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Best October Prime Day deals on SSD & storage

Grab storage drives at steep discounts.
Alaina Yee
By Alaina Yee
Senior Editor, PCWorld Oct 11, 2023 1:06 am PDT
Prime Day storage deals
Image: Unsplash

Amazon’s second Prime Day event this year is here—and you’ve still got one day to snag good discounts on SSDs. (Everything ends at 11:59pm PT on October 11.) Though there aren’t as many big sales, you can still get some of the best bargains we’ve seen this year. All our recommended deals are at all-time low prices (or very near it).

To get the best prices, you’ll need an Amazon Prime subscription, as the discounts are only available to members. Good news is, getting Amazon Prime for free is easy. Not interested in Prime, but still want to save money? We’re also keeping an eye out for sales at rival stores, like Newegg. Also, if you want more info on the drives we rate highest, check out our top picks for SSDs as well as our top picks for external storage.

Best Prime Day deals on SSDs

SSD prices have been good for most of this year, and the additional price cuts make them even sweeter. The selection of deals is smaller than in July, but you can both catch a few all-time low prices you might have missed in summer—plus a couple of new ones on brand-new drives.

Note: Unless listed otherwise, the warranty for these SSDs is five years.

Best deals on internal 2.5-inch SATA SSDs

Crucial MX500

Crucial

The Crucial MX500 is a favorite among SATA SSDs for good reason—you get solid performance at an incredibly affordable price. Think of it as the upgraded version of the BX500, our current top pick for budget SATA drive. Bonus: The price on the 1TB model has dropped even a few more dollars since the start of Prime Day.

Best deals on internal M.2 NVMe SSDs

Gen 3

Crucial P3 M.2 SSD 4 TB kaufen guenstig Amazon

PCWelt/Crucial

  • Crucial P3, 1TB PCIe NVMe Gen 3 M.2 SSD – $44 (15% off)
  • Crucial P3, 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 3 M.2 SSD – $82 (18% off)
  • Crucial P3, 4TB PCIe NVMe Gen 3 M.2 SSD – $160 (30% off)

Our pick for the best PCIe Gen 3 has been tumbling in price all year, and right now it’s close to its all-time low again. Even at a few bucks more than the absolute lowest price for both the 1TB and 2TB models, this is a decent deal.

Gen 4

* Sold as PS5 compatible

Several top SSD models are once again on deep discount. That’s especially true for the 1TB size, with favorites like the WD SN850X and the Samsung 980 Pro available for all-time low prices.

By the way, if you’re shopping for a drive for your PS5, any Gen 4 SSD with a sequential read speed of 5,500MB/s or faster will work. It’s not just models branded as PS5 compatible. (Every Gen 4 drive on this deals list except the P3 Plus qualifies.) But if you prefer a manufacturer’s guarantee, we’ve marked those sold as PS5 compatible.

Gen 5

If you’re itching to upgrade to the fastest generation of SSDs on the market (and have the hardware to support it), you can already get an all-time low price on a hefty amount of storage.

Best Prime Day deals on general PC storage

Looking for an internal hard disk drive or external drive to expand your storage? These deals are actually a bit hotter this time around, as compared to July—or at least, you get a little more selection.

Internal 3.5-inch hard-disk drives

Just a couple of large drives stood out among the HDD deals—one meant for NAS units (the WD Red Pro) and an enterprise-grade drive (the Seagate Exos). Others have dropped in price, but not notably.

External storage

SamsungT7Shield

Samsung

Need speedy external storage? Right now you can grab the Samsung T7 Shield, our pick for the best external USB drive with high performance, at its lowest prices yet. Same too for the popular Crucial X8 and the newer, faster Crucial X10. (The 2TB Crucial X8 has dropped another $20 since the start of Prime Day, too!) Meanwhile, if you need just a big fat external HDD, there’s a WD 20TB model that’s on steep discount.

FAQ

1.

Why are SSDs so cheap now?

Lower demand and high supply have led to a rapid tumble in solid-state drive (SSD) prices this year. Even before July’s Prime Day sales, SSDs cost much less. A 1TB drive that might have been $100 during Black Friday 2022 is now often around $80 (or 20 percent lower than before) or even less.

2.

Is an SSD better than HDD?

SSDs are faster and take less room in a PC than a hard-disk drive (HDD), which gives them a strong advantage. If you only have one storage drive in your PC, it should ideally be an SSD so you get faster boot times and quicker access to your files. A HDD as your primary drive will feel much slower.

But HDDs still have their advantages. First, they’re much cheaper. The going price of a 2TB HDD is about the same as the sale price for a 1TB SSD. You also can get them in higher capacities than SSDs. If you work with huge files, you can pick up an 18TB or 20TB HDD (and as mentioned, since HDD cost less, you’ll spend as much or even less as a 4TB SSD). If you need secondary storage and you don’t need it to be fast, HDDs are a fantastic option.

3.

How do I know if an SSD deal is good?

Here’s the guideline we use for picking deals: First, it should be for an SSD that performs well (or in select cases, performs well for its MSRP), and is a reasonable price when not on sale. The discount should also be significant for that particular model. Ex: For SSDs that almost never go on sale, a reduction of $5 to $10 is already hefty. For others, that might be closer to $20 to $30.

In other words, expect to pick up high-performing drives at an all-time low (or very close to that) during Prime Day. Ignore the options that don’t meet this criteria.

, Senior Editor

Alaina Yee is PCWorld's resident bargain hunter—when she's not covering software, PC building, and more, she's scouring for the best tech deals. Previously her work has appeared in PC Gamer, IGN, Maximum PC, and Official Xbox Magazine. You can find her on Twitter at @morphingball.

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