Solid State Drives

Intel Optane Memory is an caching device for HDDs that intelligently learns which applications and games you run most frequently and over time speeds up how quickly they load. Available in two different capacities, these are M.2 form factor devices, and require either a B250, Q250, H270, Q270, Z270 or Z370 motherboard plus a 7th gen Kaby Lake or 8th gen Coffee Lake Core i3, i5 or i7 processor to work.

These new super-fast SSDs use cutting-edge 3D XPoint memory instead of the more usual NAND flash memory. Joint developed by Intel and Micron, 3D XPoint has around 10x less latency than NAND, so Optane drives can start reading and writing much faster than traditional SSDs. They also perform much better at low queue depths, resulting in much snappier performance.

Intel Optane SSDs using 3D XPoint memory are available as 2.5in drives which use a U.2 cable to connect to the motherboard or as expansion cards that slot directly into a spare PCI-E slot on the motherboard.

Available in 120, 128, 240, 250, 256, 275 and 480GB capacities these SATA III 6Gb/s SSDs may no longer be the fastest around thanks to emerging PCIe SSDs, but they're the most cost-effective and are still easily fast enough for most users. You'll need a spare SATA 6Gb/s port to get the most from them, and a 2.5" capable drive bay - an adaptor may need to be bought, but most cases have at least one. These drives are suitable for holding an operating system, as well as numerous programs and a healthy collection of media and games.

Available in 500, 512, 525, 960GB and 1TB capacities these SATA III 6Gb/s SSDs may no longer be the fastest around thanks to emerging PCIe SSDs, but they're the most cost-effective and are still easily fast enough for most users. You'll need a spare SATA 6Gb/s port to get the most from them, and a 2.5" capable drive bay - an adaptor may need to be bought, but most cases have at least one. These drives are suitable for holding an operating system, as well as numerous programs and a healthy collection of media and games.

Available in 1.9TB, 2TB, 4TB and 5TB capacities these SATA III 6Gb/s SSDs may no longer be the fastest around thanks to emerging PCIe SSDs, but they're the most cost-effective and are still easily fast enough for most users. You'll need a spare SATA 6Gb/s port to get the most from them, and a 2.5" capable drive bay - an adaptor may need to be bought, but most cases have at least one. These drives are the highest capacity ones available, suitable for holding an operating system, as well as numerous programs and a healthy collection of media and games.

M.2 replaced the older mSATA standard. Available in 120, 128, 240, 256, 480, 500 and 512GB sizes the M.2 SSD connects to your device via an M.2 socket using the newer PCI Express NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) controller variant designed to fully utilise the capability of high-speed PCI Express storage devices to perform many I/O (in/out) operations in parallel. These SSD's can achieve read speeds in excess of 3000MB/s and write speeds over 2000MB/s making them the fastest available.