Now is a great time to upgrade the storage in your gaming PC build, as Amazon has not one but two decent PCIe 4.0 drives discounted right now, with prices starting from just $59.99 for a 1TB Crucial P3 Plus in this limited-time deal. That’s not the only gaming SSD deal up for grabs right now either, as you can also grab our current favorite SSD right now, the WD Black SN850X, for just $79.99 if you buy the 1TB version.
The WD drive is currently sitting pretty at the top of our best SSD for gaming guide, as the best overall option for most people, thanks to its great read and write speeds and solid gaming performance. It usually goes for $99.99 or higher, so it’s great to be able to pick one up for just $79.99 right now. Meanwhile, the Crucial drive is a little slower, but is still quick enough for most people’s needs, and offers loads of storage capacity for the price.
Both these drives use the 4x PCIe 4.0 interface, which means they can hit speeds well in excess of any PCIe 3.0 drives, such as the Samsung 980. They’re not as fast as the latest PCIe 5.0 drives, such as the Crucial T705, but they also don’t need ridiculous coolers to keep them cool, and you don’t need a PCIe 5.0 motherboard for them to run at top speed either.
My top tip here would be to pay the extra money for the WD drive. In our WD Black SN850X review, we were impressed by this drive’s fast speeds. It hit 6,973MB/s in our sequential read test, beating the Samsung 980 Pro, and not being far off WD’s 7,300MB/s top claim. It also hit a write speed of 6,379MB/s, which is well ahead of the 4,913MB/s of the Samsung 980 Pro.
Importantly, this drive also has a Game Mode that prioritizes loading game files in order to cut waiting times, and it works, with both Battlefield V and Call of Dury: Black Ops 4 loading significantly quicker on this drive than on the Samsung 990 Pro in our tests.
At its usual price, the WD Black SN850X already offers decent value, but it’s a steal at $79.99 in this deal. While this drive doesn’t get anywhere near as hot as the latest PCIe 5.0 drives, though, it can still get toasty under load, and we recommend fitting a heatsink to it – most motherboards come with heatsinks that will be up to the job these days.
If you want to run this drive at full speed, you’ll need a motherboard with a 4x PCIe 4.0 M.2 connector, so check your motherboard manual before you purchase it. This drive will also work fine in a PCIe 5.0 slot, and it will also work in a PCIe 3.0 slot, but it will run at about half its maximum speed in the latter.
If you’re looking to save a bit more money, but still bag a decent SSD, then look no further than this Crucial P3 Plus deal, using this link here. This SSD also uses the PCIe 4.0 interface, giving it the edge over older PCIE 3.0 drives, but it’s still quick enough for most folks. It can hit a sequential read speed of up to 5,000MB/s, which is still well ahead of any PCIe 3.0 drive, and the same goes for its 4,200MB/s maximum write speed. It’s not a speed demon, but it’s still a decent SSD, and it’s great to be able to get 1TB of PCIe 4.0 storage for just $59.99.
If you’ve never upgraded your SSD before, check out our guide on how to install an SSD, where we take you through the whole process, including fitting a heatsink.