If there were ever a reminder of the wonders of marketing and brand loyalty, it’d be the fact that folks seem to be lapping up this deal on a 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD for $270 at Amazon. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a decent price for a fast storage drive, but the level of attention it’s getting when there are so many other great options out there for cheaper is a little strange.
Part of this might just be because Samsung’s a known name. That, and the fact that it, you know, actually makes its own flash memory. But brand recognition isn’t everything, and Samsung’s SSDs aren’t immune to issue.
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It could, of course, also be because the Amazon listing’s claiming a whopping 42% discount on the 990 Pro. But come on, when’s the last time it was going for anything near $400, let alone $465? A quick price history check swats that aside.
It’s also strange because this is a 4 TB drive. And listen, I know game installs are getting bigger and bigger, but I still reckon 2 TB is the most reasonable choice in most cases. The 2 TB drive I use every day, the Lexar NM790 2 TB, is on offer for a great price right now, and I’d definitely recommend it as an alternative.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First up, there are a couple of 4 TB drives for those of you who are dead set on having that much storage which I think are a better proposition than the 990 Pro, right now: the WD Black SN850X 4 TB and Silicon Power UD90 4 TB.
Quick links
WD Black SN850X 4 TB
If you’re looking for a drive that can compete with the 990 Pro but costs less (yes, even without a deal on at Amazon), the SN850X 4 TB is it. It’s our pick for the best gaming SSD for a reason.
That reason being it quite simply has fantastic all-round performance. Its 7,300 MB/s read speed and 6,300 MB/s write speed is made even more impressive by the fact that the drive keeps pretty cool, too. It’s slightly slower than the 990 Pro, but it’s close enough that I really doubt you’ll notice a lick of difference.
It also runs some weird “Game Mode” drive management malarkey automatically in the background, but that wizardry soars right above my head and is difficult to test for anyway. No, the main thing is its speed combined with its low (58 C under load!) temps.
Silicon Power UD90 4 TB
If it’s value you’re after, and you don’t need the blisteringly fast PCIe 4.0-maxing speeds of the 990 Pro or SN850X, the UD90 is what you want. Yes, it’s a couple-thousand MB/s slower than the former two options, but how often are you transferring hundreds of GB anyway?
If the answer to that is “all the time, actually,” then yeah, stick with a faster drive, but if you’re an average gamer who installs some games and apps but doesn’t do full-system backups or content creation, this UD90 will serve you well for a downright generous cost.
So generous, in fact, that it comes to just 4.7 cents per GB of storage, which is kind of ridiculous. It’s a DRAM-less drive, sure, but that won’t matter unless you’re doing some massive file transfers, because up to a certain point a pseudo-SLC cache is used.
Speaking of which, if 4 TB isn’t a necessity, you might want to consider the NM790…
Lexar NM790 2 TB
This drive is DRAM-less, too like the UD90 above, and also like the UD90 you won’t notice that fact unless you’re doing some seriously big transfers. This is the drive I use in my own machine, and I’ve never noticed it running out of its pseudo-SLC cache, because I don’t transfer the proverbial house and kitchen sink on a regular basis.
This drive is just such damn good value that it’s hard not to recommend it—that’s why we call it the best budget gaming SSD. At this discounted price, we’re talking $0.06 / GB of storage, which is fantastic considering you’re getting 7,400 MB/s read and 6,500 MB/s write speeds—even faster than the SN850X.
And yes, it’s a 2 TB drive, but I’d seriously consider whether you need 4 TB. 1 TB is pushing it, for sure, but unless you like to have dozens of the latest storage-hungry AAA titles all installed at once, 2 TB is ideal. That extra $100 you’ll save could go on another piece of hardware, after all, or perhaps even a PC gaming gift for that special someone this holiday season.
