With several drops in the price of the smaller models, the invasion of Chinese brands, ever-larger Windows 10 updates, and the general desire to see our computers run faster, the logical solution is to upgrade your storage to a solid state drive. If your budget is tight, the good news is that you don't need to spend more than 50 euros to dramatically improve your PC's performance, but you shouldn't overlook the possibility of speeding up your entire Steam library with a secondary SSD.
It's not hard to find horror stories about how long Windows 10 takes to install its updates. Some users have said they were forced to hand over control of their computers for hours, and once the process finishes everything works fine again… but it remains irritating. The problem is that those giant updates turn conventional hard drives into automatic bottlenecks. A new "normal" hard drive (say, a Western Digital Blue) can read at 150 MB/s (sequential), and that's enough for most office tasks, but today we need more. An average SSD is so fast that it easily saturates the SATA interface. In fact, M.2 units laugh in the face of that limitation, and even on a very bad day they break the gigabyte-per-second barrier without breaking a sweat. With such raw performance within reach, the question is: What are we waiting for?
The best SSDs on the market
The solid state offer at the moment is abundant. Our first choice is to go in the direction of well-known names with a solid reputation, but there is a new series of Chinese brands that keep gaining ground, propelled by low prices that become irresistible even when the official warranty isn't as robust. Today we are going to explore a bit of all that.
Kingston A400
One of the best-selling models, and with a price too attractive to pass up, the Kingston A400 will give you 240 GB of solid state storage for under 50 euros. Its SATA3 interface caps the maximum speed at around 500 MB/s, but at the same time it guarantees compatibility with almost any computer that has a free SATA port. If the price still feels too steep, don't worry: the 120 GB version costs 30 euros.
Samsung 970 EVO
Our first entry for Samsung on this list, but not the last. The 970 EVO is without a doubt one of the best products the Korean manufacturer offers, and although it doesn't bring radical improvements compared to the 960 EVO, it is a good evolutionary step. The Samsung 970 EVO is expensive, but its 3.5 GB per second sequential and five-year official warranty close the deal immediately. (Remember: This is NVMe, you need the correct port on your motherboard.)
KingDian S200
From the depths of Aliexpress to the Amazon stage, KingDian has taken more than one by surprise. Its write speeds are lower than those of a normal hard drive, but if the plan is to upgrade an old computer with a broken hard drive (something like a Dell or HP terminal) with minimal investment, the KingDian S200 60 GB costs less than 20 euros. It's a gamble… exactly what some users want.
Corsair MP500
One detail about NVMe SSDs is that they still need to become a budget-friendly option. The most effective way to cut euros without sacrificing quality or performance is by reducing the available space, and that brings us to Corsair, which offers its MP500 in 120 GB for 75 euros. The 240 GB edition doesn't have a good price right now (it's preferable to buy the 970 EVO), but it's worth keeping an eye on.
Samsung 860 EVO
“No Lisandro, I want more capacity.” And capacity you will have, as long as you are willing to invest just over 100 euros in a Samsung 860 EVO. It won't be NVMe, but having half a terabyte of SSD for all your games is a real pleasure. Many users have chosen the 860 EVO as a “Steam depot” while using a smaller SSD for the operating system, and I think that's not a bad idea.
As always, if you think we should add another SSD to this list, don't hesitate to leave a comment. I know available models vary greatly from one place to another, and that the best intentions can end up neutralized by prohibitive prices, so if you've found a deal, share it! Good luck!
