Upgrading your PC storage to an SSD has been one of the best ways to upgrade your rig for years, but these days, the best SSDs are primarily M.2 drives. This interface has quickly become the favorite of SSD manufacturers, thanks to its small size and extremely fast connection speed to your motherboard. Plus, it helps that the best PS5 SSDs are all M.2 drives, because, well, nothing else is even compatible with the console.
TL;DR – These are the Best M.2 SSDs:
Samsung 990 PRO SSD – The best M.2 SSDWD_Black SN850X – Best M.2 SSD for gamingCrucial T705 – Best PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDKingston NV2 – Best budget M.2 SSDCorsair MP600 PRO LPX – Best M.2 SSD for compact builds
The M.2 slot is a variation on a PCIe slot, as it uses the same connection lanes that something like a graphics card does. This allows M.2 SSDs to have much more bandwidth and less latency, as the CPU has to do less work to access it. This also means whenever there’s a generational leap in PCIe connectivity, M.2 SSDs get faster. We’re right in the middle of PCIe 5.0 making its mark on the SSD market right now, after all.
But while M.2 SSDs used to be cutting-edge technology, they’ve been out long enough that these drives are actually affordable. If you don’t need to have the absolute fastest SSD on the market, you can get a pretty solid drive like the Kingston NV2 for less than the price of a new AAA PC game. So, whether you want a bleeding-edge PCIe 5.0 SSD or you just need a cheap drive to run Windows 11 off of, we’ve gathered up some of our favorites.
Contributions by Gabriela Vatu
1. Samsung 990 PRO
The Best M.2 SSD
The Samsung 990 Pro is one of the best SSDs, period, so it shouldn’t be that surprising it tops the list here. Thanks in large part to its fast controller, the 990 Pro is one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 drives out there. We’re talking sequential read speeds of up to 7,450 MB/s and random reads of up to 1.2 million IOPs – this means it’s fast whether you’re booting up your PC or trying to load into your match faster than anyone else.
However, this is Samsung’s flagship SSD, which means it’s a bit on the pricey side. You’re looking at a price tag of $159.99 to get in the door, but that price is going to get you a solid 1TB of storage, so it’s not like you’re paying almost $200 for 120GB or something. It’s not 2012 anymore, after all.
2. WD_Black SN850X
Best M.2 SSD for Gaming
Western Digital’s Black line of drives has been the go-to for PC gaming since the early 2000s, so if you’re sick of waiting for your games to load, the WD_Black SN850X SSD should be at the top of your list. Thanks to its high random read/write speeds, this drive is especially good at loading games, whether that means the initial loading screen or waiting for the world to render as you travel.
The WD_Black SN850X also comes with Western Digital’s software suite that allows you to monitor the drive’s health and optimize its performance over time. Combine that with a healthy warranty and you can be pretty sure this drive will last for years. Plus, it comes in a variant with an attached heatsink, which is perfect for the PS5.
3. Crucial T705
Best PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSD
The PS5 brought PCIe 4.0 drives to the mainstream, but if you want cutting-edge performance to boost your creative workflows, you may want a little more juice. That’s where the Crucial T705 comes in. This is a PCIe 5.0 drive with read/write speeds of up to 13,600/10,200 MB/s, with that kind of speed you’ll feel like you’ve replaced Fred Flinstone’s car with a Ferrari.
That being said, the cost of adopting early technology like this is high. This drive starts at $175 and scales incredibly quickly if you try to get more storage. However, if your workload includes apps like Adobe Premiere and Blender, this is the kind of horsepower that will pay for itself over time. But if you just want an SSD to throw into your gaming PC, it’s probably not worth it.
4. Kingston NV2
Best Budget M.2 SSD
A far more wallet-friendly M.2 SSD is the Kingston NV2. You lose some of the theoretical speed of other drives, but for most people the difference will be marginal at best. What really drives the price down is the QLC NAND memory, which is slightly less durable than TLC NAND. Still, though, this drive will last for years with no issue.
This M.2 SSD offers significant improvements over traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) with its fast read/write speeds of up to 3,500/2,400 MB/s. This makes it perfect for anyone looking for a budget drive for their PC. This drive is also theoretically fast enough for the PS5, but you’ll have to buy a heatsink to install with it.
5. Corsair MP600 PRO LPX
Best M.2 SSD for Compact Builds
Corsair is still relatively new to the SSD space, but the Corsair MP600 PRO LPX is another fantastic choice, whether you’re gaming or creating content. It delivers incredible read/write speeds of up to 7,100/6,800 MB/s, making it ideal for gaming and content creation. However there is a bit of a drawback. Because this drive is only sold with a heatsink attached, it’s a pain to use with some of the best motherboards that use their own SSD heatsinks. This is a non-issue if you’re trying to toss it in your PS5, though.
Even with its built-in heatsink, though, the Corsair MP600 Pro LPX also has a low-profile design, which makes it perfect for compact builds.
How to Pick the Best M.2 SSD
M.2 SSDs come in multiple sizes, so the first step is to take a look at your motherboard to see which type of M.2 drives it supports. For the most part, you’re going to be safe sticking with an M.2 2280 drive, but some compact motherboards limit you to a smaller drive, like an M.2 2230. One such device is the Steam Deck, which supports any SSD…as long as it’s a tiny 2230 drive.
As a general rule, also, the newer the SSD is, the faster it’s going to be. Currently PCIe 5.0 drives are hitting the market that are theoretically faster than the PCIe 4 drives that came before. However that extra speed will only be unlocked if you pair it with a new CPU – anything newer than 12th-gen for Intel or 7th-gen for AMD. Don’t be too worried if you accidentally pick up a PCIe 5.0 drive with an older processor though, as long as your computer has an M.2 slot on its motherboard, it’ll work, it just won’t be as fast as it could be.
If you’re specifically looking for a PS5 SSD, you’re going to want to make sure it comes with a heatsink. This is typically a little piece of metal that helps the microchips on the SSD dissipate heat, which builds up during intense workloads. You can buy an aftermarket SSD heatsink, too, just make sure it fits in the PS5’s SSD slot (it should).
You should also make sure the drive you’re getting is fast enough to be compatible. Now, Sony technically has a list of compatible drives, but it usually lags a bit behind new drives coming out. As a rule of thumb, look for an M.2 SSD that’s PCIe 4.0 or newer, and can hit up to 5,500MB/s of sequential read speeds. Luckily when you go to install your PS5 SSD, part of the process is running a speed test on it, so you’ll know if it’s incompatible pretty quickly.
Finally, there’s the price. M.2 SSDs used to be extremely expensive, but now that they’ve kind of become the default form factor for SSDs, the prices have dropped significantly. You can find 1TB M.2 drives for about $100, and if you just need a 120GB drive to install your OS on, you can get away with spending as little as $20.
M.2 SSDs FAQ
Which M.2 slot should I use on my motherboard?
It sucks, but the answer really is “it depends on your motherboard.” Your first step should be checking your motherboard manual to see if it tells you which slot has the most bandwidth. But if you can’t find your manual or for whatever other reason, a general rule of thumb is the slot with the least physical distance from your CPU will generally be the best slot to put your shiny new SSD in.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. She’s been writing about gaming PCs for almost a decade and has been building them even longer. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
