Compare SSD, HDD, NVMe, and cloud storage on speed, cost, and capacity.
NVMe Gen 4 for boot + apps. HDD for media library + cold backup. SATA SSD for middle ground.
Gen 5 hits 12 GB/s read. Gen 4 at 7 GB/s is plenty for 99% of users.
3 copies, 2 media, 1 offsite. All SSDs eventually fail, usually suddenly.
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Each option has a 1–10 score on multiple criteria (drawn from public reviews, benchmarks, and spec sheets). Your importance weights multiply each criterion's score, then we sum and normalize.
The best option depends on your priorities. Weighting lets you see how the answer changes when you care more about, e.g., camera than battery.
No. No affiliate codes, no sponsor bias, no paid rankings. Scores are based on verifiable public data.
Scores reflect current flagship models. We refresh 2–3 times per year as new generations launch.
This tool compares ecosystems. For specific model matchups, use the related comparison tools.
Every boot drive in 2026 should be NVMe. SATA SSDs are twilight tech — fine for bulk, not for OS/apps. HDDs still have a role in one place: archival bulk storage, where $/TB matters more than speed.
| Storage type | Speed (seq read) | $/TB | Endurance (TBW) | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVMe Gen 5 (e.g. T705) | 14,000 MB/s | $140/TB (2TB) | 1,200 TBW | Boot + games (high-end) |
| NVMe Gen 4 (SN850X) | 7,300 MB/s | $85/TB (2TB) | 1,200 TBW | Boot + games (standard) |
| NVMe Gen 3 (SN570) | 3,500 MB/s | $55/TB (2TB) | 600 TBW | Budget boot drive |
| SATA SSD (870 EVO) | 560 MB/s | $65/TB (4TB) | 2,400 TBW | Bulk photos/media |
| HDD 3.5" CMR (WD Red Plus) | 200 MB/s | $22/TB (14TB) | 180 TB/yr workload | NAS, backup |
| HDD 3.5" SMR (budget) | 150 MB/s | $18/TB | ~90 TB/yr | Archive only |
| Cloud (Backblaze B2) | ~100 Mbps down | $72/TB/yr | Unlimited | Off-site backup |
| Cloud (Amazon S3 Glacier) | Hours to retrieve | $48/TB/yr | Unlimited | Cold archive |
Boot drive speeds beyond NVMe Gen 4 are mostly invisible. Windows boots in 8 seconds on any modern NVMe. Game loading: a test of Cyberpunk 2077 loading a save on Gen 5 (11s) vs Gen 4 (13s) vs Gen 3 (15s) vs SATA SSD (22s) shows the curve: SATA to NVMe matters, beyond Gen 4 matters little. DirectStorage games (Forspoken, Ratchet & Clank PC) benefit more from Gen 4/5 than older titles.
Three copies of data, on two different media, with one off-site. Practical setup: primary on NVMe (copy 1), NAS with CMR drives in RAID or SnapRAID (copy 2), cloud backup to Backblaze or iDrive (copy 3 / off-site). Cost for 4 TB of photos + docs: $0 NVMe (already have), $250 NAS drives, $72/yr Backblaze. Never lose data to a drive failure.
TBW (terabytes written) ratings: consumer Gen 4 NVMes at 2TB are rated for 1,200 TBW. Heavy use is ~10 TBW per year for most users. You'll reach >10 years before hitting endurance limits. HDD annual failure rates (Backblaze data): 0.7-1.5% average across major vendors. Don't rely on a single HDD for anything irreplaceable. RAID is not a backup — it's uptime.
$/TB/yr: iCloud 2TB is $120/yr (~60/TB), Google One 2TB is $100 (~50/TB), Dropbox Plus 2TB is $120, OneDrive 6TB (Microsoft 365 Family) is $99 total (~16/TB). Microsoft 365 Family at $99/yr with 6TB + Office apps is the value leader. Backup-focused (not sync): Backblaze Personal Backup $9/mo unlimited, Backblaze B2 $6/TB/mo (object storage).
| Drive | Controller | Seq read | Seq write | 4K random read | Price (2TB) | DRAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crucial T705 Gen 5 | Phison E26 | 14,500 MB/s | 12,700 MB/s | 1,550K IOPS | $279 | Yes (2GB) |
| Samsung 990 Pro Gen 4 | Samsung Elpis | 7,450 MB/s | 6,900 MB/s | 1,400K IOPS | $169 | Yes |
| WD Black SN850X Gen 4 | WD proprietary | 7,300 MB/s | 6,600 MB/s | 1,200K IOPS | $159 | Yes |
| Crucial T500 Gen 4 | Phison E25 | 7,400 MB/s | 7,000 MB/s | 1,180K IOPS | $139 | Yes |
| Lexar NM790 Gen 4 DRAM-less | MaxioTech MAP1602 | 7,400 MB/s | 6,500 MB/s | 900K IOPS | $129 | No (HMB) |
| WD Blue SN5000 Gen 4 DRAM-less | SanDisk | 5,150 MB/s | 4,900 MB/s | 750K IOPS | $119 | No (HMB) |
| Samsung 990 EVO Plus Gen 4/5 | Samsung Presto | 7,250 MB/s | 6,300 MB/s | 1,050K IOPS | $139 | Yes |
Gen 5 NVMe is genuinely faster on paper and meaningfully faster only for large sequential workloads (4K raw video editing, game assets during DirectStorage decompression, scientific data). The Crucial T705 at $279 for 2TB is ~70% more expensive than Samsung 990 Pro ($169) for a 2x peak bandwidth gain you'll rarely see. Gen 5 drives run 15-20°C hotter than Gen 4 — require tall heatsinks (Thermalright HR-09 Pro, $20) or motherboard-integrated heatsinks or they thermal throttle within 30 seconds of sustained writes. For most users in 2026: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB at $169 or WD Black SN850X 2TB at $159 remain the best Gen 4 sweet spots, 95% of Gen 5 real-world performance at 60% of the cost and a fraction of the heat.
DRAM cache (1-2GB DDR4 on the SSD PCB) stores the Flash Translation Layer map for instant lookups. DRAM-less SSDs use Host Memory Buffer (HMB) — borrowing 64MB of system RAM. For consumer workloads (gaming, OS, light content creation), HMB DRAM-less drives (Lexar NM790, WD Blue SN5000, Samsung 990 EVO non-Plus) are within 5% of DRAM drives at 60-70% of the cost. Where DRAM matters: sustained random writes on partially-full drives, NAS cache duty, and video scrubbing large project files. For a boot drive or single gaming drive, DRAM-less is fine. For a content creator working on 4K ProRes timelines or a developer compiling Rust builds on large codebases, DRAM drives (990 Pro, SN850X, T500) stay consistently fast where DRAM-less drives stutter.
| Drive | Interface | Speed | Encryption | 4K read random | Price (2TB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung T9 Shield | USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps) | 2,000 MB/s | 256-bit AES hardware | 700K IOPS | $179 |
| Samsung T7 Shield | USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) | 1,050 MB/s | 256-bit AES | 500K IOPS | $139 |
| SanDisk Pro-G40 (discontinued) | Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps) | 3,000 MB/s | 256-bit AES | 900K IOPS | $329 used |
| Crucial X10 Pro | USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) | 2,100 MB/s | 256-bit AES | 850K IOPS | $169 |
| OWC Envoy Pro FX | Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3.2 | 2,800 MB/s | None (OS encryption) | 680K IOPS | $299 |
| Lexar Professional Go Portable | USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) | 1,050 MB/s | TCG Opal 2.0 | 450K IOPS | $119 |
For iPhone 16 Pro and 17 Pro series (ProRes 4K60 recording direct to external SSD): need USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) minimum — ProRes 422 HQ 4K60 writes at 700 MB/s sustained. Samsung T9 Shield at USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps) is the first phone-compatible portable SSD that won't throttle on long takes. For MacBook Pro M4 Pro/Max video editing: OWC Envoy Pro FX on Thunderbolt 3 remains the gold standard ($299 for 2TB); SanDisk Pro-G40 is discontinued but still sold refurbished. For laptop backup and general file transport, Samsung T7 Shield at $139 (2TB) is the overwhelming value pick — IP65 rated, drop-tested to 3m.
CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) drives — WD Red Plus (NAS), WD Red Pro, Seagate IronWolf, Toshiba N300 — write sequentially, handle small random writes cleanly, are RAID-safe. SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drives — WD Red (no "Plus"), some Seagate BarraCuda — overlap tracks, have massive write amplification on random workloads, and can fall out of RAID arrays during rebuilds. CRITICAL: verify CMR before buying for NAS. As of April 2026, WD Red Plus 14TB CMR runs $219 (Amazon). IronWolf 14TB CMR: $229. Avoid plain WD Red (red label) for anything beyond simple USB backup. RAID strategy for home: SHR / SHR-2 on Synology, RAID-Z1 or Z2 on TrueNAS. RAID is for uptime, not backup — always maintain off-site cloud backup (Backblaze B2 at $6/TB/mo) via Hyper Backup or Restic/rclone. A 4-bay NAS with 4x 14TB CMR in SHR = 42TB usable, $900 drive cost, survives one drive failure.
File sync (active files, multi-device): OneDrive (6TB with M365 Family $99/yr, $16/TB/yr — the clear value winner), iCloud (tight Apple integration, $120/yr for 2TB), Google Drive, Dropbox. Dropbox has the best cross-platform sync reliability; OneDrive is the best value. Backup (disaster recovery for all files): Backblaze Personal Backup at $9/mo unlimited remains unbeaten for value — backs up everything on a Mac or PC, runs silently, excellent restore. iDrive and CrashPlan are alternatives. Object storage (pro/dev use): Backblaze B2 ($6/TB/mo), Wasabi ($7/TB/mo flat, no egress fees), Cloudflare R2 (no egress fees, pay for storage + operations). For photographers uploading multi-TB shoots, Wasabi's no-egress policy saves real money if you ever need to restore. For personal cold archive: B2 + rclone to a local Synology is a 3-2-1 gold standard at under $100/yr for 1 TB.
SD UHS-II V90 (180+ MB/s sustained write): SanDisk Extreme Pro, Sony Tough-G, ProGrade Cobalt. $80-120 for 128GB. Required for 4K60 10-bit H.265 + 6K cameras. SD UHS-I V30 (30 MB/s sustained): fine for 4K30, not for 4K60. CFexpress Type B (PCIe Gen 3 x2): 1,700 MB/s write, required for 8K RAW on Canon R5/R5 Mark II, Nikon Z8/Z9. ProGrade Gold 325GB at $349, Sony Tough 512GB at $599. CFexpress Type A (Sony-exclusive): 800 MB/s, used in Sony A7 IV, A7R V, A1 II. Sony Tough 160GB at $349. microSD: Samsung Pro Ultimate 512GB at $69 — use in Steam Deck, Switch 2, dashcams. Avoid no-name microSD cards entirely — counterfeits are rampant on Amazon, and failure mid-shoot is catastrophic. ProGrade and Sony Tough have the strongest track records; SanDisk Extreme Pro is the most widely available.
For DirectStorage games, maybe. For everything else, no — Gen 4 is already overkill for 99% of users. Gen 5 runs hot and demands heatsinks.
For bulk storage (NAS, backup, cold archive) at $20/TB, yes. For boot drives or primary game storage, no.
Use Macrium Reflect Free (Windows) or Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac) to clone. Plug new drive into USB enclosure, clone, swap physically. 1-2 hours for a 1TB drive.
Safer than local for fire/theft/drive-failure scenarios. Encrypt sensitive data locally before upload (Cryptomator is free). Don't trust any one provider — use 2 at minimum.
QLC SSDs (Samsung 870 QVO, Crucial P3) are slower and have worse endurance than TLC. Fine for bulk game storage, avoid for boot drives.