Best SSDs 2018: the top solid-state drives for your PC

For years, if you wanted to expand your computer’s storage, you only really had one choice: hard drives. For the longest time, you were stuck with their spinning disks and tedious transfer speeds. Times have finally changed though, as in 2018, the best SSDs, or solid state drives, are fast enough to free you from the slow crawl of mechanical drives with lightning-fast boot times and file transfers.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to use one of the best PCs to take advantage of the best SSDs. SSDs and the best Ultrabooks are practically made for each other – their lightweight and compact design complementing the speed and portability of SSDs. And, if you’re a console gamer, well, you can just ask any PC gamer and they’ll extol the gaming benefits that the best SSDs afford. And now that in 2018 SSDs are getting bigger, faster, and cheaper by the day, there’s never been a better time to pick up one of the best SSDs.

If you look on Newegg or Amazon, you’ll see there are great SSDs on the market, and they’re available at every price point you can think of – which is a good thing if you’re on a budget. We here at TechRadar, then, have taken this as a cue to create a list of the best SSDs on the market in 2018. And, you can be confident that every SSD on this list is going to be worth your time and money – we’ve tested them ourselves.

As time goes on, and M.2 technology becomes more ubiquitous, it’s easy to see why the Samsung 960 Evo remains the best SSD you can buy in 2018. It’s extremely fast, with read and write times up to 3,200MBps and 1,900MBps respectively. That’s just thanks to its PCIe interface, which simply blows SATA3 out of the water. What’s better, is that it’s capacious, with up to 1TB of space – and provides this space efficiently, peaking at 5.7 watts of power at full load.

Kingston's HyperX line-up is aimed squarely at gamers. Its headsets are known for being much higher quality than their price might hint at, and HyperX customer support is excellent. Its line of SSDs for gaming computers come in an M.2 form factor, but are also available with a half-height adapter that plugs into your PCIe like any other expansion card.

The NVMe standard is designed to maximize the strengths of solid-state drives, and the Samsung 960 Pro takes full advantage. With an M.2 form factor and ridiculous read speeds of up to 3500 MBps, these SSDs are already enticing, but the fact it's available as large as 2TB is incredible. All that storage doesn't come cheap, but if you need lots (and LOTS) of fast storage, it's definitely worth it.

If you're looking for plenty of options, the Toshiba OCZ RD400 series of drives come in 4 sizes and three different form factors: M.2, M.2 2280, and add-in card (AIC). Not all sizes are in all form factors, so if you're looking for a fast 1TB drive, make sure you have room in your computer case.

This product is only available in the US and UK at the time of this writing. Australian readers: check out a fine alternative in the Samsung 960 Evo

This M.2 SSD from WD comes with a 5-year warranty and boasts some pretty excellent read/write times, up to 2050 MBps read and 800 write on the 512GB model. Great for installation or OS purposes, but unfortunately the available sizes don't leave a lot of flexibility as far as storage is concerned.

SATA 3 might not be in vogue among PC enthusiasts anymore, but with the Samsung 860 Pro, Samsung demonstrates there is still some life in the form-factor. Boasting storage of up to 4TB and transfer speeds that approach the theoretical maximum of SATA 3, on top of top-of-the-line security and reliability – the Samsung 860 Pro is the best SSD for anyone still clinging onto SATA 3.

Read the full review: Samsung 860 Pro

The U.2 standard allows for bigger SSD capacities and uses your computer's PCIe x4 slot to send all that data back and forth. The Intel 750 series includes a cable so you can mount the drive in the bay on your case and still plug it into the PCIe slot on your motherboard.

The Samsung 850 Evo was an extremely successful and popular SSD when it released back in 2014, due to its fantastic performance that was affordable and attainable by the masses – so Samsung had a hard act to follow – it succeeded. Though limited by the SATA3 interface, the Samsung 860 Evo delivers performance that iterates on its predecessor with improved read/write speeds and an array of form factors, while maintaining its great price. The 860 Evo is undeniably the best SSD for anyone who is looking to dip their toes into blazing fast loading speeds without having to break open their piggy banks.

Read the full review: Samsung 860 Evo

If you need an SSD that will last into your next computer, the HP S700 Pro has just what you need. Its life will far exceed its warranty, offering up 2 million hours of use and up to 650 terabytes written. This is one SSD that's in it for the long haul, but the SATA interface will slow things down somewhat in the read/write department, which technically helps it last even longer.

This product is only available in the US and UK at the time of this writing. Australian readers: check out a fine alternative in the Samsung 860 Evo

For the longest time, NVMe solid-state storage has been too expensive. However, with their 760p series of SSDs, Intel aims to change this. The 760p delivers performance that’s only slightly behind the Samsung 960 Evo, reaching speeds of 3,056 MB/s read and 1,606 MB/s write. But what makes the Intel 760p the best SSD you can buy is the spectacular price-to-performance ratio of this drive. Sure you can find faster NVMe drives, but you’ll be paying a premium that just isn’t worth it. This drive makes us excited for the future of flash storage.

Read the full review: Intel 760p Series SSD

This product is only available in the US and Australia at the time of this writing. UK readers: check out a fine alternative in the WD Black PCIe SSD

Unless you have a laptop or desktop computer that employs the USB Type-C Gen 2 interface, you might want to reconsider your interest in the Samsung Portable SSD T5. Otherwise, with read/write speeds of up to 540/515MBps, respectively, this external storage device does its best to keep up with some of the more modest PCIe players, and the result is superb.

Read the full review: Samsung Portable SSD T5

Gabe Carey has also contributed to this article

Contributer : Techradar - All the latest technology news http://ift.tt/2faAusc