With Micron’s 176-layer TLC flash, the Seagate FireCuda 530 offers sustained write speeds up to twice as fast as those of our previous pick, the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus. In shorter transfers, the Sabrent drive already saturated the PCIe 4.0 interface with speeds up to 7,000 MB/s, but it’s not really cheaper these days than the Seagate option. With a Phison E18 controller, the FireCuda 530 will also load games and apps more quickly, but the differences will be measured in seconds, not minutes.
Two things set the Seagate drive apart even from drives that use the same components, such as the Kingston KC3000 and Corsair MP600 Pro XT. The first is an endurance rating of 2,550 terabytes written (TBW) for the 2TB version, compared to about 1,500 in its competitors. The other is a 3-year data recovery service, in addition to the 5-year warranty — a worthy addition when the data on your drive is worth more to you than the drive itself.
The 2TB version, which writes faster than the smaller-capacity ones, starts at $320, and for $10 more you’ll get an elegant heatsink. The 1TB version is almost as fast for half the price, but the 500GB version is significantly slower, possibly creating bottlenecks even when writing from a PCIe 3.0 drive. A 4TB version is also available.
Best for gamers: Western Digital SN850 Black
If you want to use your SSD to store your game library and don’t copy hundreds of gigabytes on a daily basis, WD’s SN850 currently offers the best value. Thanks to the company’s G2 controller, games load times are indistinguishable between the SN850 and the FireCuda 530. The 2TB version goes for $240, though you may need to spend extra on a heatsink as it has been noted to get fairly warm under heavy loads.
Good on a sale: Samsung 980 Pro
It’s got the brand cachet and is no performance slouch either. The Samsung 980 Pro (read our review) is a fast and efficient drive, but at $270 for 2TB it’s priced too close to the FireCuda 530 and too far from the SN850. On a sale, however, it can be a cheaper alternative to the FireCuda, or a more efficient alternative to the SN850.
Compared to the older 970 Pro, the company’s 980 Pro takes a hit to endurance, as Samsung shifted from the 970 Pro’s 2-bit MLC flash to denser, 3-bit TLC in the 980 Pro. This has led to a 50 percent reduction in Samsung’s TBW ratings for this model over the 970 Pro, coming in at 1,200TBW on the flagship 2TB drive. However, Samsung offers its well-built and mature Magician SSD software.
Best for old systems: Western Digital AN1500
If you have an old PC that doesn’t have PCIe 4.0 support or even an M.2 slot, you can still enjoy PCIe 4.0 speeds: the Western Digital AN1500 connects to your motherboard similarly to a graphics card, and uses eight PCIe 3.0 lanes, enabling a reading speed of 6,500 MB/s, almost like the best drives that use four PCIe 4.0 lanes.
The writing speed of about 4,000 MB/s is less impressive, but still better than any M.2 PCIe 3.0 drive. At $425 for 2TB it may not look like the best value, but it’s still way cheaper than buying a CPU and a motherboard with PCIe 4.0 support alongside another drive.
