Consumer SSD Reviews
StorageReview.com SSD reviews cover both consumer and enterprise SSD reviews. Flash storage comes in a variety of interfaces which is how the SSD communicates with the computer. Our SSD reviews category covers NVMe SSDs and SATA SSDs for end users. NVMe SSDs are typically much faster, but more expensive, than SATA SSDs. NVMe SSD adoption is accelerating though as the SATA lifecycle is nearing the end; most new laptops and desktops will have NVMe flash storage inside. NVMe SSDs aren't always going to be high-performance though, NVMe SSD speed depends on a variety of factors. StorageReview SSD reviews clearly focus on SSD speed, but there's much more to consider like flash technology used, SSD controller, drive capacity, and price, to best understand where each SSD is best.
NVMe may be the most popular interface for consumer SSDs, but SSDs come in a number of shapes and sizes as well. Most common still is the standard 2.5" form factor that SSDs have used for years. M.2 NVMe SSDs are gaining popularity in space constrained use cases, like notebooks and portable workstations. PCs often use M.2 NVMe SSDs too, because many more of them can be put into a system often via PCIe card that can house four or even eight drives. 2.5" NVMe SSDs still have a capacity advantage though, as there's more room to put flash storage modules on the PCB. Lastly some vendors prefer the NVMe add-in card (PCIe card) because it offers the most room for flash inside a PC.
For help deciding on an SSD for your system or to get support, please post to our SSD Forums.
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April 3rd, 2018 by Lyle Smith
Kingston A1000 M.2 NVMe SSD Review
The Kingston A1000 is a high-performance, budget NVMe SSD that uses the standard M.2 2280 form factor with a PCIe Gen3 x2 interface. While there are higher-performance options available now such as the KC1000, which was the company’s first dabble in the PCIe NVMe market, the A1000 is more in line with Kingston's usual budget-friendly, price per performance storage products.
March 16th, 2018 by Lyle Smith
Intel Optane SSD 900P Series Review
The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series is a high-endurance NVMe SSD designed for the storage-demanding workloads in client systems. The series comes in PCIe and 2.5” form factors and has a range of different use cases such as engineering workloads, media creation (specifically game development), and gaming. Though the 900P has been available for quite some time, we have been working on a new CGI-rendering benchmark to properly illustrate Optane's performance profile. That test is fully online now; the results were worth the wait.
March 8th, 2018 by Lyle Smith
Intel Optane 800P NVMe SSD Review
The Optane 800P is Intel’s latest storage product for end users. This new M.2 NVMe SSD is equipped with 3D XPoint memory and storage controllers and is designed for fast application loading, RAID configurations, and fast boot for mobile and desktop platforms. In this new SSD release, Intel has put its toe in the water with Optane Memory technology again, which is designed to accelerate slow storage and deliver faster responsiveness.
February 26th, 2018 by Lyle Smith
Samsung 860 EVO SSD Review (1TB)
The Samsung 860 EVO 1TB is the mid-range capacity model of the company’s newest consumer SSD line, which was announced concurrently at CES 2018 with the Samsung 860 PRO. Like the previous generations of this immensely popular line, Samsung’s new 860 EVO SSDs are designed for general desktop use cases and those who won’t be going too far in queue depths.
February 5th, 2018 by Adam Armstrong
Samsung 860 EVO SSD Review
Along with the Samsung 860 PRO that was announced at CES 2018 for high-end users, the company has also released a new 860 EVO. The EVO line is aimed for more mainstream uses for notebooks and desktops. Making improvements on the 850 EVO, the 860 EVO has six times the sustained performance of the 850 and has quoted speeds of 550MB/s read and 520MB/s write, which is only a hair over the quoted speeds of the 850 EVO on read and the same on write.
January 23rd, 2018 by Adam Armstrong
Intel SSD 760p Review
Intel is expanding its 3D NAND SSDs and its NVMe footprint with today’s release of the Intel SSD 760p Series. This M.2 SSD leverages an NVMe interface and the benefits that one would expect from it: mainly a performance increase and lower power consumption. The M.2 form factor also makes it ideal for mobile platforms such as ultra-thin notebooks.
January 23rd, 2018 by Lyle Smith
Samsung 860 PRO SSD Review
The Samsung 860 PRO is the company’s latest and greatest consumer SSD that’s ready to make an impact on the market. The Samsung SSDs have been the most popular and easily the best price/performance drives over the past several years, with the last model (Samsung 850 PRO) setting a new bar in performance and capacity in a consumer drive. Featuring the latest 512Gb and 256Gb 64-layer V-NAND, 8Gb LPDDR4 mobile DRAM and a new MJX controller, the Samsung 860 PRO is specced to deliver the same results. Samsung states that their new MJX controller allows for faster communication with the host system, has improved Linux compatibility, and can effectively handle workstation storage.
January 19th, 2018 by Adam Armstrong
Plextor M9Pe(G) NVMe SSD Review (512GB)
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Introduced at CES 2018, the new Plextor M9Pe Series of SSDs are aimed at end users looking for more performance in their drives. While the Series has three models aimed at three slightly different use cases, for this review we will be focused on the M9Pe(G). The M9Pe(G) is a M.2 NVMe SSD that is ideal for gamers and prosumers that need high performance in a smaller form factor.
January 10th, 2018 by Adam Armstrong
Crucial MX500 SSD Review (500GB)
A couple of weeks ago we received and review the 1TB version of Crucial’s new MX500 SSD. As we stated then, this new 2.5” drive is being marketed as a drop in replacement for HDDs or a low cost flash option for OEMs. The drive was released in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities and both 2.5” an M.2 form factors (though the M.2 tops out at 1TB).
December 22nd, 2017 by Adam Armstrong
Crucial MX500 SSD Review
Crucial has expanded its MX line of SSDs with the addition of the MX500 SATA SSD. The drive comes in two form factors: either 2.5” or M.2. It also comes in several capacities ranging from 250GB up to 2TB, though the 2TB version is for the 2.5” form factor only. The drive is being billed as a drop in replacement for HDDs or a low cost flash alternative for system builders and OEMs.