SATA SSDs

SATA SSD Performance & Benchmark Tests

Here you can find detailed speed performance tests of SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs. The maximum speed here, limited by the SATA III interface, is only 600 MB/s* (theoretically). In practice, a speed of up to approx. 550 MB/s is possible for reading and writing. SATA SSDs are slower compared to PCIe NVMe SSDs, which makes them cheaper. Therefore, they are usually used as a backup or data grave when the speed is not that important.

We have tested 49 S-ATA SSDs:

Product Image Capacity Read Write Score Price $/GB Test Shop
Crucial BX500 240GB CT240BX500SSD1 240 GB 551 MB/s 473 MB/s 635 22 $ 0,09 $ Performance Test
Crucial BX500 480GB CT480BX500SSD1 480 GB 550 MB/s 476 MB/s 650 25 $ 0,05 $ Performance Test
Crucial BX500 1TB CT1000BX500SSD1 1024 GB 551 MB/s 476 MB/s 695 48 $ 0,05 $ Performance Test
Crucial MX500 250GB CT250MX500SSD1 250 GB 551 MB/s 464 MB/s 795 35 $ 0,14 $ Performance Test
Crucial MX500 500GB CT500MX500SSD1 500 GB 550 MB/s 473 MB/s 800 35 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
Crucial MX500 1TB CT1000MX500SSD1 1024 GB 551 MB/s 475 MB/s 784 58 $ 0,06 $ Performance Test
Crucial MX500 2TB CT2000MX500SSD1 2048 GB 551 MB/s 481 MB/s 799 108 $ 0,05 $ Performance Test
Intenso High Performance 240GB 3813440 240 GB 552 MB/s 472 MB/s 646 29 $ 0,12 $ Performance Test
Intenso High Performance 480GB 3813450 480 GB 550 MB/s 472 MB/s 641 57 $ 0,12 $ Performance Test
Intenso High Performance 960GB 3813460 960 GB 550 MB/s 462 MB/s 647 54 $ 0,06 $ Performance Test
Kingston A400 240GB SA400S37/240G 240 GB 550 MB/s 462 MB/s 688 20 $ 0,08 $ Performance Test
Kingston A400 480GB SA400S37/480G 480 GB 550 MB/s 473 MB/s 688 25 $ 0,05 $ Performance Test
Lexar NQ100 480GB LNQ100X480G 480 GB 536 MB/s 466 MB/s 636 33 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
Lexar NQ100 960GB LNQ100X960G 960 GB 527 MB/s 424 MB/s 668 65 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
Lexar NS100 512GB LNS100-512 512 GB 530 MB/s 443 MB/s 670 21 $ 0,04 $ Performance Test
Lexar NS100 1TB LNS100-1T 1024 GB 527 MB/s 395 MB/s 702 40 $ 0,04 $ Performance Test
Patriot Burst Elite 240GB PBE240GS25SSDR 240 GB 543 MB/s 454 MB/s 640 16 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
Patriot Burst Elite 480GB PBE480GS25SSDR 480 GB 526 MB/s 474 MB/s 714 24 $ 0,05 $ Performance Test
Patriot Burst Elite 960GB PBE960GS25SSDR 960 GB 518 MB/s 422 MB/s 643 38 $ 0,04 $ Performance Test
Patriot Burst Elite 1.88TB PBE192TS25SSDR 1920 GB 513 MB/s 385 MB/s 679 77 $ 0,04 $ Performance Test
Patriot P210 256GB P210S256G25 256 GB 538 MB/s 420 MB/s 607 17 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
Patriot P210 512GB P210S512G25 512 GB 490 MB/s 468 MB/s 754 25 $ 0,05 $ Performance Test
Patriot P210 1TB P210S1TB25 1024 GB 520 MB/s 431 MB/s 595 39 $ 0,04 $ Performance Test
Patriot P210 2TB P210S2TB25 2048 GB 516 MB/s 385 MB/s 691 75 $ 0,04 $ Performance Test
PNY CS900 480GB SSD7CS900-480-PB 480 GB 473 MB/s 315 MB/s 698 29 $ 0,06 $ Performance Test
PNY CS900 960GB SSD7CS900-960-PB 960 GB 481 MB/s 466 MB/s 718 48 $ 0,05 $ Performance Test
Samsung 860 EVO 500GB MZ-76E500B 500 GB 550 MB/s 486 MB/s 805 99 $ 0,20 $ Performance Test
Samsung 860 EVO 2TB MZ-76E2T0B/EU 2048 GB 550 MB/s 486 MB/s 802 226 $ 0,11 $ Performance Test
Samsung 870 EVO 250GB MZ-77E250B/EU 250 GB 549 MB/s 483 MB/s 810 44 $ 0,18 $ Performance Test
Samsung 870 EVO 1TB MZ-77E1T0B 1024 GB 550 MB/s 485 MB/s 811 87 $ 0,08 $ Performance Test
Samsung 870 QVO 1TB MZ-77Q1T0BW 1024 GB 549 MB/s 486 MB/s 808 74 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
Samsung 870 QVO 2TB MZ-77Q2T0BW 2048 GB 549 MB/s 481 MB/s 792 135 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB SDSSDA-240G-G26 240 GB 540 MB/s 348 MB/s 397 23 $ 0,10 $ Performance Test
SanDisk SSD Plus 1TB SDSSDA-1T00-G26 1024 GB 526 MB/s 487 MB/s 789 44 $ 0,04 $ Performance Test
SanDisk Ultra 3D 500GB SDSSDH3-500G-G25 500 GB 356 MB/s 489 MB/s 798 71 $ 0,14 $ Performance Test
SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB SDSSDH3-1T00-G25 1024 GB 525 MB/s 483 MB/s 801 53 $ 0,05 $ Performance Test
SanDisk Ultra 3D 2TB SDSSDH3-2T00-G25 2048 GB 381 MB/s 484 MB/s 790 115 $ 0,06 $ Performance Test
Silicon Power Ace A55 1TB SP001TBSS3A55S25 1024 GB 505 MB/s 470 MB/s 755 36 $ 0,04 $ Performance Test
Silicon Power Ace A55 2TB SP002TBSS3A55S25 2048 GB 544 MB/s 454 MB/s 633 68 $ 0,03 $ Performance Test
TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 1TB T253TZ001T0C101 1024 GB 503 MB/s 453 MB/s 727 38 $ 0,04 $ Performance Test
Transcend SSD220Q 500GB TS500GSSD220Q 500 GB 550 MB/s 460 MB/s 606 34 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
Verbatim Vi550 S3 256GB 49351 256 GB 550 MB/s 466 MB/s 536 29 $ 0,11 $ Performance Test
Verbatim Vi550 S3 512GB 49352 512 GB 535 MB/s 466 MB/s 636 36 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
Verbatim Vi550 S3 1TB 49353 1024 GB 522 MB/s 421 MB/s 654 80 $ 0,08 $ Performance Test
Western Digital WD Blue 3D 1TB WDS100T2B0A 1024 GB 474 MB/s 483 MB/s 805 74 $ 0,07 $ Performance Test
Western Digital WD Green 120GB WDS120G2G0A 120 GB 532 MB/s 314 MB/s 198 54 $ 0,45 $ Performance Test
Western Digital WD Green 2TB WDS200T2G0A 2048 GB 542 MB/s 451 MB/s 422 113 $ 0,06 $ Performance Test

*) The SATA Express (SATAe) successor with 8 and 16 Gbit/s has also been available since 2013, but it did not succeed because of the faster M.2 interface.

When does a SATA SSD make sense?

here are actually only two applications where a SATA drive still makes sense: 1. in older laptops that do not have an M.2 slot and 2. as a fast storage expansion in a desktop PC.
Regarding 1): often, older laptops still have a mechanical 2.5" HDD installed, which is connected to the SATA port. You can achieve a significant and noticeable speed increase by removing the mechanical HDD and installing a SATA SSD instead.
Regarding 2): the use of an M.2 SSD is absolutely recommended for desktop PCs. If your mainboard does not have an M.2 slot, you can also use a PCI Express adapter to use an M.2 SSD. The operating system and programs should definitely be installed on the fast M.2 SSD. Here, 256 or 512 GB are often sufficient. If you need more storage space (for MP3s, photos or videos), you can buy a cheap SATA SSD. SATA disks are a bit cheaper than M.2 disks with about 0.10 Euros per gigabyte.

SATA and X570 = Bad Performance

After testing several SATA disks, and none of them achieved write rates over 460 MB/s (although the manufacturers had specified 530 MB/s), I became a bit suspicious whether this could be due to my test system. I connected the disks to different SATA ports of my mainboard and performed several tests with different programs (AS SSD, ATTO, CDM). The resulting values were poor every time (especially in the 4K test).

I then did some research online and came across an article of a Reddit user, which also showed this problem and was able to trace it back to the AMD X570 chipset. The same SATA disk delivers much better transfer rates on a B550 motherboard.

However, since my test system (see home page below) uses an X570 motherboard (only this currently supports M.2 SSDs of Gen. 4), it does not make sense to test more SATA SSDs here, since it is not the SSD that is the bottleneck, but the AMD chipset . I hope that a future BIOS firmware update will fix this problem. Until then, I will post the tests here (status: December 2020).