This 2TB Cyber Monday SSD is a ludicrous deal at $68 and proves you just don't need an HDD anymore
It might be a little slow in comparison to the latest SSDs, but for data storage or even as a big boot drive this Crucial drive still has the goods.
Crucial P3| 2TB | NVMe | PCIe 3.0 | 3,500MB/s read | 3,000MB/s write | $99.99 $67.99 at Best Buy (save $32)
If the Crucial P3 Plus is a deal at just under $100, this non-Plus is a steal. It has the same Phison controller and the same QLC NAND chips. It's just this drive runs at PCIe 3.0 speeds, not 4.0. You're not going to feel that most of the time because the two share similar random access performance.
Price check: Amazon $94.59 | Walmart $99.24
The steady drip of SSD deals earlier this year has turned into a torrent of discounts, and very much like the previous Cyber Mondays, there's an occasional deal that's so stupidly cheap it makes us perform a double take.
Take this 2TB Crucial P3 NVMe SSD for example, currently available for a simply ludicrous $68. That's a huge amount of solid state storage for not very much money, and it certainly made us sit up and pay attention.
Of course, there are drawbacks. The Crucial P3 might be a massive slab of storage space but it isn't necessarily the fastest NVMe drive on the block as it uses QLC or quad level cell memory.
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That means its performance is somewhat limited in comparison to its newer, TLC (triple level cell) memory based competition, although with a maximum read/write speed quoted at 3500/3000 MB/s respectively it'll certainly knock any traditional old HDD out of the water.
In fact I'd argue that this drive at this price is a perfect representation of why, if you're careful with your money, you really don't need to be using traditional hard drives at all anymore.
It's simply unnecessary, and big ol' NVMe drives are currently coming in at such heavy discounts that there's no real advantage to using an HDD at all for home users, not even if you're looking for the most storage per dollar.
Nextorage Japan | 2TB | NVMe | PCIe 4.0 | 7300 MB/s Read | 6900 MB/s Write | $249.99 $99.99 at Newegg (save $150)
This one comes with a quality heatsink and it's designed to ensure it doesn't overheat in a PS5. But it'll do just as well in any gaming PC. Perfect if your motherboard's M.2 cooling doesn't come as standard, is inadequate or if you've just lost the heat spreader.
Of course it's not the only huge NVMe drive on offer right now, and if you're looking for something high capacity and seriously fast with modern TLC memory, may I suggest taking a look at the Nextorage Japan 2TB at a smidge under $100?
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It's a real speed contender with a rated 7300 MB/s read, 6900 MB/s write, and comes complete with a heatsink to ensure it stays cool and delivers its absolute best performance. It's a Gen 4 gem with proper credentials, and at this price really does deliver everything you could reasonably want from your next SSD purchase.
Big SSDs used to mean big money, but with price drops like these it's a great time to top up your storage. Prices may be about to rise on SSDs come the end of this year, and either of these drives at this sort of discount are absolutely worth snapping up while they're still cheap.
Andy built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 12, when IDE cables were a thing and high resolution wasn't. After spending over 15 years in the production industry overseeing a variety of live and recorded projects, he started writing his own PC hardware blog in the hope that people might send him things. And they did! Now working as a hardware writer for PC Gamer, Andy's been jumping around the world attending product launches and trade shows, all the while reviewing every bit of PC hardware he can get his hands on. You name it, if it's interesting hardware he'll write words about it, with opinions and everything.