The Best SSD Under $100 of 2021 – Top 10 [M.2 & 2.5″] Drives For The Money | Back in June, we reviewed the Samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD. It’s a decent SSD, but it’s also not what you’d call cheap. You can pick up an 860 EVO for around $50, while the 970 is hovering around the $300 mark. That said, not everyone needs the best, fastest SSD. For most of us, a more affordable SSD will work just fine. That’s why we decided to look for some of the best SSDs under $100.
Umm, okay, this is an unusual one, but hear me out. One of the most understated and underrated pieces of gear we use is our SSD. Not only is it an important part of our systems, but SSDs are becoming more and more popular as a storage medium for gaming and other non-essential programs. The performance and speed for this type of storage is great and the prices continue to come down as more and more devices use them.
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SSDs have altered the computer world. If you don’t have an SSD in your system, it doesn’t matter how much money you spend constructing or purchasing a computer for your home, business, or home office.
If you’re searching for the finest SSD under $100 in 2021 to improve your system, look no further. Check also my post “Best 1TB SSD of 2021” if you’re searching for a 1TB drive on a different budget.
Round-Up of the Best SSDs Under $100 in 2021
The table below provides a brief overview of our top picks for the best SSDs under $100 presently on the market. Simply click on ‘review>>’ in the appropriate row to read the whole review.
1. ‘Best Overall’ Seagate Firecuda 510 |
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P1 ‘Best Value Pick’ is crucial. |
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3. ‘Fastest M.2 Drive’ Samsung 970 EVO Plus |
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4. Editors’ Choice: Seagate Barracuda 510 |
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5. The BX500 is a must-have. ‘Excellent 2.5″ Drive’ |
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6. SanDisk ‘Endurance King’ SSD PLUS |
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7. AORUS RGB ‘Gamers’ No.1 Choice’ from Gigabyte |
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8. MP510 ‘Solid All Around Pick’ from Corsair Force Series |
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‘Fast 2.5′′ Drive’ Samsung 860 PRO |
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TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta RGB (TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta RGB) (TEAMGROUP T ‘2.5′′ Gaming Drive’ |
1. Firecuda 510 (Seagate)
500GB capacity | M.2 2280 double-sided form factor | PCIe Gen3/4, NVMe 1.3 interface | Sequential read: 3450MB/s | Sequential write: 3200MB/s | Warranty: 5 Years
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- Fastest write and read speeds
- The list’s fastest random speeds
- Extremely plausible
- Warranty period: 5 years
- Excellent selection for the money.
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
Our score is 9.8 out of ten.
The Seagate FireCuda 510 is a m.2 form factor drive from Seagate.
The FireCuda 510, like the rest of the drives on this list, is a PCIe 3.0 setup that, thanks to its outstanding build quality, pushes the PCIe 3.0 capabilities to their limits. Because of its overall speed and dependability, the FireCuda 510 is my all-around #1 choice on this list.
If you simply glance at the statistics, you’ll see that some of the drives mentioned here have a longer mean time between failures. In certain places, there are even significantly quicker drives. There are no other drives here, however, that can compete with the FireCuda 510 on all fronts, and none can match the FireCuda 510’s well-rounded character at this price point.
Starting with the guarantee, Seagate, one of the long-time storage giants, offers a 5-year warranty. Along with the 5-year guarantee, the Mean Time Between Failures rating of 1.8 million hours places it at the top of the sub-$100 list.
The FireCuda 510 therefore achieves sequential read rates of 3450 MB/s, which are only surpassed by the Samsung EVO 970 Plus and the Gigabyte AORUS RGB. When it comes to sequential write speeds, Seagate’s FireCuda 510 has a very good 3200 MB/s rating, which is only surpassed by the Samsung EVO 910 Plus on our list.
The unpredictable speeds are where the FireCuda 510 stands out from the competitors.
Random speeds, remember, enable for quicker performance in daily activities. While the Barracuda 610 outperforms the competition, the FireCuda 510 takes things a step further. The FireCuda wins the top position in data access speeds with a random read speed of 620,000 IOPS.
On random write speeds of 600,000 IOPS, the FireCuda 510 is tied with the Barracuda 610 for first place. When you examine the whole package, the FireCuda 510 is clearly the best of the bunch, and it earns my recommendation as the best sub-$100 option.
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P1 is extremely important.
500GB | M.2 2280 form factor | PCIe Gen3 14 / NVMe interface | Sequential read: 2000MB/s | Sequential write: 1750MB/s | Warranty: 5 Years
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- Pricing that is extremely competitive
- Warranty period: 5 years
- Fairly fast speeds
- Under the $100 mark
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
Our score is 9.7 out of ten.
The Crucial P1 is yet another m.2 NVMe option for around $100.
The major distinction here is that it’s a sub-$100 drive, which is much less expensive than the rest of the list. You can’t go wrong with a m.2 form factor when you’re looking for a budget-friendly drive. Crucial is renowned for being a champion of price/performance, and they do not disappoint here.
While you can get a better drive for around $40 extra, this one is definitely not a slouch. Due to NVMe technology and the m.2 interface, the Crucial P1 offers 2000 MB/s sequential read rates, greatly outperforming any 2.5″ SSD.
The Crucial P1 has sequential write rates of 1700 MB/s, which isn’t the fastest on the market but is quite good for the price. To continue the speed comparison, the Crucial P1 is almost 50% quicker than the top 2.5” drives on our list, with read and write speeds of 59 MB/s and 139 MB/s, respectively.
The Crucial P1 comes with a 5-year guarantee, unlike the other Crucial products mentioned below. The Crucial P1 is my number two overall choice, because to its above-average speeds and low pricing.
This is an essential location for me since it allows me to have top-of-the-line computers for a fraction of the cost. When you need to replace a hard drive in a computer, it’s usually an unexpected occurrence, and we don’t always have premium level money on hand, so the P1 offers you the chance to perform at a gaming-worthy level on a budget.
If you’re building a system from the ground up and trying to save money everywhere you can, any savings on any component is a good idea. I’ve frequently pondered buying the cheapest hard drive so that I can spend more money on the CPU, RAM, or graphics card. The Crucial P1 allows anybody to construct a system that will perform admirably in every situation for a reasonable price.
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3. Samsung EVO Plus 970
500GB | M.2 2280 form factor | PCIe Gen 3.0 x 4, NVMe 1.3 interface | Sequential read: 3500MB/s | Sequential write: 3200MB/s | 5 Year Warranty
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- SSDs with serious performance
- PCIe 3.0 performance at its best
- Warranty period: 5 years
- The fastest read/write speeds
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
Our score is 9.6 out of ten.
The Samsung 970 EVO Plus is the most expensive SSD in the under $100 category. This EVO 970 Plus is also one of the finest drives on the list, in my opinion.
For many years, Samsung has been manufacturing some of the fastest and most dependable SSDs on the market. The EVO 970 Plus is based on Samsung’s V-NAND technology and is intended to fit in the m.2 2280 slot.
The EVO 970 Plus, like most SSDs on the market today, is intended to operate with PCIe Generation 3.0 technology. If you’re interested in learning more about the differences between PCIe Generation 3.0 and the forthcoming PCIe Generation 4.0 protocols, check out my post “Best CPU Under $300,” where I go into more depth.
When you consider that the EVO 970 Plus is built using the older PCIe 3.0 protocols, it’s astonishing how well it compares to some of the fastest version 4.0 drives out there where performance matters the most.
You’ll come across words like sequential read and write speeds, sustained read and write rates, and random read and write speeds throughout this essay. To determine which statistics to pay attention to, you must first understand which speeds are most essential for your task.
Many ads target sequential or sustained speeds, which may or may not be relevant to you. When transmitting big data files on a regular basis, sequential speeds are critical. If you’re going to use the drive for most day-to-day activities like video editing, gaming, or office work, you’ll want to pay close attention to the random write and read speeds.
The Samsung EVO 970 Plus truly excels in this area. The EVO 970 Plus has a sequential write speed of 3.200 MB/s and a maximum sustained read speed of 3,500 MB/s (at the absolute top of PCIe 3.0’s capabilities).
On the 4KB QD32 benchmarks, the EVO 970 Plus has a maximum random write speed of 550,000 IOPS and a maximum random read speed of 480,000 IOPS (in user benchmarks, this corresponds to a random 4k read speed of 53.8 MB/s and a random write speed of 148 MB/s). These statistics may be unfamiliar to you, but they are critical in determining which drives are best suited to your needs.
Aside from that, the EVO 970 Plus drive comes with a 5-year warranty or 600 Terabytes of written data. With that in mind, the EVO 970 Plus is a no-brainer.
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You may also be interested in: Best CPUs Under $100
4. Seagate Barracuda 510 hard drive
500GB capacity | M.2 2280 single-sided form factor | PCIe Gen3/4, NVMe 1.3 interface | Sequential read: 3400MB/s | Sequential write: 2400MB/s | Warranty: 5 Years
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- Exceptional endurance
- Top sequential and random speeds
- Warranty period: 5 years
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
Our score is 9.4 out of ten.
The Seagate Barracuda 510 is a Seagate m.2 NVME drive that competes directly with the Samsung EVO 970 Plus, which came in third on this list.
To put it simply, NVMe stands for Non-Volatile Memory Express, which is the kind of technology that is utilized to sort and manage data. The M.2 connection, on the other hand, is used to connect the drive to your computer. The m.2 drive seems to be about the same size as a stick of RAM (memory).
With the Seagate Barracuda 510, you’ll receive performance that’s quite comparable to the Samsung EVO 970 plus, as well as a guarantee that’s pretty similar. The Barracuda 510 has a 5-year guarantee and a mean duration between failure of 1.8 million hours, which is 300,000 hours longer than the Samsung EVO 970 Plus.
The Barracuda 510 has a sequential read speed of 3400 MB/s and a sequential write speed of 3000 MB/s. The Barracuda is somewhat slower than the Samsung EVO 970 Plus, but it is still competitive.
The intriguing aspect, and maybe more importantly for many people, is that the Barracuda 510 ties the Samsung EVO 970 plus at 600,000 IOPS Random Read. Surprisingly, the Seagate Barracuda 510 outperforms the Samsung EVO 970 Plus by almost 10% in random write speed.
The difference between the two drives is barely discernible without using them in a benchmarking environment, and if 500 GB is the right size for you and you’re working with a machine with the m.2 configuration, this is a difficult decision not to make, especially since the Barracuda 510 is only slightly more expensive than its direct top-end speed competitors.
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5. Crucial BX500
1TB capacity | 2.5-inch, 7mm form factor | SATA 6Gb/s interface | Sequential read: 540MB/s | Sequential write: 500MB/s | Warranty: 3 Years
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- 1 TB of storage
- Excellent cost per GB
- Three-year warranty
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
- M.2 offerings are much slower.
- SSD with a greater physical size
Our score is 9.3 out of ten.
The Crucial BX500 1 TB drive is a conventional 2.5” drive, rather than the m.2 2280 form factor seen in the other products on this list.
Because computers manufactured before 2011 did not have the m.2 2280 slot integrated into the motherboard, and for years after 2011, the m.2 2280 slot was uncommon, this form factor may be a major concern in your choice.
The Crucial BX500 has a strong position in the lineup when it comes to the high end of the under $100 drives for two main reasons. First, the form factor; if you’re replacing an old hard drive with an SSD, this may be the most significant consideration.
Second, the Crucial BX500 has a massive 1 Terabyte of storage capacity and a fantastic 3-year guarantee.
Because this is a more conventional drive, you should connect it to a SATA 3 port. As you may know, the SATA 3 interface has a maximum transfer rate of 6GB/s. This is more than enough to handle the Crucial MX500, which has a maximum sustained read speed of 540 MB/s and a sustained write speed of 500 MB/s.
This drive has a random 4K read speed of 27.1 MB/s and a random write speed of 72.6 MB/s, according to user benchmarks. While it won’t break any speed records on our list, if you’re looking for a hard drive replacement, this will certainly make a difference, since the fastest hard drives have random read rates of about 26 MB/s and write speeds of around 47.5 MB/s.
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SanDisk SSD PLUS (No. 6)
1TB capacity | 2.5-inch, 7mm form factor | SATA 6Gb/s interface | Sequential read: 535MB/s | Sequential write: 450MB/s | Warranty: 3 Years
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- 1 TB of storage
- Three-year warranty
- Drive that is dependable
- Excellent stamina
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
- M.2 offers are slower.
We give it a 9.2 out of 10 rating.
The SanDisk SSD Plus 1TB is another 2.5-inch SSD that, because to its popular form size, can be used to replace virtually any computer. The SanDisk SSD Plus, like many others on our list, is at the top of the sub-$100 pricing range, with 1 TB of storage capacity.
SanDisk is a well-known brand in the solid-state storage industry. The name displayed on memory cards for your phone, camera, or just about anything with removable storage may be familiar to you.
SanDisk was purchased by Western Digital in 2016, and the SanDisk brand is still produced and sold by Western Digital. Is this the best option for your storage requirements?
Sequential read rates on the SanDisk SSD Plus 1TB are a reasonable 535 MB/s, while sequential write speeds are a good 450 MB/s. It also has read and write speeds of 19 MB/s for random 4k and 68.9 MB/s for random 4k. It’s also worth noting that the SSD Plus has a three-year guarantee.
While this drive will work well as a replacement for an outdated hard drive or to speed up an older computer, there have been some concerns regarding the backup software used to transfer data from the old drive to the new SSD, so keep that in mind if that is your goal.
The SanDisk SSD Plus has a slightly longer Mean Time Between Failures, at approximately 2 million hours, compared to 1.8 million hours for the Crucial BX 500. So, of the two 1 TB options, this may be your best choice if you want to get a bit more life out of your new drive.
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7. AORUS SSD RGB from Gigabyte
Capacity: 512GB | Form Factor: M.2 2280 | Interface: PCI-Express 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 | Sequential read: 3480MB/s | Sequential write: 2000MB/s | Warranty: 5 Years Capacity: 512GB | Form Factor: M.2 2280 | Interface: PCI-Express 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 | Sequential read: 3480MB/s | Sequential write: 2000MB/s
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- RGB creates stunning visuals.
- This is ideal for gamers.
- High-level performance/speeds
- Warranty period: 5 years
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
Our score is 9.1 out of ten.
Although the Gigabyte Aorus RGB 512MB model costs a little more than $100, I believe it is a fair comparison and one worth noting.
Why is this being added to the list? Simply said, Gigabyte is a well-known component maker with RGB lighting effects. There is nothing more eye-catching than great RGB lighting when it comes to showcasing your project.
This drive, unlike the TeamGroup RGB option, has a m.2 form factor, so keep that in mind while making your decision. This drive’s performance is adequate, but not exceptional when compared to some of the other contenders on this list.
The Aorus RGB has a sequential read speed of 3480 MB/s, which is somewhat slower than the Samsung EVO 970 plus. The Aorus RGB’s sequential read speed is stated at 2000 MB/s, but real-world testing show it to perform almost as well as some of the higher-ranked drives mentioned below.
In general, the Aorus RGB is regarded as the best PCIe 3.0 device on the market.
On user benchmarks, the Aorus RGB is slightly behind the Samsung EVO 970 Plus at 48.3 MB/s when it comes to random read rates. When user benchmarks are used, the random write rates actually exceed the Samsung 970 Plus at 176 MB/s. Aside from that, the Gigabyte Aorus RGB, like the best models on the sub-$100 list, comes with a 5-year guarantee.
Overall, if you’re looking for a high-performance drive in a m.2 form factor with RGB lights, this might be your best option. Again, if you are only concerned with performance, I would suggest switching to the Seagate or Samsung options on the list.
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Best CPUs Under $200 (Related Reading)
MP510 Corsair Force Series
| Sequential read: 3480MB/s | Sequential write: 2000MB/s | Warranty: 5 Years | Capacity: 480GB | Form Factor: M.2 2280 | Interface: PCI-Express 3.0 x4 | Sequential read: 3480MB/s | Sequential write: 2000MB/s | Warranty: 5 Years
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- A good performance
- Reliable
- Warranty period: 5 years
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
- There is only 480GB of storage available.
- Slower than the majority of M.2s on this list.
Our score is 9.0 out of ten.
The Corsair Force Series MP510 is yet another m.2 NVMe option to consider.
Corsair, like Gigabyte, is well-known in the computer components manufacturing industry, with a wide range of computer accessories and peripherals. Corsair has a long history of producing high-quality memory and is widely regarded as one of the best PC memory manufacturers.
The Corsair Force Series MP510 is a good option with speeds that are comparable to those offered by Gigabyte. At 3480 MB/s, the sequential rates are identical to the Gigabyte. At 2000 MB/s, sequential write rates are on line with the Gigabyte offering. The MP510 has a maximum random write speed of 440,000 IOPS and a maximum random read speed of 360,000 IOPS.
It’s worth noting that the Corsair lags below the Samsung and Gigabyte products in real-world speed tests conducted by consumers. When comparing the Samsung EVO 970 plus to the Corsair MP510, the Samsung is 102 percent quicker in sequential read rates and 33 percent faster in sequential write speeds.
The MP510, on the other hand, has a Mean Time Between Failures of 1.8 million hours, which puts it at the top of the list. Also worth noting is the MP510’s 5-year guarantee, which is the best in class.
Unfortunately, the Corsair Force Series MP510 falls short of the other options we’ve discussed today. This is the only reason I would pick this drive from this list if you are a fan of the Corsair brand.
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Samsung 860 PRO (nine)
256GB capacity | 2.5-inch form factor | SATA 6Gb/s interface | Sequential read: 560MB/s | Sequential write: 530MB/s | 5-year warranty
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- Warranty period: 5 years
- In the 2.5-inch category, the fastest
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
- There is only 256GB of storage available.
- Cost per GB is high.
- MTBF rating is poor.
Our score is 8.8 out of ten.
The Samsung 860 Pro is the smallest drive examined in this article, and it comes in at around $100. With today’s program sizes, this isn’t a minor consideration. However, it begs the question: how are you currently utilizing cloud storage?
If you just need a tiny boot drive and most of your data is saved on a second drive or on the cloud, the 256GB drive should be enough to run most day-to-day programs.
If you’re a gamer, I’d be wary about purchasing a drive of this capacity, given the massive games that are being released nowadays. I just installed a game that is 156 GB in size on its own. That would use more than half of your hard drive’s capacity!
The Samsung 860 Pro has been available for a few years and is now becoming obsolete as many drives now have similar features without the size penalty.
How does it stack up?
The Mean Time Between Failure comes in at 1.5 million hours, which is lower than many of the other items on this list. With a 5-year guarantee, the Samsung 860 pro offers a longer warranty than many of the drives on our list, even when factoring failure rates.
What about the rates?
Sequential read rates of up to 560 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 530 MB/s are not to be overlooked in the 2.5″ disk area. Random 4k read rates of 45.9 MB/s and random 4k write speeds of 90.3 MB/s are being benchmarked by users. The Samsung 860 Pro is at the top of the list for drives in the form factor category thanks to these speeds.
While the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is lower than others on this list, the 5-year guarantee may provide the peace of mind you need, since MTBF lists are designed for usage in data center server environments.
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10. TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta RGB
500GB | 2.5-inch form factor | SATA 6Gb/s interface | Sequential read: 560MB/s | Sequential write: 560MB/s | 3 Year Warranty
REASONS TO PURCHASE
- For a 2.5-inch drive, it’s quick.
- Three-year warranty
- Has RGB
- This is ideal for gamers.
REASONS TO STAY AWAY
- There are only 500GB available.
- M.2 drives are the same price.
Our score is 8.7 out of ten.
The Teamgroup T-Force Delta RGB is a cheap SSD with excellent features that comes in at a quarter of the price of many of the top performers on our list.
Teamgroup is a newcomer to the storage market, but does that imply they’re a dud? Not in the least. Style is one of the things that sets this apart from the rest of the list. Because nearly every component in a computer has an RGB version, RGB lighting can truly spice up your computer design.
The T-Force Delta RGB is a 2.5″ SSD that, like other SSDs, offers substantial performance gains over conventional hard drives. It matches the lower speed drives on the list for sequential read and write speeds of 560 MB/s each direction, and with the SATA 3 interface, it does not approach the speeds of the m.2 equivalents.
When compared to the other 2.5” drives on this list, I’m worried that the speeds are almost identical to the Crucial MX 500, despite the Crucial having double the capacity. This may be a good match for you if you’re on a budget and lighting effects are important to you, and you require a 2.5″ drive.
If you’re just concerned with performance per dollar, I’d recommend the Crucial MX500 or the SanDisk SSD Plus for the simple reason of doubling your storage capacity with only a small speed difference.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which company m 2 SSD is best?
I am not sure. You should ask someone else.
What is a good budget m 2 SSD?
A good budget m 2 SSD would be the Kingston HyperX Savage 240 GB.
Which is better SSD or M 2?
M 2 is better than SSD.
Indiana - based graphic designer for more than 6 years. Creator of multiple awesome print and web designs. Interested in blogging as a second addiction since 2019. 100% animal lover.