We’ve tested a lot of hard drives of all sorts over the years from premium to budget options. So, we’re here to help you find the top cheap SSDs for your storage needs. You’ll find a lot of choices out there that don’t sacrifice performance in whichever budget range you’re looking for. Whether you’re searching for the latest PCIe M.2 SSD (opens in new tab), an external SSD, or a SATA-compatible one, you’ll find something that will work for you here no matter what your storage needs are.
There was no such thing as the best cheap SSDs when solid-state drives were first introduced. An SSD was expensive. These were premium upgrades to any computer system that got one. Thankfully, a lot has changed since then and finding reasonably priced solid-state drives is relatively easy these days. And, they’re just as good as those pricier ones from years past – especially when you consider SSDs are often heavily discounted in seasonal sales events Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
While there are plenty of expensive solid state drives (opens in new tab) on the market as well, the top cheap SSDs can keep up when it comes to performance, though they might not offer the same amount of storage. Regardless, if you are on a budget and need more capacity, whether it’s to store creative projects, your overflow of games, or all your work documents, you’ll find the solution to your storage woes here.
Best NVMe M.2 SSD deal
The Crucial P5 Plus gets our pick for the overall best value SSD deal right now if you're looking for the speediest NVMe storage possible. While it's not the fastest product on the market, it's easily the most competitively priced PCIe 4.0 option, meaning it's supporting the latest hardware in non-tech layman's terms. It's quite simply a fantastic option for all use cases – from gaming to creative applications – and a limited 5-year warranty is going to help future-proof your build down the line.
Best budget NVMe SSD deal
The Crucial P3 is the P5 Plus' more budget-focused sibling and carries even more value if you're simply looking for a decent NVMe SSD on a budget. It's PCIe 3.0, which means it won't be quite as speedy (only has write speeds up to 3500MB/s), but it's more than capable for basically any application. It's also still much speedier than the equivalent 2.5-inch SSD, which generally only offer speeds of around 500 MB/S. Overall, this is a super solid drive that comes with plenty of excellent value storage options, from 500MB all the way to 2TB.
Best 2.5-inch SSD deal
No list of the best SSDs ever seems to be complete without the Samsung 850 Evo, which consistently ranks among head of the pack. While the 850 Evo is available as an M.2 and mSATA drive, it’s the standard 2.5-inch drive that proves time and time again to be an SSD you can’t go wrong with.
The 850 EVO comes in a number of different storage sizes, letting you choose what’s right for your budget. With fast read and write speeds, and reliable 3D NAND backed up by a 5-year warranty, the 850 Evo is a great drive from a respected brand. Though the price can fluctuate a bit, now’s a great time to pick one up – especially after the introduction of the Samsung 860 Evo.
Best budget 2.5-inch SSD deal
The Crucial MX500 SSD offers incredible value, giving you plenty of storage per dollar. It comes in the standard 2.5-inch drive size, so it should fit in any standard desktop build, and will also fit in plenty of laptops.
On top of the MX500’s great value is its great performance. Despite the budget price, the MX500 is built using fast, high-endurance 3D NAND flash storage, and comes with a 5-year warranty to back it up. It’s speeds reading and writing data, both big and small, also keep up with the competition.
Best laptop SSD deal
Looking to upgrade your laptop? SanDisk has the answer. The SanDisk Ultra II offers great value and performance per dollar, and with the standard 2.5-inch drive size and only 7mm thickness, it should fit in a wide range of laptops.
The SanDisk Ultra II’s speeds keep up with its closest competitors, but at the 500GB sweet spot, it undercuts the price of other drives. This makes it a sweet pick for a laptop upgrade. It comes with a 3-year warranty.
Best external SSD deal
Western Digital has an external SSD that’s worth the price. While plenty of other external SSDs warrant serious consideration of building your own external SSD by just buying a normal SSD and a USB enclosure separately, the WD’s My Passport manages to offer a price that’s only slightly higher than an internal SSD of the same size. Plus you won’t find a third-party enclosure smaller than the WD My Passport SSD.
Supporting USB-C and USB 3.1 Gen 2, the My Passport external SSD is capable of fast communication with a PC. It’s also small and light, with dimensions of just 1.8 x 3.5 x 0.39 inches and a weight of 1.44 ounces. Of course, with portability comes the question of security, but the My Passport includes 256-bit encryption to keep your data safe from intruders, and it’s drop-tested up to 6.5 feet to keep your data safe from accidents.
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