Samsung 250GB SSD SATA III 2.5"

The Samsung 860 EVO 250GB is a reliable SATA SSD that maxes out the interface at 550 MB/s read. It's not the fastest drive in our database, but the 150 TBW endurance and 5-year warranty make it a safe bet for older systems. Watch out for grey market sellers and missing cables, but at $135 it's a solid upgrade.

Sequential speeds hit the SATA III wall at 550 MB/s read and 520 MB/s write. That's about as fast as this interface allows, so don't expect more from any 2.5-inch SATA drive. Random performance is where things get more interesting. 98K read IOPS and 90K write IOPS put it in the middle of the pack in our database, which means it's fine for everyday tasks but not a workstation monster. The 150 TBW endurance rating is a standout for a drive this size, and the 5-year warranty backs that up. For booting Windows, loading apps, and general multitasking, it's snappy and consistent. Just don't try to edit 8K video on it.

Stacked against modern NVMe drives like the Crucial T700, Western Digital BLACK SN850X, or MSI SPATIUM M480 PRO, the 860 EVO looks ancient on paper. Those drives do thousands of MB/s while this one is capped at 550. But that's not a fair fight. Those are PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 drives for completely different use cases. The real comparison is against other SATA SSDs, and there the 860 EVO still holds its own. The Micron T710 and Lexar NM1090 PRO are also NVMe, so they're not direct competitors either. If you need a 2.5-inch SATA drive, this is still one of the best options out there, even if it's not the newest.

Pricing is all over the place right now. US listings range from $135 to $160, which is a $25 spread for the exact same drive. That's annoying. If you're buying in the US, shop around and don't overpay. The cheapest listing we found is on Amazon, but check the seller carefully. At $135, this is a solid deal for breathing life into an older machine. At $160, you're getting close to territory where a 500GB SATA drive or even a budget NVMe starts making more sense. The value proposition here is really about the reliability and warranty, not the raw specs.

The Samsung 860 EVO is the SATA SSD that refuses to die, and honestly, that's a good thing. It's been around for years, and for most people still running a 2.5-inch drive bay, it's still the easiest upgrade you can make. We're looking at the 250GB model here, which is the entry point. It's not going to blow your hair back with raw speed, but it will make an old laptop or desktop feel brand new compared to a spinning hard drive.

Samsung packed this thing with MLC V-NAND, a DRAM cache, and their MJX controller. That combo was top-tier for SATA when it launched, and it still holds up. The headline numbers are 550 MB/s read and 520 MB/s write. Nothing crazy by NVMe standards, but for SATA, that's basically the ceiling.

Skip this if you have an M.2 slot available on your motherboard. A budget NVMe drive will run circles around this thing for similar money. Also skip it if you need more than 250GB of storage, because this capacity fills up fast with modern games and media. And if you're building a new system from scratch, don't saddle yourself with SATA when NVMe is the same price or cheaper.

If you've got an older laptop or desktop with a 2.5-inch bay and you're still booting from a hard drive, buy this. It's reliable, fast enough for everyday use, and the 5-year warranty gives you peace of mind. The 250GB capacity is the weak point, so if you can stretch to the 500GB or 1TB version, do it. But for a budget boot drive or a secondary drive for an older system, this is a no-brainer. Just make sure you're buying from an authorized seller, because the grey market units are a real problem.