If you have an aging computer—think 2017 or older—with a platter-based hard drive, then upgrading to a new SSD, or solid-state storage drive, will dramatically improve your day-to-day experience.
If you use a newer laptop or desktop PC for everyday tasks like web browsing, email, and wrangling documents and spreadsheets, a newer, faster NVMe SSD than the one that came with your computer won’t be a meaningful upgrade. But if your PC or laptop uses an older SATA drive and can support an NVMe SSD, the latter will yield a noticeable improvement.
Owners of newer PCs or laptops, gaming handhelds, and/or a PlayStation 5 should only consider an upgrade to an existing SSD for more storage or to replace a failing drive.
The most common size for NVMe SSDs in 2024 is 1 terabyte, and several of the drives we tested are no longer available in smaller capacities. For most people, 1 TB is enough storage to last years without needing an upgrade—it’s enough for your apps, your photos, videos, and music, and plenty of indie games (and a few bigger titles too). And 1 TB drives typically offer the best combination of price and capacity available right now.
If you play a lot of games, however, you might consider a 2 TB drive. Game install sizes have ballooned in recent years, with games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield, and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty exceeding 100 GB of space each. A full install of a single Call of Duty title could take up 250 GB on its own.
Gamers with PC-based handhelds like the Steam Deck or cheaper models of the ROG Ally will have to buy an M.2 2230 NVMe drive, which can be more expensive than the physically larger M.2 2280 SSDs. Consider that a 2230 drive that holds more than 1 TB of storage can get expensive quickly, so only get more capacity if you really need it.
Options are more limited for Xbox Series X|S owners looking to upgrade their internal storage. Current Xbox consoles use CFExpress-based cards, which are easy to install or remove—you just plug them in or pull them out. But they are only made by Western Digital and Seagate and are routinely more expensive than standalone NVMe drives with comparable capacities.
Owners of Apple hardware are in an even tighter spot. You can’t upgrade the internal storage on Apple Silicon-based MacBooks, which have both memory and storage soldered to their mainboards. Newer Apple desktop computers like the Mac mini with Apple Silicon have removable drives, but the storage format is proprietary and can’t be replaced with the third-party options we discuss here. Instead, your best bet to increase your storage without paying a lot upfront will likely be a portable SSD. For owners of much older Apple hardware, OWC sells upgrade options for devices from 2017 and earlier.
