In the modern world speed — that’s it, especially when it comes to SSDs. Even budget models can pleasantly surprise you with their performance. But how do you choose the best SSD for different tasks? Gaming, work, school – each of these scenarios has its own requirements for storage. And yes, not all SSDs are the same. That’s why we decided to choose the best models that meet different requirements and budgets.
Criteria for choosing an SSD
Speed
The speed of loading games, programs, and Windows depends on the type of SSD. If you are looking for a model for gaming, you need a drive with high read and write speeds (at least 5000 MB/s for PCIe 4.0). A budget SSD with speeds of up to 3500 MB/s is also suitable for more everyday tasks.
Memory capacity
As games get bigger and bigger, SSD capacity becomes an important factor. For gamers, 1 TB or more is the best choice. If you frequently work with large amounts of data or video, you’ll need even more capacity (2 TB or more).
Cooling
The health of your SSD depends on the temperature. For long gaming sessions or video work, you should look for SSDs with built-in heat sinks or the ability to install cooling. This will maintain performance and extend the life of the drive.
Compatibility
Of course, not all SSDs will work equally on every PC. Before you buy, check whether your motherboard supports the required interface standard (PCIe 4.0/5.0, SATA, or USB). Also pay attention to the form factor of the drive: M.2 SSDs come in different sizes (e.g., 2280, 2242), and 2.5 SATA SSDs require free space in the case.
Price
The choice between budget and flagship models depends on your needs. It’s worth paying attention to the price-to-performance ratio: speed, storage capacity, and write life (TBW), which can have a significant impact on the drive’s durability and performance.
The best SSD for gaming — Samsung 990 PRO MZ-V9P2T0CW 2 TB with heatsink
Samsung 990 PRO — An SSD that outperforms most competitors in terms of speed, making it ideal for gamers. With PCIe Gen 4.0 support, it achieves read speeds of up to 7,450MB/s and write speeds of up to 6,900MB/s. This allows even the heaviest games and programs to load without lag, as well as reduce shader compilation time, which is essential for gamers looking for maximum performance.
SSD is also equipped with a radiator that efficiently cools it even under heavy loads, ensuring a stable temperature and increased reliability.
On the one hand, it’s definitely a very fast drive, but it’s also priced at a high level, making it an expensive choice for most users. If you’re on a budget, you can find models with lower speeds at a much lower price.
Overall, Samsung 990 PRO — the perfect choice for gamers who want maximum speed and are not afraid to spend a little more money. Besides, you’ll agree that 1 TB is already a bit cramped. 5-6 AAA projects and that’s it. Therefore, choosing a 2 TB model is quite logical. The price is from 7,390 to 13,454 UAH.
For an affordable price of 2,299 to 2,799 UAH, you get a very decent speed that will significantly reduce the time it takes to load games compared to traditional HDDs.
Although Kingston offers good speeds for the price, its performance still falls short of flagship models like the Samsung 990 PRO.
Bottom line, Kingston NV3 — a reliable budget choice for users who want a fast SSD but are not ready to spend a lot of money on premium models.
The best SSD for work and school — A-Data SC610 SC610-500G-CBK/RD 500GB
A-Data SC610 — It’s a great option for those looking for an SSD for everyday tasks, document work, and studying. For a fairly affordable price, it offers a USB 3.2 interface with read speeds of up to 550 MB/s and write speeds of up to 500 MB/s. This is enough for fast file access, word processing, spreadsheets, and web browsing.
A-Data SC610 is a compact and lightweight SSD, making it ideal for laptops, especially if you work or study on the go. The flash drive format is just right.
It has a limited speed compared to other models that use PCIe 3.0 or 4.0. And even more so with the new PCIe 5.0.
However, for students and those who don’t work with heavy graphics or video files, this drive will be quite sufficient and it will demonstrate optimal performance for most tasks. If you don’t plan to store a lot of data on the SSD, 500GB may be enough. Everything else goes to the cloud.
This one SSD also has a good reputation for reliability, and the price makes the drive a great option for budget-conscious buyers looking for reliability without overpaying. You can buy it with part of the scholarship from 1,553 to 2,426 UAH.
Best SSD for laptops — Crucial P3 Plus CT500P3PSSD8 500 GB
Crucial P3 Plus — SSD, which is an ideal option for users looking for balanced performance. For laptops that have been in service for many years, the Crucial P3 Plus is a great option that helps to improve overall system performance significantly.
While it is a great choice for most users, it is a bit of a step-down from a PCIe 4.0 SSD, Crucial P3 Plus does not reach such a high speed. For demanding gamers or professionals working with large files, this may not be enough. The drive also has a limited capacity of 500 GB, but we assume that it will work in conjunction with an already installed drive in your laptop.
Overall, Crucial P3 Plus — a great choice for users who want to upgrade their laptop and get a fast SSD for everyday tasks for a reasonable price: from 1,578 to 2,397 UAH.
Especially for owners of 7-10 year old machines, which almost certainly have an HDD drive, which, although reliable, is very slow. We’ll leave it for file storage, and install the operating system on the new SSD.
The most reliable SSD — WD Black SN850X WDS100T2XHE 1TB with heatsink
WD Black SN850X — It is one of the best SSDs for those looking for stable and reliable performance, especially for gamers and professionals. The heatsink helps to keep the temperature at an optimal level during heavy workloads. There is also a version without a heatsink if your motherboard has one.
The 1 TB capacity is enough for the vast majority of users.
As with other high-performance SSDs, its price may be too high for those who do not need such speed and do not use the drive for serious gaming or video editing.
WD Black SN850X — a great choice for those who want the best performance for their gaming or work, but if you don’t need super fast speeds, there are cheaper alternatives for less money. Hurry up and buy because the legend goes on from the market. The price starts at less than USD 100: from UAH 3,795 to 5,432.
The fastest SSD — Crucial T700 CT1000T700SSD5 1TB with heatsink
Crucial T700 — A great SSD for those looking for maximum speed. It supports PCIe Gen 5.0, achieving speeds of up to 11,700MB/s read and 9,500MB/s write. With these cosmic speeds, the Crucial T700 is the perfect choice for professionals working with large files, video editing, or complex 3D models who need incredible speeds for both reads and writes.
However, with all this comes a high price tag SSD may seem expensive and objectively redundant for ordinary users. For most gamers or users who don’t work with large amounts of data, PCIe 4.0 models, which are cheaper, will suffice.
The temperature at peak loads can reach 80+°C, which is higher than average for such devices. As a result, under prolonged loads, the speed may drop by almost half. Effective cooling in the PC case itself plays an important role here.
Overall, Crucial T700 — SSD for those who need maximum speeds in synthetic benchmarks and real-world use cases, such as working with large media files or programs like Autodesk Maya, Adobe Premiere Pro, etc. However, for most users with less demanding tasks, other options are worth considering. The price tag for the disk varies from 6,363 to 9,503 UAH.
The best SSD with a large storage capacity — Samsung T7 Shield MU-PE4T0S 4 TB
Samsung T7 Shield — An external SSD that combines large storage capacity with high speed and excellent reliability. It’s the perfect choice for anyone looking for a drive to store huge amounts of data, such as photographers, videographers, or gamers with a large project library.
It’s quite fast for an external drive. SSDs are great for storing and quickly transferring large files or backups. The golden rule is to always make a backup. And two is better!
Also, model has excellent resistance to physical damage. Thanks to its IP65 certification, it is protected against water and dust, and can withstand drops of up to 2 meters. This makes it ideal for people who work in the field or travel frequently.
There are a few disadvantages. First of all, although the drive offers a large amount of storage, its write and read speeds cannot come close to matching high-speed internal SSDs such as the Samsung 990 PRO or Crucial T700.
Additionally, this SSD with a 4 TB storage capacity is expensive, so its price may be too high for users who do not need to store such a large amount of data. The price for capacity, portability, and security: from 10,339 to 20,573 UAH.
