What SSD, HDD, and storage to buy? A 2018 black Friday buyer’s guide

Right now is a great time to buy storage for your PC. Not only are SSDs and other drives more affordable than ever, but we’re seeing newer technology hit this space. Let’s check out the deals:

This is part of our gaming PC building guide series. Here’s why you should build a PC right now. For more part guides, click here.

Fast SSDs with great gaming performance

Samsung 860 Evo

• 250GB: $58 at BestBuy (normally $95)
• 500GB: $73 at Newegg (normally $110)
• 1TB: $128 at Amazon (normally $200)
• 2TB: $295 at Amazon (normally $400)

WD Blue 3D NAND

• 250GB: $54 at Amazon (normally $69)

Fast SSDS with great all-around performance

Samsung 970 Evo

• 250GB: $87 at Newegg (normally $100)
• 500GB: $117 at Newegg (normally $150)

Huge storage space with SSD-like performance

Hitatchi UltraStar + Intel Optane

If you are sick of giving up performance for storage capacity, you could go with this combination of components. A huge, traditional HDD with an Intel Optane memory accelerator. This is a great combination if you spend a lot of time in the same games because the Optane memory learns to load the same data faster over time. So if you’re playing the same level multiple times in a multiplayer shooter, it could end up loading as fast or faster than an SSD.

Here’s an affordable setup that I like (keep in mind you need to pair the Optane with an HDD to get the speed and capacity improvement):

• Hitachi UltraStar 7K3000 4TB: $61.25 at Amazon (normally $100)
• Intel Optane Memory Module 16GB: $21 at Amazon