Western Digital Black SN850X

The WD_BLACK SN850X is one of the best PCIe 4.0 drives on the market, with 7,300 MB/s reads and top-tier random performance. It's a no-brainer for gaming PCs and PS5 upgrades. Just shop around, prices swing by over USD 100 depending on the retailer.

Sequential reads hit 7,300 MB/s and writes land at 6,600 MB/s. That's fast enough to make DirectStorage games load before you finish reaching for your drink. Random performance is where this drive really flexes though. 1,200K random read IOPS and 1,100K random write IOPS put it in the 92nd percentile for random workloads, which means game installs, shader compilation, and Windows boot all feel snappy. The DRAM cache keeps things consistent under sustained writes, and the optional heatsink helps it hold peak speeds during long gaming sessions. But it's not perfect. The portable score is a weak 28 out of 100, so if you're planning to toss this in an external enclosure, you'll want to look elsewhere. The heatsink version is over half an inch thick and won't fit most enclosures anyway.

The SN850X goes head to head with the Samsung 990 PRO and the Kingston KC3000, and honestly, it holds its own. The 990 PRO edges it out in some synthetic benchmarks, but Samsung's had firmware drama with the 980 and 990 series, and plenty of buyers have jumped ship to WD because of it. The KC3000 is a solid alternative with similar speeds, but it doesn't have the same feature set or the heatsink option. The Seagate FireCuda 530R is another contender, but it tends to cost more for similar real-world performance. If you want raw PCIe 5.0 speed, the Crucial T705 blows past all of these, but you'll pay a premium and need a compatible motherboard. For most people on PCIe 4.0, the SN850X is the sweet spot.

Pricing is all over the place right now. In the US, you'll see this drive listed anywhere from USD 400 to USD 508 depending on the store. That's a USD 108 spread for the exact same 2TB drive. If you're shopping in the US, the best deal we're seeing is at the USD 400 listing. In Europe, the gap is even wider. EUR 459 to EUR 574 across German, Spanish, French, and Italian retailers. That's a EUR 115 difference, and the EUR 459 listing is the one to grab. At the low end of those ranges, this drive is a steal. At the high end, you're paying early adopter tax on a drive that's been out for a while. Shop around before you click buy.

The WD_BLACK SN850X is basically the default answer when someone asks what NVMe drive to buy for gaming. It's a PCIe 4.0 drive that hits 7,300 MB/s reads and 6,600 MB/s writes, and our database puts it in the 99th percentile for features. That's not marketing fluff. That's the drive sitting at the top of the charts while most competitors are still catching their breath.

Western Digital didn't reinvent the wheel here. They just took TLC NAND, slapped on a DRAM cache, and tuned the firmware until it screamed. The 2TB version we're looking at comes with a heatsink option, hardware encryption, and a 1,200 TBW endurance rating. For a gaming drive, that's more than enough runway. And with 17,059 customer reviews averaging 4.8 stars, people aren't just buying it. They're keeping it.

Skip this if you need a portable drive. The portable score of 28 out of 100 is rough, and the heatsink version won't fit in most external enclosures. If you're on a PCIe 5.0 motherboard and want maximum speed, the Crucial T705 is the better call, though you'll pay for it. And if you're just doing light office work, this drive is overkill. A cheaper DRAM-less drive will feel identical for spreadsheets and email.

If you're building a gaming PC or upgrading a PS5, this is the drive to get. It's fast, reliable, and the heatsink version keeps things cool without any extra fuss. The 2TB capacity hits the sweet spot between price and space, and the endurance rating means you won't be replacing it anytime soon. Buy it at the low end of the price range and you'll feel great about the purchase. Buy it at the high end and you'll still be happy, just slightly poorer.