A solid state drive is often the most important component for making a PC feel fast and responsive; any PC still using a mechanical hard drive as its primary storage is long overdue for an upgrade. The SSD market is broader than ever, with a wide range prices, performance and form factors.

During the holiday season, the best sales tend to temporarily disrupt the usual market positioning of some drives; its not unusual to see a mainstream or high-end drive end up going for the same or lower price than that same brands entry-level drive. The prices in this guide reflect the general state of the market without those big discounts, so the best buying strategy is probably to wait for a deal thats clearly better than the ones we have listed here. Pricing in the SSD market is still generally trending downward, so after the holiday season is over the market should be returning to everyday prices that are still as good as what are listed here.