Cost per TB is the number that matters, but the cheapest drive is often slow QLC with no cache. So this shows value and quality together. Every current SSD ranked by dollars per TB, with the interface, speed, DRAM and endurance right beside it. Filter to fast Gen 4 with a cache and you get the real best buy.
We ranked 40 current SSDs on dollars per terabyte, which reorders them almost completely against list price: only one of the 40 holds the same position in both. The cheapest is the Kingston NV2 at $50 a terabyte and the dearest the Crucial T705 at $150. A Gen5 drive costs about 1.9 times as much per terabyte as a Gen4, $130 against $70, for read speeds most people never notice outside a benchmark.
Method: street price divided by capacity, per drive, then the median of each interface. Drive counts differ and small groups move easily, so read them with the n: Gen3 3, Gen4 23, SATA 5, USB 3, Gen5 6. Cite this: "usefulHQ SSD Value Study 2026", usefulhq.com/ssd-prices/. Prices move; the page is rebuilt from live figures.
The New on eBay column was collected 12 October 2026. The Price column, and the $/TB ranking built on it, is a hand-checked retail baseline that has not changed since 31 July 2026. A NAND shortage is pushing SSD prices up through 2026, so treat the retail figure as a starting point and check the live listing before buying.
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| Drive | Size | Bus | Read MB/s | DRAM | TBW | Price | $/TB | New on eBay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingston NV2Lowest $/TB | 2 TB | Gen3 | 3,500 | No | 640 | $100 | $50 | $240 | Check price |
| Crucial P3 | 2 TB | Gen3 | 3,500 | No | 440 | $105 | $53 | $304 | Check price |
| Silicon Power UD90 | 2 TB | Gen4 | 5,000 | No | 1,200 | $110 | $55 | $300 | Check price |
| Crucial BX500 | 2 TB | SATA | 540 | No | 720 | $110 | $55 | $220 | Check price |
| Addlink S90 Lite | 4 TB | Gen4 | 6,500 | No | 1,200 | $230 | $58 | – | Check price |
| TeamGroup MP44 | 4 TB | Gen4 | 7,400 | No | 2,400 | $240 | $60 | $649 | Check price |
| WD Blue SN580 | 2 TB | Gen4 | 4,150 | No | 900 | $120 | $60 | $289 | Check price |
| Kingston NV3 | 2 TB | Gen4 | 6,000 | No | 640 | $120 | $60 | $260 | Check price |
| TeamGroup MP44 | 2 TB | Gen4 | 7,400 | No | 1,200 | $125 | $63 | $418 | Check price |
| Lexar NM790 | 4 TB | Gen4 | 7,400 | No | 3,000 | $250 | $63 | $636 | Check price |
| Crucial P3 Plus | 2 TB | Gen4 | 5,000 | No | 440 | $130 | $65 | $210 | Check price |
| Crucial P3 Plus | 4 TB | Gen4 | 5,000 | No | 800 | $260 | $65 | $503 | Check price |
| Crucial MX500 | 2 TB | SATA | 560 | Yes | 700 | $130 | $65 | $395 | Check price |
| Lexar NM790 | 2 TB | Gen4 | 7,400 | No | 1,500 | $135 | $68 | $320 | Check price |
| Samsung 990 Evo Plus | 2 TB | Gen4 | 7,250 | No | 1,200 | $140 | $70 | $320 | Check price |
| Kingston NV3 | 1 TB | Gen4 | 6,000 | No | 320 | $70 | $70 | $145 | Check price |
| WD Blue SN570 | 1 TB | Gen3 | 3,500 | No | 600 | $70 | $70 | $200 | Check price |
| Crucial T500 | 2 TB | Gen4 | 7,400 | Yes | 1,200 | $150 | $75 | $449 | Check price |
| WD Black SN770 | 2 TB | Gen4 | 5,150 | No | 1,200 | $150 | $75 | $195 | Check price |
| Samsung 870 Evo | 2 TB | SATA | 560 | Yes | 1,200 | $150 | $75 | $300 | Check price |
| WD Blue 3D | 1 TB | SATA | 560 | Yes | 400 | $75 | $75 | $150 | Check price |
| Crucial X9 Pro Portable | 2 TB | USB | 1,050 | No | 600 | $150 | $75 | – | Check price |
| Crucial T500 | 4 TB | Gen4 | 7,400 | Yes | 2,400 | $310 | $78 | $875 | Check price |
| SanDisk Extreme Portable | 2 TB | USB | 1,050 | No | 600 | $160 | $80 | $240 | Check price |
| WD Black SN850X | 2 TB | Gen4 | 7,300 | Yes | 1,200 | $165 | $83 | $335 | Check price |
| WD Black SN850X | 4 TB | Gen4 | 7,300 | Yes | 2,400 | $340 | $85 | $540 | Check price |
| Samsung 990 Pro | 4 TB | Gen4 | 7,450 | Yes | 2,400 | $360 | $90 | $680 | Check price |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 | 2 TB | Gen4 | 7,300 | Yes | 2,550 | $180 | $90 | – | Check price |
| Samsung 870 Evo | 1 TB | SATA | 560 | Yes | 600 | $90 | $90 | $169 | Check price |
| Samsung 990 Pro | 2 TB | Gen4 | 7,450 | Yes | 1,200 | $185 | $93 | $340 | Check price |
| Crucial T500 | 1 TB | Gen4 | 7,300 | Yes | 600 | $95 | $95 | $114 | Check price |
| Samsung T9 Portable | 2 TB | USB | 2,000 | Yes | 1,200 | $200 | $100 | $304 | Check price |
| WD Black SN850X | 1 TB | Gen4 | 7,300 | Yes | 600 | $110 | $110 | $210 | Check price |
| Crucial T700 | 2 TB | Gen5 | 12,400 | Yes | 1,200 | $235 | $118 | $375 | Check price |
| Corsair MP700 Pro | 2 TB | Gen5 | 12,400 | Yes | 1,400 | $240 | $120 | $475 | Check price |
| Seagate FireCuda 540 | 2 TB | Gen5 | 10,000 | Yes | 2,000 | $250 | $125 | – | Check price |
| Samsung 990 Pro | 1 TB | Gen4 | 7,450 | Yes | 600 | $130 | $130 | $210 | Check price |
| Samsung 9100 Pro | 2 TB | Gen5 | 14,800 | Yes | 1,200 | $270 | $135 | $310 | Check price |
| WD Black SN8100 | 2 TB | Gen5 | 14,900 | Yes | 1,200 | $280 | $140 | $398 | Check price |
| Crucial T705 | 2 TB | Gen5 | 14,500 | Yes | 1,200 | $300 | $150 | $340 | Check price |
Two prices, and right now they disagree. The Price column is what the drive costs at retail, hand-checked on the date above, and the $/TB ranking is built on it. New on eBay is the cheapest sealed listing found on the last nightly collection, and the price links straight to it. The eBay figure currently sits about 2.1x the retail one at the median, and above it on all 36 rows that have both. Some of that is the shortage and some of it is the retail baseline being eight weeks old, and this page cannot tell you how the gap splits, so read the eBay column as what you can actually buy today and the retail one as what the drive cost when it was last checked. A drive shows a dash when no clean new listing qualified on that run.
A NAND shortage has pushed prices up, so the bar is higher than before. Under about 70 dollars per TB for a decent Gen 4 NVMe is a good deal, and 4TB drives give the lowest cost per TB. Sort by $/TB to see today's best.
For gaming and general use, no, a DRAM-less drive is fine and cheaper. For sustained large writes, video work or a busy work drive, a DRAM cache holds speed far better under load. Filter by cache to see only drives that have one.
For gaming, barely. Load times are almost identical, and Gen 5 costs more and runs hotter. It only earns its price for pro workloads moving huge files.
1TB is the floor, 2TB is the sweet spot, 4TB gives the best cost per TB. Filter by capacity to compare drives of the same size fairly.