SSD Buying Guide – November 2021

We didn't pick an NVME option at this capacity as there aren't any well priced options. ADATA's SX850 and SU800 are the same drive, but with a different outer look. It features a DRAM cache, a well proven controller and comes in around $18-25 USD at the time of writing, making it the cheapest option with DRAM.

Featuring once again, the SU800 is our pick for the 240gb category just like in our guide in September. Featuring the popular SM2258 controller, it shows performance comparable to many of the higher end SATA drives. Its only downside is the price/GB, which is worse than most 480gb+ drives

The Silicon Motion P34A60 (commonly known as A60) is a budget DRAMless drive featuring an HMB cache to make up for this. It's not a chart topper, but will perform well enough to be used as an OS drive. It's well priced for its capacity, but has a high price/GB compared to 480gb+.

One of the best performing SATA drives on the market, the S31 is a great pick for an OS drive, a backup, or even as a game drive when you run out of M.2 slots to fill. As SK Hynix develops everything in-house including the controller, NAND, and DRAM, part swaps are very unlikely.

Even without DRAM, the MP33 and Cardea Z330 still perform well enough to be used as an OS drive or game drive. It is a bit lacking for high intensity workloads like 3D rendering or high-resolution video editing, but in price/GB at this capacity it makes a great offer.

Featuring Silicon Motion's SM2262EN controller, the Mushkin Pilot E performs into the top half of the chart. It's a great drive if you need a scratch drive for high resolution footage, 3D rendering, or just really like to flex on your friends that are still using a SATA drive.

Our pick to extend your storage on your current generation console. Not to be confused with the "original" SN750, it's a DRAMless drive with PCIe 4.0 support, using the same Phison E19T controller as the Xbox Series X, it's a great pick to use as an internal game drive.

The best of the worst is what best describes the BX500 best. It's a DRAMless SSD featuring either TLC or QLC NAND depending on the batch, but has shown to be more reliable compared to most other DRAMless drives. It works great as a storage/game library drive, but is lacking as a main OS drive.

One of the best performing SATA drives on the market, the S31 is a great pick for an OS drive, a backup or even as a game drive when you ran out of M.2 slots to fill. As SK Hynix develops everything in-house including the controller, NAND, and DRAM, part swaps are very unlikely.

Even without DRAM, the MP33 and Cardea Z330 still perform well enough to be used as an OS drive or game drive. It is a bit lacking for high intensity workloads like 3D rendering or high-resolution video editing, but in price/GB at this capacity it makes a great offer.

The Kingston A2000 started off mediocre because of the SLC cache setup Kingston used at its time. But ever since it got a firmware update fixing this, the drive has performed close to many high end PCIe 3.0 drives. At its price, it can truly be unbeatable at times when it comes to value.

Our pick to extend your storage on your current generation console. Not to be confused with the "original" SN750, it's a DRAMless drive with PCIe 4.0 support, using the same Phison E19T controller as the Xbox Series X, it's a great pick to use as an internal game drive.

The best of the best right now, the MP600 Pro XT and Firecuda 530 both use the same hardware. Featuring Phison's highest end PCIe 4 controller and the best performing NAND on the market right now, both have beaten out the 980 Pro and SN850 when it comes to pure performance. This drive may not be useful for everyone, but if it is, it's a godsend.

The best of the worst is what best describes the BX500 best. It's a DRAMless SSD featuring either TLC or QLC NAND depending on the batch, but has shown to be more reliable compared to most other DRAMless drives. It works great as a storage/game library drive, but is lacking as a main OS drive.

The MX500 is still one of the best SATA drives on the market and shows a great value as a SATA drive. Even if limited by the SATA protocol, it can be used as both a storage drive and a main OS drive.

Even without DRAM, the MP33 and Cardea Z330 still perform well enough to be used as an OS drive or game drive. It is a bit lacking for high intensity workloads like 3D rendering or high-resolution video editing, but in price/GB at this capacity it makes a great offer.

Featuring Silicon Motion's SM2262EN controller, the Kingston KC2500 performs into the top half of the chart. It's a great drive if you need a scratch drive for high resolution footage, 3D rendering, or just really like to flex on your friends that are still using a SATA drive.

Going a slightly different route from the SN750 SE, the S50 Lite does feature a DRAM cache and uses a Silicon Motion SM2267 controller. It shows better performance and offers a nice value for people looking to expand or replace their current gen console's drive.

The best of the best right now, the MP600 Pro XT and Firecuda 530 both use the same hardware. Featuring Phison's highest end PCIe 4 controller and the best performing NAND on the market right now, both have beaten out the 980 Pro and SN850 when it comes to pure performance. This drive may not be useful for everyone, but if it is, it's a godsend.

The 870 QVO is the replacement of the 860 QVO, featuring an updated controller and NAND and a "downgraded" 870 EVO. The main difference between QVO and EVO is the NAND, where the EVO uses TLC NAND instead of QVO's QLC NAND. It works great as a storage or game drive, but lacks a behind to be used as a main OS drive.

WD's blue 3D has never been top of the chart, but performs within a close margin of the 860/870 evo, mx500 and many other popular drives. Coming in cheaper than both options at the time of writing, this is our pick for a high capacity game drive or even OS drive.

With budget PCIe drives at 4tb, you really only find QLC drives, even if earlier revisions of the SX8100 and S40G have featured TLC NAND, we've seen performance and pricing that looks more like QLC NAND. Still, it makes a great option as storage or game drive in a small formfactor. S40G adds an RGB heatsink into the mix.

Corsair's MP600 Core and Sabrent's Rocket Q4 are essentially the same drive. Both feature PCIe 4 support with Phison's E16 controller, but use QLC NAND to keep the price and physical size doable. It's not a top performer for PCIE 4.0, but will do pretty well inside your console.

The best of the best right now, the MP600 Pro XT and Firecuda 530 both use the same hardware. Featuring Phison's highest end PCIe 4 controller and the best performing NAND on the market right now, both have beaten out the 980 pro and SN850 when it comes to pure performance. This drive may not be useful for everyone, but if it is, it's a godsent.

The 870 QVO is the replacement of the 860 QVO, featuring an updated controller and NAND and a "downgraded" 870 EVO. The main difference between QVO and EVO is the NAND, where the EVO uses TLC NAND instead of QVO's QLC NAND. It works great as a storage or game drive, but lacks a behind to be used as a main OS drive.

All 3 similar using similar hardware, featuring Intel or Micron 96l QLC NAND and Phison's E12S controller, these drives offer a very compact 8TB drive. It won't perform as well as many NVMe drives, but at this capacity it's hard to use TLC NAND.