Best Rated Solid State Drives Buying Guide

Just a few years ago, solid state drives were prohibitively expensive, especially in larger capacities. Now, they are much more affordable and are available in a wide variety of sizes and formats. To best understand which drives are the most reliable, we researched both customer reviews and professional testing results.

Below you will find the ratings broken down for each source, with a summary at the end to give an overall impression of the top solid state drives. All of the ratings are out of a possible five stars.

Best rated solid state drives on Amazon

Amazon customers favored solid state drives from Samsung and Crucial over the others. The Samsung 840 and 850 Pro series drives shared the top spots with the Crucial MX100 and M550 drives. The Samsung 840 EVO series filled out the middle of the top ten list. SanDisk and MyDigital were on the lower end of the top ten SSDs on Amazon.

SSD				Rating
Samsung  840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive				4.8
Crucial MX100 SATA 2.5″ 7mm Internal SSD				4.8
Samsung 850 Pro 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD				4.8
Crucial M550 SATA 2.5″ 7mm Internal Solid State Drive				4.8
Samsung 840 EVO mSATA 0.85 Inch SSD				4.8
Samsung 840 EVO 2.5 inch SATA III Internal SSD				4.7
Samsung 840 EVO-Series 2.5 Inch SATA III Notebook Kit Version Internal SSD				4.7
SanDisk Ultra II SATA III 2.5-Inch 7mm SSD				4.7
SanDisk Extreme PRO SATA 6.0GB/s 2.5 Inch 7mm SSD				4.7
MyDigital SC2 Super Cache 2 42mm SATA III 6G SSD				4.5

Top ten solid state drives at Best Buy

Best Buy customers chose the Samsung 840 EVO series and the Kingston HyperX SSDs as their favorites. Three Intel models followed closely behind- the 530 series, the 520 series and the Intel Cherryville 520 drive. The bottom half of the top ten contained the Toshiba Q Series Pro, the Samsung 820 Series, and other solid state drives by Toshiba, SanDisk and a hybrid drive by Seagate.

SSD				Rating
Samsung 840 EVO Internal Serial ATA III SSD				4.9
Kingston Technology HyperX 3K 2.5″ Internal Solid State Drive				4.9
Intel 530 Series Internal SATA SSD				4.8
Intel 520 Series Internal Serial ATA SSD				4.8
Intel Cherryville 520 2.5″ Internal Solid State Drive				4.8
Toshiba Q Series Pro Internal Serial ATA 3.0 SSD				4.8
Samsung 820 Series Internal Serial ATA III SSD				4.8
Toshiba Internal Serial ATA III Solid State Drive				4.8
SanDisk Internal Serial ATA III SSD for Laptops				4.8
Seagate Internal Serial ATA Solid State Hybrid Drive				4.5

Best rated solid state drives according to Computer Shopper magazine

The editors of Computer Shopper tested solid state drives and chose their top ten according to their internal criteria. Their top three favorite drives were the Crucial MX100, and two Samsung drives, the 840 EVO and the 840 Pro. The middle range of their top ten was made up of the Plextor M6e, the Samsung 850 Pro, the SanDisk Extreme II and the Samsung 840 series. The remainder of their list was comprised of the ioSafe Rugged portable SSD, another Plextor M6e model, and the Intel 730 series.

SSD				Rating
Crucial MX100				4.5
Samsung SSD 840 EVO				4.5
Samsung SSD 840 Pro				4.5
Plextor M6e M.2 PCIe SSD				4
Samsung SSD 850 Pro				4
SanDisk Extreme II SSD				4
Samsung SSD 840 Series				4
ioSafe Rugged Portable SSD				4
Plextor M6e M.2 SSD				4
Intel Solid State Drive 730 Series				4

Conclusion

The overall standout from all sources was the Samsung 840 line of solid state drives.  The Crucial MX100 was well regarded by testers and consumers alike. Drives by Intel and SanDisk appeared in the middle to low range of top ten lists. The other drives that appeared on each top ten list were inconsistent across sources.

Sources: Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com, Computershopper.com