes. And it has a list price of $800 for the 2 TB config. The only other model is a 4 TB drive for $1,580. Ouch.

The drive is at least based on TLC NAND, rather than cheapo QLC memory, and comes with a five-year warranty. But still. Currently, SanDisk is offering the drive at a "discount" on its website, with the 2 TB model slashed to $630.

That's quite a bit off the MSRP, but it's still very silly money for a 2 TB Gen 4 M.2 drive, even in the current climate. Currently on our Prime Day SSD deals page, you can snag a 2 TB WD Black SN8100, which is an uber-fast Gen 5 drive, for $386, making the SanDisk drive look hopelessly over priced.

Is there anything that justifies the incredible $800 sticker price and still-silly $600-plus sale price? Well, it's "officially licensed" for the Asus ROG Xbox Ally consoles. But to the best of my knowledge, a generic Gen 4 SSD works fine in the Xbox Ally, so I'm not really clear on the real benefit there. I don't think there are even warranty implications for the Ally.

As if this wasn't bad enough, I give you the SanDisk Optimus GX PRO 850P. This little beauty, another M2.2 SSD, kicks off at 1 TB. So, you might hope it's a bit more accessible. Yes, and yet no.

The 1 TB model has a list price of—wait for it—$475. The 2 TB model? That's $950. And this, ladies and germs, is still a Gen 4 drive, rated at 7,300 MB/s for reads and 6,600 MB/s for writes.

Again, there's a lower current "sale" price for the 1 TB model of $380. But that is still bananas for a 1 TB Gen 4 drive. Yes, that pertains even now in the AI-fuelled memory and storage crisis. And again, our Prime Day SSD deals page shows the way forward here, with the WD Black SN7100 1TB yours for $189.

The Optimus GX PRO 850P is also "officially licensed", this time for the Sony PS5 console, which still doesn't carry much more meaning given the PS5 should work with any 4-lane PCIe Gen 4 M.2 NVMe drive in capacities between 250 GB and 8 TB.

It has a chunky looking heatsink which is presumably optimised for the PS5's thermals. But, still, it's very hard to fathom where the money is going. For the record, SanDisk will do you an Optimus M.2 drive with PCIe Gen 5 support, the Optimus GX PRO 8100. That lists at a scarcely believable $525 for the 1 TB model, $350 on "sale."

The latter actually makes this Gen 5 1 TB drive cheaper than the Gen 4 1 TB Optimus GX PRO 850P in terms of current offered pricing on SanDisk's website. But, whatever. The best one can suggest in all this is that SanDisk knows where the market is headed and has decided to get out ahead of it with these hugely inflated MSRPs.

Presumably they'll look "normal" in a few months and while other drive makers are crank up their prices, SanDisk can style out some strictly true "discounts" at these remarkably high prices. Oh well!

The RAMpocalypse whooshes ever on, and while it can sometimes be hard to put into perspective exactly what that means, sometimes an insider gives a little insight. To this end, Silicon Motion VP Nelson Duann recently told Tom's Hardware that the retail SSD market is all but kaput.

"The retail SSD market has almost disappeared... The controllers we sell to module makers are now largely ending up in SSDs that are shipped to PC OEMs. The reason is that OEMs cannot obtain enough NAND directly from memory manufacturers, so they are increasingly sourcing SSDs from module makers instead."

In other words, where OEMs (think Dell, HP, and so on) would usually bulk-buy NAND from memory makers and turn it into bona fide PC storage themselves (with the help of other bulk-bought parts like microcontrollers), they are no longer doing this. Instead, they are buying SSDs from module makers (think Samsung, SanDisk) because of the increased demand for AI servers.

This means more module maker SSDs like the kind you and I get in our gaming PCs are going to OEMs, which means less in the retail SSD market. And Duann is here suggesting that this is to such an extent that the latter market has almost disappeared.

This has apparently been occurring "since late last year and into this year."

As end-users, we don't get to see all the stock and inventory gubbins that DRAM, SSD, and memory controller companies do. But we do see retailer prices and out-of-stock labels, and it probably goes without saying at this point that things aren't looking good from an end-consumer perspective.

While NAND makers are doing better than they ever have done and SSD companies are purchasing memory from them years in advance, little ol' gamers like you and I are being faced with ever-more expensive storage.

RAM, of course, hasn't been faring any better. RAM and SSD maker Team Group recently gave us all a stark recommendation: "If you need memory, we recommend purchasing it as soon as possible."

Normally, I'd consider that a simple case of 'company encourages people to buy its products', but while that is almost certainly what's going on to an extent, it also rings true—the two things can be true at the same time. The situation doesn't seem like it will improve any time soon, and even if the company was mainly referring to RAM, with Silicon Motion's revelation here, it looks like Team Group's recommendation was apt for storage, too.

Even though many components inside our gaming PCs are exceptionally expensive, enthusiasts are still happy to buy them, partly because they know every item is backed by a warranty. However, that assumes a company is willing to honour that warranty in the first place, and in one such case concerning a Samsung SSD, the responses to the claim have been so negative that it's resulting in a lawsuit.

The SSD in question is a 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro, a somewhat pricey but otherwise pretty decent Gen4 solid state drive. But as explained by Louis Rosmann, the famous tech YouTuber, repair shop owner, and consumer rights advocate, they can fail, just as any mass-manufactured PC component can.

In his YouTube video on the matter, he describes how he bought the 990 Pro drive roughly a year ago from Best Buy, but that it stopped responding to commands in his RAID-1 array. But since it was still within warranty, he contacted Samsung to RMA it, though his internal alarm bell was already clanging over the fact that this model has practically quadrupled in price since he bought it.

Although his initial inquiry started well, the first hiccup was that Rosmann was unaware that he had contacted Samsung Canada B2B support desk, rather than the USA one (he's based in Austin, Texas, for context). He duly compiled, providing all the necessary information again, apart from one seemingly innocuous piece of data: a photo of the 990 Pro. As he was at work at the time, and the Samsung SSD was still in his computer back home, he couldn't immediately give them what they wanted.

The very next day, Rossmann received an email from Samsung saying that it had closed the support ticket because he hadn't sent over a photo within 24 hours (even though it wasn't actually 24 hours later). Do note that Rossmann openly displays all this correspondence in the video.

Eventually, this all gets sorted, and Samsung contacts Rossmann with details on how to return the drive and so on. That all goes smoothly until a repair statement is sent back to him, stating that "based on the test results, the returned drive was verified as good." The consumer rights activist then queried this, but heard nothing back. Instead, Samsung just returned the drive to him.

In the video, Rossmann then demonstrates the drive in action, showing inconsistent write speeds of 20 to 160 MB/s. That would be slow for an old SATA HDD, let alone a 6,900 MB/s PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. To even the untrained eye, that drive is goosed, and Rossmann's eyes are highly trained, as he runs a data recovery service in his repair shop.

Naturally, he fires off… how shall I put it?...a somewhat stern but clearly worded email about everything that has transpired, the issue at hand, and consumer rights that protect his warranty claim. Samsung's response to this ("we apologize for the inconvenience or any confusion you may have experienced") only riles him further.

But then the real kicker drops at the end of the response: "As you may already be aware, there is a very big shortage of memory products across the market. Due to this issue, the warranty service does not currently have your model of SSD in stock for replacement or a comparable model for upgrade."

Rossmann then points out that Samsung's store on Amazon has plenty of 4 TB 990 Pros in stock for $949, and argues that stock levels aren't a problem at all. Anyway, he eventually decides that this whole thing is so ridiculous that the only solution for him is to file a small claims lawsuit. "I look forward to costing you more money in legal fees than what you would have paid to simply replace my drive," he says to the camera.

I suspect that when it comes to DRAM and SSDs, this kind of situation isn't especially rare, and Rossmann describes the "wrong thing to do" that many PC users would actually carry out, to get a working replacement: Buy a new $949 Samsung 990 Pro, stick his broken SSD in the box, and then file a chargeback based on receiving 'faulty goods'.

As someone with a whole host of large and currently hugely expensive SSDs in my primary PC, I'm dreading the day when one or more of them decide to fail, whether it's in or out of the warranty period. Because either way, it looks like I'm going to be faced with a large bill to get the solution I want.

But if the likes of Rossmann are willing to keep fighting for our consumer rights this way, then perhaps I'll get lucky and only have to sell one of my kidneys on the black market, instead of both of them (plus my one decently working lung).

The memory crisis has fundamentally changed how we approach memory and storage. It has made consumers adjust expectations about how much capacity they can get, and for what cost, and for companies like Biwin, it has meant having to purchase billions worth of NAND flash memory years in advance just to make sure it has a good supply.

Biwin is in a funny place, being a DRAM kit and SSD manufacturer. Even though the increased demand means it can almost guarantee selling all of its stock, it too will be hit by the supply crisis when it comes to securing precious memory chips. Biwin does not produce its own NAND flash memory, but it does need it for its products.

As reported by Tom's Hardware, it has signed a two-year deal to give $1.86 billion to an unnamed NAND supplier in exchange for an agreed volume of chips.

That supply will start flowing as of June 30, 2026. Both the pricing and quantity are fixed, which means if the price goes up over time, it's not paying a variable spot price. It's potentially a smart move from Biwin, but if the price happens to go down, then it would be overpaying for that stock.

As noted by Tom's Hardware, that $1.86 billion figure is more than half of Biwin's annual revenue. That is both a testament to how big its revenue now is, due to the memory crisis, and a sign of how big that commitment is.

Chances are, this long-term deal will be beneficial for Biwin as there's no sign of the memory crisis stopping soon. AMD's global vice president and general manager of the client channel business, David McAfee, recently told us that he hopes it ends in the next few years. He noted that the big three memory manufacturers— Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix—are all working on increasing production.

We were told, "I think we'll start to see by the end of next year and into 2028 that that ramp really starts to take hold, and then it's just a factor of the forces of supply and demand, and how that affects memory prices."

However, SK hynix and Samsung are both trying to minimise risk by not ramping up production too hard, just in case demand drops suddenly (*cough* AI bubble popping *cough*). Still, the commitment to at least two years of NAND at such a high figure is a sign that Biwin likely thinks the memory crisis isn't ending in at least the next two years, and that seems to be a common thought among manufacturers right now.

You only have to take a mere glance at the lowest prices around for gaming SSDs to realise that someone is making a small fortune during the RAMpocalypse. It is, of course, the companies that make the NAND flash memory chips, and the latest research suggests that, altogether, they accrued $46 billion in Q1 2026 revenues, more than three times what they did this time last year.

That's according to the latest report on the NAND flash industry's finances by Counterpoint Research, and given what we all know about the RAMpocalypse, the figures are entirely unsurprising, as is the reason for all that money pouring in. Yes, that's right: it's the demand for enterprise-grade SSDs to go in AI data centers.

That kind of solid state drive now accounts for 40% of the total NAND flash market, and Counterpoint says that it's forecast to pass 60% by the end of the year. Given that every single desktop and laptop PC, as well as phones, watches, and tablets, use SSDs as the primary storage device, that growth is likely to squeeze prices even higher.

Every week or so, I cast an increasingly nervous glance at the health status of the four WD Black SN850X SSDs in my main PC, hoping that I won't have to replace them any time soon. That's because any equivalent replacement will set me back well over $300 apiece, but probably not for much longer, it would seem.

Such is the demand for NAND flash that the relatively small players in the industry have significantly gained market share, with China's YMTC being the biggest winner: 8% in Q1 2025, now 13% and on par with SanDisk and Micron.

They're all making so much money that the combined revenues for Q1 2026 is actually bigger than what the industry earned across the entirety of 2023.

With no sign of AI demand slowing down, plus the fact that memory makers won't be able to ramp up production until well into next year or later, gaming SSD prices are clearly set to continue rising. Which raises a simple question: Just how far can the prices climb before the PC industry collapses under the strain?

We've all stared in shock at the likes of the Steam Deck rocketing in price (now $949 for the 1 TB model) because of the dearth of affordable memory and storage chips, and some gaming PC builders have only managed to stay relevant by using older processors, single sticks of memory, and stocks of ancient and crusty old SSDs.

Sure, the ultra-priced Steam Deck still sold out immediately upon a stock refresh, but I wonder if that was down to a lot of gamers assuming that 'it will only get worse, so buy one now while it's still vaguely affordable'. Either that, or they're just going to scalp them on eBay to fund a 1 TB SSD purchase next year. Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to look up how best to extend the lifespan of my SSDs, and no, I won't be using any AI search engine to do that.

Samsung has developed a new prototype NAND memory chip composed of an incredible 900 layers, according to a new report. The chip is actually achieved by stacking two 450-layer cell wafers.

ET News (via Sammobile) says, "Samsung Electronics recently implemented a 900-layer Class V-NAND integrated system utilizing Cell Multi-Bonding (CMB) technology, which bonds two 450-layer cell wafers into one."

The outlet says that the current highest layer count for NAND flash memory is SK Hynix's 321-layer NAND technology. Samsung is said to be prepping its own 10th Gen V-NAND with over 400 layers and this new 900-layer prototype seems to be bonding two of that class of NAND chip together.

The challenge here, as we understand it, involves the intricacies of bonding chips together, which include the incredible precision required to align the cell wafers and their interconnects accurately, along with a so-called "warping" phenomenon during manufacture. ET News says the latter was solved courtesy of an advanced Upper Chuck design, which is the tool that holds the wafers in place during bonding.

While it's easy to see how this new 900-layer memory will increase memory capacity without expanding the physical dimensions of a NAND chip, the cost implications are less obvious. Taken at face value, two 450-layer chips are required, plus the time and cost to bond them together.

Of course, this is all being driven by the insatiable demand for storage capacity of the AI industry. So, cost probably isn't much of a limiting factor, for now.

Still, we're looking at roughly three times the density of existing NAND flash memory and the possibility of cramming frankly ludicrous quantities of storage into a very small space. If the AI bubble ever does go pop, there will presumably be an awful lot of flash memory looking for customers, and a golden age of comically cheap but incredibly large SSDs could follow.

The catch is that we'd all have to suffer whatever broader negative consequences came with the AI boom coming to an abrupt end. So, there's no easy way out of the current chip crisis.

Right now, storage for PCs is expensive but not completely bananas, what with a typical 2 TB M.2 drive coming in around $250 on our SSD deals page. But it is at least good to see that the march of technology carries on. If the economics of it all ever normalise, there will be some pretty cool stuff to buy.

I remember when an early review sample of the original Intel X25-M SATA SSD landed on my desk. It was the first mainstream consumer SSD and easily the biggest development in PC storage in the last few decades. That was 2008, but it turns out SATA SSDs are still going strong, as in 100 million strong.

Kingston has just announced that it has shipped fully 100 million units of its A400 SATA SSD since launching the drive. That's a model that went on sale in 2017, but is still available today.

You can get the A400 in 240 GB, 480 GB and 960 GB capacities, with the latter clocking up claimed 500 MB/s read and 450 MB/s write speeds. OK, those numbers are positively pedestrian by modern SSD standards. The very latest PCIe Gen 5 drives are theoretically good for getting on for 25 times that performance in terms of raw bandwidth.

But the key comparison for a SATA SSD like the A400 isn't a cutting-edge M.2 drive. It's one of those antediluvian contraptions with spinning magnetic platters, namely old school hard drives.

As several commenters on this Reddit thread discussing the Kingston milestone point out, SATA drives like the A400 are a "life saver" for older PCs. Indeed, I'm not totally convinced most people would immediately know if their fancy M.2 drive was somehow secretly swapped for the likes of an A400.

The point is that even an old SATA-based mini-brick like the A400 delivers most of the benefits in terms of system response that's associated with the latest solid-state drive technology.

By way of example, take this YouTube overview of game level load times comparing an HDD with a SATA SSD and then PCIe Gen 3, 4 and 5 NVMe SSDs. Using Starfield as the metric, the HDD took 218 seconds to do the initial level load. But the SATA drive cut that to just 19 seconds.

Yes, the NVMe SSDs were faster still. But even the Gen 5 drive only reduced the load time to just under 15 seconds. Not exactly life-changing is it?

Another consideration here is PCIe lane availability. By their nature, PCIe-based SSDs consume PCIe lanes, which can be a limited and precious commodity shared with the likes of a GPU.

So, in some scenarios with lower-spec motherboards, it can be advantageous to avoid populating PCIe lanes, especially with secondary mass storage as opposed to primary OS drives. All of which means that SATA SSDs retain relevance, even here in 2026 where the attention is largely focused on the latest M.2 drives.

Of course, with all SSD pricing on the up of late, the A400 may not feel like much of a bargain right now. But if it makes you feel better, when that Intel X25-M drive came out, it cost over $500 for an 80 GB model. In that context, the thick end of $190 for over 10 times the capacity doesn't feel quite so terrible, even if it is about the same as what you'd pay for a decent Gen 4 M.2 SSD of the same capacity.

Micron, which you may know as one of the biggest players in the memory market, has just released a great big whopping 245 TB SSD specifically designed for data centers. And it feels a little sickening to look at, knowing how expensive my next storage upgrade is going to be.

Entitled the Micron 6600 ION SSD, Micron says it is "the world’s highest capacity commercially available SSD", and, as you might be able to guess, it's to support "AI, cloud, enterprise and hyperscale workloads."

Micron's new data center SSD not only promises its QLC NAND technology is a generation ahead of any of the competition's QLC, but, with a 30 watts maximum power rating, it works out to use half the juice of a comparable capacious HDD. SSDs typically consume less power than HDDs anyway, so how power efficient it really is will have to be left to further testing.

What makes this SSD interesting is its humongous storage size. Also, compared to HDD deployment, Micron notes it requires 82% fewer racks. Travis Virgil, the senior vice president of ISG product management at Dell, says, "AI workloads are pushing data center capacity to the limit, and when you can fit significantly more storage into every rack, the math changes: less power, less floor space, less operational overhead."

The 245 TB model comes with a sequential read of 13,700 MB/S and a sequential write of 3,000 MB/s, but we don't know the pricing just yet. Chances are, unless you represent a major AI company, that price won't matter to you anyway.

So good news for AI then, but not necessarily anyone else. Storage is hard to come by at reasonable prices nowadays, and that's all because of AI. The memory crisis is largely caused by AI data centers sapping up all the modules to train new models, and it's not helped by the fact that there are multiple competing AI companies. They are fighting to get their digital foot in the door at the likes of SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron to secure contracts.

But manufacturers aren't looking to give contracts easily either. Just today, it was announced that SK hynix is struggling to keep up with 'unprecedented' offers, and didn't necessarily want to agree to any of them, as long-term contracts could require selling memory at a lower rate.

I, on the other hand, found out I had 300 GB in my recycling bin yesterday, so that's kinda like installing a 245 TB SDD, right?

Windrose breached early access late last month. As you might expect from something a few port calls shy of a full release, it's not all been smooth sailing, with a number of Steam users saying that the pirate versus environment game has been hammering their SSDs. Thankfully, developer Kraken Express have now released a patch.

Content creator Pixel Operative brought wider attention to the issue, by running some quick tests on the game themself and sharing their findings to X and YouTube. Apparently, when compared to similar survive 'em ups Enshrouded and Valheim, Windrose exhibited "significantly [larger] read/write numbers for less than 2 minutes of game play."

Tom's Hardware also later covered the issue, calculating that 432 GB could potentially be written to your drive over the course of a four hour session.

This astronomical write volume could significantly shorten the lifespan of QLC SSDs (which are arguably more efficient at storing data, but generally have lower TBW ratings) or otherwise aged drives. That's definitely not good news in the midst of a memory supply crisis. Thankfully, patch notes for version: 0.10.0.4.268-9d2ca277 say that "disk usage during gameplay has been reduced."

Kraken Express have continued to tinker with and refine the game's save structure since. For instance, version 0.10.0.5.120-073042fb dropped yesterday, and the patch notes say, "The game now automatically backs up all data every 10 minutes of gameplay and upon exiting."

Even with all the aforementioned technical hiccups, the devs aren't currently planning on any progress wipes during early access. However, the studio did recently warn, "Of course shit happens." Arrr, just like the high seas, early access can be an unpredictable place.

As such, Windrose captains shouldn't expect much beyond bug fixes and improvements to stability for the foreseeable future, with the next big content update being at least six months away from reaching the shore. Kraken Express attempted to manage expectations, sharing, "All the new content and features we want to deliver takes time."

Because I'm based a stone's throw away from Bristol in the UK, it's definitely a pirate's life for me, oo ar. So, with Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced still a ways off from pulling into port in July and Windrose's excessive data writing curtailed, I know exactly where I'm gonna drop anchor in the meantime.

Due to the memory supply crisis, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that now is a particularly stressful time to experience hardware failure. With a bit of luck, a sensible multi-year warranty should save your bacon when an SSD stops playing ball—but it looks like the RAMpocalypse may be about to claim another victim.

Case in point, Nextorage has just unveiled a new QLC gaming SSD that comes with a mere one-year warranty policy (via HKEPC Hardware). As you may already be aware, QLC drives can store more data per NAND flash cell than TLC ones, but that comes at the potential cost of a lower write endurance. As such, a measly 12 months for a warranty period is a choice.

The just-announced G-series EEA SSDs offer capacities ranging from 1 TB to 8 TB. They use a PCIe 4.0 interface, and like most drives these days, they're also DRAM-less. Nextorage lists an advertised read/write speed of up to 7,000/6,400 MB/s, and that its design "reduces power consumption and heat generation".

As for write endurance, the 1 TB model is rated for 400 TBW, which doubles for the 2 TB model, and again for the 4 TB version. Comparatively, the new 8 TB features an impressive 4,000 TBW of advertised endurance.

However, the 1 TB drive will cost ¥44,550, or about $280. Now, PC components tend to be slightly pricier in Japan anyway, so there's a chance the actual USD cost may be a bit lower than the currency conversion suggests (though let's hope the memory supply crisis doesn't worsen to such a degree that it makes this statement seem like naive optimism in retrospect).

Still, if you ask me, that's not necessarily the best value for money as it is. Couple that with Nextorage's "One year from the date of purchase" warranty policy, and I'd really recommend looking elsewhere.

For instance, the most affordable 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD I'd suggest right now is the Kingston NV3. Yes, it's a bit slower than Nextorage's new drives, but it offers a much more approachable price point, and Kingston tends to still offer 5-year warranties—for now, at least.

Given that Toshiba is allegedly struggling to replace enterprise hard drives due to stock shortages, I can see the logic behind Nextorage's extremely short warranty period. Besides the current limitations of QLC, it may be a bit of a mission for Nextorage to secure enough stock for replacements, potentially until 2028.

One of China's largest chip manufacturers has apparently made plans to build two additional new foundries to the one already under construction. Once all are operational, it's claimed that the firm's wafer output will more than double, which could potentially make it one of the world's largest makers of NAND flash memory chips.

The firm in question is Yangtze Memory Technologies, better known simply as YMTC, and its flash memory is heavily used by the likes of Acer, Adata, Lexar, and Team Group for their SSDs and other storage devices. The best budget gaming SSD around, the Biwin Black Opal NV7400, is a drive that also uses YMTC chips, though the production is also joined by offerings from Micron.

However, YMTC itself hasn't publicly announced these fab production plans, and instead the claims come from Reuters, which cites sources who "were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified", though this is normal for such new stories.

Given the current flash and DRAM market, where the AI industry is ordering so many chips that there's a global shortage of them (leading to sky-high prices), you might think that YMTC has amended its plans to include an additional two foundries to capitalise on the billions of dollars of potential AI orders.

However, Reuters suggests that the move is more to do with China distancing itself from reliance on US chip manufacturers, especially in light of the introduction of export restrictions on chip-making equipment.

While it's potentially good news for PC gamers hoping to see lower SSD prices, YMTC isn't going to be ready to flood the market with cheaper chips just yet. Its foundry that's currently still in construction isn't expected to start running until later this year, and even then, it won't reach its full potential until next year.

The two extra plants will take many more years to be in the same position, though Reuters' sources claim that all the new facilities will be able to churn out 100,000 wafers apiece, and put together, YMTC's output could potentially more than double. That's unlikely to be enough to knock Samsung off the top slot in the list of global flash memory production, but it could well make SK hynix and Micron look twice.

YMTC is apparently also considering dedicating some of the increased wafer production towards the manufacturing of LPDDR, as used in phones, tablets, and some laptops, but even if it does, the DRAM market is utterly dominated by Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron.

In other words, don't expect to see DDR5 memory kits come down in price just because YMTC is able to sell some DRAM chips cheaper than the competition.

One of the biggest memory manufacturers in the world, SK hynix, has just announced that its new 321-layer QLC PQC21 flash chips are now in full production, with supplies of 1 and 2 TB modules ready to go. Before you think that this could help lower SSD prices, though, it's Dell that's getting dibs on these chips.

Peel the sticker off an average gaming SSD, and you'll notice that it has quite a few chips on the circuit board: one being a flash memory controller, one possibly being a bit of DRAM, and the rest all being NAND storage itself. With the latter being expensive and in short supply, SK hynix is hoping that its new QLC flash will make a difference.

QLC, or quad-level cell, memory can store 4 bits of data per individual cell. That makes it ideal for cutting costs, as you need fewer cells in total to reach a target storage size. In the case of SK hynix's new PQC21, just one module is required for 1 TB.

Downsides? Compared to TLC (3 bits per cell) or MLC (2 bits) SSDs, QLC drives have a shorter lifespan and lower performance, though neither is much of an issue for the average PC user.

At the moment, we have no idea as to whether SK hynix has made any improvement in these areas with the new flash, but my gut feeling is that the product is simply designed to be manufactured quickly and cheaply, helping to plug the ever-increasing hole in the SSD supply chain.

Not that you're likely to be using it any time soon, as the only customer to be getting its hands on the PQC21 is Dell, though SK does have "plans to continuously expand partnerships with other major global customers."

Gaming SSDs with PQC21 chips are unlikely to set any performance records, but they could find a spot in our SSD buying guide in the budget section. Not that any solid state drive is what you'd call budget these days, but you get what I mean.

Everything changed when the fire nation attacked… Honestly, that's what it feels like writing this review. Teamgroup's MP44Q PCIe 4.0 SSD has finally landed with me for testing, and it's a curious little QLC number that, once upon a time, would have offered itself up as a nice, affordable, tantalizing opportunity for any would-be budget gamer's rig. The problem is that it's 2026, this sorta QLC feels a bit old fashioned, and SSD prices are through the roof.

It's especially tough as we've seen even superb budget drives such as the WD Blue SN5100 totally hampered by an extraordinarily high price tag. And that's a problem, a real big one, especially for Teamgroup. Side-by-side these drives, although targeted at the same audience, and with similarly high price tags (at time of writing the MP44Q is $305 and the SN5100 is $317), perform wildly differently.

The MP44Q is a sleek little budget PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. It's a single-sided M.2 2280 design giving it broad compatibility with all of your consoles, laptops, and PCs, and comes complete in 1-4 TB capacities with no heatsink variant available.

As for that core hardware, you get a Maxiotech MAP1602A controller (a slightly older model, and the same one found inside of the Lexar NM790), and die packages built out of YMTC's 232-layer 3D QLC NAND flash (you "might" find similar density YMTC TLC in Biwin's Black Opal NV7400, or Micron flash who knows…). There's no dedicated DRAM cache here, mostly to keep costs down, but you do get a healthy dose of 40 MB of system memory allocated via HMB, and a big chunk of pseudo SLC, and that's kind of it.

There's no drama, no new flagship parts or anything, just off-the-shelf OEM components—tried and tested and ready to go. What is interesting, however, is the endurance rating, as Teamgroup's got this clocked at 1000 TBW, which for a budget QLC drive is quite impressive. The default rating for most SSDs these days is 600 TBW for 1 TB, and practically all manufacturers abide by that, so it's nice to see an improvement here. Although you still get the same 5-year warranty anyway.

As for pricing, at the time of writing, it's kind of on the high side for a budget drive, especially compared to that SN5100. The reason I've been slamming that comparison so hard in this review is purely because, by the metrics that matter, the SN5100 outclasses the MP44Q in almost every way while being cheaper as it does it.

Benchmarks: SSDs

TemperatureCrystalDiskMark 7.0.0Final Fantasy XIV: ShadowbringersCrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 | RND4k Q1T1 | IOPS3DMark Storage

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

54

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

61

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

62

Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4

48

WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4

48

020406080

Peak temperature (°C)

Temperature Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	54
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	61
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	62
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	48
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	48

SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s)

SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s)

RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s)

RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

7407

6595

70

288

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

7318

6687

107

308

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

7446

6601

70

310

Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4

7370

6336

75

229

WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4

7116

6820

101

276

02,0004,0006,0008,000

CrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	7407 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6595 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 70 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 288 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	7318 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6687 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 107 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 308 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	7446 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6601 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 70 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 310 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	7370 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6336 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 75 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 229 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	7116 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6820 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 101 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 276 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Total Loading Time (seconds)

Scene #1 (seconds)

Scene #2 (seconds)

Scene #3 (seconds)

Scene #4 (seconds)

Scene #5 (seconds)

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

7.97

0.961

2.166

2.535

1.513

0.795

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

7.125

0.852

1.832

2.284

1.425

0.731

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

7.869

1.127

2.072

2.465

1.461

0.745

Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4

7.398

1.112

1.813

2.286

1.445

0.742

WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4

7.841

1.831

2.411

1.498

0.755

1.347

02468

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	7.97 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.961 Scene #1 (seconds), 2.166 Scene #2 (seconds), 2.535 Scene #3 (seconds), 1.513 Scene #4 (seconds), 0.795 Scene #5 (seconds)
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	7.125 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.852 Scene #1 (seconds), 1.832 Scene #2 (seconds), 2.284 Scene #3 (seconds), 1.425 Scene #4 (seconds), 0.731 Scene #5 (seconds)
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	7.869 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.127 Scene #1 (seconds), 2.072 Scene #2 (seconds), 2.465 Scene #3 (seconds), 1.461 Scene #4 (seconds), 0.745 Scene #5 (seconds)
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	7.398 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.112 Scene #1 (seconds), 1.813 Scene #2 (seconds), 2.286 Scene #3 (seconds), 1.445 Scene #4 (seconds), 0.742 Scene #5 (seconds)
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	7.841 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.831 Scene #1 (seconds), 2.411 Scene #2 (seconds), 1.498 Scene #3 (seconds), 0.755 Scene #4 (seconds), 1.347 Scene #5 (seconds)

RND4k Q1T1 Read (IOPS)

RND4K Q1T1 Write (IOPS)

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

17195

70309

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

26224

75158

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

17134

75727

020,00040,00060,00080,000

CrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 | RND4k Q1T1 | IOPS Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	17195 RND4k Q1T1 Read (IOPS), 70309 RND4K Q1T1 Write (IOPS)
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	26224 RND4k Q1T1 Read (IOPS), 75158 RND4K Q1T1 Write (IOPS)
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	17134 RND4k Q1T1 Read (IOPS), 75727 RND4K Q1T1 Write (IOPS)
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	N/A
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	N/A

Index

Bandwidth (MB/s)

Average Access Time (µs)

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

2874

496.38

63

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

3915

672.63

59

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

2893

495.11

62

Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4

2757

471.23

65

WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4

3238

553.1

55

01,0002,0003,0004,000

3DMark Storage Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	2874 Index, 496.38 Bandwidth (MB/s), 63 Average Access Time (µs)
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	3915 Index, 672.63 Bandwidth (MB/s), 59 Average Access Time (µs)
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	2893 Index, 495.11 Bandwidth (MB/s), 62 Average Access Time (µs)
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	2757 Index, 471.23 Bandwidth (MB/s), 65 Average Access Time (µs)
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	3238 Index, 553.1 Bandwidth (MB/s), 55 Average Access Time (µs)

3DMark's storage benchmark comes back with a score that's 1000 points higher straight out of the gate, with a much broader bandwidth figure, and slightly lower access times. That result is all thanks to the random 4K performance. The MP44Q really struggles here, delivering just 70 MB/s on the read and 288 MB/s on the write, making it slower than even Lexar's latest NQ780 QLC drive as well. Compare that to the 107 and 308 MB/s from the SN5100, and there's almost no contest.

Yes, it does eek back a win in the sequential read front being 89 MB/s faster (or 1.21% faster), but that's such a niche use-case for most of us gamers, it's almost not worth mentioning.

That all then translates into game load times too, and although the SN5100 doesn't particularly break any records in that department, scoring 7.125 seconds, the fact that the MP44Q lands in at 7.970 seconds is just, well, less than ideal. Physically, it's cool, mind you, and efficient as a result, but that's not enough to offset those massive deficits in the metrics that matter most.

"If you’re looking to order a Framework Laptop or Desktop with a lot of storage, now is the time to do that." So says Framework CEO Nirav Patel in the latest update to the company's ongoing blog post about the memory crisis.

We've reported previously on numerous occasions on how Framework is handling spiralling RAM and SSD prices. The latest update does indeed announce further broad price increases, more on which in a moment. But it also calls time on Framework rigs configured with larger SSDs and benefitting from what you might call legacy pricing.

"We’ve started to deplete our earlier, lower-cost inventory of SSDs, and have needed to re-price some capacities to reflect the costs we are now paying for new orders. Like with memory, we’re passing through as close as we can to our actual costs from suppliers and using a Weighted Average Cost model. There are still some models and capacities like 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB SN850X for which our pricing is substantially below market while we sell through inventory. If you’re looking to order a Framework Laptop or Desktop with a lot of storage, now is the time to do that," Patel said.

Patel doesn't say exactly how much prices will rise once current stocks of 2, 4, and 8 TB drives are depleted. Framework is charging $265, $469 and $899, respectively, for those drives right now when you configure a Framework 16 system.

On Newegg, you'd be looking at $422, $669 and $1,345 respectively. So, Framework's current pricing comes at a significant discount to market rates. A fairly hefty step up once drives sell out seems pretty likely.

As for the rest of Framework's announcement, the general gist is that prices are going up again for system memory, but not by as much as previous months. That said, the company also couldn't rule out further increases.

"The cost increase is smaller this month than in previous months, but we don’t yet have the visibility to determine if this is a new stable cost level," Patel said.

Framework is also slightly increasing the pricing of some configurations of pre-built Framework Desktop and Framework Laptop 16 and says that, "in upcoming months, we will need to do this on the remaining pre-built configurations of Framework Laptop 13, Framework Laptop 16, and Framework Laptop 12."

Anywho, if you were thinking about a Framework in any case, its current pricing on larger WD SN850X drives certainly makes them that much more appealing. For now.

Being able to encrypt and protect your data can be important, even if it’s to stop your little brother from accessing your Steam library, and at CES this year Lexar revealed its Touchlock SSD, which melds 128-bit AES hardware encryption and a capacity of 512 GB or 1 TB (and a 2 TB version has been announced) with an NFC reader, so you can use your phone to unlock it. It also has one of those clever MagSafe rings on it, so you can stick it to the back of your phone, but it will work with almost anything with a USB port, be that a Windows or Linux PC, a Mac, or either kind of smartphone.

It’s not the fastest drive out there, as Lexar has chosen to fit it with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface—that’s the 5 Gbps one—which is an odd decision given that phones like the Pixel 10 Pro and recent iPhones come with Gen 2 ports that are twice as fast, and our PCs bristle with USB4 and Thunderbolt sockets. But it’s still a decent speed, and if you’re using it as a way to expand the storage in your Steam Deck you’re not going to notice the difference. It probably helps keep the price down too.

With a name like TouchLock, you might expect the drive to have a built-in fingerprint reader, but you’d be mistaken. The security here comes via your phone. It magnetically clamps itself to the back of your iPhone or Android model and talks to the Lexar mobile app via NFC. And if you’ve got it hooked up to your PC, you’ll need to unlock it in this way before Windows even knows it’s there.

Setup is straightforward. Get the Lexar app installed on your phone, then use the included USB cable to connect them together. Snap the drive onto the back of the phone, and the app will launch, and you’ll need to go through a brief pairing ceremony in which a recovery key is generated. This looks rather like the Winter Soldier’s activation phrase, and you'll have to repeat it back to the app once you’ve saved it somewhere safe—this involves tapping words in the right order on the phone screen rather than typing them in, and doesn’t take long. That done, you can unlock the drive at any time by pressing it against your phone, no matter what the USB port is connected to.

The included cable is an odd one. It’s clearly marked 10 Gbps despite this being a 5 Gbps drive, and comes with a USB-C to A adapter that will only go on one way thanks to a small plastic clip. The drive seemed quite happy being connected to a PC via a USB4 cable, though it did nothing to improve its performance.

Speaking of which, it doesn’t do badly for a Gen 1 drive. Obviously it was never going to transfer data at the same speed as a USB4 drive, or even USB 3.2 Gen 2, but it’s surprising how small the gap can be. PCG uses Final Fantasy 14’s benchmark to test external drives, and while the Crucial X9 loads the Shadowbringers test in 16.5 seconds, the Lexar TouchLock does it in 15.2s. And it’s the same in Dawntrail, with the X9’s 14.29s loading time beaten by the TouchLock’s 12.75s.

Lexar TouchLock benchmarks

3DMark Storage

Index

Bandwidth (MB/s)

Average Access Time (µs)

Lexar TouchLock

558

90.88

305

Samsung T7 Shield

857

140

212

Samsung T9

1045

181.54

174

Crucial X9

875

152

208

Crucial X10

1136

181.36

147

03757501,1251,500

3DMark Storage Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	558 Index, 90.88 Bandwidth (MB/s), 305 Average Access Time (µs)
Samsung T7 Shield	857 Index, 140 Bandwidth (MB/s), 212 Average Access Time (µs)
Samsung T9	1045 Index, 181.54 Bandwidth (MB/s), 174 Average Access Time (µs)
Crucial X9	875 Index, 152 Bandwidth (MB/s), 208 Average Access Time (µs)
Crucial X10	1136 Index, 181.36 Bandwidth (MB/s), 147 Average Access Time (µs)

CrystalDiskMark

SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s)

SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s)

RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s)

RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Lexar TouchLock

409.88

428.88

24.37

22.96

Samsung T7 Shield

1052.55

999.02

31.18

59.44

Samsung T9

2005.41

1887.7

32.69

75.79

Crucial X9

1028

970

35.56

73.92

Crucial X10

1900.81

2002.7

33.45

103.38

07501,5002,2503,000

CrystalDiskMark Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	409.88 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 428.88 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 24.37 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 22.96 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Samsung T7 Shield	1052.55 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 999.02 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 31.18 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 59.44 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Samsung T9	2005.41 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 1887.7 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 32.69 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 75.79 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Crucial X9	1028 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 970 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 35.56 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 73.92 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Crucial X10	1900.81 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 2002.7 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 33.45 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 103.38 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail

Total Loading Time (seconds)

Scene #1

Scene #2

Scene #3

Scene #4

Scene #5

Lexar TouchLock

12.75

0.401

3.044

3.436

3.17

2.699

Samsung T9

13.51

0.469

3.119

3.879

3.657

2.386

Crucial X9

14.291

0.478

3.244

3.91

3.799

2.86

Crucial X10

8.271

0.421

1.962

2.227

2.096

1.565

03.757.511.2515

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	12.75 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.401 Scene #1, 3.044 Scene #2, 3.436 Scene #3, 3.17 Scene #4, 2.699 Scene #5
Samsung T7 Shield	N/A
Samsung T9	13.51 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.469 Scene #1, 3.119 Scene #2, 3.879 Scene #3, 3.657 Scene #4, 2.386 Scene #5
Crucial X9	14.291 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.478 Scene #1, 3.244 Scene #2, 3.91 Scene #3, 3.799 Scene #4, 2.86 Scene #5
Crucial X10	8.271 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.421 Scene #1, 1.962 Scene #2, 2.227 Scene #3, 2.096 Scene #4, 1.565 Scene #5

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Total Loading Time (seconds)

Scene #1

Scene #2

Scene #3

Scene #4

Scene #5

Lexar TouchLock

15.26

3.174

3.962

4.094

2.611

1.423

Samsung T9

13.91

1.659

3.847

4.237

2.829

1.333

Crucial X9

16.5

2.178

4.27

4.652

3.646

1.75

Crucial X10

9.55

1.794

2.405

2.682

1.74

0.926

05101520

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	15.26 Total Loading Time (seconds), 3.174 Scene #1, 3.962 Scene #2, 4.094 Scene #3, 2.611 Scene #4, 1.423 Scene #5
Samsung T7 Shield	N/A
Samsung T9	13.91 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.659 Scene #1, 3.847 Scene #2, 4.237 Scene #3, 2.829 Scene #4, 1.333 Scene #5
Crucial X9	16.5 Total Loading Time (seconds), 2.178 Scene #1, 4.27 Scene #2, 4.652 Scene #3, 3.646 Scene #4, 1.75 Scene #5
Crucial X10	9.55 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.794 Scene #1, 2.405 Scene #2, 2.682 Scene #3, 1.74 Scene #4, 0.926 Scene #5

Temperature

Peak (°C)

Idle (°C)

Lexar TouchLock

44

37

Samsung T7 Shield

69

30

Samsung T9

62

27

Crucial X9

60

25

Crucial X10

55

40

020406080

Temperature Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	44 Peak (°C), 37 Idle (°C)
Samsung T7 Shield	69 Peak (°C), 30 Idle (°C)
Samsung T9	62 Peak (°C), 27 Idle (°C)
Crucial X9	60 Peak (°C), 25 Idle (°C)
Crucial X10	55 Peak (°C), 40 Idle (°C)

The Lexar drive can’t beat the Crucial one everywhere—in sequential data transfer tests things are exactly as you’d expect, with the X9 running about twice as fast as the TouchLock, but it goes to show that in game loading, sequential speed isn’t what matters.

Lexar’s drive goes on to beat even the Samsung T9 (USB 3.2x2, 13.51s) in the Dawntrail loading race, which takes place at 1440p to simulate the way we play our games these days. There's less than two seconds between the contenders here, so we’re not talking about huge differences, but it’s interesting to see that the fastest drive on paper isn’t always the best when it comes to game loading.

On the outside, this is a nicely proportioned and extremely light SSD, perfectly proportioned to snap to the back of a phone and act as a backup drive for movies and photos, or perhaps to hold media for playback. It’s also handy for transferring those media files to a PC for editing, and while holding an extended Steam library may not be exactly what Lexar had in mind when it designed the TouchLock, it handles this task well too.

If security is important to you, the TouchLock may not be the absolute best for encryption, as Samsung’s T7 Shield offers 256-bit scrambling, but it does win in terms of convenience, as long as you have your phone with you every time you want to use it. Being a USB 3.2 Gen 1 device also means it can more easily hook up to a broader range of devices, including phones, tablets and older PCs as well as Macs and those that run Linux, without needing to worry about which flavour of Thunderbolt you’re trying to connect to.

It worked first time on every device I tried it on, once unlocked with my phone. It’s also reasonably priced, which in a world where the cost of anything made of silicon seems to be on an upward spiral, is an important thing to consider.

For anyone hoping against hope that the memory supply crisis just might start to stabilise in 2026, I've got bad news: An executive at Kioxia, a memory manufacturer based in Japan, recently admitted that the company's production volume for the year is already sold out.

The managing director of Kioxia's memory business unit, Shunsuke Nakato, made the admission during an interview with Korean news outlet Digital Daily, elaborating that the ever-hungry AI industry's demand for memory has led to a challenging supply and demand situation. Nakato went on to say that, as many companies are continuing to invest in AI out of a fear of being left behind, the situation is likely to continue into 2027 at least.

Though memory supplies are limited, Kioxia is apparently deploying something of a 'gentleman's agreement' with its clients, remaining committed to existing contracts rather than adopting a 'first-come, first-served' or 'everything to the highest bidder' approach. However, Nakato also admits that even long-term Kioxia customers are having to contend with as much as a 30% year-on-year price increase.

Also interesting to note from this interview is Nakato's scepticism about QLC tech. For context, SK Hynix unveiled a 'world first' 321-layer QLC flash memory chip last year, while Micron revealed it wasn't completely abandoning the consumer arena by announcing its PCIe 5.0 QLC drive, the Micron 3610 NVMe SSD. Nakato highlighted concerns about the tech's lifespan and performance, before arguing that eighth-generation NAND flash would still be preferable as it overcomes those issues at a structural level.

Otherwise, Nakata's comments regarding the memory supply crisis are 'so far, so familiar,'—though some industry observers have suggested there'll be no end in sight through 2028 and beyond.

Still, it may not be all doom and gloom. For one, Nakato was keen to highlight the suite of new products Kioxia intends to release throughout 2026. For another, the interview also highlighted Kioxia's high production capacity and its plans to ease the supply situation by improving the operational efficiency of its Yokkaichi and Kitakami factories.

The Yokkaichi plant is already one of the largest flash memory production facilities in the world, but a second chip fab will also enter full-scale production later this year at the Kitakami site. That said, this is unlikely to appreciably ease the supply situation in the short term—for instance, even though the second largest memory maker SK Hynix has significantly moved up a number of its chip foundry plans, we're still unlikely to see an appreciable improvement in memory supply for some time yet.

Grab any SSD from a gaming PC, and you'll find that it has one of two types of NAND flash memory chips: TLC or QLC. While the former is faster and more robust, the latter offers considerably more storage, making it ideal for housing terabyte-hungry games. And if SK Hynix's developments with PLC chips come to fruition, we could see a return to sensible SSD prices.

PLC or Penta-Level Cell flash chips aren't a new thing, as Intel, Toshiba, and SK Hynix all started working on their development a little over six years ago. Up to now, it doesn't seem like much progress has been made, but as reported by Blocks and Files, it would appear that SK Hynix has perhaps unlocked the key to making them commercially viable.

Flash memory cells work by using a large voltage to effectively ram electric charge across an insulated gap. Once there, it can remain stored for very long periods of time before requiring a top-up. Single-Level Cell (SLC) works like a switch: it either has all the charge or none, giving you two states or one bit of digital information.

That only requires the voltage sensors with the flash chips to read one voltage, which is very quick and simple to do. However, because it's only 1 bit of storage, you need a lot of SLCs to get any reasonable-sized memory capacity.

Which is where the likes of TLC, QLC, and PLC come in. With each of these, more charge states are used in the cell, giving rise to more bits of storage: three for TLC, four for QLC, and so on. However, this also increases the number of different voltages that need to be read, as well as decreasing the gap between them.

This slows down the whole process, with data reads and writes all taking longer, and makes them less reliable. Not just in terms of the accuracy of reading the voltages, but also the longevity of the cell itself. So much so with PLCs, that they're just not usable right now.

SK Hynix's solution to all of this is to chop the cells in half. Rather than requiring an enormous 31 voltage levels to get the five bits of storage, each half only requires six levels. The combination of the two halves' voltages produces 36 voltage levels; more than enough for PLC. And since each half only has six levels, each one is more reliable and quicker to use.

Essentially, it's a bit like jamming two almost-TLCs into one cell, giving you the storage benefits of PLC but without the drawbacks. Well, there is at least one drawback, namely the increased cost for the manufacturing process and the complex circuitry required to manage the split cells.

But given that SK Hynix is one of the largest NAND flash manufacturers in the world, second only to Samsung, there's a good chance that all of this can be made commercially viable. While we're unlikely to see PLC SSDs in our gaming PCs any time soon, the rampant demand for flash storage by the AI industry will probably help speed things along.

If this all comes to fruition within a reasonable time, we could see standard SSDs drop back to a sensible price. But for now, it's pretty grim out there if you want a high-capacity drive for your gaming rig.

For the last year and a bit, I've sat down every Friday morning to update our guide to the best SSD deals for gaming. Today, I sat down for the first time in 2026, only to see that the memory supply crisis is well and truly having a knock-on effect on SSD pricing.

Our Jeremy has already been keeping an eye on surging PC hardware prices, but this morning presented a more recent example. I just wrote a deal post about the 1 TB version of the Lexar NM790 NVMe SSD which, today, is going for $118. Not terrible, right? Well, that's what I thought until I remembered I had in fact written about the same SSD back in October of last year—when it was only $66.

That is a close to 50% price increase in about four months. Even worse, this same drive cost almost $150 within the last month according to Amazon price tracker Camelcamelcamel.

The Lexar is far from the most egregious increase I've seen, with higher capacity SSDs more severely affected. For one extreme example, Best Buy is currently asking for over a grand for the 4 TB version of the WD_Black SN850X SSD. It's hard to rule this out as simply a listing error when Newegg is asking for $520 for the same drive. If we look back at my Amazon price tracker of choice, you can see an almost runaway spike from between November last year to now.

As for the 8 TB model of the WD_Black SN850X, that's now $1,080 at Newegg, an almost 55% price increase compared to when I last wrote about it in May. It's also important to note that this is all arguably older stock too, as none of these drives are sporting Sandisk's recent rebrand. The 8 TB version of the drive is out of stock on Amazon, but taking a peek at the price tracker reveals another massive spike beginning November 2025 and continuing into January 2026.

These are just a few examples, but it's clear that the realm of SSD now finds itself thoroughly caught up in the memory apocalypse. Long story short, as the AI industry builds more and more data centres (often in ill-advised climes for the hardware inside), it's going to need more and more system memory like DRAM, as well as storage media like SSDs. Moving at a swift clip and throwing a great deal of money around, that means a memory shortage for us normal folk, due to the limitations in manufacturing facilities. Perhaps worst of all, these surging prices are far from wholly unexpected either.

In October, Adata's Chen Libai observed that most major memory and storage technologies were experiencing a shortage for the first time in about 30 years. In November, Phison's CEO Khein-Seng Pua shared in an earnings call that "every NAND manufacturer" has said they're "sold out" for 2026. Then in December, Kingston's Cameron Crandall also sounded the SSD pricing alarm, explaining that the company had very recently seen a 246% increase in NAND wafer prices.

But even in December, I was less keen on the advice Crandall gave at the time, saying if you were thinking about a hardware upgrade, you should "do it now and [don't] wait, because prices are going to continue to go up." On the one hand, yes, there's a chance prices have yet to peak. On the other, panic-buying is never the answer in the midst of a shortage. If you can, wait or simply use what you already have. If you can't, buying an entirely new rig may actually work out cheaper in some select circumstances.

I'm not going to lie to you, SSD pricing is pretty dire right now due to the memory apocalypse. As such, the end of 2025 was all doom and gloom about how we may not see sensibly priced storage for who knows how long—even Micron killed off its own Crucial brand, which had provided some of the best SSDs for gaming previously. And yet, a Micron-made SSD survives in 2026.

The company has just announced the Micron 3610 NVMe SSD, which it bills as "the industry’s first PCIe Gen5 QLC client SSD, powered by Micron G9 NAND." This release suggests that not only is Micron keeping at least a toe in the consumer market despite what was implied mere weeks ago, but that the company may even help pave the way back to reasonable storage pricing.

Historically, QLC isn't what you want anywhere near your SSD, due to its high bits per cell leading to sluggish performance and questionable reliability. But times are changing; last year, SK Hynix introduced 321-layer QLC flash memory chips that boasted 100% faster transfer speeds and up to 56% greater write performance than earlier QLC memory. Long story short, the greater NAND density afforded by QLC tech packing in the layers should eventually mean cheaper SSDs.

Thankfully, the Micron 3610 NVMe SSD doesn't disappoint on performance. As another DRAM-less drive, the 3610 is geared towards energy efficiency, apparently providing an "up to 43% improvement on performance per watt." It also enjoys a sequential read performance of up to 11 GB/s and a sequential write of up to 9.3 GB/s, making for a speedy game drive. However, that's not where the US-based company is aiming its spotlight.

Gaming does still get a look-in during the 3610's product trailer, but it's clearly not the main focus, with the SSD's suitability towards thrashing against large AI models instead being what's pitched as the headline act.

That's perhaps unsurprising for Micron, which goes on to elaborate, "It is capable of loading 20 billion-parameter AI models in less than three seconds, delivering real-time AI insights and high-quality experience for mainstream client devices."

The Micron 3610 NVMe SSD is available in three M.2 form factors—2280, 2242, and 2230—plus capacities up to 4 TB. It's worth noting the 1 TB model is slightly slower than the larger capacity options, only getting up to 7,200 MB/s on the sequential write. That's still fast enough for a lot of games and slim enough to fit inside even the thinnest of gaming laptops, but Micron is clearly more interested in supporting consumer demand for local AI workloads.

Much of CES 2026 has been AI-focussed, though that's despite lacklustre consumer enthusiasm, rather than being fuelled by it. Dell's presentation was a bit of a standout at this year's trade show for keeping their messaging decidedly AI-lite; Dell head of product, Kevin Terwilliger, even went as far as to say, "What we've learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, is they're not buying based on AI. In fact I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome."

With memory pricing ballooning to apocalyptic amounts due to demand from the AI industry, it doesn't feel like we've had much good news in the realm of SSDs in recent weeks. Well, Phison Electronics is looking to change that with the PCIe Gen5 controller it just unveiled at CES 2026.

The E37T PCIe Gen5 controller may not sound like the sexiest hardware update, but I promise there's plenty about it that's at least eyebrow-raising. Basically, you can think of it as a great big step up from the Phison E31T, which features in our current budget favourite for the best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming, the Crucial P510 NVMe SSD.

To make that short story a little longer, I'll borrow some of Phison's own words; the company touts the new E37T memory controller's ability "to deliver competitive price-to-performance value for modern consumer workloads across notebooks and mobile devices." To cut through the marketing-speak, this memory controller should make PCIe 5.0 drives not only faster but just a little more affordable, too.

Let's get into the numbers: according to Phison, "E37T achieves up to 14.7 GB/s sequential reads and 13.0 GB/s sequential writes, with up to 2,000K 4 KB random IOPS." Being about 3,000 MB/s faster than the Crucial P510 SSD, that's obviously quick, but that's arguably not even the best part.

For one thing, this SSD controller is geared towards an "active power efficiency measurement of under 2.3 W." Phison then goes on to share, "Its DRAM-less, 4-channel design keeps power consumption and thermals low, making it an ideal choice for next-generation laptops and mobile gaming using compact form factors."

In other words, the days of bulky heat sinks being a necessity for your cutting-edge PCIe 5.0 SSD may be numbered, as this memory controller affords far better temperature regulation and power management.

The E37T PCIe Gen5 SSD memory controller will feature in the Phison E28, the company's flagship PCIe Gen5 x4 NVMe drive. As far as we PC gamers go, we'll see more of it in SSDs from the likes of Corsair or Silicon Power. For those strangely desperate for the AI industry to at least get a look in, the E37T will likely play a part in Phison’s Pascari X201 and D201 enterprise SSDs geared towards data centres, too.

Release and pricing information for all of the above is still thin on the ground, but my fingers are crossed that I'll be entertaining the thought of a PCIe 5.0 SSD upgrade for my gaming rig a long time before 2028…

Sandisk is changing the names of its popular solid state drives. 'Does Sandisk even make any popular SSDs right now?', I hear you ask. Yes, it actually makes two of our top three best SSDs for gaming, though it's not as obvious today as one might expect.

Essentially, SSDs under the WD branding are actually owned by Sandisk. The two companies used to be one and the same—with Sandisk a subsidiary of WD. However, WD decided to separate from Sandisk; WD would focus on the lucrative HDD business and Sandisk would become its own entity focused on SSDs.

The split happened in February last year. It all went off without a hitch; the only problem being the branding. Sandisk, now independent from WD, had the company's name on most of its best products.

Today, that all changes. Sandisk is rolling out the 'Optimus' brand, which includes three tiers:

• Sandisk Optimus
• Sandisk Optimus GX
• Sandisk Optimus GX Pro

Yeah, heavy use of the letter X and the word 'Pro'; nothing out of the ordinary for a tech brand here.

The most important thing is you are still able to spot existing products on the shelves under their new guise.

The popular WD_Black SN7100 will be filed under Optimus GX 7100, and the newly released WD Blue SN5100 as the Sandisk Optimus 5100.

There's also an Optimus GX Pro 850X, a match for the WD_Black SN850X. While the WD_Black SN8100 is not currently listed on the new Sandisk Optimus website, one can assume it will go by 'Optimus GX Pro 8100' from the images provided.

Sandisk has also announced a new, speedy 2230 drive, the Sandisk Optimus GX 7100M, with up to 2 TB capacity and a read speed up to 7,250 MB/s.

"Millions of people around the world know and trust our internal drives, and the new Sandisk Optimus branding perfectly matches the strength of our portfolio," Anil Moolchandani, VP at Sandisk, says in a press release. "The family of internal SSD products are engineered to meet the demands of developer workflows and gaming environments for professionals, gamers, and other prosumers alike."

Though they won't say it, a rebrand is something of a necessity, and will see Sandisk lose out on years of hard-earned reputation and brand recognition for WD drives.

Products under the new brand will begin rolling out through the first half of 2026. And it's only the name that's changing—the underlying hardware, coming largely from a joint venture between Sandisk and Kioxia, remains the same high-octane mix we've come to expect from both WD and Sandisk products over the years.

Okay, you got me: It does feel kind of weird to be celebrating our SSD hardware award nominees right as we stare down 2026, and the surging memory prices that will no doubt have an expensive, knock-on effect over storage. But 2025 isn't over just yet so, while I've got the breathing room, I'm gonna fill my lungs and shout about the SSDs that impressed us the most this year.

Unlike last year, no teeny-tiny 2230 form factor drives get a look in this year. Obviously, handheld gaming PCs are no less popular, but internal NVMe SSDs have simply had a stronger showing this year.

However, that doesn't mean this is anything like a one horse race—even our best SSD for gaming has a veritable stable full of anime horse girls. Confusing metaphors? Me? Never. Anyway, keeping things interesting, it's not just one brand dominating the nominee top spots.

In fact, each of our nominees differ in terms of capacity and even form factor—we've even got an external SSD this year in the form of the exceptional Sandisk Extreme Pro. Obviously the thing all of our nominees share is that they'd all make for an excellent, speedy game drive for your rig—though the WD Black SN8100 NVMe SSD is easily the fastest by a significant margin. Better yet, some of them are even still reasonably priced to boot; you can pick up the Crucial P510 NVMe SSD for comfortably less than $150! So, without further ado, take a gander at our three best SSD nominees below.

Best gaming SSD 2025: the nominees

So, that's our three SSD nominees this year, but which drive will race into first place? Stay tuned, because all of our hardware award winners will be announced on New Year's Eve. Got it memorised?

Users have discovered a registry tweak that can improve NVMe SSD performance on Windows 11, namely those all-important random 4k speeds.

Windows treats most drives as SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), which has been used for decades now and largely intended for hard drives. As such, NVMe drives that offer higher parallel performance than a hard drive are somewhat limited by the SCSI conversion: taking NVMe commands from an NVMe SSD and changing them to SCSI for the benefit of the OS, which introduces processing overhead and latency.

You can see this for yourself by going into your PC's device manager -> Standard NVM Express Controller -> properties -> details -> class. It will be described as 'SCSIAdapter'.

But Microsoft just announced that native NVMe support is now available in Windows Server 2025; essentially circumventing the entire conversion process and speeding things along.

"Switch onto Native NVMe as soon as possible or you are leaving performance gains on the table!" Microsoft says in the announcement blog post.

"With Native NVMe in Windows Server 2025, the storage stack is purpose-built for modern hardware—eliminating translation layers and legacy constraints."

Native NVMe support is an opt-in model, so enterprise users need to enable it via the registry. What some users have found out, however, is that it's possible to apply the same tweaks to Windows 11 and see similar improvements to those touted by Microsoft for enterprise users.

This is made possible through registry tweaks, which can only be carried out at your own risk. You can brick your PC, seriously.

As noted by Heise, the new driver is included with recent updates to Windows Server 2025 and Windows 11. There are three registry values that need to be set in order to get it operational, which, again, I really wouldn't recommend doing on your own machine right now.

• reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 735209102 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
• reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 1853569164 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
• reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 156965516 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

As noted in the above story, once enabled, an NVMe drive will show up under 'Storage Media' rather than 'Drives' in Device Manager. It also may cause some third-party software to incorrectly log the drive twice, not see it at all as some users report with Samsung Magician, or with some strange partition duplication, as noted by Tom's Hardware.

Though early results are very promising. User Jonathanwashere1 found a large increase in random 4K read and write performance as a result of the tweak; 45% and 49% respectively. This metric matters most for OS and gaming and is the metric where we've seen only smaller improvement in speeds with new products over the past few years.

Heise reports access times were reduced in synthetic benchmarks from the tweak. Users on the Guru3D forums also suggest decent improvements to random 4K performance, as did Reddit users testing handheld performance.

Microsoft also notes that enterprise users can see up to 80% higher IOPS (the best metric for random perf) and a reduction of around 45% for CPU cycles—essentially freeing up the CPU by removing the unnecessary translation layer. Users in the comments of Microsoft's post suggest mixed results but general improvements.

Altogether, a promising sign of things to come. should the update roll out to more systems. In order to do that, Microsoft will have to ensure it doesn't break multitude of system configurations. How likely this is to rollout to the wider masses then, depends on how viable that is. Though it does sound like something that should be done. The current implementation is, as this shows, a needless bottleneck for performance.

As for any effect on game load times, our pick for the best PCIe 5.0 SSD, the WD Black SN8100, offers the highest random 4K speeds around and loads FFXIV around one second faster than other comparable drives. I suspect we'll see some drives make larger gains with native NVMe support than others. Lower CPU overheads could make more of a tangible difference to performance on some PCs as a result.

As many users are keen to point out across the board, Linux has native NVMe support and has done for a very long time. So, if you're willing to give it a go, this is all the more reason to try out Linux this coming year.

Prices for SSDs are not very stable right now. While not hit anywhere near as bad as memory, we're seeing price increases on many SSDs on a pretty regular basis. So if the prices here don't match up when you read this, that's likely why. We recommend using a price checker tool, such as CamelCamelCamel, to see if you're still getting a good deal.

It's been one year since I first reviewed the (now Sandisk) WD Blue SN5000, and boy oh boy, what a year it's been. That drive, at the time, didn't have a lot going for it. It was hot. It was slow. It was beaten by cheaper options, and thanks to using aging QLC NAND flash, it didn't quite deliver on the promises it made in a way that it needed to. Thankfully, the brand spanking new Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 I have here on review remedies practically every single one of my initial complaints.

From a newer, refined controller to far more advanced (though still QLC) NAND flash package with higher densities and better all-around performance, it makes a damn good argument for being one of the best SSDs money can buy, at least if the price is right. So much so that it enjoys a lovely 21% increase in score over the OG SSD.

Now, interestingly, Sandisk isn't pitching the SN5100 at gamers. It sees it primarily as a creator drive. An SSD designed for those looking for affordable mass storage, to house those pesky 4K video files and gigantic RAW photography archives we're all secretly hoarding somewhere, probably. In fact, it was a challenge to even get the PR team to send me a sample (Hey Toby!), as they were adamant it wasn't for gamers. Well, let me tell you, Sandisk, you couldn't be more wrong. Why am I so convinced of that? Let me explain.

The big change between this and the SN5000 comes in the form of what Sandisk has done with the NAND.

It's effectively replaced its 162-layer BiCS6 QLC NAND flash with its 218-layer BiCS8 3D QLC setup instead, dramatically reducing the bit size in the process. That's predominantly been done thanks to stacking more layers vertically, but according to Sandisk, there's also been improvements in the "lateral scaling" too, where the company's managed to shrink the cell size horizontally (the bit that holds the 1s and the 0s). This is actually the same tech and number of layers found in the now legendary Sandisk WD Black SN8100 as well (though that's utilizing TLC instead of QLC flash).

That gives us far better scaling and allows Sandisk to effectively house 4 TB of storage in a single NAND package. Which, in turn, improves power efficiency, lowers latency, and drastically helps speed up the drive. Something that the benchmarks show quite clearly, although more on that in a bit. Otherwise overall design has changed very little. It's still a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor, giving it broad compatibility with console, laptop, and PC alike; it still has that Sandisk Polaris 3 controller, and you, of course, get all the same warranties and bells and whistles we've come to expect from SSDs in the market.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Team Group T-Create Expert DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Model 5

The good news is that the performance gains from that one change have been outstanding. It's a semi-budget drive that performs like no other I've tested. Sequential read and writes maxed out that PCIe 4.0 bandwidth with 7.3 GB/s on the read and 6.7 GB/s on the write. 3DMark's SSD benchmark test equally put in a seriously impressive showing, with a score of 3,915, with SSD bandwidth marked at 672.63 and a latency of just 59 ns. That's actually quite close to being on par with some of the more current PCIe 5.0 SSDs I've tested (it's only 100 MB/s off the Crucial T710, for example, and in fact it even beats a lot of those early PCIe 5.0 drives entirely).

But it's the random 4K performance that really shines a light on just how far this drive has come. Simply put, it scored 107 MB/s on the read and 308 MB/s on the write. That read score, arguably the more important for gamers, is the second-highest I've ever tested, beaten only by the SN8100. No other drive, PCIe 5.0 or 4.0, can beat it. Write performance is a little slower, admittedly, but still for the tech, it shouldn't be anywhere near this level.

That then translates into game load times nicely too, and again in our Final Fantasy load time tests, it landed at a comfortable 7.125 seconds, putting it on par with some of Crucial's best offerings as well. All while achieving a cosy 61 degrees on temperature too, far beyond the realms of what I'd consider "hot" (although do bear in mind it is strapped to a passive motherboard heatsink, aka an aluminum block).

Pricing on this, though, is where things get a little nutty. When I initially tested this way back in October 2025 (before the madness that was Black Friday, and the subsequent slow creep of NAND pricing thanks to our ever-favorite AI bubble blossoming into the gargantuan nightmare it's become) it came in at a staggeringly low $130. Since then, Sandisk has slapped an additional $50 onto the price. That's quite the jump.

Although in line with most of the industry at this point, you can also pick up the TLC powered 2 TB SN7100 for the same price. That's a problem as the SN7100 is naturally better suited to larger file transfers, at least once the pseudo SLC cache has been used up, making it the far better pick of the two. Admittedly, our benchmarks don't really show that with slower random 4K read speeds and game load times for the SN7100, but you have to bear in mind that the one tested was actually the 1 TB model, rather than the 2 TB SN5100 we have here (which features a smaller pSLC setup).

For a modern-day QLC drive, then, the SN5100 is impressive. It has its limitations; it's still QLC, so invariably you're going to hit throttling at some point with those massive file transfers, but if all you're doing is loading games off this thing, or running the odd program, it's up there with some of the best TLC SSDs money can buy.

But there's the catch. Right now with such a turbulent market, with pricing the way it is, if you can find a slightly older TLC drive, for the same or less cash, you're invariably going to get better performance for the same cost. Especially when it comes to larger transfers (say, downloading and installing a game with Gb+ ethernet). Sadly, until Sandisk and the wider NAND market get a grip on flash demand (or dare I say the AI bubble "stabilizes"), it's not a situation that's likely going to resolve any time soon. Is the SN5100 good then? Worth buying? Yes, and also no. It just depends on what the price is and whether some CEO in the big seven needs another yacht or not.

SSD prices are not very stable right now. While not hit anywhere near as bad as memory, we're seeing price increases on many SSDs on a pretty regular basis. So if the prices here don't match up when you read this, that's likely why. We recommend using a price checker tool, such as CamelCamelCamel, to see if you're still getting a good deal.

I think I've tested every single combination of controller and NAND flash found in all of the top-end PCIe 5.0 SSDs at this point. At least all of them, trying to match or break parity with Sandisk's WD SN8100, that is, all pinching a little bit of the drive's tech while they do it. Yet this is the first SSD I've found that kind of does manage to do that, yet in a very weird, roundabout way.

This latest batch of Kingston Fury Renegade G5 drives, including this particularly boisterous 8 TB unit we have on display here, touts exactly the same NAND flash and controller combo as found in the SN8100. But, of course, all dressed up in a Kingston skirt. And I'll be frank, it works really, really well. Arguably unsurprisingly, given it's the same hardware combo that catapulted the SN8100 into our best SSD list.

It's been well documented at this point just how good that SSD is; nonetheless, we've not yet seen it in an 8 TB capacity, which is exactly what Kingston is bringing to the table here. Perhaps there's no market demand for it as far as Sandisk is concerned, perhaps it's tariffs getting in the way, or it got sidetracked by its weird and wonderful breakup with WD, but Kingston's taken that same tech and ramped it all the way up to 11, increasing capacity, delivering in some areas, and falling short in others.

So, unlike the Kioxia Exceria Plus G4, which had the same 218-layer BiCS8 TLC NAND but a different controller, or the Acer Predator GM9000, which had the same Silicon Motion SM2508 controller but different NAND, the G5 unabashedly has both as standard. A clone of its SN8100 father. And it's that 218-layer BiCS8 NAND that's the driving force behind this drive—particularly the density.

It was developed and designed by Kioxia and SanDisk, who have had a long-standing joint memory development and manufacturing venture. Its BiCS8 technology is impressive because of its increased vertical layered density (compared to BiCS6), allowing Sandisk and Kioxia to fit more dies into a single 3D package.

This improves efficiency, performance, latency, and maximum capacity, but it's also impressive because the technology manages to increase the efficiency of the lateral size too, making the die footprint even smaller.

What that means is that you can effectively fit 4 TB of high-performance NAND into a single chip on the stick, and stack two of those side-by-side, giving you 8 TB to play with, without having to go to a dual-sided design. That's given the Kingston Fury Renegade G5 the unique advantage of being compatible with consoles as well as PCs, as despite having such a ridiculous capacity and dedicated DRAM, it's still only single-sided.

Don't let the marketing numbers confuse you, either. Comparing that 218-layer NAND to something like Micron's 276-layer TLC or SK Hynix's 238-layer isn't a fair comparison, and that shows in the performance too, as both those technologies, when paired with the SM2508 8-channel controller, struggle to keep up, particularly when it comes to random 4K performance.

So, let's talk benchmark results then. The sequential performance on the G5 is outstanding. In fact, it beats the SN8100, delivering 14,830 MB/s on the read and 14,136 MB/s on the write. That's 100-200 MB/s higher than the SN8100. In a similar vein, the Crucial T710 (Phison and Micron's flagship SSD currently) similarly can't keep up with just 14.1 GB/s on the read and 13.2 GB/s on the write as well.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Team Group T-Create Expert DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Model 5

Things get a little more interesting on the random 4K performance, however, with the G5 only managing 101 MB/s on the read and 338 MB/s on the write. That read is fairly average for this drive, and about on par with the T710, although nowhere near the SN8100's staggering 119 MB/s read speed.

The big difference, though, is temperature, as despite its dual package setup, the G5 manages to keep itself cool at a markedly chilly 63 °C. With both the T710 at 70 and SN8100 at 75, being considerably higher.

All that translates into fantastic game load times as a result, with an average Final Fantasy score of 6.626 seconds overall. That is the second fastest drive I've tested with that benchmark, although it is worth bearing in mind that FF XIV does prefer larger capacity drives to load from.

The G5 is only held back, really, in three areas. Firstly, its random 4K read performance is a little low compared to the likes of the SN8100 (likely a conscious decision made by Kingston for efficiency's sake, in the firmware to keep temperatures low and compatibility broad), and secondly, well, availability. And price.

At the time of writing, US stocks are slim to non-existent, and in the UK, you can only pick one up for £1,000 at Scan. That's not particularly cost-effective at £0.12 per GB, but you are getting more performance than other 8 TB SSDs.

On paper, the G5 is phenomenal. It obliterates benchmarks, in no small part thanks to that superb combination of controller and NAND flash, and yet, for this particular number with its gargantuan capacity and price tag that follows suit, we inevitably fall back onto that same question.

Do you really need 8 TB on a single drive? Or would something like a 4 TB or even a 2 TB still be enough? You'd still get the same hardware setup, the same stellar performance, but for far less.

SSD prices are not very stable right now. While not hit anywhere near as bad as memory, we're seeing price increases on many SSDs on a pretty regular basis. So if the prices here don't match up when you read this, that's likely why. We recommend using a price checker tool, such as CamelCamelCamel, to see if you're still getting a good deal.

Alright, I'll come out and say it, the Lexar NQ780 is a bit average. A bit dull. Usually, when it comes to reviewing hardware like this, particularly SSDs, there's always something to write about. Something that's slightly interesting, or some weird quirk that the manufacturer has tweaked a certain way that's led to some curious performance metric in one manner or another. With the NQ780, though, that's kind of not the case.

It's interesting, sort of, in its own way, because it's not really that interesting. In a world of blisteringly quick PCIe 5.0 drives like the SN8100, intuitive new controller designs, limit-breaking NAND flash technologies with a quadrillion layers up-down, left and right, the NQ780 just kind of exists.

This isn't the best SSD of 2025, not by a long shot. It performs and delivers speed in the same manner that the Samsung 990 Evo Plus did when I reviewed that back in October of 2024, or the Crucial P310 did in January of this year. And it's aimed at that market too. It's a budget solution for those more interested in cheap capacity over speed and load times. It's not particularly awful, it's just outpaced or on par with practically every other PCIe 4.0 drive that's come before it, and it's done this around eight months late to the party.

Its biggest advantage is its pricing, and, although I'm writing this review in the midst of the carnage that is November (thanks, Black Friday), Lexar's aggressive RRP gives the NQ780 one hell of an affordability score. Namely, it's $0.07 per GB in the US and £0.06 per GB in ol' Blighty. With updated pricing across my benchmark database, that is one of if not the lowest price per gig I've seen to date. If it stays that way (a lot of drives are increasing in price right now due to the ongoing memory crunch, that might be its saving grace).

So, now we've got that one interesting element out of the way, let me bore you with the remarkably mundane hardware situation we're looking at here. The NQ780's a bit of an oddity in its component setup. There's no Phison, Maxiotek, Silicon Motion, or Sandisk controllers here; instead, we're greeted with an Innogrit IG5236 eight-channel 12 nm controller, which was initially launched waaaay back in 2020. It's all based on the PCIe 4.0 platform, M.2-2280 form factor, and it's been paired with a stack of Intel's 144-layer QLC NAND flash, which taps out at 1 TB packages. That means for this 4 TB model, we've got four on a single-sided stick (keeping in line with modern trends, making it compatible with many a laptop, console, PC, etc).

That should tell you straight away, then two things. Firstly, it's slightly toastier than most modern drives, and slightly less efficient as well, and secondly, that's a lot of old hardware trundling along in its sultry snazzy stickered form, and you'd be right. This almost feels like a stock clear-out and rebrand rather than a new release, particularly given how old that controller is.

Unfortunately, then, as you may or may not be surprised to hear, performance is what you'd expect from an SSD of this caliber. Although sequentials are initially high, once that pSLC cache fills up, she slows to a crawl.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Team Group T-Create Expert DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Model 5

CrystalDiskMark measured seq read and write at 7,446 MB/s and 6,601 MB/s, respectively, which puts it on par with the likes of the WD Blue SN5100. Not a bad showing by any means, but drop down to some Random 4K testing, and the battle quickly shifts. The SN5100 dominates the NQ780, registering 107 MB/s on the write, versus the NQ780's paltry 70 MB/s. That figure is actually far worse than at first glance, too, as it makes the NQ780 joint second to last on that metric, across all of the 19 drives I've tested in the last 12 months. Out of 19 drives, it came 17th…

That's important because random 4K read performance is incredibly critical for us gamers, as it's generally comparable with how AAA titles read files on an SSD. Think of it like a CPU pulling a game asset from here, a texture file from there, a mesh from over yonder, audio lines from that place, and you're on the right lines. These assets aren't stored linearly (or sequentially) like with photos or videos, and the NQ780's poor showing here translates into our game load test times as expected.

Final Fantasy's XIV Shadowbrings benchmark chugs along at a staggeringly slow 7.869 seconds on average. Which, although again relatively quick in real-world terms, pales in comparison to its modern SSD competition. That's particularly damning as well, given FF XIV tends to favour drives with a larger capacity, and I am testing the 4 TB model here, whereas most of our results come from 2 TB models.

This thing confuses me. It almost feels like someone let an AI LLM make a business decision here. It spotted a load of cheap NAND, some budget controllers from yesteryear at a bargain price, and slapped it all together for a quick, rapid launch of a drive that just can't quite keep up with its modern 4.0 equivalents.

It's biggest advantage comes in the form of that pricing being as aggressive as it is, but I can't help but shake the feeling that you'd be far better off investing in the additional performance found in those alternatives, the SN5100, for example, has gone for only a little more (though it is now priced much higher, gah), yet delivers exemplary performance in every category by comparison, even with QLC NAND as well. You can just do so much better, and that's a problem. Releasing a drive like this today is just not enough, but industry-wide price increases might keep it in play (if it stays at this sorta price for long).

Another day, another round of bad news regarding the ongoing RAM shortage and rising PC hardware prices. TrendForce reports that the NAND flash wafer supply is getting worse, which will directly impact SSD prices, and it already has.

How long will it take for those price changes to trickle down to the consumer market? And how long will it take for RAM prices to improve? Today's brought us a few interesting findings, so let's dig in.

Starting with the NAND flash prices, TrendForce reports that the demand for NAND flash used in SSDs is strong. To the surprise of no one, that demand is largely fueled by large enterprises (thank you, AI), meaning that's where the manufacturers currently have their focus.

The massive demand has led to a short supply, which then led to a price increase in November. The monthly average prices for wafers rose from 20% to 60%. Triple-level cell (TLC) memory was the most impacted. This type of NAND flash stores three bits of data per memory cell. Quad-level cell (QLC) NAND flash is also in high demand and short supply.

RAM is suffering from the same problems as SSDs, but on a larger scale. Even some of the best Cyber Monday deals aren't helping these outrageous RAM prices that we're dealing with currently. Reports show it might only get worse from here as far as that's concerned.

Our first source is SEDaily, which talks about Samsung's Semiconductor Division (DS), which is said to have rejected a request for DRAM from its own Mobile Experience (MX) division. Samsung's mobile sector managed to secure memory on a quarterly basis, meaning it'll have to re-negotiate the terms of the contract every three months instead of longer commitments.

Odd, isn't it? It all comes down to the cost of RAM and profitability, and unfortunately for us PC gamers, the profit lies in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and AI.

To that end, Micron is investing a boatload of cash into producing AI memory chips in Japan. The memory giant is said to be investing $9.6 billion into building a production facility in Japan, focused on next-gen HBM chips.

With all these different companies going all-in on enterprise memory, it's hard not to wonder what'll happen to the consumer market. RAM is already up to 300% more expensive than it was a few months ago, and those NAND flash shortages are likely to affect SSD prices, too.

Meanwhile, Nvidia is said to no longer be bundling VRAM with GPU dies when selling to its board partners, leaving them to find their own deals on memory. Keep in mind that all of that memory comes from the same source—if there isn't enough DRAM for PCs, there likely won't be enough VRAM produced for GPUs, too.

The PC gaming market is just going from one shortage to the next, and it looks like this one will last for a while yet.

The deals didn't stop after Black Friday or Cyber Monday, as we've had a week of tech deals. We're pretty much at the end now, though it'll just naturally transition into holiday sales. ahead—cyber deals, that is—and this is where we've collected every storage discount worth a second (or first) glance.

We didn't see any record-low prices on the best SSDs for gaming over Black Friday, with the looming memory apocalypse making itself known. Sadly, it's not just RAM feeling the pinch. SSD prices haven't been hit as hard, but we've seen more exciting bargains in past years. The worst news is that prices are only likely to rise, so if you do need a new SSD, it might well be that the SSD deals we're seeing now are as good as they'll get for a year or more.

👉We're curating all the best Cyber Week deals right here👈

As far as size is concerned, 1 TB is the least amount of storage we recommend when buying a new SSD today. It might be tempting to go with something smaller to really cut costs, but you'd be surprised how fast a 512 GB drive can fill up after installing a handful of games these days, or downloading a few videos or doing any kind of creative work. It's just not enough storage to commit a drive slot to today.

Below are the best deals for internal and external SSDs that'll fit your favorite games and media.

Where are the best Cyber Week SSD deals?

• Amazon - Cyber Monday deals on internal and external SSDs
• Walmart - Discounted solid state drives this Cyber Monday
• B&H Photo - Holiday savings on NVMe SSDs
• Best Buy - Great prices on all SSDs this Cyber Monday
• Newegg - Cyber Monday SSDs on offer

💾 1 TB SSD - Western Digital SN5000 | $66 @ Walmart
💾 2 TB SSD - Samsung 990 Evo Plus | $177 @ Amazon
💾 4 TB SSD - Silicon Power UD90 | $288 @ Amazon

Cyber Week SSD deals - Up to 512 GB

Cyber Week SSD deals: 1 TB

Cyber Week SSD deals: 2 TB

Cyber Week SSD deals: 4 TB and up

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Cyber Week external SSD deals

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Cyber Week internal SSD deals in the UK

Where are the best Cyber Week SSD deals in the UK?

• 1 TB: Biwin Black Opal NV7400 | £77 @ Amazon
• 2 TB: Biwin Black Opal NV7400 | £135 @ Amazon
• 4 TB: WD_Blue SN5000 | £235 @ Overclockers

• Amazon UK - Cyber Monday sales on all things SSD
• Scan - SATA drives often as low as £35 this Cyber Monday
• Overclockers - Lots of Cyber Monday SSDs to choose from
• Currys - Cyber Monday SSD options galore
• Laptops Direct - Surprisingly not just laptops, SSDs too!
• CCL - SSDs for bargain prices this Cyber Monday

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Cyber Week external SSD deals in the UK

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So much of data management feels floaty and ephemeral, with just one misplaced click wrecking untold devastation. 'Click, click, wait…no, no, no! I didn't mean to delete the entire folder of fanfic!' So when it comes to intentional data destruction, there's something compelling about a dedicated device that acts like it really means it.

Enter The Destroyinator from 45Drives. This beefy boy billed as an 'industrial-grade' solution to data destruction is capable of wiping up to 60 drives all at once. If you happen to want to blitz an honestly impressive amount of ill-advised, teenaged prose in a hurry, the Destroyinator's wipe speed can apparently reach up to 64 GB/sec. That means I can rest easy in the knowledge that my first few odes to hardware won't turn up in a museum some day in the far future.

This data sanitation device supports a wide range of storage devices, including but not limited to NVMe SSDs, 2.5-inch SATA drives, and HDDs with SAS interfaces as well. Once wiped, the drives are even hot-swappable, meaning you don't need to power the Destroyinator all the way down before loading up another batch of files that will never again see the light of day.

Cutting an imposing silhouette in a 16-gauge industrial steel chassis, it's a suitable coffin for my very worst writing. Joking aside, the device was designed with more straightforward business purposes in mind and is compatible with both Windows and Linux IT environments.

In a post on X, 45Drives shared, "[It's] built for e-recyclers, IT pros, and anyone who needs fast, compliant, and profitable drive erasure with zero cost-per-wipe fees. No subscriptions, no tokens, no surprises."

45Drives makes the case that though physical destruction of NVMe drives is arguably quicker, making the data inaccessible due to damage rather than deleting the files just creates a heap more e-waste. While e-waste processing has improved over the last few years, sucking gold out of old PC hardware, for instance, is still a fairly labour-intensive process and using what you already have remains the most eco-friendly option. Take the not-so-humble disposable vape—some enterprising creators have repurposed this e-waste scourge to do everything from host a website to powering a home.

Each drive loaded up into the Destroyinator and successfully blitzed is bestowed with an official wipe certificate, indicating the still-intact drive is then ready to enter data storage recirculation. This keeps operational costs down and lessens the overall impact on the environment. Despite the super villain name, The Destroyinator is all about reduce, reuse, recycle.

Best gaming rigs 2025

All our current recommendations

Pick a category Best overallCore ComponentsChairs & DesksSystems & LaptopsScreensPeripheralsCases, Cooling & Storage

Choose a list Best gaming laptop 2025Best gaming PC 2025Best gaming rigs 2025Best handheld PC 2025Best mini PC 2025

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BEST GAMING LAPTOP

1. Razer Blade 16 (2025)

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BEST GAMING PC

2. HP Omen 35L

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BEST HANDHELD GAMING PC

3. Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS

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BEST VR HEADSET

4. Meta Quest 3

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Read the full guide: Best gaming rigs 2025

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We're through the Black Friday looking glass now, and staring directly at the Cyber Monday deals to provide the best discounts on storage over the next week or so. I've carried out one final update to this page so that the SSD deals and discounts are all refreshed up to this point, but this is the last update of the year for Black Friday. But don't worry, because we'll continue to update with the freshest info on our Cyber Monday page 👇

👉Check out our Cyber Monday SSD deals for the very latest updates👈

Since we regularly review the best SSDs for gaming, we already know which ones are actually worth your money, and we regularly track prices for the best SSD deals every week. So we're not just recommending any old drive with a couple bucks knocked off it. We've spotted plenty of legit discounts on speedy NVMe SSDs and external SSDs that will be a perfect upgrade for your PC. Just make sure you've got an open slot or speedy USB port.

Where are the best Black Friday SSD deals?

💾 1 TB SSD - Crucial P310 | $80 @ B&H Photo
💾 2 TB SSD - Crucial P510 | $140 @ Best Buy
💾 4 TB SSD - Crucial P310 | $240 @ B&H Photo

• Amazon - Money off internal and external SSDs
• Walmart - Deals on internal and external SSDs
• B&H Photo - Savings on NVMe SSDs
• Best Buy - Great prices on Samsung and WD SSDs
• Newegg - Plenty of NVMe SSDs on offer

Black Friday SSD deals: Up to 512 GB

Black Friday SSD deals: 1 TB

Black Friday SSD deals: 2 TB

Black Friday SSD deals: 4 TB and up

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Black Friday external SSD deals

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Black Friday internal SSD deals in the UK

Where are the best Black Friday SSD deals in the UK?

• 1 TB: WD Black SN850X | £100 @ Amazon
• 2 TB: WD Blue SN5000 | £115 @ Scan
• 4 TB: WD Black SN7100 | £242 @ Amazon

• Amazon UK - Save on HDDs, SDDs, and external drives
• Scan - SATA drives often as low as £20
• Ebuyer - SSDs starting from around £30
• Overclockers - Lots of SSDs to choose from
• Currys - Plenty of options from SATA to NVMe
• Laptops Direct - Surprisingly not just laptops, SSDs too!
• CCL - SSDs for bargain prices

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Black Friday external SSD deals in the UK

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FAQ

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With most gaming laptops, adding more storage for your games is as easy as popping off the rear panel and just jamming a new M.2 SSD into a spare slot. When it comes to phones, though, it's a tad more difficult, especially if the device in question is an iPhone 17 Pro Max. And when I say tad, I actually mean a hugely complicated feat of highly-skilled engineering, as one modder amply demonstrates.

Apple's latest iPhone 17 Pro Max, the most expensive one in the released launched lineup, is available with four storage options: 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB. There's a $200 price tag difference between the first three, and because of the size of the capacity jump, a $400 gap between the 1 and 2 TB models.

Unfortunately, there's no SD card slot or the like, so you can't change how much storage you have once you've bought one. Well, actually you can, though as DirectorFeng on YouTube shows, it's really not straightforward at all.

With immaculate presentation and attention to detail, DirectorFeng's lengthy-but-lovely video takes you through every step involved in replacing the 256 GB SSD module in an iPhone 17 Pro Max with a 1 TB one (they had planned to use a 2 TB module but couldn't due to compatibility issues).

The first thing you'll notice is just how many different screws and ribbon cables are used inside the phone. I was pleasantly surprised that there was relatively little glue involved, but even so, just getting to the SSD module itself is an almighty task and certainly not for anyone with jittery hands.

Even if you're more dexterous than an aye-aye, there's one stumbling block that will stop almost everyone in their tracks. Apple, like all phone manufacturers, used a stacked SoC (system on chip) design, where the SSD module is bonded to the top of a DRAM module, which in turn is bonded to the top of the processor.

DirectorFeng's solution is both ingenious and alarming: use a CNC milling machine to grind every trace of the SSD off the package, leaving just bare pins on top of the DRAM behind. Or as the video captions describe it, "Flash chip formatting 'physically'." It's certainly the most data secure method of replacing a storage drive you can have.

With the old NAND flash chip gone, DirectorFeng removed all the old solder balls (each chip is mounted to the others via a BGA, ball grid array, inside the package), then neatly applied a new layer of them to mount the 1 TB SSD module. With that all done, it's 'simply' a case of reversing the disassembly process, then loading iOS onto the drive, and bingo! You now have an iPhone with four times more storage capacity than before.

Admittedly, given the cost of all the equipment needed, plus the years of training and experience required to do everything shown in the video, it might just be technically cheaper to pay the $400 difference and buy a 1 TB iPhone in the first place. Ah, but then you'd never get to feel the joy of doing some of the most sublime film peel-offs I've seen in a long time.

As glorious to watch as the whole process is, I much prefer to work on desktop and laptop PCs, though. Far fewer screws, a lot more space to work with, and 1 TB SSDs are pretty cheap at the moment. Then again, watching me stuff a new drive inside a laptop wouldn't exactly be an enthralling watch. Hmm, I wonder what I can CNC mill inside my Acer RTX 4050 lappy?

The best SSD for gaming might seem like somewhat oxymoronic phrasing given that you're not getting higher frame rates from having a faster drive in your gaming PC. But while the raw speed itself might not have a huge bearing upon the performance of a game, ensuring you have a good PCIe-based SSD will make your whole system feel far more slick in action.

Still, high-speed metrics are not the absolute for a great gaming SSD, if it were you would have a PCIe 5.0 drive topping this best SSD for gaming list. While they are dropping in price, and in the amount of heat they generate, a great PCIe 4.0 SSD will give you more Steam library space for your money, and still deliver a gaming experience on par with their more expensive cousins.

When we're picking the best SSD, we look at our performance benchmarks, but also at the makeup of the drive itself and the pricing levels of the drive at both 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB levels. On those terms the WD Black SN7100 is the best SSD for gaming right now, with the Biwin Black Opal NV7400 as the best budget SSD; both great drives in their own right and deserving of a place in your rig.

The quick list

The best SSD for gaming

The best SSD for gaming is the WD Black SN7100. This is the successor to the WD Black SN850X, which was our previous pick for the best SSD. It's not the fastest drive on the market—given it's a Gen 4 SSD not Gen 5—but it's about as fast as most people will need and comes in at an incredibly reasonable price.

The SN7100 offers the same level of performance as the SN850X, if not better, but has managed to save some costs by getting rid of the DRAM cache, having denser NAND, and making it all single-sided. And that NAND, by the way—Kioxia 218-layer BiCS8 TLC NAND—plus the SanDisk Polaris 3 A101 controller, makes for one speedy SSD.

While sequential read/write is great too (we clocked it at 7,116 MB/s), Random 4K performance blew us away. Our Zak, who tested the drive, says it "absolutely demolished every drive I've tested on the [Random 4K] read front, scoring an insane 101 MB/s." RND4k is what translates to gaming performance, and this drive performs well there, too.

Of course, if you want the fastest SSD around, you should pick up a speedy PCIe 5.0 one like the SN8100 below. But Gen 5 drives, even when priced competitively, are still far more expensive than Gen 4 ones like this one. And the real-world difference for most use cases—especially gaming—will be negligible. That's why we've stuck with a Gen 4 at the top of this list as the best SSD for gaming.

And when it comes to Gen 4, the SN7100 is easily top of the list, just like its predecessor, the SN850X. The latter will presumably be phased out before long, and the SN7100 is here to take its rightful place on the throne thanks to a balance of cost, speed, and efficiency. It's the best SSD on the market right now, all things considered.

The best budget gaming SSD

The best budget SSD is the Biwin Black Opal NV7400. With impressive speeds nearing the limit of what PCIe 4.0 can offer, it's no slouch. Moreover, it's priced in such a way to heap pressure on the competition. Even without any sort of discount, 2 TB of NV7400 will cost you just $120. That's just $0.06 per gigabyte.

When game install sizes are easily topping 100 GB without much of a second thought, the fact you can buy 2 TB of speedy storage for so little is a real gamechanger. It means we can safely hoard installs for a few live service games, heaps of indies, and whatever Twitch is playing that's all the rage right now without having to delete or redownload a thing.

The NV7400 is aptly named for its sequential read speed, which, wouldn't you know, lands at 7400 MB/s. That's right near the top of what's possible from a PCIe 4.0 x4 connection. You'd need to invest in a PCIe 5.0 drive to get substantially faster, but that requires spending a whole lot more.

Though the NV7400 is impressive in a straight line, it does suffer a touch at random operations. These are the type that games tend to rely on, and faster speeds here usually translates into quicker load times. The NV7400 isn't great in this regard, though it's not bad either. It's the writes that suffer the most, falling behind the WD_Black SN7100 by some margin.

But we'll forgive the NV7400 on account of how much of the stuff you're getting, and the fact that any reasonably quick NVMe SSD can load a game in a flash compared to an older SATA or HDD.

This is, ultimately, more of a capacity play. How much of NAND flash can you stuff on an NVMe drive and keep costs down? The answer, according to Biwin, is quite a lot. Just note that sometimes it's Micron's NAND, other times it's YMTC's NAND. We tested the former.

The best PCIe 5 SSD

The best PCIe 5 SSD is the WD Black SN8100. With the SN8100, it seems we're now at a point where we can genuinely start seriously recommending Gen 5. PCIe 5.0 SSDs had previously tended to be too expensive and too hot to recommend over a PCIe 4.0 one, but the SN8100 shows such an improvement in performance and heat, and is reasonably priced enough, that it's definitely worth consideration.

SanDisk is now officially post-Western Digital, so despite the naming, this is a SanDisk drive through and through. And marking the occasion, the company is using an entirely new proprietary controller, the 8-channel SMI2508. That's combined with some 218-layer BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA NAND, and at launch, the drive comes in 1 TB or 2 TB configurations with or without a heatsink.

To state the case simply: This is the fastest drive we have tested, by far. At 14,710 MB/s sequential read and 119 MB/s RND4k read speeds, it leaves every single other Gen 5 we've tested in its wake. That Random 4K performance in particular is impressive, and it translates over to gaming performance, as we found the SN8100 to have much quicker load times than the other drives we tested in the FFXIV: Shadowbringers benchmark.

Normally, all this would mean an incredibly hot drive, but actually it stays relatively cool, peaking at about 74 degrees over our entire benchmarking run. Similarly, we might expect it to be ridiculously expensive, but it's very competitively priced compared to other PCIe 5.0 drives. You're still paying more than a Gen 4, of course, but it's hardly extortionate at about $0.14 per GB for the 2 TB version.

For sure, a Gen 4 drive will be all many gamers will want or need. But for those of you who want the fastest drive around, the SN8100 is most definitely where it's at. Our Zak called it "just monstrous" in his review, and that about sums it up. It's the best PCIe 5 SSD on the market right now.

The best budget PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming

The Crucial P510 is that rarest of things—a Gen 5 NVMe drive we can stand behind thanks to the performance you receive in relation to the cost. That makes it the best budget PCIe 5.0 drive right now, a category that was previously sorely lacking in contenders.

Sitting at the heart of this drive is Phison's E31T cacheless controller, built on TSMC's 7nm node. Compared to the E26 variant of old the new Phison controller is significantly more efficient, which, in combination with a quad-channel architecture, means the temperature problems that plagued early Gen 5 drives are reigned in here.

The Micron 276-layer TLC NAND is pretty nippy, too. We clocked the sequential reads at 10,973 MB/s and the writes at 9,394 MB/s, pretty darn close to what Crucial advertises on the box. It's not going to be bothering the immensely speedy WD Black SN8100 above, but given that the 1 TB model we tested is available for a mere $100, it's a very impressive result nonetheless.

It's not all gravy, however, as the random 4K results are a little on the ordinary side. And compared to some of the other Gen 5 drives on our leaderboard the Crucial falls behind in the game loading benchmarks, or rather, delivers relatively sluggish load times compared to ithe more expensive Gen 5 competition.

Still, that's not quite the point here. This drive delivers proper Gen 5 performance in many respects, for the same sort of cost as many Gen 4 SSDs on the market. And crucially (sorry, I had to at some point), it keeps the temperatures well within reasonable margins, topping out at 64°C under heavy testing.

So, dense and fast NAND in combination with a much more efficient controller really has resulted in a budget PCIe 5 drive to be proud of. It might not be bothering its much more expensive competition in the benchmarks, but if you want to jump on the Gen 5 train for very reasonable cash, here's where you want to be.

The best 4 TB SSD for gaming

With game install sizes just getting bigger and bigger (120 GB+ isn't unusual at all), 1 TB drives just aren't big enough. Even 2 TB might be a bit slim if you're using it to host the operating system, apps, and games. Fortunately, 4 TB SSDs are really dropping in price, and the best high-capacity gaming SSD right now is the Team Group MP44.

It's important to first note that Team Group has multiple 'MP44' SSDs available, such as the MP44Q, MP44S, and so on. The one you want is just the plain ol' MP44, but thanks to sharing the same hardware as the fantastic Lexar NM790, there's nothing plain about its performance.

There are some differences, though. While the Team Group MP44 has a larger dynamic pseudo-SLC cache than the NM790 (which is used to keep write speed as high as possible), once the drive fills up a bit, the data transfer rate drops lower than it does on the Lexar SSD.

It also has a lower maximum operating temperature, and while it doesn't run especially hot for such a speedy drive, you will want to make sure that the MP44 is kept cool under a motherboard M.2 heatsink to make sure it doesn't throttle performance.

If none of that is an issue and you just want a massive SSD for a not-massive price, then you really can't beat the Team Group MP44.

The best 8 TB SSD

I wouldn't blame you for doing a double-take. Isn't this the same drive we recommend as the top SSD for gaming overall? Sort of. But many moons since its first release, WD followed up with this ultra-huge version, and as a result, the WD Black SN850X 8 TB has proved itself worthy of the best 8 TB SSD title overall.

There are a few questions you need to ask yourself before buying one of these monster drives, however. Number one, do you really want to drop this sort of cash?

The 8 TB version of the WD Black SN850X has an MSRP of $649, although I've seen it lower since its release, as NVMe drive prices tend to fluctuate with the prevailing winds. Still, it's an astonishing amount of money for a single storage component, although you are, of course, getting a similarly astonishing amount of space for your money.

Still, two 4 TB drives (like the Team Group MP44 above) are usually cheaper. You'll have to really be dead set on a single 8 TB drive to look here—and there's always the redundancy angle to factor in, too.

The PC Gamer hardware team has used many, many WD SN850X drives over the years, and they're remarkably reliable. But putting all your data eggs in one 8 TB basket means that, if it does give up the ghost, you've likely lost a huge amount of files in one single hit.

Ah, enough naysaying. If an 8 TB drive is truly what you desire, the read and write speeds on offer here are excellent, putting in a turn of 7,100 MB/s and 6,590 MB/s respectively in our testing. What's not so hot are the random 4K numbers, meaning that this should probably be viewed more as a fast storage drive with gaming potential than a full-time, top-spec gaming drive.

Housing four NAND chips instead of the usual two seems to create a small amount of latency, and that's reflected in the 4K performance. It's still fast enough to game on, no doubt, but there are better SSDs for outright gaming.

Still, those of you who regularly handle huge amounts of large media files (I'm looking at you, video editors and photographers) might want a mighty 8 TB single drive, and this one's a corker for that very purpose.

There are caveats to a single 8 TB NVMe SSD, no doubt, but if you've got your heart set on one, the WD Black SN850X 8 TB is the drive to go for. Just make sure it fits your use case before pulling the trigger, yes?

The best 2230 SSD

Lexar is relatively new to the SSD scene, but it has rapidly made a name for itself by offering fast storage, with bags of capacity, and all at sensible prices. Its Play 2230 model is no exception, and it's by far the best 2230 SSD we've had the pleasure of testing.

Underneath the label is 1 TB of Micron TLC NAND flash memory and a Silicon Motion SM2269XT controller. That's surprisingly decent stuff for a drive that's marketed at the handheld PC category, and they help the SSD's performance considerably. In our testing, we found that the claimed peak read/write figures of 5,400 and 4,700 MB/s were very accurate, so you're getting exactly what it says in the specs.

Better yet, the Lexar Play has a large pseudo-SLC cache—this is the portion of the flash memory that acts as a buffer for data, helping it maintain performance when writing lots of information. In a sustained write test, we measured the cache to be around 240 GB, which is pretty big for this type of SSD.

And the good news keeps on coming, as the Lexar Play doesn't get hot, even when pushed hard. With average operating temperatures around the 40°C mark and peaks of 53°C, your Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, or similar won't get any toastier just because you've installed a fast SSD.

There's only one downside to the Lexar Play: the capacity range on offer. 1 TB is currently the largest model on offer, and there's plenty of competition with larger capacities, such as our previous recommendation for Steam Decks, the Sabrent Rocket 2230. Relatively few retailers also seem to have it in stock, which makes it harder to pick one up for a good price.

Still, 1 TB is a decent enough amount of storage, and when it's this fast, cool, and affordable, you really can't complain.

The best SSD for PS5

Console gaming? On the PC Gamer website? Why absolutely. We're not total PC snobs here, we'll have you know, and even we enjoy the odd session on a PlayStation 5. The trouble is, the Gen 4 drive that's included as standard delivers good performance, but it isn't the fastest or the largest. So why not give it an SSD spruce up? Should that be your heart's desire, I can think of none better than the Silicon Power XS70 as my top pick for the best gaming SSD for the PS5.

With the release of the new PS5 Pro and its 2 TB SSD, you might be forgiven for feeling a little jealous looking at your old PS5 now, but sticking a new drive into your existing console is incredibly straightforward—and this Silicon Power SSD is a beaut.

Silicon Power is a brand that probably doesn’t get much attention compared to the likes of Samsung or WD, but when you look at its XS70 NVMe SSD with its high-end specifications, it's clear that the brand name isn't everything. Armed with the latest Phison controller and high-performance NAND flash memory, a drive like the Silicon Power XS70 has no problem competing with the best SSDs on the market.

The XS70 has a hardware combination that is common to many of the best SSDs, including the highly regarded Seagate FireCuda 530 and Kingston KC3000. That puts it in some fierce company, but I'm happy to report this little drive more than holds its own, with blazing fast read/write speeds of 7,300 MB/s and 6,800 MB/s respectively.

It's fully designed with PS5 compatibility in mind, so the heatsink isn’t as bulky as some others you might come across. In fact, it looks more like a flash drive, but don't let that put you off. When it comes to loading up your favourite PS5 drives in double quick time, this little wonder has you covered.

It's a highly competitive gaming SSD with great performance, an attractive design, and it offers good value for money. It's not perfect, in that it lacks its own software and hardware encryption, but whether you're a PS5 or PC gamer, that won't matter. Load it up with your game library, whether that's console or otherwise, and I reckon you'll absolutely love it.

Also tested

Our panel of SSD experts

How we test SSDs

We use a selection of industry standard benchmarking tools to rigorously test each and every drive that comes across our desk. As standard we run internal SSDs in an AMD AM5-based system and for the past year we have been running on a Ryzen 9 9900X CPU as we have found it a more stable platform than either Alder Lake or Raptor Lake Intel systems. At least the chip won't bend...

We also test each drive with a live Windows 11 operating system installed on it so we get a sense and hard data about how a drive performs as a boot drive rather than just as a dumb data storage medium.

As a basic read on the read/write performance of each drive, we use CrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 to measure the sequential performance as well as the 4k random speeds. This gives us a bead on the transfer speeds of the SSDs when shifting data around, as well as the tiny read/write tasks a drive housing an operating system will be regularly doing. High 4k random read/write performance is indicative of a slick-feeling system, so is a key metric for us.

Because we are PC Gamer, we also want to know how a drive will feel when it comes to loading in our favorite games. The 3DMark Storage Benchmark using captured I/O traces from a selection of games and gaming activities to deliver a real-world snapshot of how a given SSD will perform under those circumstances. The traces currently used are:

• Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch from launch to the main menu.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
• Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.

We also use the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers game load time benchmark to give us another, live measure of level load times in a real-world gaming example.

Sustained write performance is another key metric when it comes to SSDs as long-term performance can be very different from shorter, bursty transfers of smaller data sizes. We have created a testing methodology using IOMeter to give us an insight into the sustained performance of a given drive over a 15 minute period.

Finally, temperature has become another key indicator of SSD performance given that modern PCIe 5.0 SSDs have become far more toasty, and sometimes to a level where that ends up throttling performance.

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SSD FAQ

Do I need a PCIe 5.0 SSD?

Short answer: No. That's because PCIe 5.0 drives are expensive per terabyte and they're not usually much faster than top PCIe 4.0 drives on random 4K performance.

Long answer: You can find cheaper PCIe 5.0 drives, like the Crucial P510, and others that are worth the extra money, such as the WD_Black SN8100. The latter is one of few PCIe 5.0 drives that notably increases random 4K performance. This is an important stat for gaming, as load times and more rely on the drive reading and writing in small, disconnected chunks, as opposed to the big sequential jobs that these drives nail easily.

You also need to be considerate of thermal considerations with PCIe 5.0. We're seeing newer controllers, like Phison's E31, operate at lower temperatures today, which means it's getting better, but you still want a decent heatsink.

What PCIe generation should I look for?

Right now, PCIe 4.0 is the go-to PCIe generation. That's because it offers high speed at a reasonable cost. The newest gaming SSDs on the market offer PCIe 5.0 capability, which doubles the theoretical bandwidth an SSD can run at. However, these are few and far between and awfully expensive, though are finally getting cheaper. Also, the first drives of any PCIe generation tend to end up much slower than what that generation is truly capable of.

Here are the rough speeds (multiply by 1,000 to get MB/s) for each PCIe generation over x4 lanes:

PCIe 1.0 / Gen1: 1 GB/s
PCIe 2.0 / Gen2: 2 GB/s
PCIe 3.0 / Gen3: 4 GB/s
PCIe 4.0 / Gen4: 8 GB/s
PCIe 5.0 / Gen5: 16 GB/s

Do I need an SSD with DRAM cache?

For most PC Gamers a cacheless SSD will be absolutely fine for their needs and they will see little to no performance degradation using a cacheless drive vs. one with a DRAM cache. But, if you are a content creator, or have other reasons for transferring large amounts of data in a single go, then a drive with a healthy cache might help out in those situations.

But, while a cacheless drive might be a little slower when it comes to read/write speeds (though with modern options, that's less of a problem) they often benefit by being much lighter on the thermals. They generally operate cooler, which makes them a great option for small form factor builds or handhelds.

They are also generally cheaper, making them often the best value SSDs you can buy.

Can you put a PCIe 5.0 SSD in a 4.0 slot, or a 4.0 drive in a 3.0 slot?

Yes, you can. They M.2 socket is identical between the two generations of interface and so a PCIe 4.0 SSD will fit comfortably inside a PCIe 3.0 slot. They will also function perfectly well too, except the Gen4 drive will be limited by the speed of the older interface.

The same goes for PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 drives. You're just wasting the potential of the higher-speed drive by dropping it into a slower slot, is all, but it will work.

What's the difference between SATA and NVMe PCIe-based SSDs?

As the prices of NVMe SSDs fall every day, we don't see much difference in cost between the best NVMe SSDs and their SATA-based equivalents. When the cheapest 2.5-inch 1 TB SATA SSD is only $24 less than an equivalent capacity NVMe PCIe drive (and four times slower), why bother with older SATA technology when you can move into the future for so cheap?

Where SATA's theoretical performance limit is 600 MB/s, and PCIe 3.0's is 4,000 MB/s, PCIe 4.0 SSDs can double that figure to a maximum of 8,000 MB/s. The current top speed of available Gen4 drives is around 7,000 MB/s, which is double that of the previous generation.

PCIe 5.0 SSDs can exceed 10,000 MB/s and onwards up to their theoretical limit of around 16,000 MB/s. But for now, they run hot and they're very expensive, so we're not really recommending them as being suitable for any use case just yet.

Can I fit an NVMe SSD on my motherboard?

The M.2 socket has been included on motherboards of all kinds for many years now, so the chances are that there's a spare slot sitting inside your existing gaming PC. Check out your motherboard's specs page online before pulling the trigger on an NVMe SSD purchase, though, to be sure.

Those harboring a board that's a few years old now, do yourself a favor and make sure it supports booting from an NVMe drive first. Not all older motherboards do, especially if you're going back multiple CPU generations (maybe a full upgrade is due, if so).

If you don't have any NVMe slots, you can buy expansion add-in cards that will offer one or more NVMe slots in exchange for one of your PCIe slots on your motherboard, just be aware that these are at an added cost and take up precious room.

How big a gaming SSD should I buy?

The easy answer is: as big as you can afford. With SSDs, the higher capacity, often the quicker they are. That's because you end up with more memory dies plumbed into a multi-channel memory controller, and that extra parallelism leads to higher performance.

We would traditionally say that an entry-level SSD should be 1 TB in order to pack in your operating system, for slick general system speed, and your most regularly played games. But such is the increasing size of modern games that a 2 TB SSD is increasingly looking like the minimum recommendation, and a 4 TB drive or above will really give you some proper breathing room for lots of big game installs.

Oh the times they are a-changin'. A few years ago, I don't think I'd have predicted that HDDs, of all things, would be selling out, but here we are. According to TrendForce's investigations, "nearline" HDDs are "facing severe supply shortages", which is pushing cloud providers towards QLC SSDs.

Nearline HDDs are ones used for infrequently accessed data, acting neither as cold (long-term) nor hot (rapidly accessible) storage but something in between. They're primarily used for data such as backups. The AI boom has meant there's more of this storage in demand than before, to keep previous AI training data and model roll-backs, for instance.

One recent example of this increased demand comes from Western Digital. The company recently split from its SSD arm, Sandisk, to focus entirely on HDDs. TrendForce relays a notice from the company that was "spotted by industry sources" and explains that there is "unprecedented demand for every capacity in our portfolio."

Consequently, WD "will be gradually implementing price increases on all HDD products, effective immediately." It will also expand its "use of ocean freight", which will increase transport time by a few weeks but "significantly reduces emissions compared to air transport."

If a few weeks seems a long time, you're perhaps not understanding the scale of the demand, as TrendForce explains that "lead times for high-capacity HDDs have now extended to nearly one year." I suppose a few extra weeks isn't too much extra.

Given there seems to be no letting up on the AI freight train, CSPs might not be content waiting so long for HDDs and might therefore start buying up QLC SSDs.

These SSDs are of course faster than HDDs, and they also consume less power, but they cost more. They're not as fast as your average consumer SSD today, though. 'QLC' means 'quad-level cell', which means they can store four bits of information in each flash cell. Most of the best SSDs for gaming or general use that you'll find will be TLC ('triple-level cell') SSDs that are faster than QLC ones and tend to last longer, too.

It's worth noting that that might change, though, as we're seeing talk of some pretty impressive improvements to QLC storage. It could be that some future QLC SSDs will be quick enough (and remain cheap enough) to be great value propositions for gamers.

Current QLC SSDs, though, are certainly a next-best bet for large collections of warm storage, if high-capacity HDDs aren't available. TLC is unnecessarily fast and expensive when QLC is on the market.

As such, there shouldn't be a direct impact on storage for consumer SSDs such as the ones we slot into our gaming rigs. But the key word there is "direct", because if the component and chip market in 2025 has shown us anything, it's just how connected market effects are. For instance, if storage companies start gobbling up QLC SSDs for warm storage, others who were using QLC SSDs for hot storage might shift to TLC, causing those stocks to shrink, too.

The other side of the coin, of course, is that more money being poured into SSDs rather than HDDs could mean more resources are put into flash storage and SSD production. Though it would presumably take a while for us to see the effect of that increased production capacity.

In the short term, I'd place my bets on less SSD stock and higher prices, though hopefully it being restricted to QLC NAND will mean it doesn't affect our gaming PC and gaming laptop storage too much for now.

Right, let me be clear here. Crucial's T710 is without a doubt an all-out assault against the majesty that is Sandisk's WDSN8100. Without question, that drive is the best PCIe 5.0 SSD out there today and has been for a few months now. Certainly as far as performance is concerned. But no crown can remain untouched forever, and Crucial is looking to ruffle a few electron-induced feathers in its attempt to pull out that red carpet from underneath Sandisk. This is the very best that Micron can muster right now, I've no doubt.

For those not in the know, Crucial is actually Micron's consumer-oriented brand. Micron the massive american memory manufacturer. That gives it a distinct advantage over its competitors, as it can just use its own NAND flash in the production of its drives. Not only does that mean it can reserve its best tech for its OEM and off-the-shelf solutions, but there's no middleman or NAND manufacturer taking a cut of the profits before the drive hits the shelves, and that might make all the difference here. I'll explain why in a little bit.

As for the hardware side of things. At first glance, on the surface at least, there's not a huge amount of disparity between the T710 and its SN8100 rival. Phison's controller line has been ditched entirely, and like many others in the arena right now, Silicon Motion's anointed prodigal son, the SM2508 PCIe 5.0 controller, has been picked instead. All in a bid to claim back Crucial's crown as king of the SSD hill.

That controller, is of course, the same headline-grabbing unit that's been littering all manner of drives of late. From Biwin's X570 Pro to Acer's Predator GM9000 as well, among many, many others. It comes complete with an eight-channel design operating at 3,600 MT/s brought about off the back of an Arm Cortex architecture built on TSMC's 6 nm manufacturing process. With that comes a dedicated DRAM cache, utilizing LPDDR4 @ 4,266 MT/s. And it is not slow, not one bit, at least not when it's paired with the right NAND.

And that's, of course, the biggest difference. Micron's taken the gloves off and has paired that with its proprietary 276-layer 3D TLC NAND in a bid to really max out that controller. It's the company's densest, fastest NAND to date, with an incredibly small footprint, and far outpaces the likes of its own 232-layer found on the Crucial T705 and T700, those early-day debut PCIe 5.0 drives from yesteryear.

Now, that does all sound very promising, and in the world of marketing, bigger number is better, as we well know. Certainly compared to the 218-layer BiCS8 NAND found in the SN8100. But how these two technologies operate is vastly different from one another.

Although Micron's NAND does indeed contain more effectively stacked vertical layers, giving it a higher density upwards and a smaller footprint, that 218-layer BiCS8 NAND Sandisk has at its fingertips from its joint venture with Kioxia has a reportedly far more efficient layout as well, but it's done this by optimizing not only the vertical layout but also the lateral layout too, reducing the need for vertical stacks.

That 218-layer NAND also effectively has a vastly different architectural philosophy, called CBA or CMOS directly Bonded to Array, as it decouples the CMOS utilized for each cell wafer in the manufacturing process and then bonds them together afterwards separately. That allows each component to be manufactured in the best conditions possible for that part, and then they're effectively "welded" together afterwards, rather than having the CMOS componentry underneath each NAND wafer manufactured in a single pass. It's clever stuff.

So what that leads to then are two drives that are seriously pushing the limits of the PCIe 5.0 standard. The T710 absolutely monsters through our benchmark suite, with 14,145 MB/s on read and 13,181 MB/s on the write. As for the Random 4K results, it puts in a good showing here as well with 104 MB/s on read and 354 MB/s on the write. Both really good numbers. In fact, that 4K write speed is the fastest I've seen to date. But there's a problem. The 4K read speed (arguably the more important figure for gamers) is still slower by a good 14 MB/s compared to the SN8100, and those sequential figures fall around 5 to 6% short on average as well.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Team Group T-Create Expert DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Model 5

Unsurprisingly that translates across to gaming too, and although the T710 puts in a good effort, with a final score of 6.834 seconds for Final Fantasy (still stupidly quick, let's be clear) it doesn't quite beat out the SN8100 at a staggering 6.509 seconds. Those numbers translate over to 3DMark's storage bench as well, with a colossal win for the SN8100 (mostly off the back of far improved latency).

The T710, though, does have one edge, and that's the temperature. Even with an increased ambient spike of around 6 degrees, it was 5 degrees cooler than the SN8100 under the same testing conditions. Impressive, to say the least.

So, scores are impressive, far better than the T705 and T700, and it does hold its own admirably against the SN8100 (even if it does fall slightly short in some areas), but is this little SSD really worth it? Yes. Absolutely, and for one reason and one reason alone.

It's bringing the price of these drives dramatically down, and rapidly at that. Similar to Sandisk, Micron has that in-house NAND advantage, and because of that, it can actively compete on the pricing front. To put it into perspective, right now, the 2 TB SN8100 is $230, exactly the same price as the T710. At launch when I reviewed it, it was $280. That's a $50, or 22%, price drop in less than a dozen weeks. Because the flagship prices are dropping, everything else—PCIe 5.0, 4.0, big bulk storage, budget drives, you name it—all have to drop with it, and that is phenomenal. So well done, Crucial; what a hell of a show you've put on.

You see that front-panel USB-C port on the fancy Fractal Design Terra Mini-ITX case? That’s a USB 3.2 x2, and if you plug it into a standard USB 3 header on a motherboard the system chucks an error and won’t boot. That’s my experience, anyway.

So it was with some trepidation that I picked up the Crucial X10, wondering if I would be able to squeeze every last delicious drop of bandwidth out of its exotic USB connection. USB 3.2 x2 (20 Gbps) seems like a slightly odd choice in a world where phones have 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Type-C connectors and PCs have 40 Gbps USB4 ports on them, as well as the multi-lane data highways that are the modern flavours of Thunderbolt. It’s faster, sure, but many PCs aren’t going to be able to make the best use of it, and real speed freaks are going to be looking at USB4 or Thunderbolt drives to force multiple gigabytes through the wires in mere seconds.

Happily, USB 3.2 x2 is part of the USB4 spec. Unhappily, it’s only an optional one. So if your USB4 vendor has decided not to flick the switch or connect the wire or perform the ritual or whatever it takes to turn it on, you’re out of luck. I found that USB4 on an Asus ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wi-Fi was capable of running the X10 at something approaching its maximum speed, and Thunderbolt 4 from a gaming laptop was a little bit faster still.

It’s not exactly an expensive drive compared to the dedicated USB4 and Thunderbolt options, such as the chunky SanDisk Extreme Pro USB4 or the beast-like LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt 5 drive, but if your USB-C ports top out at 10 Gbps then you’re not going to get any additional benefit from the X10 over something like the Crucial X9 or Seagate Ultra Compact.

So IF you can make the best of it and IF you want to spend a little bit more than a 10 Gbps SSD, the X10 can make a lot of sense. It runs twice as fast as the standard USB 3.2 drives, and if you’re transferring a lot of data—such as, picking an example at random out of thin air, backing up hundreds of gigs of game downloads from a device with a paltry internal SSD—you’ll see the lovely Windows file copy window disappear much faster.

It’s not going to give you any benefits if you’re downloading straight to it, as even 10 Gbps outstrips average internet connections by a long way. Moving large folders to and from other fast drives is its forte, and with up to 8 TB of storage available, you’ll be able to fit a lot of games on it. Don’t expect miracles, however. Its maximum speed is still slower than a PCIe 3.0 internal SSD. Its only benefits come in comparison to other portable drives.

Crucial has seen no reason to change the design it settled on for the X9 SSD, only changing the colour for the X10. The X10 is blue, and only blue, though there's an X10 Pro model that comes in black and comes with a metal casing rather than a plastic one. This makes it a bit heavier, though not by a large amount. And a bit more expensive too, though not by a large amount. You might want the metal drive if you’re taking it up mountains or across deserts as part of a wildlife documentary crew, but for most indoor uses the plastic one will be fine. It’s IP55 ingress resistant and will take a 2-metre drop, though it’s important to note that this is onto carpet, and harder floors may do some actual damage.

There's a single USB-C port on the edge of the drive, and no activity LED to tip you off when it’s transferring so you don’t unplug it at the wrong moment. This would have been nice to have. A short USB-C to C cable is included in the box, and it’s good enough for top speeds. You’ll only need to replace it if you need something longer or Thunderboltier. There's also a lanyard loop in the top corner, so you can wear it as jewellery.

Unable to find an actual working USB 3.2 x2 port to plug the drive into, despite having two desktop PCs and five laptops in my garden shed, I tried connecting it to different USB-C ports to see what sort of speeds I could get out of it, and was pleasantly surprised. Pop it on a 10 Gbps port and you’ll get 10 Gbps out of it—1069.3 MB/s read and 1037.7 MB/s write in my tests. USB4 provided 1900.81 MB/s read and 2002.70 MB/s write, while Thunderbolt 4 came out on top with 2003.8 MB/s read and 1933.3 MB/s write. It goes to show what a shambles USB-C implementation has become when identical ports with no identifying marks apart from a lightning bolt symbol (if you’re lucky) can provide such disparate results, but I guess it just means you need to know your hardware and spend hours poring over specs and reviews before you buy.

What all these numbers mean is that a 30 GB file copied over USB4 takes about 25 seconds to transfer, and Windows barely even bothers bringing up the file copy box for a 2 GB MP4 movie. Large folders of mixed documents copy more slowly than single-file behemoths, so you’ll likely get lower speeds from game folders than if you’re moving backup ISOs or 4K footage from a camera.

So it’s a nippy little drive that’s also nicely priced, undercutting the Samsung T9 though beaten by the Teamgroup PD20 Mini. It sits in the middle between the cheaper USB 3.2 drives on one hand and USB4 SSDs on the other without demanding the kind of money that makes you decide you can live with a 10 Gbps connection rather than hand over the excess. It’s small, light and available with up to 8 TB of storage—though you’ll pay a lot for that capacity. As a fast game backup solution, it makes a lot of sense, but you’ll need to be sure you have the hardware to use it at its best.

Over the years, I've been slowly introducing my Mum to the world of games. The next obvious step in my quest was to get her set up with Steam on her aged desktop. However, as the machine's boot sequence dragged on for minutes, I got the creeping sense that perhaps it would make more sense to prioritise some necessary hardware upgrades instead. Thankfully, Sandisk's WD Blue's SN5100 NVMe SSD might be just what I'm looking for.

Available in a range of capacities, the 1 TB is worth spotlighting for its $80 (£64) price tag straight out of the gate; no discounts, no codes, the MSRP is simply $80 (£64). Sure, as a PCIe 4.0 drive, it's not the fastest SSD showing up to the races these days. Still, with an advertised sequential read performance of 7100 MB/s, it can definitely whip a minutes-long boot down to size. That's right up there for PCIe 4.0 speeds—reaching close to the maximum theoretical speed of the interface.

Once you've popped your OS of choice onto this drive, the 1 TB capacity would still leave some space left over for your most frequently played games (or, in my personal experience, way too many Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 screenshots). That said, Sandisk doesn't lead with the SN5100's gaming applications, instead touting that the aforementioned read speed as necessary to "accelerate your AI-enabled workflow."

However you feel about that proposed use case, I personally can't wait to get my hands on this SSD. And that's especially true after seeing Zak rave about the similarly affordable WD Black SN7100 1 TB 4.0 drive and the much, ahem, flashier WD Black SN8100 2 TB 5.0 SSD earlier this year.

The WD Blue SN5100 is cheaper than both of those options, while promising performance I'm looking forward to putting to the test in the future. Another question I'm looking forward to being answered is whether the WD Blue SN5100 NVMe SSD can dethrone any of the current top picks in our best SSD for gaming guide. The Biwin Black Opal NV7400 SSD is the reigning budget champion, offering 1 TB for $70 at Amazon. That's some stiff competition to beat, but the WD Blue may be a real contender especially come sales times.

For SSD enthusiasts, there are three letters to look out for, so they can avoid them at all costs: QLC. While this type of flash memory has been great for reducing the cost of large-capacity drives, it's not ideal for performance or longevity. However, a new type of QLC chip announced by SK Hynix is so much better than previous offerings that those three letters could well be exactly what you look for.

The press announcement from SK Hynix is predictably a bit light on details, but all of the important numbers are there, and they look genuinely good. The number of layers of NAND flash used in each chip is a heady 321. If you scan through our recommendations for the best gaming SSDs on the market right now, you'll see that most are around the 200-mark, and even the largest is 'only' 276.

What makes this noteworthy is that all these layers result in a single flash memory chip having a capacity of 2 Tb or 256 GB. That's double the size of QLC chips normally used in consumer PC SSDs, so you'd need half as many to get the same drive. End result? Cheaper SSDs.

SK Hynix's new chips also increase the number of planes per die by 50% (six, instead of four). NAND flash chips are hierarchical structures, with planes being relatively near the top of the chain, comprising hundreds of millions of flash memory cells. They work independently within the chip, so by having more of them, the new QLC chips can transfer more data per second, as well as read/write more frequently.

The additional planes and extra layers all add up to giving the chips a serious bump in performance. "Data transfer speed has doubled, write performance has improved by up to 56%, and read performance has improved by 18%," according to the press release.

These aspects have traditionally been QLC's Achilles heel. Quad-level cells (QLC) store 4 bits of data, which is why they've been instrumental in increasing SSD capacities, but the more levels you use in each cell, the lower the overall performance is (mostly because it just takes longer to process four separate signal levels compared to just one or two), and it increases the wear rate of the cells.

This is why SK Hynix has ramped up the number of layers and planes—the cells themselves aren't any faster in the new chips, but the overall structure now helps to mitigate QLC's failings.

SK Hynix has only just begun mass production of its new 321-layer QLC flash chips, which is why we won't see them being used in consumer products until next year. The good news is that PCs are first in line to receive them, so there's a good chance we'll either see big capacity SSDs fall in price or we'll see cheaper QLC SSDs running just as fast as the TLC ones that proliferate our best SSD guide.

MicroSD cards feel a bit behind the times, don't they? While I'll always be impressed by just how much storage can be squeezed into such a tiny footprint, they're rather slow, ponderous affairs to use in practice, particularly in regards to gaming devices. Enter Biwin, a giant in the space of memory and storage that has just announced a new type of teeny-tiny SSD that looks like it might show some promise.

Biwin refers to its new creation as a "Mini SSD", which seems appropriate, as it's significantly smaller than a good ol' British pound coin (via The Verge). At just 15 x 17 x 1.4 mm, it's the sort of thing you might accidentally inhale, which is remarkable given the storage and speed potential inside.

Biwin says the drive will be available in 512 GB to 2 TB capacities, and is capable of up to 3,700 MB/s read speeds and 3,400 MB/s writes. That might not sound particularly fast compared to a modern Gen 4 or Gen 5 SSD, but even the fastest V90-rated MicroSD cards top out around the 300 MB/s read mark, so the Mini SSD looks set to give them a complete pasting in the benchmarks.

Plus, Biwin says that its Mini SSDs are IP68-rated, which according to the classification means they're "dust tight", and capable of being immersed in one meter of water without incident. Throw in some internal shock-proofing that BiWin says means they can survive drops of up to three meters, and you've got a pretty tough customer.

The real sticking point here, however, is that being a new type of SSD of this size, devices will need a proprietary socket to use one. That means device manufacturers getting on board with support, which is no easy task given the status quo of MicroSD cards as things stand—although there do appear to be some green shoots in this regard.

The Strix Halo-powered, battery-backpacked GPD Win 5 is said to have a Mini SSD slot, as does the yet-to-be-released OneXPlayer SuperX laptop/tablet hybrid. That's a pretty small selection for now, and the adoption of this tech among consumers will likely rely on a plethora of devices supporting the new drive format.

These things take time, but it'll be interesting to see if more major manufacturers jump on the Mini SSD train. I'm prepared to bet it'll be a while before we see them in our mobile devices, if they take off at all. The tech industry is a fickle thing, and introducing a new type of drive into a crowded mobile device market is by no means an easy undertaking.

Still, Biwin is a huge manufacturer, so perhaps it has a better chance than most—and a start must be made somewhere. Speedy storage can be found in many forms these days, but for now it looks like Mini SSD tech might stand alone in its combination of ultra small size and decently fast speeds. I'd say I'd like to get my hands on one in my next handheld gaming PC, but knowing my luck, I'd probably sneeze it into the great beyond the second I pulled it from the box.

Remember the humble days of static images and unwaveringly still materials? How about when a heatsink was a heatsink and not a chance to throw more energy into your rig and more RGB out upon your desk? Those were the days. These days, however, we have screens on SSD coolers.

No, I'm not joking. The Thermalright HR-10 2280 Pro Digital (via Tom's Hardware) is an M.2 SSD cooler that has a screen on it to display info such as your SSD's current speed, temperature, or utilisation. It gets this info beamed to it via a USB header with the help of the Thermalright software.

This will be a connector that's required in addition to the 4-pin one for the fan. Yep, that's two connections for a component that traditionally requires none.

I've seen more than my fair share of screens on things that don't need screens this year—just ask Computex 2025—but this might be one step too far. Admittedly I'm saying this as someone who doesn't even have a windowed side-panel, so I'm a little biased, but come on, an SSD heatsink? I'm still not even sure I'm okay with SSDs requiring actively cooled heatsinks at all.

The HR-10 2280 Pro Digital, just like the more sensible HR-10 2280 Pro (sans screen) has a teeny little fan abreast its heat fins which means it sucks in air from, er, well, presumably your graphics card's backplate. Hey, SSDs have to take what they can get in the cooling department, I suppose.

The Digital version is a little taller than the *yawn* plain brushed metal version. But apart from this it's the same copper heat pipe deal.

The new Digital version doesn't seem to be retailing in the West, yet, but if you're fine foregoing all that vital inside-chassis LED data, you can pick up the regular version for under $20. It'll certainly help with those toasty PCIe 5.0 drives, although the tides seem to be changing in that department, now. There might be little market for such coolers before long.

Acer's not exactly a name that comes up often in the SSD sphere, is it? If I sat you down right now, brand-new shiny GM9000 PCIe 5.0 SSD in your hands, and asked you exactly who it was that held the lion's share of the storage market today, I suspect Acer probably wouldn't make the top 10 list now, would it? Nope. It's understandably more associated with mass-manufactured gaming laptops and off-the-shelf PCs than the custom storage periphery that permeates our PC building domain. But yeah, actually it does indeed have its own line of SSDs and, over the last few years, has sold a number of budget-oriented drives to the masses (that's us lot).

Here's the thing though, they're not technically Acer products. They're actually Biwin models, manufactured specifically for use by Acer's Predator brand, and that kind of makes sense.

When you think about the upfront investment required to construct some of the best SSDs out there, the cost is just mind-boggling. Even without the R&D and production of your own silicon and chips, taking advantage of aftermarket Phison controllers and Micron flash, the cost to put two and two together is impressively high. And again, that's for a market segment that doesn't actually have those same heady profit margins as other sectors do. It's an incredibly hard pill to swallow, a difficult segment of the industry to gain ground in, and an increasing challenge to even break even on that investment.

The GM9000, then, despite being at least partially related to the GM7000 as far as namesake is concerned, is effectively a carbon copy of Biwin's Black Opal X570 Pro SSD that I reviewed earlier this year. Albeit it does have tweaked firmware, slightly better endurance, lower temperatures, and a smidge of a better price. That's it, though. There are no major changes here besides that.

You still get that M.2-2280 single-sided design, it's still on the PCIe 5.0 interconnect, it still has that (I'm going to keep calling it legendary until someone tells me otherwise) legendary Silicon Motion SM2508 8-channel controller, and it's packed together with Micron's 232-layer TLC NAND flash, with a cushy 2GB of LPDDR4 DRAM cache on there as well. Sequentials are identical, with advertised speeds sat at 14 GB/s on the read and 13 GB/s on the write, respectively, and that's all she wrote, really.

Interestingly, Acer has announced a US price for this drive too. The 2 TB configuration I have here is apparently available at $215, although similarly to the Black Opal X570, I've yet to actually see it at any major retailers. It is, however, possible to pick one of these up in the UK for around £220, about £20 cheaper than the X570 Pro and £7 cheaper than Western Digital's widely available god-tier WD Black SN8100.

So, not too exciting then, but it does have slightly different firmware running on it, or at least as far as I can tell, as the performance figures are off more so than margin of error should allow for in pretty much every scenario.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Team Group T-Create Expert DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Model 5

Interestingly, the sequential scores in CrystalDiskMark actually beat out the Opal X570 Pro, quite comfortably in fact. With 14,278 MB/s on the read and 13,469 MB/s on the write, it gives us an aggregate speed increase of around 2.5% or so, which doesn't sound like much, but the write in particular is 400 MB/s faster. The speed of an old-school 2.5-inch SATA 3 SSD almost.

Random 4K performance, however, is another matter, with the drive struggling on both read and write overall, topping out at 86 MB/s on the read and 286 MB/s on the write here as well. Compare that to the X570, with its 91 MB/s and 304 MB/s, and again, there are clear differences between the two, despite Biwin being the primary manufacturer.

This odd old NAND and modern controller combo equally shares its similarities in game load time as well, with Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers topping out at a positively sluggish 8.025 seconds overall time. Although relatively still very quick, if you compare it to Western Digital's WD Black SN8100, with its far more potent Sandisk flash, there's an 18% difference in load times. Ouch.

It's not particularly cool either, with temperatures topping out at 72°C under load, making it one of the hotter drives I've tested too, second really only to larger 4 TB and 8 TB solutions (here's looking at you, WD Blue) or those early PCIe 5.0 offerings from Crucial and co. featuring the far less efficient Phison E26 controller. Basically, just don't stick it in a laptop or a console or anything without a heat sink, and you should be fine (it's not available for sale with one either).

Similarly to the X570 Pro, then, it's kind of average. Although it has those flashy, headline-grabbing big sequential numbers and some marketing clout with Silicon Motion's Legendary (don't @ me) controller, it fails to capitalize on those critical areas that really benefit PC gamers. Whether that's just average random 4K numbers, decent latency, or good load times, all of those results just indicate a drive that's a bit of a swing and a miss. The one edge it does have over its X570 Pro competitor is pricing and a better warranty technically, but the fact is availability is still limited, and until those pain points are otherwise addressed, it makes it a hard thing to recommend.

You can't convince me otherwise; SSDs are the only technological arena right now that doesn't feel stagnant. It's that one component that constantly bucks the trend in terms of continually advancing onwards and upwards. Yes, there are costly technologies leveraged every year, and flagship drives are ripping up the rulebook every two and a half seconds (just look at the WD SN8100 for the perfect example of that). But consistently, time and time again, pricing continues to plummet beyond inflation. And in my eyes that's far more important than anything else. This here drive, the Biwin Black Opal NV7400, is the epitome, the very image of that notion.

I'm going to come straight out with it. For a 2 TB drive, in the US, you're paying $120/£108 for this thing. One hundred and twenty bucks for 2,000 GB of pure PCIe 4.0 storage. That's six cents per gigabyte. By far the cheapest drive I've tested in the last year alone. The only ones that come even remotely close are the larger capacity boys, like WD's 8 TB SN850X or Crucial's own entry-level P310, but even then, they're still higher than this little number per gig. Best budget SSD? Well, hold on for just one moment while I divulge the good stuff, and then you can make your decision.

So, background info first: what the heck is this thing? Biwin, as you may or may not know, is a relatively new kid on the block, at least in terms of a Western audience. It originated in Shenzhen, China, and was founded in 2010 (although it does have a history stretching back to 1996 according to some reports). It has predominantly focused on flash storage solutions and a few other products, and well, that's about it.

Recently though, Biwin has debuted a slew of more consumer-oriented SSDs and memory. Two months back I reviewed its latest PCIe 5.0 solution, the X570 Pro, which packed Silicon Motion's now legendary SM2508 controller with Micron's ever-reliable 232-layer TLC NAND, delivering some intriguing results. The NV7400, however, is a far more cost-effective drive. One that, perhaps understandably, has had to round off a few corners to make the cut, because boy oh boy, is it cheap.

When it comes to the internal hardware, that's where things get a little tricky. For the controller, Biwin's using a Maxiotek MAP1602A Falcon Lite Gen4 (what a name). It's a DRAMless unit manufactured using TSMC's 12 nm process and is built off the back of Arm's 32-bit Cortex R5 architecture, featuring a quad-channel design at its core. Fair enough.

The NAND, though—well, that's where the confusion lies. The drive is available in two different NAND configurations. Either utilizing Micron's 232-layer TLC or YMTC's 232-layer TLC, instead. These are rebranded under Biwin's own naming scheme too, making it hard to identify.

Still, the headline specs are fairly juicy regardless. Sustained read and write speeds are advertised at 7,400 MB/s and 6,500 MB/s, respectively; it comes with a staggering 2,000 TBW endurance rating; and, of course, it is all packed into that single-sided design, making it widely compatible with practically everything that can house a PCIe 4.0 M.2-2280 SSD.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Team Group T-Create Expert DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Model 5

Now that drama's out of the way, let's talk numbers here. The good news is that sequentials are solid for a 4.0 drive. It doesn't perfectly nail those advertised scores, but Crystal Disk Mark reports respectable figures of just 7,370 MB/s on the read and 6,336 MB/s on the write. Not bad by any means.

What's less impressive, however, are those underwhelming random 4K results. The read is fine, 75 MB/s, pretty much par for the course for most modern drives at this level, but the write came in at just 229 MB/s on average (with the highest recorded result for this drive sitting at 231 MB/s). That's seriously low, 60-70 MB/s lower than most drives on the 4.0 and 5.0 standards. 3DMark similarly showed a fairly mediocre outing, with a score of just 2,757, likely down to a combination of fairly low bandwidth and a sluggish 65 ns on the access time. In-game, however, in our Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers benchmark, the Biwin managed to redeem itself, with a solid showing of 7.398 seconds overall.

Compared to my other favorite budget drive, the Crucial P310 (which admittedly features Micron's 232-layer QLC NAND), sequential results are fairly similar, yet it does beat the NV7400 in practically every other test, unfortunately, including those random 4Ks. At least all bar one, and that's the temperature.

Even with a slightly higher ambient, the NV7400 beat it to the punch, with a max temp recording of just 48 degrees Celsius. That's radically low. Combine that with that chonky endurance rating and its single-sided design, and if you're looking for a good practical SSD for something like a PS5, then it's a seriously tempting offer.

To be blunt, this drive isn't a standout in terms of pure raw grunt. It's not. There are far better SSDs out there right now, even budget ones. The vast number of Phison E31T drives, for example, can attest to that; the Crucial P510 certainly comes to mind, but you do of course have Corsair's MP700 Elite or Kioxia's Exceria Plus G4 as well. And of course, there are high-performers on the PCIe 4.0 wagon too, with WD's Black SN7100 punching well above its weight class. We're spoilt for choice.

Yet what they all fail to do, for drives aimed at this market, is really encapsulate that budget price point. That constantly tumbling NAND value. Whether that's for larger profit margins or what is hard to say, but the NV7400 just absolutely dominates on that front compared to the rest, and by no small amount. If you're looking for the best value, longest-lasting SSD right now and don't mind the average performance, then it has no equal. Yes, ok, it's not going to beat any records here; it isn't the best for that, but for many of us it'll be enough; we can ignore the slightly slower synthetic results and just purely enjoy the real-world speeds that Biwin has delivered here. At least, if you get the Micron one anyway.

It's been three and a half years since the specifications for PCIe 6.0 were finalised and practically a full year since the first product to use the ultra-fast interface was announced, but the very first Gen 6 SSD is now finally ready to buy. Unless you're a PC gamer, that is, because Micron's new 9650 NVMe SSD is for AI servers only.

Version 6 of PCI Express was rubberstamped back in January 2022, and given its ultra-fast data transfer rates, it was obvious from the beginning that it was never going to appear first in the consumer market. Utilising PAM4 signalling (previously used by Micron for its GDDR6X VRAM chips for some of Nvidia's RTX 30-series graphics cards), each PCIe 6.0 lane can transfer 64 Gbps, bidirectionally.

Consumer-grade SSDs use four PCIe lanes to transfer data back and forth (server-grade models can use more lanes, depending on the socket type used), so the theoretical limit for a Gen 6 M.2 SSD would be 32,000 MB/s. To put that into perspective, the best PCIe 5.0 gaming SSD you can buy right now tops out at 14,900 MB/s.

Micron announced its new PCIe 6.0 SSD last August, and it's a little odd that the company has taken almost an entire year to actually get the drive to market. But no matter, the 9650 NVMe is here at last and boasts all kinds of ridiculous numbers to make you go 'ooh' and 'aah' and 'I want one'.

First up, the capacities on offer. The smallest is a mere 6.4 TB in size, but since that's only enough to store around 50 copies of Baldur's Gate 3, Micron's new drive goes all the way up to 30.72 TB in capacity. It actually offers two variants of the 9650, a Pro model that's "read-intensive, one drive write per day", and a Max version for "mixed-use, three drive writes per day".

Both sport peak sequential data reads of up to 28,000 MB/s (roughly 13% under the PCIe 6.0 limit) and sequential writes of 14,000 MB/s. The 9650 Pro and Max drives differ when it comes to random read/writes, though—the former peaks at 5,500 and 570 kIOPS respectively, whereas the latter's figures are 5,500 and 900 kIOPs.

A SanDisk WD_Black SN8100 has peak random read/writes of 2,300 and 2,400 kIOPs, but a gaming SSD will undergo far more random accesses than any AI server SSD will.

But no consumer SSD can touch the Micron 9650 for endurance—how does up to 282,600 TBW sound? The SN8100 is 2,400 TBW at best, if you need something to compare it to. Even the worst-case scenario for the 9650 is still over 14,000 TBW. Of course, server-grade SSDs need to be incredibly durable, especially those involved with AI workloads, where incredible quantities of data get written and read every day.

Now, while PCIe 6.0 is backwards compatible with PCIe 5.0, you won't be able to jam a Micron 9650 into your gaming PC, even if you could afford one. That's because these drives don't use the M.2 socket and instead use an E1.S or E3.S format.

Given that we're only two generations into the PCIe 5.0 era, we won't be seeing anything like the 9650 in a standard PC anytime soon. AMD and Intel won't support PCIe 6.0 in their next round of chips, but there's a small chance that they might for the generation after. However, given the slow uptake of the Gen 5 interface by SSD and graphics card manufacturers, I suspect it will take even longer for Gen 6 to trickle down to the consumer market.

In the meantime, all we can do is look at the likes of the Micron 9650 and make vroom, vroom noises. Yes, I know SSDs don't make a sound, but how else is one supposed to show admiration for the ludicrous speeds? Slap it and say, "This beast can read a full Baldur's Gate 3 in less than six seconds"? Pfff, meaningless. Just go vroom.

AI has changed the face of computing hardware so much since it started gaining popularity. With its stranglehold on just about every conversation around tech its clearly the current driving force. Now, more and more, manufacturers are looking to find ways to optimise better for AI, be it something like Nvidia's DLSS4 optimised series of graphics cards or Micron's new lineup of SSDs designed to work best with data centre AI.

The new lineup from Micron is the first to use the brand's newest G9 NAND node in order to optimise these drives for AI data centre usage. It consists of the 9650 SSD, the 6600 ION SSD, and the 7600 SSD all designed to tackle different problems AI computing can come up against.

None of these are particularly interesting for us regular PC gamers, but the move in technology is cool, especially when you consider that all of these are boasting marked power usage improvements over older models.

The 9650 SSD is a PCIe 6th gen drive that boasts 28 GB/s sequential read and 14 GB/s write speeds. I like to sit here and imagine transfering data at those speeds and it makes me a little giddy. These are said to be the fastest of its kind, and should help speed up large enterprise tasks like AI training and accessing large language models. It's also said to be much more energy efficient than its predecessor, so hopefully we can cut down on some of the environmental costs of AI.

Next on the list is the Micron 6600 ION SSD, a massively scalable storage solution. These can come in up to 245TBs in a single drive, and the 122TB version is only about the size of a deck of playing cards. These are AI infrastructure SSDs designed for sifting through and storing large data sets and building huge data lakes to wade out into.

Lastly, the 7600 SSD is another PCIe based drive but this time only a Gen5. These are striking a mix between affordability and more a stoic mix of performance, low latency, and predictable reliability. Again we are seeing a strong focus on performance per power over previous offerings while still pushing the speed to get through modern AI workloads.

Again, these data centre style solutions are very unlikely to ever be things that suit your gaming needs, but it's an interesting direction to witness. AI powered tech is literally being fought over by countries with sanctions being levied against China from the U.S.

Meanwhile, the newest gaming PCs are starting to use AI tech more and more to deliver better framerates than ever before, or to tell us we aren't playing games when we are. It won't be long before gamers are being sold our own AI optimised SSDs, though hopefully they'll be a little more affordable than these data centre forefathers.

There are many things that have kept me from joining the crypto hive-mind up until now: mild scepticism, lack of knowledge, confusion, laziness. I never pegged SSD longevity as being on that list, though. Until now, that is, because one popular crypto wallet extension is apparently writing an inordinate amount of data to and from some users' SSDs.

According to CoinTelegraph, which received comment from Consensys, the company that developed the MetaMask crypto extension, some users have experienced "unusually high disk activity" when using the app:

"While browser extension wallets do regularly write state to disk, which is expected behavior, we’ve taken note of a recent observation shared by a small number of MetaMask users who reported unusually high disk activity."

A fix is apparently in the works and is "being released imminently."

A user report gives an idea of just what "unusually high" might mean. They explain that "after a fresh install of a Chromium-based browser (Opera, Chrome, Edge) and installing MetaMask", there was a continuous 5 MB/s of data writing occurring on the SSD.

"That's about 500 GB per day!"

Apart from presumably slowing down other reads and writes from the disk while these transfers are happening, the main issue with this is drive longevity. Flash cells in SSDs have a pretty limited number of times they can be written to or read from before they go kaput. That's why when an SSD is wiped this doesn't reset all data cells but essentially tells the drive controller to act as if there's nothing in them and can read and write over them at will.

For reference, my Lexar NM790 2 TB SSD has write endurance of 1,500 TBW. It would take about 3,000 days, or just over eight years, for the malfunctioning app to exhaust the drive's endurance at 500 GB per day. But that's just using the app alone, not including other reads and writes (plus TBW is more of an endurance estimate than an accurate measurement).

Writing upwards of 175 TB of data over the course of a year is certainly not nothing, and that's what this app seems to be doing with some users' drives.

I suppose this is just another aspect of entering the world of crypto to take into consideration. And it's a world I'm sure many more people will be looking to step into given Trump's new GENIUS Act that aims to formalise some stablecoin regulations (these are coins that have a stable value because they're pegged against the dollar or other assets). Crypto-linked stocks are seemingly already on the rise.

If you are considering dipping your toes in, just do your due diligence not only with which coin you pick, but also which platforms and apps you use.

Ultra-fast PCIe 5.0 SSDs have been around for a while, but they've not been popular with PC gamers because of their high price, limited benefit in games, and hot running temperatures. The best PCIe 5.0 drives, though, are from a new generation of SSDs and have been significantly improved and finally offer enough to the gamer who must have the very best performance for us to recommend them.

The best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming you can buy right now is SanDisk's WD Black SN8100. It's outrageously fast, and thanks to its controller chip and DRAM, it can easily sustain those speeds. If you're looking for something more affordable, then the Crucial P510 is our top recommendation for the best budget PCIe 5.0 SSD. You sacrifice a little bit of performance but gain a lot in your wallet.

Unless you don't mind paying well over the odds for one, you're still going to be looking at a PCIe 5.0 SSD with 1 or 2 TB of capacity. Smaller versions don't really exist, but they're not worth considering anyway, given how big games are today.

The quick list

The best PCIe 5 gaming SSD

The best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming is the WD Black SN8100, and it stands so far ahead of the competition that it will take something very special to topple it. The SN8100 has the perfect blend of blistering speed, consistent performance, and excellent thermals; even the price tag is competitive for the lower capacity models.

SanDisk has employed its own flash controller in the SN8100, but it's been pretty tight-lipped about the specifications. What we do know is that it has eight channels and is designed to use DDR4 RAM to boost sustained performance. The company has also gone with its own memory chips, rather than using another supplier, though the 218-layer TLC flash chips are more than up to the job.

In terms of compatibility, the SN8100 is single-sided (i.e. all the chips are on the same side of the PCB), which means it will fit into any M.2 2280 slot on a motherboard. That also helps with keeping the drive cool, and for a PCIe 5.0 SSD, it's pretty decent in that respect, though inevitably not as cool as a Gen 4 drive.

Our temperature tests are ruthlessly hard on SSDs, and most gaming scenarios won't push them anywhere near as much, but what the latter will ask a lot of is random 4K read/write performance. Fortunately, the WD Black SN8100 is very good in this respect—so much so, that it leaves every other Gen 5 SSD we've tested in the dust.

The only downside to the SN8100 is the price tag of the 4 TB model. While PCIe 5.0 SSDs are more expensive than PCIe 4.0 ones, the lower capacity variants of this WD Black drive are competitively priced compared to similar SSDs. However, the 4 TB variant is well over $400.

If you do want the fastest possible SSD in your gaming PC, to shave off as much time as possible in loading and saving, then the WD Black SN8100 should be at the top of your shopping list.

Read our full WD Black SN8100 2 TB review.

The best budget PCIe 5 SSD

PCIe 5.0 SSDs are currently more expensive than PCIe 4.0 drives, but that doesn't mean you need to spend a small fortune just to get better-than-Gen 4 performance. Case in point: the Crucial P510 and it's not hard to see why we recommend it as the best budget PCIe 5.0 SSD.

Not that you'd think it was a budget drive when you look at its specifications. Handling all of the data flows and instructions is a Phison E31T controller, a relatively new model that's more power efficient and cooler-running than previous chips. That's paired with Micron 276-layer TLC flash memory chips, though there's no DRAM cache to keep costs down.

Taken altogether, you've got an SSD that's very fast in burst read/writes, average (but not bad) in random read/writes, easy to keep cool, and doesn't cost a small fortune. The P510 is a genuinely very good, all-round SSD that just so happens to be a fair bit speedier than your average drive.

The only thing one can really complain about is the fact that Crucial only makes two capacities: 1 and 2 TB. If it offered a 4 TB variant, the P510 would be an instant choice for anyone with a huge games library.

Read our full Crucial P510 1 TB review.

The best cooled PCIe 5 SSD

While the very latest crop of PCIe 5.0 SSDs do run a lot cooler than the first generation of models, they're still hotter than an average PCIe 4.0 drive, and there are plenty of motherboards with support for Gen 5 M.2 SSDs that can't cope with the extra heat. For those cases, you want a Corsair MP700 Elite, the best cooled PCIe 5.0 SSD we've tested so far.

It's so good, in fact, that you'll wish every chip in your gaming PC were as well-cooled as the MP700 Elite. Corsair has fitted a dense and hefty heatsink to its SSD, but our Zack removed it and used the one in his test bench motherboard to have comparable results across every different SSD. The result? A figure of 55 °C in our temperature test—eight degrees cooler than a WD Black SN850X and a remarkable 32 degrees cooler than a Crucial T700.

The outstanding thermal performance is down to Corsair's design and the use of the energy-efficient Phison E31T controller and Kioxia 218-Layer TLC flash memory chips.

All that would be for nought if it weren't very fast, but the MP700 Elite is pretty decent in that respect. Its sequential burst and random 4K speeds are similar to those of the Crucial P510 above, so while it's not a rocketship like the WD Black SN8100, it's plenty fast enough for gaming.

Something else it shares with the P510 is the lack of a 4 TB option. Motherboards that do have Gen 5 M.2 slots typically only have the one, though some of the latest models sport two. That makes buying two 2 TB PCIe 5.0 drives a tricky proposition, so hopefully, Corsair will address this in the near future.

Read our full Corsair MP700 Elite 2 TB review.

Also tested

How we test SSDs

We put every SSD we get in the PC Gamer labs through their paces in various benchmarks made up of a mix of synthetic tests and real-world applications. To ascertain a drive's sequential throughput, we use ATTO SSD Benchmark for compressible data (a best-case scenario) and AS SSD for incompressible data (more realistic). We also test random throughput with AS SSD and a combination of CrystalDiskMark 7.0 and Anvil Pro.

When it comes to the real-world tests, we time how long it takes to copy a 30 GB game install across the drive and use PCMark10 and Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, which includes a level load test.

We also check operating temperatures to ensure that the drive isn't getting too hot and throttling. That's becoming more of an issue with faster and faster drives. The first generation of PCIe 5.0 drives require a lot more cooling than PCIe 4.0 SSDs, but previous generations, but the latest models recommended in this guide have solved that problem entirely.

Where to buy the best SSDs

SSD FAQ

I messed up, dear reader. Just the other month I was searching for a cost-effective way to safely store old pictures, gaming videos, and other nostalgic junk I can peruse in distant years and get misty-eyed over. I opted for a Kingston IronKey in the end, being a security conscious boy, and wanting something I could easily store or carry around. How I wish I'd waited for this Seagate Ultra Compact Prime Day SSD deal instead.

Weighing in at 24 grams (with dimensions of 70 x 20 x 12.5 mm), yet offering a hefty 1TB storage, I'm not sure I can imagine a more convenient way to store and carry a whole heap of memory-heavy stuff. And the best news? At its current price point of $79.99 at Amazon, it's the cheapest we've ever seen this particular SSD—definitely one of the best Prime Day SSDs if you're on the lookout for portable storage.

👉Shop ALL the Prime Day deals on Amazon👈

In our Seagate Ultra Compact review, Ian called the model an "easy recommendation" as "an amiable companion to a portable PC, and something that you can sling in a bag without having to check that you’ve got all the bits."

As an SSD small enough to hang on a keyring (not that I'd recommend that considering how I treat my keys), or store snugly just about anywhere, you'd be pressed to find a cheap Prime Day SSD that fulfils the role quite so well. With 1,000 MB/s transfer speed (which Ian also verified thoroughly in the review), it's no slouch when it comes to performance either.

For my part, I just think it's a real nifty little product—a whole lot of storage in a tiny package, and considering its wide compatibility, one of those handy gadgets that it's great to have around if you're a degenerate multi-platform gamer like myself. Alas, my storage needs are already catered for... but perhaps next year, huh?

👉 All of Amazon's external SSD deals are right here 👈

The word ‘pretty’ isn’t one that comes up too often in PC Gamer. The games themselves are often full of monsters designed to be as unappealing as possible, while the lumpen protagonists are seldom any better. Games like Infinity Nikki and the cosy games movement are making inroads into prettiness, but that’s never going to stop the industrial design of motherboards and GPU cards from allowing form to follow function.

And while internal components may be utilitarian, peripherals are often worse. When was the last time you saw an attractive printer? External drives tend to be nothing more than black rectangles—though recently we’ve seen them in red and silver too—so it’s actually something of a thrill to open a package that contains a drive shaped like a little pillow, perfect for resting your head on if you’re about 12-inch tall, and which is such a pretty shade of blue that, combined with its speed, it feels as if Sonic the Hedgehog has been frozen in carbonite.

The LaCie Rugged Pro 5 SSD looks like it needs to be inflated with a little pump before you go on holiday, perhaps for use in the pool or some sort of dreadful campsite where a man with a guitar sings by a fire.

Luckily, the only in-tents thing about this drive (geddit?) is the speed at which it can transfer data. The Pro 5 comes with a Thunderbolt 5 interface, one better than the sockets on even the best motherboards and laptops we’ve seen recently outside of an Apple showroom. The latest version of the tech offers up to 120 Gbps of bandwidth in one direction, or 80 Gbps bi-directionally, twice the speed of Thunderbolt 4. It still uses the USB Type-C connectors that have been confusing people since Thunderbolt 3, even though they’re meant to make things easier.

Speaking of Thunderbolt 3, this drive doesn’t support it—you’ll need TB4, USB4 (you can try a slower USB port, but it must provide 15 W of power, which will be a stretch as USB 3.1 offers just 4.5 W), or TB5. It’s so complicated that LaCie has a whole web page up to step you through its needs. You’ll need Windows 11 23H2 or higher too, or a Mac running Sequoia if that’s more your thing.

Obviously, the best speeds will come from connecting it to a TB5 port, and it’s because of the relative scarcity of Thunderbolt 5 kit that this drive has been sitting on my shelf for over a month, waiting for a suitable computer to come along to test it with. If you’re going to test the fastest drive, you’re going to want to put it in the fastest port, just as you wouldn’t put a Crucial T705 in a PCIe 3.0 slot.

Inside the LaCie Rugged Pro 5’s box is precisely one accessory—a very short cable. It’s probably meant for Mac users who keep their computer on their desk, or to dangle from an iMac, but if your tastes run more to towers then it’s just not going to be long enough to reach around the back. Luckily, you can pick up a 1m Thunderbolt 5 cable from Amazon for the low price of £37, or £70 if you buy it from Apple. The 4 TB version of the LaCie drive is $550, so what’s a little more on top?