The Big Story This Week: Samsung Drops, Lexar Spikes
The most interesting action this week played out at opposite ends of the 1TB shelf. The Samsung 990 PRO 1TB shed 12% in seven days, landing at $239.44. That’s a meaningful move for one of the most-purchased drives we track — 3,000 units sold last month. If you’ve been waiting on the 990 PRO, this is the buy window.
At the same time, the Lexar NM790 1TB with Heatsink jumped 15.4%, now sitting at $219.99. No obvious reason for the spike — the drive didn’t change. Worth noting that it had zero “bought past month” data, so demand signals are thin. Avoid it this week; the premium isn’t justified when cheaper alternatives exist.
The Crucial T500 1TB with Heatsink also dropped 11.5% to check current price, making it one of the better TLC-confirmed Gen 4 deals right now.
1TB: The Market Is Noisy
The 1TB tracker shows 85 drives with a median price of $189.99. That’s a wide field, and the noise at the low end is worth calling out.
The cheapest 1TB in the dataset is the JS990 at check current price — Gen 4, 6,000 MB/s rated, 4.6 stars. Problem: 3 reviews. Three. That’s not a bargain, that’s a coin flip. Skip it until it builds a track record.
For value you can actually trust, the Kingston NV3 1TB at $163.99 has 12,700 reviews and 5,000 purchases last month. It’s a budget workhorse without the “mystery brand” anxiety.
The WD_Black SN7100 1TB at $189.99 gives you confirmed TLC NAND, 7,250 MB/s read, and 2,000 units moved last month. If you want a quality Gen 4 drive without overpaying, this is the one.
| Model | Price | $/GB | Capacity | Gen | Read | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingston NV3 1TB M.2 | $163.99 | $0.1640 | 1TB | Gen 4 | 6,000 MB/s | 4.7 ★ | Buy → |
| WD_Black SN7100 1TB NVMe | $189.99 | $0.1900 | 1TB | Gen 4 | 7,250 MB/s | 4.8 ★ | Buy → |
| Samsung 990 PRO SSD | $239.44 | $0.2394 | 1TB | Gen 4 | 7,450 MB/s | 4.8 ★ | Buy → |
2TB: The Sweet Spot Keeps Getting Better
The 2TB tier has a genuinely interesting value story this week. The median sits at $344.89, but you can do significantly better.
The ADATA Legend 860 2TB is the cheapest-per-GB option in the entire 2TB segment at check current price, with a slight price dip this week. It has 10 reviews and a 5-star rating — promising, but thin. The 50 units bought last month is at least some evidence of real demand. Cautiously interesting if you’re comfortable being an early adopter.
The drive that keeps dominating purchase volume is the WD_Black SN7100 2TB. At $289.99, with 5,000 units bought last month, confirmed TLC NAND, and 5,800 reviews at 4.8 stars — this is the 2TB benchmark right now. Amazon’s Choice badge went to the Samsung 990 PRO 2TB at $388.55 (also down 5.1% this week, also 5,000 buys last month), but the WD undercuts it noticeably. Your call on whether the Samsung’s 7,450 MB/s vs. 7,250 MB/s is worth the premium at your workload.
The Value Inversion You Shouldn’t Miss
Here’s something the raw numbers reveal this week: buying bigger is genuinely cheaper per gigabyte. The best-per-GB 1TB drives clock in well above the best-per-GB 2TB and 4TB options. The Fikwot FX660 4TB is the best-per-GB drive across all capacity tiers tracked, at check current price. It has 476 reviews and a solid 4.6 rating — not a mystery brand.
If you’re building a gaming PC and debating between a 1TB boot drive and a larger option, the math strongly favors going to 4TB if your budget stretches there. The median 4TB is $719.99 — expensive in absolute terms, but the storage efficiency is real.
Gen 5: 16% Premium, Still Worth It for Some
There are 63 Gen 5 drives tracked this week, carrying a 16.26% average premium over Gen 4 on a per-GB basis. That gap is narrowing over time, but it’s still real money.
The Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB at $399.99 is the Gen 5 option most people are actually buying — 1,000 units last month, 14,700 MB/s read, 4.8 stars with 1,500 reviews. If you have a PCIe 5.0 slot and a workload that saturates Gen 4 (large sequential transfers, 8K video, AI inference), this is a legitimate upgrade.
The Crucial T710 1TB with Heatsink also dropped 12% this week to check current price — hitting 14,900 MB/s with 182 reviews at 4.7 stars. That’s a meaningful Gen 5 1TB option at a more approachable price than it was a week ago.
For most PC builders and PS5 upgraders, Gen 4 remains the better value. See our Best Gen 5 NVMe guide if you’re specifically chasing maximum throughput.
Watch Out: Ghost Listings and Multipacks Distorting the Data
Two things to flag this week.
The Gigastone “1TB” and “2TB” listings that appear in the dataset are 2-packs — the per-drive math makes them expensive outliers. The Gigastone 2-Pack 1TB shows at check current price but that’s for two drives. Not a rip-off per se, but it inflates the “most expensive 1TB” stat significantly. The Seagate Game Drive PS5 2TB at check current price is the other outlier at the top of the 2TB range — officially licensed PS5 branding commands a wild premium that has nothing to do with the hardware.
Also keep an eye on two SSK Gen 5 entries that appeared this week with coupon discounts but zero reviews. The SSK 2TB Gen 5 and SSK 1TB Gen 5 are both brand-new to the market with no purchase data and no ratings. The TLC NAND spec looks fine on paper, but there’s no real-world evidence yet. File under “wait and see.”
Bottom Line
The actionable moves this week: the Samsung 990 PRO 1TB drop is real and likely temporary. The WD_Black SN7100 2TB continues to be the most sensible buy in its class. If you’re hunting maximum GB per dollar, the Fikwot FX660 4TB is legitimately the best-value drive across all tiers — just accept that 5,000 MB/s read tops out below the premium Gen 4 options. And if you’re hunting 1TB bargains below the median, stick with established names — the mystery-brand listings with under 10 reviews aren’t worth the risk.