best ssd to replace hdd
A solid state drive is more affordable than ever and easy to install, so there’s really no reason to not upgrade any of your devices. In 2022, if you have a laptop, gaming console, or PC that still has a spinning hard drive, you should do so. It can just make your life easier if you upgrade your laptop to a bigger one, even if it came with a 128GB SSD. Best ssd to replace hdd will give you the best performance you can get in any storage for your PC. Other than performance, you will enjoy reliability and a very long life span.
In spite of the fact that SSDs are no doubt a no-brainer, choosing the right one can be challenging due to a sea of confusing terms. Having tested the best SSDs, we believe the Samsung 860 EVO is the best overall SSD. With a 5-year warranty, it works with most laptops on the market, is fast, and is competitively priced.
In spite of this, most SSDs perform about the same, unless you have a high-end laptop with faster “NVMe” memory (we’ll talk about those later). However, it’s still best to shop around, and if any other drive we tested is substantially cheaper, you can go with it without losing out on much performance. Although the Samsung 860 EVO is still our favorite drive for most people, we recommend you shop around as well.
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Samsung 860 EVO SSD (2.5-inch 1TB)
Capacity: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
Formats: 2.5-inch, M.2, mSATA
Warranty: 5-year limited warranty
In early this year, Samsung released the 860 EVO as a follow-up to its 850 EVO, which was immensely popular. While the 850 EVO is still being sold, the 860 EVO is its successor and comes with a number of improvements that make it more durable and perform more smoothly for longer periods of time.
Although both are limited to the maximum speed of the SATA III interface, the 860 EVO was a hair faster in our tests. The 860 is now cheaper than the 850 as it is leaving the market.
Although the 860 EVO is not as cheap as the lowest-priced drives available, it is slightly better than the least expensive ones, as well as offering a 5-year warranty and a capacity of up to 4TB (though M.2 versions can only hold up to 2TB), and offering features such as hardware encryption that may not be available on all drives.
As a whole, we found that the Samsung 860 EVO was the best laptop SSD we tested. Generally, it’s only a tad more expensive than other drives at the same capacity as it does, and it is also great to know that it’s available in almost all form factors and capacities. Samsung 860 EVO SSDs are the best option on the market unless your laptop requires super-fast NVMe SSDs.
Pros
Performance of the highest caliber
A wide range of capacities are available
Warranties of five years
Cons
The price of this SSD is slightly higher than that of other SSDs
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Western Digital WD Blue SSD (2.5-inch 1TB)
Capacity: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Formats: 2.5-inch, M.2
Warranty: 5-year limited warranty
With high read/write speeds, a 5-year warranty, and competitive pricing, WD Blue SSDs are a widely acclaimed, well-priced addition to the market.
For most people, the WD Blue is a cheaper option that performs functionally identically to the Samsung 860 EVO on a daily basis and is rated to withstand more use over time. In addition to lack of hardware encryption, it does not come in a 4TB package, but these are extremely niche concerns.
In terms of performance, the WD Digital Blue differs very little from the other drives we tested, so focusing on value is the best approach. As far as performance, price, and a long warranty are concerned, the WD Blue is the best choice for most people at the moment.
Pros
A high reading/writing speed
Warranty of five years
Cost-effective
Cons
We were unable to find any
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Other SSDs We Tested
SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (2.5-inch 1TB)
Available in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB
A 2.5-inch format is available
The warranty period is three years
There are numerous form factors and capacities available for the SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND SSD, and it is very similar to the WD Blue from Western Digital. As SanDisk acquired Western Digital a few years ago, all these drives are SATA III-compatible. That’s not surprising.
A few months back, we reviewed the Ultra 3D SSD and found it to be right in the middle of the performance pack. The SSD is narrowly behind our fastest SSD, the Samsung 860 EVO, and only slightly ahead of our value pick, which was the SSD with the best performance. With the same speed as the other drives, you’ll be able to replace a hard drive with one that’s very fast, but you will not notice any noticeable difference over other SATA III SSDs.
In our opinion, SanDisk Ultra’s 3-year warranty is a bit behind its 5-year competitor. In some cases, however, some applications that require the drive constantly (such as security systems) may find it more suitable. SanDisk allows you to write to it much more often per day while still honoring the warranty, so it may be more suitable.
Pros
Performance that stands out
Affordably priced
It is possible to write to disks more frequently under warranty
Cons
Warranty of only three years
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Samsung 850 EVO SSD (2.5-inch 1TB)
Available in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB
A 2.5″ format, a M.2 format, and a mSATA format are all available
Limited warranty of five years
Since it’s long been considered the best SSD, the Samsung 850 EVO has been offered at deep discounts for less than other current models. At this point, however, it’s almost off the market and prices are flying.
In most cases, we’d recommend you get the newer 860 EVO because it is faster and usually cheaper than the older 850, so you can get the newer 860 EVO and not have to worry about its stocks running out. However, if you are able to find one at a clearance price, you should know that it is still a drive that can compete with the best drives out there—especially if you are using the slower SATA III standard.
Pros
Performance of excellent quality
Cons
There is no consistency in prices
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Crucial MX500 SSD (2.5-inch 2TB)
Available in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB
A 2.5″ format, a M.2 format, and a mSATA format are all available
Limited warranty of 5 years
It is clear from our testing that most modern SSDs work about the same when they are connected with SATA III or M.2. Most people should simply buy the cheapest NVMe drive that they can afford – especially if it offers a 5-year warranty – and use it—aside from some newer high-performance NVMe drives we’ll test later this year.
There’s no doubt that the Crucial MX500 checks those boxes, and it is as inexpensive when it comes to 250 and 500GB capacities as any other drive we tested. The only issue is that it costs a lot more when it comes to higher capacities.
While the Crucial MX500 performs better than the best SSDs, it isn’t enough to create a noticeable difference over time which you wouldn’t notice with regular use.
Pros
Performance that stands out
Low-capacity and affordable
Cons
It is expensive to increase capacities
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Kingston A400 SSD (2.5-inch 960GB)
Capacity: 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, 960GB
Formats: 2.5-inch
Warranty: 3-year limited warranty
While we were able to test the Kingston A400 SSD very well in our round of testing, it didn’t do enough to compensate for the fact that it offered significantly less capacity and was usually more expensive than its comparable drives. Although the differences in capacity weren’t huge, an extra 20 to 40 gigabytes does make a big difference in performance.
There is only one SSD we have tested that comes in a size smaller than 240GB, so if you have a limited amount of storage capacity needs and are looking for a great SSD for general use, then the Kingston A400 will be an excellent choice. We would not recommend drives that small for PCs or game consoles, but it is a good option to have.
The Kingston A400 wasn’t able to threaten the top spot simply due to its higher price, average performance, and shorter warranty period, but if you find it on a killer sale and it meets your needs, there’s no reason at all to avoid it if you find it on a killer sale.
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How We Tested Solid State Drives
The Tester
The Executive Editor of Reviewed is George. I’ve reviewed almost every type of technology, from cameras and camcorders to smartphones, laptops, and PC components. As someone who has built several custom computers and lost a few screws over the ears while doing so, I know the number of screws I have lost.
You can use anything with a 2.5-inch form factor in a laptop that takes that form factor, but the performance will be limited.
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The Tests
You should be able to easily check out our results since we are using Crystal Disk Mark, a free and readily available program for testing. Anandtech and other sites provide detailed guides to the best SSDs, so we picked our test batch based on market data, user reviews, and current prices. To find out which drives may need to be replaced soon, we contacted each manufacturer about their current product lines.
The Lenovo gaming desktop was used as a secondary drive for each drive to test for ease of use, even though we’re targeting laptop performance. During each test run, Crystal Disk Mark’s full suite of benchmarks (repeated nine times) were used. To make sure our results were within expected norms, we repeated the test run with each drive at least twice.
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What You Need To Know About SSDs
It would be impossible to explain all the differences between SSDs even if you wrote 10,000 words about them, so we’ll keep it simple here. It’s important to know what you’ll need to fit in your laptop or computer before shopping for an SSD. A 2.5-inch drive is a bit bigger than a playing card and fits perfectly into most laptops, game consoles, and computers. Just buy one if you need one and it’ll fit perfectly.
It is also possible to find SSDs that appear like long, thin circuit boards in some slim laptops, which are called “M.2” ports. The reason for the drastic change is the fact that SSDs have really tight memory packs, which obliterates most of the space in 2.5-inch drives. M.2 drives are much more space-efficient, making them perfect for laptops today.
Today’s laptops can take advantage of the space-saving qualities of M.2 sticks.
There are many different lengths available in M.2 SSDs, including those that are up to 80mm long (usually identified by the “2280” in their model name).
Using an M.2 SSD over a 2.5-inch SSD isn’t much of a benefit on some laptops with space for both types of drives. The majority of the drives in this guide are available in both form factors and have the same SATA III speed limit. Just buy the drive that you need and you’ll get roughly the same performance regardless of form factor.
Nevertheless, there’s a new type of SSD called NVMe, which fits in an M.2 slot and can speed up the process. However, your laptop has to support NVMe memory. It’s mostly reserved for high-end gaming laptops and high-end machines (and is more expensive), so we’re leaving this for a later guide.
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Final thoughts on the best ssd to replace hdd
The main difference between SSDs and HDDs is that they both serve the same purpose – storing your laptop or computer’s files. A solid state drive is the future of storage technology since it is powered by NAND (Negative-AND) flash memory and can still provide similar storage capacity to a hard drive.
In addition to the price, SSDs and HDDs also have different storage capacities. Hard drives with more storage capacity can be found for a lower price. If you want lightning fast storage speeds, you should get an SSD, since their performance and tech aren’t comparable to traditional hard drives. Hard drives and solid state drives have their place in the world, but if you want to boost your PC’s performance, an SSD is the right choice.