Micro Center is handing out free SSDs, here's how to claim yours

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: Micro Center is running a promotion that's almost too good to be true. For a limited time, new customers can score a free 256GB solid-state drive with no strings attached. Here's everything you need to know to claim the deal plus a bonus offer from GameStop.

New customers will need to sign up to receive text messages from Micro Center's marketing team, although you can opt out at any time. Within 3-5 minutes, you should receive a one-time use serialized coupon that can be redeemed for either an Inland Professional 256GB 2.5-inch SATA SSD or an Inland Platinum 256GB 2.5-inch drive. The Pro model carries a retail price of $19.99 while the Platinum variant normally sells for $45.99.

The coupon can only be redeemed at physical Micro Center stores, but the good news is that all locations are participating in the promotion. You can check Micro Center's website for up-to-date stock information to see what's available in your area. Simply bring in a physical or digital copy of your coupon to get the drive.

The offer is good until the expiration date on the coupon or while supplies last, and no additional purchase is necessary. There is a limit of one coupon per customer.

256GB isn't a ton of storage space these days and SATA is no longer the fastest interface around, but free is free. The drive could make an excellent addition to a budget build or a secondary PC. Optionally, you could use it as part of an enhanced backup strategy or toss it into a 2.5-inch enclosure and make a portable USB drive out of it.

In related deal news, GameStop is currently running a buy one, get one free (BOGO) sale on select console games. A quick check reveals around 40 participating titles including The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, Bayonetta 3, Forspoken, The Callisto Protocol: Day One Edition, Elden Ring and Madden NFL 23, among others. Discounts are automatically applied during checkout.

Image credit: USB drive by Martin May, GameStop by Will Buckner

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98357-micro-center-handing-out-free-ssds-here-how.html

 

[nnguy2]

You can fit maybe 1.5 AAA games on 256GB ssd these days

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Bleh, for new customers only.

I'd spend more time and money at my local Micro Center if I lived a little closer. The 20 minute drive isn't difficulty, 3 major highways and I'm there, I just hate driving in all the traffic.

 

[yRaz]

You can fit maybe 1.5 AAA games on 256GB ssd these days

Perfect for a boot drive. I like to keep my games and OS on different physical drives. I can think of a few scenarios where this would be useful. Most of the boot drives in the PCs in my house are in the 200-500gb range. Use this as a boot drive and get a 2TB m.2 SSD for games

 

[hazphan]

I switched almost entirely to NVMe drives for my main builds, but I love to use my old 128/256/500GB SATA SSDs for boot drive in a budget TrueNAS, proxmox, etc. Then pickup some bigger 4+ turtle byte spinners for data.

 

[Julnor]

I have a 500GB and 1TB of these. I had a previous 500GB that died on me and I just went there to swap. I think the 1TB might have some issues though too. The replacement 500GB worked well though.

My next build will be all NVME drives, I'd just grab one of the Microcenter 2TB ones for storage. Currently I only use SATA3 SSDs for storage and on an older build, and otherwise use NVME PCIE. There isn't that much of a difference though in gaming, if there is one. In fact one of my SATA3 SSDs has the lowest response time/latency out of any of my drives. I forgot which one. We're also talking something like a tenth of an ns difference so I doubt it's perceptible.

 

[ZackL04]

I have a 500GB and 1TB of these. I had a previous 500GB that died on me and I just went there to swap. I think the 1TB might have some issues though too. The replacement 500GB worked well though.

My next build will be all NVME drives, I'd just grab one of the Microcenter 2TB ones for storage. Currently I only use SATA3 SSDs for storage and on an older build, and otherwise use NVME PCIE. There isn't that much of a difference though in gaming, if there is one. In fact one of my SATA3 SSDs has the lowest response time/latency out of any of my drives. I forgot which one. We're also talking something like a tenth of an ns difference so I doubt it's perceptible.

Replaced one drive and seeing issues on a second. Maybe try a more reputable brand?

Ive had good luck with affordable SSD’s drives from PNY, Crucial and Kingston (NVME)

Spend a little more vs Inland and get peace if mind, or at the least less trips to microcenter for replacements

 

[Lexxy]

SCAM. I only received the "Thanks for Subscribing" message, and still no code after 60 minutes. I'm a new customer. The SSDs sounds kinda nice though.

 

[Hodor]

You can fit maybe 1.5 AAA games on 256GB ssd these days

Yeah, but it's much faster than a USB drive. So it's good to backup your documents and a (narrow) selection of most precious photos.

 

[ChipBoundary]

Yeah, but it's much faster than a USB drive. So it's good to backup your documents and a (narrow) selection of most precious photos.

Huh? This drive does 500 MB\s.... it's a DRAMless drive, meaning it's essentially no faster than HDD. My USB 3.1 drive, though? It can do GB\s, which is exponentially faster.

 

[Hodor]

Huh? This drive does 500 MB\s.... it's a DRAMless drive, meaning it's essentially no faster than HDD. My USB 3.1 drive, though? It can do GB\s, which is exponentially faster.

Yeah, but USB sticks can't. Their interface is a lot faster than their flash memory. Try copying something to an average USB stick (not HDD, not SSD, but memory stick). It takes ages to fill a 128 GB stick with data.