Leaderboard - Best Hard Drive, SSD and Storage Solutions

Updated 5/1/12

The StorageReview Leaderboard briefly describes the drives that we believe are the best in their given categories. Note, however, that these capsule comments are not a substitute for the full reviews of the drives. To help consumers better sort through the clutter, StorageReview has also put together a Top 10 list of the most important SSD brands to consider when buying an SSD. SMB and Enteprise users may also be interested in upcoming storage webinars to further their storage education.

Be sure to view the drive reviews database for all of our detailed reviews.

SSD (Solid State Drives)

Performance - With the new breed of SATA 6Gb/s interface SSDs starting to hit the market, the first we've seen based on the SandForce controller is also the fastest, posting ridiculous speeds -- if you want the best of the best, look no further than the SanDisk Extreme SSD, Kingston HyperX 3K SSD, OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G or the new Intel SSD 520. Samsung's SSD 830 is another model that can compete in the top space, offering a complete in-house solution filled with Samsung components through and through. For those looking outside the box at other SSD controller technologies with great performance, the Marvell 9174-powered Plextor PX-M3P offers great performance with both consumer and light-enterprise workloads.

Mainstream - Buyers can now get a ton of value from mainstream SATA 6.0Gb/s performance SSDs such as the Marvell-based Plextor M3S and Crucial m4 or SSDs like the OCZ Agility 3 or the OWC Mercury Electra 6G which offer the great SandForce SF-2200 processor, but use more cost-effective asynchronous NAND to drive down total price. These models offer the same great performance as faster models, with a small hit on compressible-data writes versus their more expensive brothers. 

Value - Just like in the mainstream category, SandForce is showing the strength and value of its SF-2200 processor in some value oriented SATA 6.0Gb/s SSDs like the OCZ Solid 3. Still offering a substantial boost in speed over older models, the Solid 3 brings SATA 6.0Gb/s speeds in at a $99 price-point for the 60GB model.

Boot - Boot SSDs have taken on a new meaning in the latest generation of drives to hit the market. With flash prices dropping, 60GB is the new 40GB, which brings much more capacity for users to work around so they aren't so limited. Drives like the OCZ Agility 3, OCZ Solid 3, Corsair Force 3 and others all help fill this market segment with high-performance but lower capacity models.

mSATA- There are a handful of SSDs that don't fit the traditional mold, or in this case interface. The OCZ Nocti mSATA SSD, Intel SSD 310 and the SATA 6Gb/s Micron RealSSD C400 mSATA uses the mSATA port to serve largely as boot duty in compatible notebooks, tablets and the like.

Specialty- The OWC Aura Pro SSD is a high-performance 1.8" SSD that comes in capacities up to 480GB and features a SandForce SF-1200 processor. If you have break-neck speed in mind, look no further than the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 which interfaces through an open PCI-Express slot to give speeds surpassing 1000MB/s.

Enterprise SSD (Solid State Drives)

High-End SLC - The SLC SSD category includes drives that are designed for extremely heavy write-intensive workloads and offer exceptional speeds in demanding environments. This category includes the SATA 6.0Gb/s Micron RealSSD P300 and SAS 6.0Gb/s Toshiba MKx001GRZB, both of which offer great steady-state performance in a wide range of workloads.

Endurance eMLC - When the perfect blend of cost and performance needs to be found, eMLC-based SSDs are turned to in the Enterprise environment. This category includes the SATA 3Gb/s Samsung SSD SM825, offering near-SLC performance levels with a lower TCO. Other high performing models include the SAS 6Gb/s Hitachi Ultrastar SSD400M and SandForce-based SATA 6Gb/s Smart Storage Systems XceedIOPS2 and OWC Mercury Enterprise Pro 6G.

Light/Medium Workload MLC - The Micron RealSSD P400e offers consumer MLC NAND mixed with enterprise-level firmware aimed at ready-heavy light enterprise workloads. Build around the SandForce SF-2582 processor, Smart Storage Systems XceedStor 500S offers top-notch performance with entry-enterprise workloads. With a cross between consumer hardware and enterprise-level firmware, Kingston's SSDNow KC100 gives clients enterprise-level firmware options with consumer pricing. On the consumer side the Plextor PX-M3P also offers strong steady-state performance using consumer Toshiba MLC NAND and a Marvell 9174 controller. Another option is the Intel SSD 520 with over-provisioning that makes an attractive option for enterprise buyers needing high TCO in situations where the workload might not warrant an eMLC or SLC SSD.

PCIe Enterprise SSD (Solid State Drives)

High-End SLC PCIe - When speed, endurance and all out performance are needed, enterprise buyers turn to SLC-based PCIe SSDs. This category includes the LSI SLP-300 WarpDrive, offering six SandForce SF-1500 processors.

Performance MLC - The MLC PCIe category is filled with options like the OCZ Z-Drive 4 and Fusion-io ioDrive Duo, offering exceptional performance in high I/O applications and large storage capacities.

3.5" Desktop Hard Drives

Performance - Our current top choice for consumer performance hard drives is the Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000. Offering capacities up to 3TB, this model offered transfer speeds above 150MB/s, topping the charts and winning our hearts.

Low Power - Thankfully for consumers the green drive space has three very solid entries that when on sale, are all valid choices. However, we have favorites - for always-on applications like home servers, the Seagate Barracuda LP is a nice choice due to its lowest in class idle power consumption and the Western Digital Caviar Green earns a nod for high reliability. The fifth generation Caviar Green, which come in 2.5TB and 3TB capacities, while if you want to take the step up to a 4TB drive, look at the new 4TB Hitachi Deskstar 5K4000.
 

2.5" Notebook Hard Drives

Hybrid Hard Drives - Seagate is the first to re-enter the hybrid hard drive space with the Momentus XT. The drive comes in capacities up to 500GB and beats out all other notebook drives (the VelociRaptor too for that matter) in our real world tests, where the drive is able to effectively use it's extra 4GB flash storage. The 500GB model runs roughly $130, an excellent value for top-line performance. Seagate updated the original XT to the new 750GB Momentus XT, offering a faster SATA 6.0Gb/s interface and 8GB of flash storage.

Performance - In all of our testing, one notebook drive continues to rise to the top - the Western Digital Scorpio Black. After two years, the 320GB Scorpio Black is still a great drive, bested only by the recent release of its bigger brother, the 500GB Scorpio Black.

High Capacity - The Western Digital Scorpio Blue and Samsung SpinPoint M8 hold the spot as best high-capacity 2.5-inch drives. Offering the 9.5mm drive height standard to almost all notebooks, these models offer 1TB capacities with great compatibility. Recently even 7200RPM performance models have reached as high as 750GB, such as the 750GB Seagate Momentus.

2.5" Enterprise Hard Drives

Performance/Enthusiast - A hybrid category more or less created by Western Digital, remains theirs to own with the 5th generation VelociRaptor. Available in 450GB and 600GB formats, these 10,000 RPM SATA drives are the fastest SATA drives available outside of SSDs and have appeal to both desktop power users and enterprise storage markets. They drives are even better in RAID, rivaling mid-range SSD performance. 

Home-Office/SMB Network Storage

0-2 Bay Home/Media NAS - This category includes network storage devices such as the Western Digital My Book Live or My Book Live Duo, packed with a single or dual low-power 3.5" hard drive. These systems like the Buffalo CloudStor don't require any network configuration by the end-user to get up and running. There are even models such as the PogoPlug Mobile that depend entirely on USB hard drives or memory cards plugged in for storage.

2-6 Bay Home-Office/Small-Business NAS - This category includes network storage systems with RAID functionality; including RAID5, RAID6, and RAID10 for performance and data integrity. Systems such as the 4-bay Synology DiskStation DS411+ or 6-bay Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 6 offer top performance with a full range of features for home or business settings.

Business/Enterprise Network Storage

8+ Bay Enterprise NAS - When quality, performance and large storage capacities are needed, models like the Drobo B800i offer enterprise buyers top-in-class performance in all categories.