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If you’re like me and you have more photos and videos of your cat (or other beloved pet or person in your life) than you’ll ever realistically look back at, then you’d probably still be crushed if anything happened to even one of them. Sure, your phone can be backed up to a cloud based storage like Google Drive, but services can go offline and mistakes can happen. One trusted form of backup for those important files and photos is on an external HDD or SSD.
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SSDs (solid-state drives) differentiate themselves largely based on their speed: They make almost everything quicker, from starting apps to copying files to pulling up those files in a flash. Another benefit: Thanks to a lack of moving internal parts, these drives are less prone to failure. The downside? Because SSD technology is much newer and chip prices are ever-increasing, you might be paying up to 10x more per TB for the speed and reliability over an HDD.
When looking at an external HDD (hard disk drive), you’ll find that these are generally cheaper than SSD (solid-state drives) but this comes at a trade-off of speed and durability. Thanks to the moving parts and spinning discs of an HDD, these are more likely to fail over time and be slower in terms of data transfer as well.
If you’re comfortable opening up your desktop computer tower and making a few connections, an internal HDD is going to be the best, most cost-effective way to add extra storage and backup space. If you’re looking for a quick and simple storage solution, an external drive is your best choice to quickly back up your data.
The main questions you have to answer are: how much storage you need, how quick you need it to transfer, how durable you need your drive to be, and how much you want to spend?
SSDs
(Credit: Amazon)
WD Black SN850 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Gaming SSD with Heatsink
The WD Black SN850 has read speeds of up to 7000MB/s for its 1TB and larger storage sizes. You’ll pay marginally less if you don’t get it with a heatsink built in, but considering the separate cost of heatsinks, you might as well get them together. Perhaps most importantly, this SSD is PCle Gen 4, meaning it’s compatible with the PS5. Just slide off the top cover and snap this bad boy in place, and you’ll be shocked by how quickly it blazes through load screens.
If the 1TB or 2TB (which goes out of stock fairly quickly) aren’t within your budget, there’s also the 500GB size, which will work just fine for anyone who doesn’t hoard games like some sort of digital dragon. It reads slower at 5300MBs/s, but that’s still pretty quick. For a similar model at a similar price, we also reviewed the WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD.
(Credit: Amazon)
Samsung T7 2TB Portable Solid State Drive
Pocket-sized and portable, the Samsung T7 external SSD delivers read/write speeds of up to 1,050/1,00 MB/s. The 2TB capacity will hold tons of content from class projects to important work documents with space left over for music, videos, and more. You can even set up a password with the embedded software to further protect your data and this SSD is compatible with PC, Mac, and Android mobile devices. Our reviewer gave it high marks for its small size and secure hardware encryption.
(Credit: Best Buy)
WD Black SN770M 1TB Internal SSD for ROG Ally and Steam Deck
This is kind of an outlier in our list given its specific usage, but as more brands come up with their own handheld gaming devices, SSDs like the WD Black SN770M will be more in demand. An SSD offers quicker read speeds than simply socketing in a MicroSD and is well worth the extra cash. With a maximum read speed of 5150 megabytes per second and a storage capacity of 1GB, your library will be available to you wherever you roam without having to delete and redownload titles.
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HDDs
(Credit: Best Buy)
Seagate 2TB Starfield Special Edition External Hard Drive
Seagate has some very cool external HDDs and this special edition Starfield drive is no exception. Compatible with PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One X, and Xbox One S, this 2TB HDD will simplify your backup process. It also includes 1 year of Rescue Data Recovery Services offered by Seagate for some extra peace of mind. Did I mention that the RGB LED strip along the bottom is customizable? Though, personally, I think the way it matches the emblem on the side looks fantastic.
Note: this drive can be used to back up Xbox OR PC data, but not both at the same time as you’ll have to reformat the drive for either data type.
(Credit: Amazon)
Toshiba X300 Pro 4TB 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive
The high performance Toshiba X300 Pro is a lot of bang for your buck, providing a storage capacity of 4TB and speeds of up to 7200 RPM. Designed to last, this hard drive is shock resistant and has a workload rate of up to 300TB/year. If you need even more space, this particular drive comes in capacities of up to 20TB.
More Storage Deals to Consider
So What’s Better: An External SSD or an Internal?
The benefits of an internal SSD drive are the same as the external: They’re fast, they use less power, have no moving parts, and they’re whisper-quiet. The downsides are the same: For those benefits, you’ll be paying a lot more per TB of storage. That said, prices on internal SSDs seem to be more accessible than the external devices, so adding a terabyte or two is more achievable for a little extra effort.
Internal SSDs come in two types: the M.2 style or the 2.5-inch drives that slot into your desktop. As long as you’re going to be opening up your device to install these, you should get the most storage you can at once, so spend a few extra bucks to add at least 1TB. Most users will find that to be plenty of space for photos, videos, and music. If you’re a power content creator or a gamer, you’re probably looking in the 2TB-8TB area for your usage.
An external SSD is easy to use: Plug it into your device with a USB or Thunderbolt connection and you can instantly have terabytes upon terabytes of storage and backup options. The simplicity and speed of these drives, however, will cost you.
What is the Benefit of Using an SSD Over an HDD?
SSDs tend to be faster and, thanks to the lack of moving parts, are more durable over time than an HDD. You can’t beat the low cost of an HDD, however, so if your budget is tighter that’s the better option for you.
How Does PCMag Test SSDs/HDDs?
As with any other product, SSDs and HDDs are given a rigorous evaluation. Using a Windows-based storage testbed, both devices are put through their paces and performance is measured against the PCMark 10 Full System Drive benchmark for SSDs and the PCMark 7 Secondary Storage test for HDDs.
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