Flash-based thumb drives have come a long way, but while a 16GB stick can be purchased with spare change, those who need to move large volumes of data on without spending an arm and a leg have traditionally had to rely on comparatively sluggish USB 3.0 hard drives. Thanks to Samsung, we may finally have an external SSD that delivers blisteringly fast transfers at an affordable price in the form of its new T1 Portable SSD.

Helping to build anticipation for the SSD 850 Evo was the 850 Pro, remaining to this day the fastest 2.5" SSD money can buy. The good news is the 850 Evo shares many of the same technologies found in the more expensive Pro, however by using TLC V-NAND the 850 Evo is much more cost effective.

Released in early June, SanDisk's Extreme Pro is the successor to the venerable Extreme II, which was among the best SSDs of its generation in terms of performance and reliability. The drive is aimed at gamers, enthusiasts and professionals who demand the highest real-world performance, and will trade blows with Samsung's excellent SSD 850 Pro.

With Crucial's MX100 series recently arriving for as low as $0.42 per GB, becoming the new value king, the competition has been forced to respond. The OCZ Arc 100 SSD Series utilizes the tried and true Barefoot 3 M10 controller along with the latest 19nm Toshiba MLC flash memory and is priced at $0.50 per gig for its 480GB and 240GB models.

The 840 Pro was one of the most successful high-end SSD series over the past few years, and now it's time for an update. Samsung's 850 Pro SSD is powered by the company's cutting-edge in-house 32 layer 3D V-NAND technology, which is said to deliver up to twice the density and write speed of traditional 20nm planar NAND flash.

Crucial has become a trusted name when it comes to high-performance solid-state drives, and now they're taking another crack at producing a cost effective SSD with the MX100 series. Things look very promising thanks to an upgrade to the same Marvell chip used by the high-end M550 series.

Synology and QNAP have become recognized brands in the world of network-attached storage, with products ranging from $150 to $3,000. While that cash buys a purpose-built box which installs fast, runs quiet, and sips power, the inner DIYer in us is itching to build a NAS. Silverstone's latest chassis allows just that. The DS380 is designed for more flexible, DIY NAS servers that can house up to eight hot-swappable drives and either a DTX or Mini-ITX board.