You can do better than the same old Samsung 990 Pro SSD this Black Friday, I'd buy one of these three deals instead

Lexar NM790, WD SN850X and Silicon Power UD90 on a blue background with Black Friday Deals logo
(Image credit: Lexar / WD / Silicon Power)

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

WD Black SN850X | 4 TB | NVMe | PCIe 4.0 | 7,300 MB/s read | 6,600 MB/s write | $247.49 at Amazon

WD Black SN850X | 4 TB | NVMe | PCIe 4.0 | 7,300 MB/s read | 6,600 MB/s write | $247.49 at Amazon
Focus on the fact you're getting 4 TB of our favorite gaming SSD (check out our review) for a very decent price, and the rest fades away. There's little not to love about the SN850X, and that holds just as true now as it did upon launch.

Price check: Newegg $249.99 | Best Buy $264.99

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

Silicon Power UD90 | 4 TB | NVMe | PCIe 4.0 | 5,000 MB/s read | 4,500 MB/s write | $239.99 $189.97 at Amazon (save $50.02)

Silicon Power UD90 | 4 TB | NVMe | PCIe 4.0 | 5,000 MB/s read | 4,500 MB/s write | $239.99 $189.97 at Amazon (save $50.02)
This Silicon Power might not be the fastest of drives, but it's difficult to argue with this much storage for this sort of money. With a sequential read/write of 5,000 MB/s and 4,500 MB/s, it's still not what you'd call slow and should be fine for gaming; plus it comes from a reliable brand.

Price check: Newegg $276.99

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

Lexar NM790 | 2 TB | NVMe | PCIe 4.0 | 7,400 MB/s read | 6,500 MB/s write | $189.99 $119.99 at Amazon (save $70)

Lexar NM790 | 2 TB | NVMe | PCIe 4.0 | 7,400 MB/s read | 6,500 MB/s write | $189.99 $119.99 at Amazon (save $70)
This SSD is a great deal right now and Lexar has put together a superb SSD in the NM790. Thanks to high-layer NAND and a low-power controller, you get tons of storage here on an energy-efficient and great-performing drive for not much cash and often much less cash than the competition. Read our Lexar NM790 (4 TB) review for more.

Price check: Newegg $149.99

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.


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Jacob Fox
Hardware Writer

Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years (result pending a patiently awaited viva exam) while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.

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