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Nowadays, having an SSD in your computer is a necessity to achieving high speed in gaming. No I’m not talking about a boost in FPS, but your computer’s responsiveness, or how fast it responds to the things you want it to do.
Table of Contents
What is an SSD?
SSD, or Solid State Drive, is a type of storage hardware that uses flash memory to store data and unlike traditional hard drives, they have no moving parts. However, HDDs, or Hard Disk Drives use physical rotating disks and magnetic storage to store data. Inside the HDDs is an actuator arm that reads and writes the data. Read this to know more about the differences between an HDD & SSD.
Advantages of an SSD
SSDs are typically more expensive than hard drives, however they have many more advantages. SSDs are quieter, has faster read and write times, and has lower latency than hard drives. With these advantages, your computer will have faster boot times, and shorter loading time for your games. Another thing is that because they don’t have any moving parts, their lifespan is typically longer than a hard drive’s.
What are the SSDs review based on?
From the top 10 SSDs below, I reviewed and ranked all of them based on three major components:
Performance
Nowadays, majority of the SSDs you see in the market come in two different interfaces: SATA III and PCIe. The main difference between the two are the interface speeds. SATA’s interface speed is capped at 6 Gb/s (gigabits per second NOT gigabytes), whereas PCIe’s interface speed goes up to 16Gb/s. Because of this, SATA SSDs perform a lot slower than PCIe SSDs. So this top 10 list excludes all SATA SSDs.
I also took into consideration the random and sequential read & write speeds. If you don’t know what they mean, simply put, read speed is how long it takes to open a file and write speed is how long it takes to save a file. Now for the difference between random and sequential. Random is when data is read/written in no particular order; the data is scattered in random places in the drive. Sequential read/write is when data is read and written in order with no pauses in between the different files.
Storage
Unlike traditional hard drives, SSDs normally come in smaller capacities. Every PCIe SSD I included in this list offers high capacity. The goal of this top 10 list is to provide the most reliable SSD that comes with the fastest performance along with high amounts of storage so you don’t need to buy a secondary HDD for additional space.
Price
When I created this, I made sure not to include any SSDs that have high cost per gigabyte. In other words, I want to make sure that when you purchase a new SSD for your PC, you get the best bang for your buck!
So without further ado, here are my top 10 SSDs!
Top 10 SSD Ranking for Gaming 2019
10. Corsair Force MP300
The Corsair Force MP300 is great start out with if you’re looking for an inexpensive 1TB SSD and still give that fast performance that SATA SSDs just can’t provide. Even though the read & write speed is only up to 1600/1080 MBps, which is a bit on the slower side compared to other SSDs out there, it’s still 3x faster than SATA SSDs. It’s also designed to effectively deal with heat to prevent performance throttling and be highly durable.
Click here to check it out!
9. WD Blue SN500
If you’re really that stingy and refuse to shell out $100+ on a speedy SSD, then this may be the option for you. The read & write speed of this SSD is 1700/1450 MB/s with a price tag of under $70, which makes it a great SSD for a low budget gaming PC build.
The only downside is that the maximum capacity of this SSD is only 500GB. So if you decide to get this, you may also want to consider buying a secondary storage device for additional space if 500GB is not enough.
See the WD Blue SN500 here!
8. XPG SX6000 Pro
All I can say is, “Wow!” The price of the XPG SX6000 Pro cannot compare to other SSD prices in the market. This is one of the most inexpensive SSDs you’ll find in the market without having to sacrifice a significant amount of performance. It has a read & write speed of up to 2100/1500 MB/s, which is still faster than most SSDs out there. It also comes with heatsink to prevent overheating. So say hello to lightning fast gaming!
7. HP EX920
Are you looking for an exceptional performing SSD on a budget? Then the HP EX920 is perfect for you! This SSD is perfect for high end gaming PCs with its read & write speed of up to 3200/1800 MB/s. Yes, the write speed is a bit sluggish, but that doesn’t mean you should count it out of the game.
This is one of the more affordable SSDs out there you can buy and still have the benefits of the speed as if you were using one of the higher end SSDs. In addition, numerous tests have proved it to be a reliable, durable, and highly efficient SSD!
6. Crucial P1
The Crucial P1 is a great budget alternative if you’re not satisfied with the HP EX920. With the read & write speeds identical to the HP EX920, it’s perfect for gaming, and it’s available at such a low price, making it more favorable over its competitors.
The only thing to watch out for is the heat. This SSD does not come with a heatsink so be wary of overheating the SSD or else its lifespan will be shortened. So make sure you buy a separate heatsink along with this SSD.
5. Corsair Force MP510
The Corsair Force MP510 is like the Corsair Force MP300 the very definition of fast! Over 3000 MB/s read & write speed, this SSD performs at supersonic speed at a cost that’s almost half of the cost of their competitors with SSDs performing at the same level.
Another thing worth mentioning about this product is the lifespan. With an endurance of 1700 TBW, this will last you quite a while before it needs to be replaced.
4. XPG SX8200 Pro
If you’re searching for a top performing SSD with large storage and top read and write speeds, then look no further! This SSD is lightning fast with a read & write speed of up to 3500/3000 MB/s, one of the fastest speeds in the market currently. It’s like the XPG SX6000 Pro on steroids.
Another sweet thing is that the XPG SX8200 Pro has its own heatsink attached to keep its temperature cool along with data protection and data integrity technology to correct a wide range of data errors to ensure a longer lifespan.
Click here to check out the XPG SX8200 Pro.
3. Samsung 970 EVO
This is the SSD that came before the Samsung 970 EVO Plus. Even though the write speed is slightly inferior compared to the Plus, the overall performance is still superior compared to majority of the SSDs in the market. This makes it perfect for high end, fast gaming.
So this is a perfect alternative of the Samsung 970 EVO Plus if you want to save some money and sacrifice a little bit of speed.
2. WD Black SN750
Ah Western Digital, one of the companies out there that provides the most reliable storage devices in the market. And they continue to uphold that reputation by giving us the WD Black SN750 SSD. This baby is perfectly made for custom gaming PCs. This SSD has available capacities of up to 2TB and with read & write speeds of up to 3470/3000 MB/s, it can compete toe-to-toe with the best. However, be aware that the read and write speeds differ between the different capacities. You also have the option to include a heatsink.
1. Samsung 970 EVO Plus
Samsung is the company renown for creating some of the best SSDs in the market. This one is no different. This SSD is one of the fastest ones out there at the moment. Plus the fact that the price is so inexpensive at the lowest capacity makes it difficult to not want it for your gaming PC.
However, when you start to go up to the higher capacities, the price starts to spike up quite a bit. With the 1TB at a little bit over $200, it’s more expensive than other 1TB SSDs in the market.
With that being said, this thing is just lightning fast, period. If you don’t mind the extra cost per gigabyte, then I highly recommend this SSD!
Buy the fastest SSD in 2019 here!
Conclusion
I hope you found this top 10 SSD review helpful! If you did, feel free to share it with others. Now that SSD prices are decreasing, while speed and capacity is increasing, it doesn’t make sense to not have one for your PC.
Again, if you decide to invest in one, avoid buying a SATA SSD! The SATA bus really limits its performance. That’s why I only included NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) SSDs.
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