NVMe SSDs are one of the fastest forms of storage available, capable of delivering read and write speeds up to five times faster than a typical SATA-based drive. They also don’t limit your data transfer rate, meaning you can get more out of your system.

NVMe drives are designed to attach directly to the motherboard via an M.2 slot, allowing you to use up to four PCIe lanes to connect them to the motherboard instead of using the SATA interface. This interface is fast enough to allow NVMe drives to deliver sustained read and write speeds of 3.5 GB/s, which makes them ideal for gamers and other users who need speedy file transfers.

There are multiple form factors for NVMe drives, including U.2, M2, Add-in Card (AIC), and Enterprise & Data Center Form Factor (EDSFF). AIC drives can be installed as expansion cards, while EDSFF models are large, rugged disks that operate at a low temperature to maximize performance.

The Crucial P5 Plus delivers solid performance for its price, and is especially well suited to creative professionals who need high-resolution workflows and faster load times. Its solid state drive (SSD) controller, Phison E18, is an upgrade from the original P5, and it offers better performance than many other drives at this capacity.

Its SK Hynix 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash is the latest and greatest on the market, boasting about a 40% performance boost over its predecessors. That means it’s fast and has very good reliability, though it’s not rated to last for 500,000 hours or more, which could be an issue for some users.

Another slick-looking SSD is the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus, which uses a powerful controller and newer, faster NAND flash to offer incredibly fast read and write performance for an M.2 SSD. It’s the first drive to hit our lab with this controller, and its peak sequential reads of 7,100MB/s and writes of 6,600MB/s are impressive — especially for an M.2 SSD, which typically don’t have the same longevity ratings as their hard drive peers.

Despite its size, this is an extremely compact SSD, measuring 80mm long and 22mm wide. It can fit in most M.2 slots on most modern desktops and laptops.

As such, it’s one of the most compact NVMe drives we’ve ever tested. It’s just a fraction of the width and length of a standard HDD, and it’s also incredibly power efficient.

Finally, the Rocket 4 Plus is very quiet, which is important to some gamers who may be sensitive to audio latency. It also has plenty of protection measures, like Advanced Wear Levelling, Bad Block Management, Error Correction Code, and Over-Provision flash management.

Whether you’re a gamer or just want to upgrade your old PC with a more advanced storage solution, an NVMe SSD is the best option. They’re more expensive than SATA drives, but they’re also much faster, which makes them worth the extra cost for some users. They’re also much more durable than other types of storage, so they can withstand some heavy workloads without breaking down.