Get the Crucial MX500 2TB SATA SSD for £164 (was £175)
So what makes this drive so good? Beyond its reliability and compatibility, which are excellent, I like the MX500 for its very competitive random read performance, which is the biggest factor for reducing game load times. NVMe drives technically offer even better results here, thanks to their less-constrained interface, but they do cost more and the addition reduction in game load times going from SATA to NVMe is much smaller than going from HDD to SATA SSD in the first place.
The MX500 is mentioned in Katharine’s roundup of the best gaming SSDs, where it barely loses out against its arch rival, the Samsung 870 Evo. She notes that the Samsung is the better option if the prices are similar, but right now the gap is particularly big with the Samsung going for £200 and the Crucial drive for £36 less.
The only cheaper 2TB drives on the market are DRAM-less examples that use QLC NAND, such as Samsung’s 870 Qvo. These drives use higher density memory to hit more aggressive price points, but you do sacrifice sustained performance and longevity in the process. Conversely, the Crucial MX500 uses TLC NAND and has a DRAM cache, so it costs a bit more to produce but offers substantially better sustained read and write speeds. Given the £9 price premium to get the better-performing drive, the MX500 seems like the obvious choice to me.
So if you’re in the market for a high capacity SSD that doesn’t compromise on performance, the MX500 is one of the all-time greats and should do well either as an OS install drive, a game storage drive or both.
Bonus deal: 2TB Seagate external HDD
Do let me know what you think of these deals in the comments, and I’ll catch you next time!
