The Best PCI Express NVMe Solid State Drives (SSDs) for 2026

The WD Black SN850X is an upgrade to Western Digital's high-performance PCI Express 4.0 NVMe internal gaming SSD, the SN850. The SN850X improves on an already excellent drive by giving buyers the option for a 4TB version and an upgrade in flash memory technology that boosts sequential read and write speeds. It turned in improved benchmark results in both gaming and general storage tests (including a new PC Labs record in the 3DMark Storage benchmark for a PCIe 4.0 SSD). You'll definitely want to use a heatsink with this speedster; it's available with or without one. About all it lacks is hardware-based security.

The WD Black SN850X is a great choice as an elite PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD for gaming and/or creative use. It turned in sizzling throughput speeds, and it did well in both our gaming and general storage benchmarks.

The Crucial P3 is a solid choice as a PCI Express 3.0 NVMe SSD to upgrade your system, providing better-than-hard-drive performance at a modest price. As the successor to the Crucial P2, the P3 offers higher capacities and much higher throughput speeds at a lower cost per gigabyte, thanks to Micron's switch from TLC to QLC flash memory for this drive. The drawback is that the change lowers the P3's write-durability rating, making it best for tasks that don't consistently write very large amounts of data to the drive. The controller lacks a DRAM cache, which can cause a performance hit for large file transfers. That said, in our testing for everyday tasks, the P3 generally scored well in the PCMark 10 benchmarks.

The Crucial P3 provides on-point performance in a PCI Express 3.0 NVMe SSD. Its QLC NAND flash memory keeps the P3's price down while allowing capacities up to 4TB. It's a spot-on pick for upgrading older PCs that don't support PCIe 4.0.

The WD Black SN8100 is among the best-performing internal SSDs we have reviewed to date. At the time we tested it, it chalked up new high scores in Crystal DiskMark's sequential-throughput and 4K read tests, set a record high in our PCMark 10 Overall Storage testing, and came within a hair of a top score in the 3DMark Storage gaming benchmark. The SN8100 comes in capacities of up to 4TB, and it is designed for both power efficiency and performance, enabling its use with compact heatsinks.

The SN8100 is designed for power users and creative pros seeking the best performance available in a solid-state drive. If you're interested in this drive, you should either already have a PCI Express 5.0-compatible computer or be willing to invest in one. Alternatively, you could build a desktop rig with the state-of-the-art hardware required for the drive to yield the performance of which this standard is capable.

Despite its name, the WD Blue SN570 is an SSD to drive your budget blues away. The SN570 is a solid performer among affordable PCI Express 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs. It is faster than its predecessor, the WD Blue SN550, and delivered above-average results in most of our benchmark tests for a PCIe 3.0 drive. Consider it a solid pick for a terabyte M.2 stick on a budget.

The WD Blue SN570 does well as a budget general-purpose internal SSD for those of us with computers that don't support the PCI Express 4.0 standard. The SN570, the third iteration of Western Digital's popular budget SSD, is faster than ever and proved a solid performer in our benchmark tests. You can have this PCI Express 3.0 NVMe stick for a song—and it won't have you singing the blues.

South Korean memory-chip maker SK Hynix is a relative newcomer to the consumer solid-state drive market, but you would never know that based on its first offerings. The SK Hynix Platinum P41, a PCI Express 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, is its best yet. It dominated our PCMark 10 and 3DMark Storage benchmark testing, setting several new records in the process. The P41 supports 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption. SK Hynix provides a clone utility tool, the SK Hynix System Migration Utility, for its SSDs, in addition to Easy Drive Manager software, which lets you see detailed information on drive health, run diagnostics, and erase the drive. And the P41 can be had for a very reasonable price in its 1TB and 2TB capacities.

The SK Hynix Platinum P41 is a worthy choice for anyone looking to buy a high-performance PCI Express 4.0 NVMe SSD without breaking the bank. It blew away several of our benchmark records. The P41 provides AES hardware-based encryption and a clone utility tool as well as SSD management software. Just be forewarned that with its blistering speed, you will want to add a heatsink, the one item of note that it is missing.

The Samsung SSD 990 Pro, the company's flagship PCI Express 4.0 NVMe internal solid-state drive, gets high marks for raw speed, everyday application performance, a strong software suite, and hardware-based encryption. The heatsink-equipped version of this drive performed slightly better than the non-heatsink version (which we tested using our testbed's motherboard's heatsink) in most of our benchmarks. A few other recent internal SSDs have outpaced it in our gaming benchmarks, but its overall capability and deep feature set make this Samsung SSD a versatile drive well-suited for creative tasks.

Though it can't quite match the gaming prowess of some of the latest generation of PCIe 4.0 speedsters, the SSD 990 Pro With Heatsink still offers respectable gaming performance while being a thoroughbred workhorse for creative tasks. It's an appealing choice and a worthy upgrade from the SSD 980 Pro.

The Acer Predator GM7000, the first PCI Express 4.0 NVMe SSD in the company's Predator line, is every bit as lethal as its gaming laptop and monitor brandmates. In addition to use with a desktop or laptop computer, the GM7000 easily meets Sony's specs for use as a secondary drive for the PlayStation 5; Acer offers an optional aluminum heatsink that is compact enough for PS5 use. It tallied some of the fastest throughput speeds we have seen in a single consumer-grade SSD, and performed well in both our general storage and gaming benchmark tests. The Predator offers 256-bit AES encryption, and includes Acronis True Image data cloning and backup software.

The Acer Predator GM7000 is a versatile and feature-rich high-performance PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. It showed off its blistering throughput speeds in our testing, and performed well in both our general storage and gaming benchmarks. It can be used with a PS5, a laptop, or a desktop computer. The GM7000 provides AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption, the gold standard in consumer SSD security, and comes with Acronis True Image backup and cloning software. About the only thing it's missing is a full-fledged heatsink, although it does come with a graphene-embedded heat spreader.

The Lexar NM790 internal SSD provides good value in a PCI Express 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, keeping costs down by using a DRAM-less architecture. The NM790 has the throughput speeds we expect of a high-performance PCIe 4.0 stick. It aced our Adobe program and Windows launching tests and put up fairly good numbers on our gaming benchmarks. The NM790's durability (TBW) ratings are high, particularly at its smaller 512GB and 1TB capacities. You can get the NM790 in capacities up to 4TB without breaking the bank, making it worth considering for a cost-effective storage upgrade.

The Lexar NM790 is a great pick for frugal shoppers looking for a high-performance PCI Express 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive. It comes in capacities up to 4TB, and unlike many competing SSDs, its cost per gig actually drops when you get to the highest capacity.

Samsung's 9100 Pro SSD is the storage giant's first PCI Express 5.0 M.2 drive, delivering scorching sequential-throughput speeds (though unremarkable 4K random write speeds) at our tested capacity. It's mostly worth a second look for its pricing (it tends to come in cheaper than PCIe 5.0 speed leader WD's top drive) and the recent availability of a $999.99 8TB version of the drive. PCIe 5.0 drives at that peak capacity are rare.

This drive stands out if you have a PC (in most cases, that'll be a desktop) with just one M.2 PCIe 5.0 slot, and you need to make the most of it, in terms of both speed and raw capacity.