If you are looking for a 4TB portable SSD, the Crucial X6 is one of the most affordable alternatives. M.2 PCIe/NVMe SSDs tend to be much more expensive, but Mushkin’s Alpha (based on cheaper QLC NAND) is competitively priced. The WD Blue is a comprehensively tried and tested 2.5″ SSD that offers decent performance (for a SATA drive) and durable TLC NAND. Last update on / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

These are the most affordable 4TB SSDs in the M.2, 2.5″ and portable form factors at the time of writing. However, the real-world difference is not necessarily large, and endurance (as measured in TBW – terabytes written) is less of an issue in higher capacities. Newer drives based on QLC (quad-level cell) memory tend to be cheaper, somewhat slower, and offer less endurance than high-end SSDs based on TLC (triple-level cell) chips. Although prices vary somewhat day-to-day, it is mainly the type of Flash memory used that determines the price tag. The number of alternatives has grown significantly since last year and there are now quite a few high-capacity drives available in all common form factors.Ĭost per GB is always a key factor when buying a storage device, and it is of course particularly important when shopping for a high-capacity SSD. Here, we’ve rounded up all 4TB or larger SSD from major manufacturers as of April 2022. And thanks to the arrival of cheaper chips in the form of TLC (triple-level cell) and QLC (quad-level cell) NAND, it is now easier than before to justify investing in more spacious drives. Nevertheless, the cost of Flash memory has been dropping for some time. The main issue is that the largest capacities tend to be too pricey for end-users. 4TB SSDs are now quite common, but we are also starting to see some 8TB models in the market.įrom the manufacturers’ perspective, building SSDs in large capacities is not really an engineering challenge. If you work with storage-heavy apps or simply want quick access to your entire Steam library, there is no substitute for a high-capacity SSD.

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2.5in solid state drive for macbook pro