In late 2024, the best-performing SSDs for PCs all use the PCI-Express interface, with Gen5 being the latest and fastest version.
However, most users are still on a PCI-Express (PCIe) Gen4 platform – and even SATA SSDs remain important for many use cases.
Sorted by form factor and interface, some of the best SSDs right now include:
- 2.5″ SATA: OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G (Phison S12)
- M.2 PCIe 4.0: Samsung 990 PRO
- M.2 PCIe 5.0: Crucial T705
Keep reading for a more comprehensive walkthrough of these and other SSDs, along with other factors to remember when upgrading your storage.
The Fastest Gen4, Gen5, and SATA SSDs in 2024
After following this space closely for more than a decade (and having built PCs since the 90s), I would claim that SSDs replacing hard drives was one of the most fundamental improvements to the user experience ever. Swapping an older SSD with a more recent model is not as transformative, but you can still find modest performance gains even with legacy interfaces.
Some of the drives I would consider class leaders in their respective form factors today include:
Last update on 2024-11-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
These drives do not necessarily represent the best value but are still some of the speediest storage devices you can use when building a PC in 2024.
The high-end 2.5″ SATA market has been stagnant for many years now. In some ways it has gone backward, as most drives now tend to use entry-level controllers and NAND. One exception was Seagate’s now-discontinued FireCuda 120, which eked out some performance gains thanks to the Phison S12 controller.
The good news is that OWC still offers something very similar in the form of its latest version of the Mercury Extreme Pro 6G. This drive is powered by the same S12 controller. It also brings an excellent endurance rating to the table, making it a solid option for an older system or NAS.
Moving to the PCI-, Samsung’s 990 PRO is still the fastest SSD overall. It holds a slight lead over competitors like the WD Black SN850X and Kingston Fury Renegade.
In terms of sequential performance, however, nothing can compete with the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSDs. Most Gen5 drives in 2024 use the same Phison E26 controller but not necessarily the same NAND memory chips. The Crucial T705, launched in 2024, is one of a mere handful that uses the latest-gen NAND and reaches sequential transfer rates of up to 14,500 MB/s. Its rivals are presently the Sabrent Rocket 5, MSI Spatium M580, and Corsair MP700 Pro SE.
Users with Gen5 M.2 slots are still a minority, as the interface is only supported starting with the latest AMD Ryzen 7000-series platform and onwards, or Intel’s 13th-gen Core series with specific Z790 motherboards.
Fastest 2.5-Inch SATA SSDs
Moving on to a more complete list of SSDs, we will start with the best 2.5″ SATA drives. Needless to say, these SSDs are severely bandwidth-restricted compared to PCI-express/NVMe drives, but still have plenty of use cases – not least thanks to a lower cost per GB. They are still great for NAS devices and countless older PCs.
These rankings are based on an average of read/write performance. Random performance is weighted highest, as it’s typically associated with the best real-world performance. PCIe/NVMe drives, on the other hand, are primarily ranked based on 3DMark Storage Benchmark bandwidth. For a more complete story, check out the reviews linked to in the descriptions.
1. OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G (Phison S12 Version)
Available Capacities: 240GB – 4TB
Interface: SATA 6 Gbps
Max. Sequential Performance: 559 MB/s read, 527 MB/s write
Max. Random Performance: 100K IOPS read, 90K IOPS write
Endurance Rating (2TB): 1,500 TBW
This is not the first SSD that OWC sells under the name Mercury Extreme Pro 6G. An earlier revision used the SandForce SF-2200 controller, but it is now equipped with TLC NAND from Micron and the same Phison S12 controller as the Seagate FireCuda (and IronWolf) 120.
In other words, it is one of the fastest 2.5″ SSDs in the (admittedly very small) high-end SATA space. Although it doesn’t match Seagate’s rather extreme endurance rating, the Mercury Extreme Pro 6G comes with 7% NAND over-provisioning, resulting in above-average endurance.
There isn’t an abundance of reviews of this drive (or SATA drives in general), but TweakTown has tested it and reviews of the FireCuda 120 (such as this one) should also be indicative.
Check prices (2TB): Amazon, Newegg
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2. Samsung 870 EVO
Available Capacities: 250GB – 4TB
Interface: SATA 6 Gbps
560 MB/s read (1TB)
530 MB/s write (1TB)
Endurance Rating (1TB): 600 TBW
Another notable exception to the high-end SATA market hibernation is the Samsung 870 EVO, launched in early 2021. This SSD is a continuation of Samsung’s long-running and extremely popular EVO series.
Considering the bandwidth cap imposed by the SATA interface, major performance gains are no longer possible. Nevertheless, thanks to Samsung’s refined MKX controller and new high-density 128-layer 3D TLC NAND, the 870 EVO offers slight improvements over its class-leading predecessors. In most benchmarks, it is comparable to the Seagate FireCuda 120 (and by extension the above-mentioned OWC drive).
Along with the Phison S12-based SSDs, the Samsung 870 EVO may be one of the last high-end SATA SSD releases from big-name brands that we will ever see in the consumer market.
Check prices: Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Reviews: LegitReviews
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3. Samsung 860 PRO
Available Capacities: 256GB – 4TB
560 MB/s read
550 MB/s write
Endurance Rating (1TB): 1,200 TBW
Samsung became a market leader in the SSD space early on, starting with the almost legendary 840 Pro. In 2023, the Samsung 860 PRO is still one of the best and quite possibly one of the most reliable drives on the market.
If previous Samsungs are an indication, the 300 TBW (terabytes/total bytes written) rating for the 256 GB model up to 4,800 TBW for the 4 TB model (all use durable MLC NAND), are conservative estimates. This, coupled with a 5-year warranty and great overall performance, makes the 860 Pro look very attractive overall. Unfortunately, its MLC memory chips also make it a lot more expensive than its main rivals.
Check prices: N/A
Reviews: AnandTech, Notebookcheck
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4. Samsung 860 EVO
Available Capacities: 250GB – 4TB
550 MB/s read
520 MB/s write
Endurance Rating (1TB): 600 TBW
The 860 EVO is the successor of Samsung’s incredibly successful 850 EVO. It’s a great alternative to the 860 PRO, as it is significantly less expensive and you will hardly notice the performance difference in real-world use.
It performs well and offers excellent endurance numbers at precisely half those of the 860 Pro at equivalent capacities (i.e. still better than most competitors), as well as a 5-year warranty.
Check prices: Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Reviews: TweakTown
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5. SanDisk Ultra 3D (or WD Blue)
Available Capacities: 250GB – 4TB
Interface: SATA 6Gbps
560 MB/s read
530 MB/s write
Endurance Rating (1TB): 400 TBW
The Ultra 3D from Flash SanDisk (now a subsidiary of Western Digital) delivers excellent performance at a reasonable price point. It has now been around for a few years but is still a popular choice due to its attractive mix of good performance and usually a lower price than the Samsung 860 EVO. Its sequential read speeds of 550 MB/s and write speeds of 530 MB/s are complemented with very good random read/write figures as well (95K/84K IOPS).
SanDisk uses a controller from Marvell 88SS1074 in the Ultra 3D SSD, in combination with 64-layer TLC NAND. This makes it identical to the WD Blue SSD in everything but the name.
Check prices: Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Reviews: HotHardware, AnandTech
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6. WD Red SA500 NAS SSD
Available Capacities: 500GB – 4TB
Interface: SATA 6Gbps
560 MB/s read
530 MB/s write
Endurance Rating (1TB): 600 TBW
As mentioned, the SanDisk Ultra 3D and WD Blue are more or less identical. However, a third option from Western Digital that is similar but not identical is the WD Red SA500. Although it is based on largely the same hardware including the Marvell 88SS1074 controller, it takes aim at NAS users with improved endurance ratings. Its higher endurance does indeed make it more suitable for network storage, but there is of course nothing that prevents you from using it for a desktop build.
The drive’s sequential throughput is no different from the standard consumer models at 550 MB/s and 530 MB/s, but due to the higher endurance rating (and overprovisioning to match), the SA500 is typically more expensive per GB.
Reviews: TechPowerup
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7. Crucial MX500
Available Capacities: 250GB – 2TB
Interface: SATA 3 6Gbps
560 MB/s read
510 MB/s write
Endurance Rating (1TB): 360 TBW
Crucial’s MX500 uses TLC NAND and also offers great performance at an attractive price point. It’s available in capacities of up to 2 TB. Like the 860 EVO, the MX500 is backed by a 5-year warranty, but its endurance rating is lower than both the 860 EVO and the SanDisk Ultra 3D. It starts at 100 TBW for the 250 GB model and ranges up to 700 TBW for the 2 TB model, which should still be more than sufficient for the average user.
The MX500 can compete with the 860 series in many areas, but rarely (if ever) surpass it. However, the price/performance ratio is excellent so this drive is a good choice for most SATA-limited systems.
Check prices: Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Reviews: AnandTech, Guru3D
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8. Kingston KC600
Available Capacities: 256GB – 2TB
Interface: SATA 6Gbps
550 MB/s read
520 MB/s write
Endurance Rating (1TB): 600 TBW
Kingston’s KC600 was launched in 2019 and comes with a Silicon Motion SM2259 controller and 96-layer 3D TLC NAND from Micron. Although it is a bit more expensive than many of its competitors, it does offer hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption, making it an interesting option for business users. The overall specs are also excellent.
Performance-wise, it’s slightly slower than the Samsung 860 series but still in the high-end SATA territory. Random performance is up to 90,000/80,000 IOPS (read/write). Another plus is that the endurance ratings are on par with the best.
Check prices: Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Reviews: Hexus.net
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9. SK Hynix Gold S31
Available Capacities: 250GB – 1TB
Interface: SATA 6GBps
560 MB/s read
525 MB/s write
Endurance Rating (1TB): 600 TBW
South Korean SK Hynix is one of the world’s largest memory manufacturers but is mainly known for its DRAM, such as DDR4 modules and GDDR6 chips for graphics cards. However, the company is also an experienced supplier of NAND Flash, including complete SSDs, for OEMs.
Now, SK Hynix releases SSDs under its own brand, and this SATA drive is one of the first. The SK Hynix Gold S31 has been very well received and immediately established itself among the leaders in the segment. Like most high-end SATA SSDs, it will saturate the interface, but it also tends to compete with (and in some cases surpass) drives like the Samsung 860 EVO and Crucial MX500 in real-world tests.
Check prices: Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Reviews: TweakTown, AnandTech
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10. Mushkin Source II
Available Capacities: 120GB – 2TB
Interface: SATA 3 6GBps
560 MB/s read
515 MB/s write
Endurance Rating (1TB): 400 TBW
The original Mushkin Source was and is positioned as an entry-level SATA SSD. But now that many high-end MLC-based drives have disappeared from the market in favor of cheaper alternatives, the Source has risen in the charts.
More recently, the Source was replaced by the Source-II, which is similar but based on the updated Silicon Motion SM2259XT (originally SM2258XT) controller and TLC NAND. Its sequential performance remains more than adequate compared to the competition. Random performance is 75K/75K read/write (1TB model).
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M.2 NVMe Drives
See also: our new, up-to-date listing of the fastest M.2 SSDs.
1. Crucial T705, Sabrent Rocket 5, MSI Spatium M580
Interface: PCIe Gen5 x4 / NVMe 2.0
Available Capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
14,500 MB/s read (2TB)
12,700 MB/s write (2TB)
Much like most Gen5 SSDs launched in 2023, Crucial’s recently released T705 comes with a Phison E26 controller and Micron NAND. But thanks to the latest NAND, the T705 (and Sabrent Rocket 5, MSI Spatium M580) approaches the upper limit of the PCI-Express 5.0 x4 bandwidth with 14,500 MB/s transfer rates. Random performance is also ahead of all other SSDs at up to 1.8 million IOPS.
In short, it’s the fastest SSD currently available to consumers with a Gen5-capable M.2 slot.
Reviews: HotHardware, AnandTech
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2. Crucial T700 (+ Similar Competitors)
Interface: PCIe Gen5 x4 / NVMe 2.0
Available Capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
12,400 MB/s read (2TB)
11,800 MB/s write (2TB)
The previous generation of Phison E26-based SSDs are also exceptionally fast, with the Crucial T700 reaching 12,400 MB/s. Other competitors with similar configurations (and performance) includes the Teamgroup T-Force Z540 and Corsair MP700 Pro.
Check prices (1TB): Amazon, Amazon UK, Newegg
Reviews: HotHardware, Guru3D
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3. Seagate FireCuda 540 (+ Rest of Phison E26 Models)
Interface: PCIe Gen5 x4 / NVMe 2.0
Available Capacities: 1TB, 2TB
10,000 MB/s read (2TB)
10,000 MB/s write (2TB)
As mentioned previously, other early Gen5 SSDs from early 2023 also use the Phison E26 controller, but not the fastest possible NAND memory chips. Most current drives employ NAND running at 1,600 MT/s, which results in sequential transfer rates of up to about 10,000 MB/s (read/write). This is still quite a bit more than what any Gen4 SSD is capable of, even if it’s nowhere near maxing out the PCIe 5.0 interface.
High power consumption and heat will nevertheless be an issue for drives like the Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 10000, Inland TD510, and Corsair MP700 to handle. As a result, competent cooling is needed and some Gen5 SSDs even come with a fan.
Check prices (2TB): Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Reviews: TweakTown
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4. Samsung 990 PRO (Fastest Gen4 SSD)
Interface: PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe
Available Capacities: 1TB, 2TB
7,450 MB/s read (1TB)
6,900 MB/s write (1TB)
The 990 PRO is Samsung’s latest flagship in the high-end PCIe 4.0 category. It was launched as recently as November 2022 and marks the manufacturer’s return to the top of the charts. This is made possible by Samsung’s proprietary Pascal controller and in-house 176-layer V-NAND 2000 MT memory circuitry.
What particularly stands out with the 990 PRO’s specs is not so much its sequential performance – which, like other leading SSDs, mostly maxes out the available Gen4 bandwidth – but random performance. Even the 1TB capacity offers an eye-watering 1.55M random write IOPS. This is enough to give it a slight lead over the competition in several (but not all) benchmarks. For more details, see our comparisons with the SN850X and Fury Renegade.
Check prices (1TB): Amazon, Amazon UK, Newegg
Reviews: GamingPCBuilder, HotHardware
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5. SK Hynix Platinum P41
Interface: PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe
Available Capacities: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
7,000 MB/s read (1TB)
6,500 MB/s write (1TB)
The SK Hynix Platinum P41 was introduced in May 2022 and availability is still limited at the time of writing. It has however already made a strong impression on hardware editors and there seems to be no doubt that it is among the fastest SSDs yet in the consumer space. SK Hynix is the second-largest memory manufacturer on the planet but has mostly been supplying chips in an OEM capacity until quite recently. The Platinum P41 is entirely based on SK Hynix parts, including the controller, and this seems to be enough to outpace the Phison E18 lineup and other competitors in several real-world benchmarks.
Check prices (1TB): Amazon, Amazon UK
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6. WD Black SN850X
Interface: PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe
Available Capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
7,300 MB/s read (1TB)
6,300 MB/s write (1TB)
When it arrived in 2020, the WD Black SN850 was quite possibly the fastest SSD on the market for some time. And to be fair it is still among the best, although several competitors have caught up with and surpassed it. To remedy this situation, Western Digital released a successor known as the SN850X. The main difference with this updated version is that it ships with higher-density memory chips in the form of 112-layer BiCS 5 NAND. This has boosted random read/write performance from 1M/720K IOPS with the original SN850 to 1.2M/1.1M IOPS in the 2 TB SN850X.
As a result, the SN850X is (again) one of the best SSDs, as evidenced in real-world benchmarks such as PC Mark 10 and 3DMark. It is also one of the fastest SSDs available in a 4TB capacity.
Check prices (1TB): Amazon, Newegg
Reviews: GPCB
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7. Kingston Fury Renegade
Interface: PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe
Available Capacities: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
7,300 MB/s read (1TB)
6,000 MB/s write (1TB)
Phison’s E18 controller and Micron’s new 176-layer TLC NAND emerged as a winning combination in late 2021. The Seagate FireCuda 530 first topped the charts using this combo, followed by Kingston’s KC3000 among others. Compared to the KC3000, the Kingston Furu Renegade is an almost identical but slightly faster version of the original.
In other words, if you are looking to pair your PCIe Gen4-compatible system with one of the fastest possible SSDs, this one compares quite well to the 990 PRO and other key competitors.
Shopping links (1TB): Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Reviews: GPCB, StorageReview
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This page is updated regularly but new SSD releases are even more frequent. Nevertheless: if you think I’ve omitted something, don’t hesitate to leave a comment!
Also, see our budget NVMe SSD page for the drives with the best price/performance ratios.
SSD-Related Lingo
Anyone new to all the acronyms used on product pages and SSD discussions will find them largely incomprehensible. Here are some of the most common.
What Does SLC, MLC, TLC, and QLC Mean?
An SSD’s performance, as well as its life span, is to a large extent determined by the quality of the memory cells. Higher-quality memory (NAND) not only performs better but can also be erased and written to a larger number of times before it wears out.
SLC (single-level cell) NAND Flash memory is more durable than MLC (multi-level cell, two bits per cell), which in turn is more durable than TLC (triple-level cell) NAND.
More recently, QLC (quad-level cell) drives such as the Samsung QVO have also become common. Additional bits per cell affect performance negatively because it makes the cells considerably more error-prone. There are clever technologies that compensate for this, but in the end, there is no substitute for higher-quality NAND.
Needless to say, high-end memory chips are more expensive to make. There are no SSDs based on SLC memory in the market today (it has always been prohibitively expensive), and very few outside of the enterprise market use MLC. Samsung’s PRO lineup is an exception, excluding the 980 and 990 PRO, which are TLC-based.
SSD endurance: What is MTBF and TBW?
MTBF is short for mean time before failure and is more relevant for conventional hard drives than SSDs, which have no mechanical parts prone to failure over time. TBW (terabytes written or total bytes written) is much more useful. This number indicates how much data can be written to the drive before it wears out. It is determined by the drive’s capacity, spare capacity (also known as overprovisioning), and the quality of the NAND memory chips.
For a drive with a 600 TBW rating, 600 TB is the amount of data the manufacturer guarantees can be written to it. Warranties are however mutually exclusive with a set number of years (usually five). This is not to say that an SSD will necessarily fail after this amount of data has been written.
Production Processes
Unlike other PC parts such as a CPU or GPU, a smaller production process as measured in nanometers (nm), is not a strong selling point, as this results in lower durability, all else being equal. For the average gamer or office user, durability is rarely an issue, since most SSDs likely outlive the rest of the computer by a fair margin. Low-cost drives with cheap NAND should however not be used in a server or other environment with a high continuous workload.
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kingston have issue i have been using but when i transfer it become slow/
The Seagate BarraCuda Fast also uses the Phison S12 controller in an external form factor with USB Type-C. Seems like it performs about the same as the best internal SATA drives.
thanks, interesting read
thank you very much
excellent info but i’d like to see some about the really inexpensive chinese components
TEAMGROUP T-Force CARDEA A440 Pro Graphene 2tb
7400/7000
1TB: 700TBW
2TB: 1,400TBW
4TB: 3,000TBW
Thank you for writing this post. I purchased a 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530 and discovered that it is an NVME device. Perhaps the increased speed is due to this.
So, now that it’s common knowledge that manufacturers are switching out components to much lower performance units, are you willing to take down these reviews, or at least add caveats, since you can’t even purchase many of these drives anymore?
kingston fury renegade 4tb is faster than Seagate FireCuda
Thanks for your comment! I was just about to add the Kingston KC3000 and hadn’t heard about the Fury Renegade. These two appear to be a near-identical save for slightly different NAND provisioning.
https://www.kingston.com/unitedstates/us/ssd/gaming/kingston-fury-renegade-nvme-m2-ssd
https://www.kingston.com/unitedstates/us/ssd/kc3000-nvme-m2-solid-state-drive
Great list. Samsung is what I recommend.
Great information, thanks for sharing it with us
Samsung 970 Evo Plus is absolutely one of the best and fastest SSD, I had ever use till now.
I bought it from amazon last 5 months ago and has experienced a really good speed on my pc performance.
Seagate FireCuda 120 SSD is my all time favorite.
This ssd is very fast and I also love to review it.
Silicon Power PCIe 3.0 and 2.5 Sata are great options and you can usually find it cheaper than many of the ones listed. I believe they have a PCIe 4.0 too. What do you think Jesper?
Hi Jordan. I agree, they appear to be solid and reasonably priced products. I’ll include one or more on the list.
I am thinking to buy Crucial MX500 for my desktop PC.
crucial mx500 is still cheap and a better choice in my opinion!
I am thinking of getting Samsung 860 EVO as soon as this Coronavirus tension eases
After your suggestion, I bought the OCZ RevoDrive 350 from Amazon and it arrived within 2 days.
Thanks a lot!
Corsair CSSD-N400GBNX500 took my boot time for Windows 10 Pro from a descent 18 seconds on my corsair 1T SSD to 13 seconds flat. I load into many of my games on PUBG at least 12 seconds before my son’s SSD loads him in when que’ed up on the same team. The install was super simple and quick, no drivers were needed to install, just plug and play. 🙂
5 seconds for $450…congrats on winning…absolutely nothing…
Bragging rights! Yeah.
Hello, This post was really helpful. I bought a corsair mp600 ssd and found out that it’s a NVME type. May be that’s the reason for higher speed. Right?
Don’t see the 980 PRO on above list or it didn’t make the top 10 lolz
Or an update is needed 👍😃
Interesting that you did not list Samsung 1725a or b drives 3500/3000Mbps at 800,000 Iops or the PM983.
A valid point. Actually we did list enterprise/datacenter products originally. But since these can barely be obtained or used by the average mortal due to the cost and interface constraints, we decided to lessen the scope to just consumer drives.