Consumer SSD Buying-Guide & Tier List

3 min readAug 29, 2021

By: stoRAGE

Disclaimer: I did not make nor contribute to this guide, original linked below.

stoRAGE HERE
ESTIMATED "SHOULD BE" PRICES ARE IN USD, ->EXTRAPOLATE<- FOR YOUR OWN CURRENCY AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS BELOW guide instructions: BUY THE CHEAPEST DRIVE AVAILABLE FOR YOU IN THE CATEGORY THAT FITS YOUR USE CASE, DRIVES ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
IF YOU ARE NOT FOLLOWING THESE INSTSTRUCTIONS YOU ARE NOT USING THE GUIDE PROPERLY! DRIVES ARE 3D TLC NAND+DEDICATED DRAM CACHE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED! EOL NOTE INDICATES DISCONTUNINUITY, LIKELY NOT PRICED COMPETIVELY WITH HIGHER END DRIVES AND MORE ELABORATE USE CASES, IT IS ADVISEABLE TO LOOK MORE DEEPLY AND BEYOND THIS GUIDE TO WEIGH WHICH PERFORMANCE METRICS MATTER FOR YOUR USE AS IT IS ONLY DESIGNED FOR BASIC REFERENCE AND SOME DRIVES ARE CATEGORIZED HIGHER IF THEY FIT A NICHE, ATTACHED ARE REPUTEABLE SSD REVIEW SOURCES:

https://www.tomshardware.com/author/sean-webster https://www.storagereview.com/ https://www.techpowerup.com/review/?category=SSD

Here is a list that should show the cheapest available 1TB in each category, remember to select the correct region. (Thank you to SLOWaf) https://pcpartpicker.com/user/SLOWaf/saved/b6KDZL

If you have more questions or want to contribute to stoRAGE, our discord server is here https://discord.gg/CvKjxyGaph

Budget NVME drives

EXPECTED PRICE:[$45–55 500GB] [$90–100 1TB] [$180–200 2TB]

**For →gamers← acceptable for budget workstation/productivity applications.**

What If I Don’t Have an M.2 Slot?

EXPECTED PRICE:[$45–55 500GB][$90–100 1TB][$180–200 2TB]

Middle-End NVME drives

EXPECTED PRICE:[$55–65 500GB][$105-$130 1TB][$200-$250 2TB]

**For intensive consumer workstation/productivity applications, recommendable for gamers if close in price to budget drives.**

High-End NVME drives

EXPECTED PRICE:[$130–160 1TB][$250-$300 2tb]

NOTE: Phison E16 based drives are essentially burst performance-optimized E12 drives with PCI-E 4.0 support, should not be bought unless they undercut the above drives in the same category, they are not recommended for applications that depend on sustained workload for performance.