The storage market is in flux: PCIe 4.0 prices are climbing, PCIe 5.0 and USB4 are getting cheaper, and Crucial is gone. Here are the best picks for speed, capacity, and value.
The Best SSDs and Storage - Late 2025 Update
- Thread starter Amir Shoam
- Start date
As the owner of 8 different drives my conclusion is that there's no difference between gen 3, 4 and 5. The largest upgrade will be going from SATA to NVME.
For the average user & gamer, absolutely. For video editing large 4k files, the Gen3/4/5 would make a difference if transferring large drives often.
PCIe 3/4/5's importance is overstated.
A good drive on slower PCIe is going to be better for most people than a cheap drive on a faster PCIe.
Get 3 cell vs 4 cell and dram vs dramless first, then only worry about PCI speeds if you want to brag about having the best (or do things like massive video editing).
I'm still buying WD SN850X drives for my newly built workhorse PC because PCI 5's benefit is so marginal.
A good drive on slower PCIe is going to be better for most people than a cheap drive on a faster PCIe.
Get 3 cell vs 4 cell and dram vs dramless first, then only worry about PCI speeds if you want to brag about having the best (or do things like massive video editing).
I'm still buying WD SN850X drives for my newly built workhorse PC because PCI 5's benefit is so marginal.
Megalomaniac
Posts: 1,134 +1,209
I'm focused on capacity-for-less.
My new desktop came with a 4TB M.2 SSD built in and I immediately went out to buy a 4TB BX500 for games. The store salesmen in Microcenter trip over themselves to try and convicne you that m.2 is so much faster than Sata - and it very well is - but the difference is negligible during multiplayer games ( Battlefield 6 ) and most other games like Cyberpunk or DCS that I play.
Without a benchmarking tool or an equally expensive machine right next to your main rig to do side-by side comparison,s you'd NEVER know the difference.
I intend on buying more 4TB SSD in the future - unless an 8TB becomes available.
I'm a storage junkie.
My new desktop came with a 4TB M.2 SSD built in and I immediately went out to buy a 4TB BX500 for games. The store salesmen in Microcenter trip over themselves to try and convicne you that m.2 is so much faster than Sata - and it very well is - but the difference is negligible during multiplayer games ( Battlefield 6 ) and most other games like Cyberpunk or DCS that I play.
Without a benchmarking tool or an equally expensive machine right next to your main rig to do side-by side comparison,s you'd NEVER know the difference.
I intend on buying more 4TB SSD in the future - unless an 8TB becomes available.
I'm a storage junkie.
QLC is awful and should be avoided as they're no cheaper than TLC but are far, far slower.
There is no perceptibe difference between DRAM and HBM drives as technology has come a long way and drives are far faster than when DRAM was a necessity. DRAM drives peform better in synthetic benchmarks but the average user will see no difference in performance between the two. Look at the post below to see my list of drives.
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I have a BX500 and it's very fast booting Mint but it's still slower than the no name rubbish 256 NVME that was in the server. I replaced the BX500 with a 1TB SN580 as boot drive, with the BX500 serving as backup and cloud drive.
I understand your affliction perfectly. I have 11 drives in the server (mix of 3 and 14TB) including the 1TB SN580, 2 in the mini PC (2TB SN580, 1TB SN770) and 5 in my gaming PC (2&4TB KC300, 4, 10 & 12TB). If the laptop wasn't malfunctioning due to age I would also put a 1 or 2TB drive in it but it crashes and can't be used for heavy workloads so it only has a 500GB SN730 and finally the router, running OpenWRT, has a 128GB Samsung 840 (original not the second generation EVO) and a 4TB download drive.
I regret not getting more 14TB's when they were still cheap a few months ago.
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Megalomaniac
Posts: 1,134 +1,209
I have 2 free M.2 SSD slots and 3 free Sata bays. For my games, I'll stick to the sata SSD till prices drop. For my backup, I'll stick to HDD.
I seriously thought 10TB would be cheaper by now.
I can settle for a string of 4TB SSD for $200.
My preference for DRAM drives is that it doesn't slow down when the drive gets full.
It this no longer be an issue?
I haven't found SATA SSDs to be that much cheaper than NVMEs (even though I expected them to get much cheaper). Maybe that's because I only really look at top SSD brands (Samsung, WD, etc)?
I also have a mess of drives many 3-10TB HDDs and many 1-4TB Sata/PCIe3/4 SSDs.
I grabbed another 4TB WD SN850X when they started creeping up at $329. Worse than the one I bought last black Friday for $259, but better than today at $439!!!
I wished I'd grabbed another HDD at the same time. I got a WD 14 TB for $169 on black Friday but it's still saying it's on backorder so I'm not sure if it will ever arrive.
All the new stuff is unaffordable now. The SN850x jumped another $50 on Amazon today. The WD red NAS drives I was looking at went from $319 to $500 in a week.
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