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SSDs: Buying Advice, Tips, and News
Our 9 Top Picks

Latest SSD Stories

Everyone can use some extra room for photos, videos, and game playing, but no one should ever pay full price for it. Score some serious savings on storage at our fave summer sales event.

By John Burek

Thanks to the "gumstick" M.2 format, SSDs have been shrinking—and getting a lot faster, too. Here's how to buy the right M.2 SSD, along with deep-dive reviews of today's top models.

By John Burek

Forget about email hackers—what if someone nabs your external drive and all the data on it? Thwart thieves with the strong encryption and security features of one of our top-rated drive picks. (We've tested loads of them.)

By Tony Hoffman

Still booting from a hard drive? These budget-minded solid-state drives will give your poky PC a big speed boost. We've tested dozens; these are the best.

By John Burek  & Tony Hoffman

Dump that poky portable hard drive! External solid-state drives are faster and more affordable than ever. Check out our top-rated SSDs, plus detailed advice on how to buy the right one for you.

By Tony Hoffman  & John Burek

Join Generation Flash: Here's everything you need to know to buy the right internal SSD, plus our top picks across all the M.2 and 2.5-inch drives PC Labs has tested.

By Tony Hoffman  & John Burek
3.5

The Sabrent Rocket Nano XTRM is a sturdy, featherweight external SSD that supports Thunderbolt 3, but its maximum capacity of 1TB is a significant limitation for heavy data users.

By Tony Hoffman

Up to 580MB/s data transfer speed, an aluminum body, and its super small design make this portable SSD a win for data storage.

Now price-dropped to $39.97 for a limited time with on-time delivery when you order by June 5.

3.5

Oyen Digital's U34 Bolt is a sturdy, high-performance external SSD that offers up to 8TB of storage, but doesn't perform quite as well as we'd expect from a costly cutting-edge USB4 drive.

By Tony Hoffman

Running out of storage space, or looking for a smart way to back up your Mac? Here's how to choose the best Apple-friendly SSD or hard drive for your needs, plus our top tested picks.

By Tom Brant  & Tony Hoffman

The PlayStation 5's zippy built-in solid-state drive has only so much room for games. Put a higher-capacity M.2 SSD in the console's free slot with one of our favorite upgrade drives.

By Tony Hoffman
3.5

It's pricey per gigabyte and requires its own power source, but SanDisk's puck-shaped Desk Drive delivers loads of fast external solid-state storage to desktop and laptop users.

By Tony Hoffman

Need portable storage that can survive a wilderness trek...or just the worst commute ever? Here's what to look for, plus reviews of the best tough drives we've tested. See our picks for both platter drives and flash-based ones.

By John Burek  & Tony Hoffman
3.5

The Lexar Professional SL600 Portable SSD, an external drive geared to content creators, is handsome and a good performer, but you'll need a computer that supports USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 to get the most out of it.

By Tony Hoffman
4.5
Editors' Choice

The compact ADATA SD810 external SSD is rugged, fast at everyday tasks, and inexpensive, making it an obvious choice if you have a computer that supports its USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface.

By Tony Hoffman
3.0

While it is neither fast nor overly durable for a SATA SSD, the TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z QLC provides up to 4TB of internal storage at a modest price.

By Tony Hoffman

If you’re looking to upgrade your computer to a solid-state drive but don’t want to start everything back up from scratch, here’s how to transfer the data from your old hard drive.

By Whitson Gordon  & Jason Cohen
3.5

The TeamGroup MP44 internal SSD's benchmark results make it a good boot-drive candidate for a budget or mainstream PC, though its random write speeds keep it from the top of the performance pack.

By Tony Hoffman
5.0
Editors' Choice

The near-flawless Crucial T705 is the fastest internal solid-state drive (SSD) we've ever tested, delivering currently untouchable transfer rates (assuming you have a PCI Express 5.0-ready desktop to tame the beast).

By Tony Hoffman