It had to stop at some point. Recent reports suggest that the time of cheap SSDs, which PC users have been enjoying for the better part of two years, is coming to a close. Thankfully, price hikes for SSDs haven’t arrived yet, making Black Friday the best time to stock up on storage.
I always gravitate to storage deals on Black Friday because they’re one of the few components in a PC that truly see a massive discount — and honestly, who couldn’t use more storage in their computer? I would pay especially close attention to them this year given that we’re expecting price increases over the next year. Samsung will reportedly raise prices of NAND chips by 20% per quarter next year, which could have a massive impact on SSD prices.
Thankfully, that’s not the case now. Across both internal and external SSDs, this Black Friday is bringing historic lows for SSD prices, allowing you to get a lot of capacity for a cheap price.
Don’t Miss:
Let’s start with the internal SSDs. The best deals are on the highest capacities, so you should aim for picking up an SSD that’s 2TB or larger. There are deals on the 1TB versions of some models, but the discounts are minor. Here are the best internal SSD deals I’ve found this year:
-
— $95 off -
— $50 off -
— $60 off -
— $70 off
I use both the 990 Pro and the MX500 in my own PC, and I’m kicking myself for the prices I paid for both. I’ve previously tested the WD Black SN850X, as well, and it’s a speedy drive. You’ll find other SSDs on sale this Black Friday, and none of the prices are bad. But these four offer the biggest discounts, and they’re all excellent drives.
They’re all built for PC, though. There are a couple of SSDs I found for console upgrades, too:
- For PS5:
— $70 off - For Steam Deck/ROG Ally:
— $28 off
If you’re not into breaking open your PC to install an SSD, don’t worry. The deals I’m seeing on external SSDs are arguably even better this year. In the case of external SSDs, it appears the discounts are similar regardless of capacity, so if you’re only looking for a minor storage bump, external might be for you. Here are the best external SSD deals I’ve seen:
-
— $190 off -
— $90 off -
— $40 off
I’ve listed the 4TB models here, but there are similar discounts on other capacities as well. I want to call out the Samsung T9 here, though, as I haven’t tested it myself. I use the Samsung T7 Shield for a portable gaming drive, and the Crucial X8 to transfer benchmarks when testing PCs, and I’m comfortable recommending both. I haven’t used the T9, but I have a collection of four Samsung external SSDs — ranging from T5 to T7 — that have held up for years. I have no reason to believe the T9 is any different, but I suggest looking into reviews if you’re thinking about picking it up.
One drive I’m keeping from this list is the SanDisk Extreme Portable. This external SSD is also on sale, and at lower prices than some of the drives I’ve listed. Both The Verge and ArsTechnica reported failures of these drives in recent months, which spurred a handful of class-action lawsuits. You can get a good deal on one of these drives if you’re brave, but you should know about the potential for failure they present. If you stick with my recommendations above, though, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Editors’ Recommendations
It had to stop at some point. Recent reports suggest that the time of cheap SSDs, which PC users have been enjoying for the better part of two years, is coming to a close. Thankfully, price hikes for SSDs haven’t arrived yet, making Black Friday the best time to stock up on storage.
I always gravitate to storage deals on Black Friday because they’re one of the few components in a PC that truly see a massive discount — and honestly, who couldn’t use more storage in their computer? I would pay especially close attention to them this year given that we’re expecting price increases over the next year. Samsung will reportedly raise prices of NAND chips by 20% per quarter next year, which could have a massive impact on SSD prices.
Thankfully, that’s not the case now. Across both internal and external SSDs, this Black Friday is bringing historic lows for SSD prices, allowing you to get a lot of capacity for a cheap price.
Don’t Miss:
Let’s start with the internal SSDs. The best deals are on the highest capacities, so you should aim for picking up an SSD that’s 2TB or larger. There are deals on the 1TB versions of some models, but the discounts are minor. Here are the best internal SSD deals I’ve found this year:
-
— $95 off -
— $50 off -
— $60 off -
— $70 off
I use both the 990 Pro and the MX500 in my own PC, and I’m kicking myself for the prices I paid for both. I’ve previously tested the WD Black SN850X, as well, and it’s a speedy drive. You’ll find other SSDs on sale this Black Friday, and none of the prices are bad. But these four offer the biggest discounts, and they’re all excellent drives.
They’re all built for PC, though. There are a couple of SSDs I found for console upgrades, too:
- For PS5:
— $70 off - For Steam Deck/ROG Ally:
— $28 off
If you’re not into breaking open your PC to install an SSD, don’t worry. The deals I’m seeing on external SSDs are arguably even better this year. In the case of external SSDs, it appears the discounts are similar regardless of capacity, so if you’re only looking for a minor storage bump, external might be for you. Here are the best external SSD deals I’ve seen:
-
— $190 off -
— $90 off -
— $40 off
I’ve listed the 4TB models here, but there are similar discounts on other capacities as well. I want to call out the Samsung T9 here, though, as I haven’t tested it myself. I use the Samsung T7 Shield for a portable gaming drive, and the Crucial X8 to transfer benchmarks when testing PCs, and I’m comfortable recommending both. I haven’t used the T9, but I have a collection of four Samsung external SSDs — ranging from T5 to T7 — that have held up for years. I have no reason to believe the T9 is any different, but I suggest looking into reviews if you’re thinking about picking it up.
One drive I’m keeping from this list is the SanDisk Extreme Portable. This external SSD is also on sale, and at lower prices than some of the drives I’ve listed. Both The Verge and ArsTechnica reported failures of these drives in recent months, which spurred a handful of class-action lawsuits. You can get a good deal on one of these drives if you’re brave, but you should know about the potential for failure they present. If you stick with my recommendations above, though, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Editors’ Recommendations