The NAND flash memory chip market is a volatile one, and when it comes to scoring a deal on a solid state drive, it's all about timing. Last year was the best time to buy, particular around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Prices have gone up since then, but you can still find some decent bargains, like this fast Adata XPG SX8100 2TB SSD selling for $229.99 on Newegg today.
That's not quite the cheapest I've ever seen it, but it is well below its $299.99 list price. And if looking at a price history on Amazon, the average price on this model since it released in September of last year is $252.77. What makes this deal stand out is that it's the fastest 2TB SSD I can find for the money.
The SX8100 is an NVMe drive, which means it shuttles data through the PCI Express bus (it plugs into an M.2 slot on your motherboard). It is rated to deliver read speeds of up to 3,500MB/s, and write speeds of up to 3,000MB/s. (That's really fast).
You don't need that kind of speed for gaming, and if you're just looking for a capacious SSD, the best value proposition in 2TB territory is Crucial's BX500 (530MB/s reads, 500MB/s writes), which you can snag for $199.99 on Newegg. That's a SATA 6Gbps model. If shopping for an M.2 form factor drive, Western Digital's Blue 2TB drive (560MB/s reads, 530MB/s writes) is available for $209.99 after applying coupon code 3BKUPDAY25. Both
Those are both fine for gaming. If you move a lot of files around and/or want a more performance oriented option, the Adata SX8100 is easy to recommend with this deal. As a point of reference, Sabrent's Rocket 2TB SSD is rated to deliver 3,400MB/s reads and 2,700MB/s writes, both of which are slower than Adata's SSD, and it costs $279.99.
For other options, check out our weekly roundup of cheap SSD deals.
