These are the 10 best SSDs for 2023 compared by cost, features, and reliability.
Solid state drives (SSD) store data for rapid retrieval, significantly improving enterprise storage class memory over traditional mechanical hard disk drives. When choosing the right SSD, a number of features come into play, from capacity and read/write speeds to storage management solutions, heat dissipation, and overall reliability.
The following products showcase the best NVMe SSDs in a variety of formats from a range of top vendors, including Samsung, Western Digital, Sabrent, and Crucial. We compare them by feature, price, and use case to help buyers find the right drive for their needs.
The chart below compares our top nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) SSDs by available drive storage capacities, read and write speeds, additional features, and pricing.
| Available Capacities | Read/Write Speeds | Additional Features | Pricing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung 990 Pro | 1 TB, 2TB | 7,450/6,900 MB/s |
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| Crucial P3 | 1 TB, 2TB, 4 TB | 3,500/3,000 MB/s |
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| Western Digital Black SN850X | 1 TB, 2TB, 4 TB | 7,300/6,300 MB/s |
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| Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus | 1 TB, 2TB, 4 TB, 8 TB | 7,000/5,800 MB/s |
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| SK hynix Gold P31 | 1 TB, 2TB | 3,500/3,200 MB/s |
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| Inland Performance Plus | 1 TB, 2TB, 4 TB, 8 TB | 7,000/6,850 MB/s |
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Table of Contents:
Best for pure speed
The 990 PRO from hardware giant Samsung is one of the fastest M.2 drives in the market overall. Its read/write speeds top out at 7,450 MB/s and 6,900 MB/s respectively. While the 990 Pro is quite a bit more expensive than its NVMe competitors, it deserves a mention on this list for its incredible read and write rates. It offers an optional heatsink and access to Samsung Magician software, a drive health check and benchmarking tool. If you’re searching for speed, look no further than the 990 PRO.
Learn more about the fastest NVMe SSD speeds.
Best for tight budgets
The Crucial P3 is a fast NVMe SSD with up to 4 TB capacity and a considerably lower price tag than its competitors. Its read and write speeds top out around 3,500 and 3,000 MB/s. While not quite as speedy as some of the other drives on this list, it’s a steal for its price. If you’re looking for an SSD with all the bells and whistles, the P3 won’t be the best fit, but it’s one of the best options on the market for smaller businesses and entrepreneurs with tight budgets.
Best mid-range drive
This solid state drive from Western Digital is a strong overall choice because of its cost, features, and high speeds combined. Though not as fast as Samsung’s NVMe SSDs, the Black SN850X is a mid-range priced drive, so it’s a bit of a trade-off if you’re looking for a reliable, well-designed SSD. Buyers can choose between a heatsink or none and up to 4 TB of storage. The SN850X tops out at sequential read and write speeds of 7,300 and 6,300 MB/s.
Best high performance PCIe 4
Sabrent’s newest PCIe SSD has a 4.0 interface just like the Rocket NVMe 4.0 before it. Put simply, the Rocket 4 Plus is very fast. A 2TB Rocket boasts 7,000 MB/s sequential read speeds and 5,800 MB/s sequential writes. It’s less expensive than the comparable Samsung 990 PRO as well.
The Rocket 4 Plus overlays copper on the heatsink for added cooling. It’s only usable in computers that support PCIe Gen 4, but for those that do, it meets some of the highest-performance computing needs.
Best for top tier performance at a bargain price
SK hynix, a South Korean hardware company that makes chips, has done well with its first NVMe drive: the Gold P31 easily keeps up with the SSDs in its class, topping out at 3,500 MB/s for read speed and 3,200 MB/s for write. It works for either desktops or laptops and offers up to 2 TB of storage, which may not meet the requirements of buyers looking for highest-capacity SSDs. For anyone else it’s a fast and financially sound choice
Best for intensive data operations
Designed for high-power operations like gaming, but suitable for some enterprise tasks, the Inland Performance Plus is a speedy NVMe-based SSD. It has up to 8 TB capacity and read/write speeds top out at 7,000/6,850 MB/s respectively. Note that this drive is lacking in additional features, including toolbox software and health check capabilities. But its price for the performance makes it a strong choice.
Learn more about SSD health check and diagnostic tools.
Business-quality solid-state drives vary in size, speed, and additional capabilities. But for them to be viable choices for an enterprise, they should have the following features.
Many SSDs, particularly those with M.2 form factors, were initially designed for consumer use cases such as gaming. This doesn’t automatically disqualify them for business use, but they must have enough storage capacity to support business applications.
Businesses need storage that can support their critical applications. An NVMe-based SSD that can do that must have significant sequential read and write speeds to support the most intensive workloads. Many hard drives and SATA-based SSDs aren’t able to provide that consistent speed.
Software that provides health check, benchmarking, and other toolbox capabilities can help businesses extend their SSDs’ lives and identify problems before they cause a greater issue while running.
To select the best solid state drives for your storage environments, consider the following points:
We started with a list of 10 NVMe solid state drives that met our initial gating criteria qualifying them as useful for enterprise environments and scored them on a number of criteria, including range of available storage capacities, read and write speeds, and pricing, and additional features like encryption, bundled software, length of warranty, and available heatsinks.
Based on those weighted scores, we dropped the four lowest-scoring drives and analyzed the results to determine our use case categories.
Note that we do not list pricing for drives with capacities less than 1 TB, and all pricing is based on Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) and does not include markdowns or sales. Real world pricing may vary.
The best solid state drives help storage teams support their business’s applications with higher speeds than previously afforded by hard drives. Features like encryption and toolbox software provide additional functionality. SSDs have become essential for storage teams that prioritize both speed and reliability for their storage systems.
Is your storage team considering a benchmarking solution? Read about the best SSD benchmark tools next.
Jenna Phipps is a staff writer for Enterprise Storage Forum and eSecurity Planet, where she covers data storage, cybersecurity and the top software and hardware solutions in the storage industry. She’s also written about containerization and data management. Previously, she wrote for Webopedia. Jenna has a bachelor's degree in writing and lives in middle Tennessee.
Enterprise Storage Forum offers practical information on data storage and protection from several different perspectives: hardware, software, on-premises services and cloud services. It also includes storage security and deep looks into various storage technologies, including object storage and modern parallel file systems. ESF is an ideal website for enterprise storage admins, CTOs and storage architects to reference in order to stay informed about the latest products, services and trends in the storage industry.
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