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Kiss goodbye to endless loading screens with the best SSD for your gaming PC.
Long load times are one of the natural enemies of gamers worldwide. The good news is that they have a natural predator – the SSD. SSD stands for solid state drive, which is a kind of storage technology that, unlike HDDs, does not have any moving parts. This means they can reach faster speeds, which can dramatically reduce load times.
When looking to increase the speed of gaming people tend to go for upgrading their CPU or GPU. These are vital for improving frame rates, but if you find yourself endlessly staring at loading screens, it could be time to upgrade to an SSD. Let’s get into our picks.
Best SSD for laptop at a glance
Corsair MP700
Capacity
1TB
Read/Write Speed
10,000MB/s – 9,500MB/s
Connectivity Technology
M.2
Interface
NVMe 2.0 PCIe 5.0
Kingston FURY Renegade
Capacity
500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
Drive type
SSD
USB type
USB 3.1
Seagate FireCuda 540
Capacity
2TB
Read/Write speed
10,000MB/s
Connectivity Technology
SATA
Interface
PCIe 5.0
Upgrading your SSD is often the simplest way to improve your load times. We’ve got a range of picks here, each in different categories. SSDs are more expensive than their HDD counterparts but don’t worry, we included a budget-friendly pick here too. Pair any of these with the best GPU, and best CPU and motherboard combination, and you’ll have yourself one of the best gaming PC’s out there.
Best overall SSD for Gaming PC
Seagate FireCuda 540
Capacity
2TB
Read/Write speed
10,000MB/s
Connectivity Technology
SATA
Interface
PCIe 5.0
- High read and write speeds
- Very durable
- 3 years of Rescue Data Recovery Services
- Expensive
This is one of the most advanced and fastest SSDs on the market. You might even recognise it from our list of the best PS5 SSDs. It comes in two different capacities, 1TB and 2TB. This will be enough for most game libraries out there and is fairly standard for SSDs. It is in read/write speeds where the FireCude 540 really shines.
It has a 10,00MB/s and write speed which will ensure fast loading times no matter how demanding the game. On top of that, there is a TBW rating of 2000TB. The TBW rating tells you how much data a drive can store over its lifetime. Every time something new is saved to a hard drive, a little bit of capacity is lost, even if the file is later deleted. This means you can fill a 2TB FireCuda 540 to full capacity 1000 times before it needs to be replaced.
With a 5-year warranty and 3-year Data Recovery service, you can be pretty confident you won’t need to look for a new drive for some time to come after purchasing this.
Best budget SSD for Gaming PC
Kingston FURY Renegade
Capacity
500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
Drive type
SSD
USB type
USB 3.1
- Good TBW rating
- Excellent price to performance ratio
- Great for gaming
- Previous gen
The Kingston FURY Renegade is one of the best M.2 SSDs and has huge storage capacity, all for a very reasonable price. With options all the way up to 4TB, even the most storage-hungry among you will be satisfied.
For each size variant, you can also opt-in or out of the heatsink. As a rule of thumb, the best SSD for a gaming PC does not require a heatsink. It’s also got a respectable 7,300 MB/s read and write speed, which will be a vast improvement for anyone currently using HDD storage.
Part of the reason this SSD is so affordable is that it is Gen 4, while the others on this list are Gen 5. This essentially only affects potential read and write speeds, thanks to the increased bandwidth PCIe 5 brings. However, the Renegade is still speedy, and for those with a limited budget, its reduced cost might mean you can afford an extra chunk of storage.
Fastest SSD for Gaming PC
Corsair MP700
Capacity
1TB
Read/Write Speed
10,000MB/s – 9,500MB/s
Connectivity Technology
M.2
Interface
NVMe 2.0 PCIe 5.0
- Blisteringly fast
- Top-notch performance
- DirectStorage
- Power efficiency could be better
If you’re looking for the fastest SSD for a gaming PC, look no further than the Corsair MP700. It’s got a read write speed of 10,000MB/s unless you already have a top-end SSD, this will be an improvement over your current storage, especially if that storage is HDD.
The MP700 also has high-density 3D TLC NAND which helps give the unit a 1400TBW endurance rating. This will last you for several years, which is made even more possible thanks to Corsair’s after-sale support, which includes a 5-year warranty.
Final word
The most important things to consider when picking a new SSD for your gaming PC, are compatibility, price, capacity, and speed. The SSDs on this list will fit in just about any modern gaming rig but it is still always worth double-checking. As for the others on the list, it’s really a balancing act between performance and price. For the casual gamer, 1TB of storage should be enough, from there simply go for the fastest SSD that is within your budget.
Frequently asked questions
When we talk about SSD storage technology, we see a few questions coming up more often than others. We’ve tried to answer them here.
Does SSD affect FPS?
No, an SSD will not have an effect on your frame per second in a game, but it will improve load times.
Is it better to put games on SSD or HDD?
It is better to put your games on an SSD. This is because its faster read and write times will allow you to launch and load the game faster.
