Micron 960GB SSD NVMe M.2 2280

A data center endurance monster with consumer drive write speeds. Buy it for a server, not your gaming PC.

The read side is solid. 5000 MB/s sequential and 520K random read IOPS put it in the top third of drives we've tested. But the write performance is a different story. 1400 MB/s sequential writes and 82K random write IOPS are weak for a PCIe 4.0 drive in 2025. This is a read-intensive drive by design, and it shows. For database reads or booting VMs, it'll fly. For video editing or large file transfers, it'll feel sluggish.

Against the Samsung 9100 PRO, the Micron loses on speed, capacity, and price. The Samsung writes at nearly triple the speed and costs less per gigabyte. The WD Black SN850X is similarly faster and cheaper. The only area where the Micron wins is endurance, 1700 TBW versus around 600 TBW for the consumer drives. But here's the thing: even 600 TBW is more than most users will hit in a decade. The Kingston FURY Renegade G5 and Crucial T500 are also faster and cheaper. This is an enterprise part competing in a consumer market where its strengths don't matter.

Here's the problem. You can get a Samsung 9100 PRO or WD Black SN850X with double the capacity and faster writes for less money. The Micron's value proposition is endurance, and unless you're hammering this drive with constant reads in a workstation or server, you're paying a premium for specs you'll never use. The price spread is wild too, USD 749 to USD 2,122 for the same drive. If you must buy it, the USD 749 listing is the only one that makes any sense.

The Micron 7450 PRO is a data center drive wearing consumer clothes. It's built for read-heavy enterprise workloads, not your gaming rig. The headline numbers tell the story: 5000 MB/s reads are fine, but 1400 MB/s writes are slower than plenty of budget PCIe 3.0 drives. What you're really paying for is endurance, and this thing has it in spades.

If you're building a gaming PC or upgrading a laptop, this isn't your drive. Go get a Samsung 9100 PRO or WD Black SN850X, you'll get more capacity, faster writes, and save money. The Micron is for homelab servers and workstations running read-heavy workloads where endurance actually matters.

Skip it unless you specifically need enterprise-grade endurance in an M.2 form factor. For everyone else, the Samsung 9100 PRO or WD Black SN850X are better drives at better prices. The Micron 7450 PRO is a great drive for the wrong audience.