The glory days of SATA SSDs are well and truly gone by now. These drives, stuck between an HDD and a much faster NVMe SSD, don’t have much to offer that the other two don’t cover.
Well, that used to be the case. I wrote them off as officially too old, but the current state of the PC market reminded me that sometimes old tech is the only way to survive a shortage. As such, it seems that SATA SSDs have just been given a second lease on life.
SATA is slow, but it’s still an SSD
It can still be an improvement.
SATA SSDs are slower than even the cheapest SSDs you can find right now. They top out around 550MB/s, and unlike NVMe SSDs, the SATA III interface can’t scale any further. This is all we’re ever going to get out of that tech.
Still, when compared to a hard drive, they’re significantly faster. They make all the difference between snail-paced loading times and something relatively responsive.
Most people have made the swap from an HDD to an SSD of any kind for their operating system, but a SATA SSD for secondary storage can still make a noticeable difference. It’ll cut your gaming loading times and make file transfers quicker. Those speeds will still crawl behind even a PCIe 3 NVMe SSD, but they’ll beat an HDD.
There’s also a consistency benefit that doesn’t show up in benchmarks. SATA SSDs don’t tank in performance the way HDDs sometimes can under random access or multitasking. They’re more predictably snappy. They’re not exciting at all in this day and age, but they’re still an improvement.
With SSD pricing all over the place, SATA can sometimes shine by comparison
It’s all about capacity.
Considering that they’re far slower than the fastest SSDs, you’d expect SATA drives to be way cheaper to make up for their less-than-impressive performance. That’s not always true, but it’s possible to score a deal where you get a cheaper drive with higher capacity for less than an NVMe SSD.
This is what truly brings SATAs back on my radar—when bought at the right price, they once again make some sense for pure storage purposes. Although I can’t recommend using a SATA drive as a boot drive, SATA can still work as cheaper bulk storage that’s still many times faster than an HDD.
However, this is only true at higher capacities, highlighting how buying 1TB SSDs of any type is currently a waste of money. I’ll share some prices with you, but be mindful that they’re volatile, so they might look different by the time you read this.
At 1TB, the cheapest PCIe Gen 4 SSDs are at around the same price as a SATA III, making the latter completely obsolete. At 2TB, we’re starting to see some difference. SATA III SSDs can be found for around $180, such as this KingSpec drive, or a TeamGroup drive at $190. You’ll have a hard time finding a solid 2TB NVMe SSD at that price point, although I stumbled upon a few QLC SSDs for just under $200—but given the downsides of QLC, those are hardly a steal. PCIe 3 NVMe SSDs start at around $220 and up, such as this Silicon Power drive (currently on sale).
The savings grow bigger at higher capacities. This 4TB SATA SSD marks one of the cheapest I could find, with a $304 price tag. NVMes of that same capacity are generally anywhere between $60 and $250 more expensive than that, making SATA the better option for bulk storage that doesn’t need to be fast.
When SATA is still the wrong answer
Sometimes, it’s best to go with NVMe.
SATA SSDs are useful for two reasons. One, you need bulk storage and want it to be faster and quieter than an HDD. Two, you may not have spare M.2 slots for an NVMe SSD, and you still want to expand your storage.
However, SATA SSDs are definitely outdated and not worth it if you want a boot drive. While the actual real-world difference between a PCIe Gen 3 and Gen 5 drive is not that big in terms of loading times, there’s a huge gap between even the best SATA III SSD and a cheap NVMe drive. Being able to load up your OS and all startup apps quicker is no longer a luxury; it’s something every user should aim for as a baseline.
Beyond that, don’t bother investing in a SATA SSD for gaming or creative workloads. It’ll work, but NVMe will be better.
But if you just want some place to store your files and perhaps the games that don’t need a fast drive, a SATA is a viable alternative—provided you buy it cheaper than an NVMe.
SATA SSDs are viable, but explore your options
Do some digging before shopping.
SATA SSDs are hanging on for dear life in the consumer market, but the current shortage-fueled pricing changes are giving them more time. However, there are other options if you’re on a tight budget and you need bulk storage.
HDDs, obviously, remain a favorite for cold storage and for building a NAS. Their price per gigabyte is absolutely unparalleled. The downsides are real, though, from super slow speeds to a lot more noise.
PCIe Gen 3 and Gen 4 SSDs cost roughly the same as SATA drives at low capacities. If you just need 1TB or even 2TB, it might be worth paying extra for an NVMe SSD to benefit from the extra speeds and the future-proofing.
No matter which way you go, now is the time to hunt for SSD deals. Impulse buys are out the window. You may often find vastly different types of SSDs all hovering around the same price point, and that’s because storage is in high demand right now, so it’s being bought out in bulk. While it’s better to get an NVMe drive if your PC can support that, don’t be afraid of buying SATA for storage—it might save you some money.
