Solid state storage prices have been coming down as of late, but they are still usually considerably more expensive than their hard drive counterparts. For example, you can snag a 1TB, 7200RPM Western Digital Blue HDD for around $50, whereas you'd be paying upwards of $150 for a basic 1TB SSD equivalent.

While the price disparity between HDDs and SSDs probably won't be fully eliminated anytime soon, Western Digital is making the entry point for high-performance SSDs significantly more appealing with the announcement of their new Blue SN500 storage device.

Priced at $54.99 for a 250GB version, or $77.99 for a 500GB version, the NVMe-based SN500 costs about the same as Samsung's 500GB 860 Evo - the key difference is that the latter device uses much slower SATA technology.

As a result, the SN500 offers read and write speeds that are up to three times as fast as the 860 Evo, meaning it could bring significantly more value to the table; in theory, anyway - we've yet to test the SN500 for ourselves.

At any rate, if you haven't jumped on board the SSD bandwagon yet, now might be the time to think about doing so. Though Western Digital's new SN500 drives don't seem to be available just yet, their Amazon listing suggests they will ship within "1 to 3 months."