If you’re planning on upgrading your network attached storage (NAS) system with solid state drives (SSDs), it’s important to know which drives are the most reliable, the most capable, and which are the best value for your money.
When you build a file storage server, you want to store large amounts of data safely and reliably. The hard drives you use in your system will determine how safe your data is housed. That’s why it’s so important to select the right drives for your NAS.
We decided to look at the 1TB storage versions of each of the SSDs when comparing different product offerings. The 1TB drives offer a good balance between cost and performance in 2022.
After weeks of comparing SSDs, we’ve assembled the list of the best SSDs for NAS in 2022:
- Best Overall: Seagate IronWolf 125
- Best for File Transfers: Samsung 870 EVO
- Runner Up for File Transfers: SK Hynix Gold S31
- Best Value: SP A55
- Runner Up for Value: WD Blue
Best Overall SSD: Seagate IronWolf 125
- High Endurance: Powerhouse SSD endurance and performance designed for heavy workloads and multi-user NAS environments
- IronWolf Health Management: Built in data protection monitors your SSD NAS drive health on compatible NAS, notifying you to intervene before a catastrophic event occurs
- IronWolf Health Management: Built in data protection monitors your SSD NAS drive health on compatible NAS, notifying you to intervene before a catastrophic event occurs
- Data Recovery Included: Rest easy with 3-years of Seagate Rescue Data Recovery Services
The Seagate IronWolf 125 is the best all-around NAS SSD on this list for a few different reasons.
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It’s by far the most durable, with a durability rating of 1,400 TBW. The other drives on this list only manage 600 TBW at best. The drive also offers slightly superior write speeds as it’s the only option that manages 540 MB/s.
It also features a 5-year warranty which matches the other most well-protected drives.
You can buy it on Amazon here.
Best for File Transfers: Samsung 870 EVO
- THE SSD ALL-STAR: The latest 870 EVO has indisputable performance, reliability and compatibility built upon Samsung's pioneering technology. S.M.A.R.T. Support: Yes
- EXCELLENCE IN PERFORMANCE: Enjoy professional level SSD performance which maximizes the SATA interface limit to 560 530 MB/s sequential speeds,* accelerates write speeds and maintains long term high...
- INDUSTRY-DEFINING RELIABILITY: Meet the demands of every task — from everyday computing to 8K video processing, with up to 600 TBW** under a 5-year limited warranty***
- MORE COMPATIBLE THAN EVER: The 870 EVO has been compatibility tested**** for major host systems and applications, including chipsets, motherboards, NAS, and video recording devices
- UPGRADE WITH EASE: Using the 870 EVO SSD is as simple as plugging it into the standard 2.5 inch SATA form factor on your desktop PC or laptop; The renewed migration software takes care of the rest
The Samsung 870 EVO SSD offers write speeds of 530 MB/s, making it the second fastest drive out of the options we reviewed.
It has a durability rating of 600 TBW and a 5-year warranty. These details make it a quick option at a much lower price than the Seagate IronWolf 125.
This is one of our top picks if you don’t want to compromise on transfer speeds while lowering your investment significantly.
You can find it on Amazon here.
Runner up for File Transfers: SK Hynix Gold S31
- Premium SSD powered by the global top 2 memory manufacturer, a tech leader since 1983
- Best-in-class performance - Sequential read speeds up to 560MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 525MB/s with proprietary SK hynix HYPERWRITE cache technology
- Leading edge solution powered by in-house 3D NAND, controller and DRAM
- 5-year warranty, superior reliability and stability – Tested and validated through 1,000 hours of HTOL (Stress Test) with MTBF reaching 1.5 million hours, up to 600 TBW (TeraBytes Written)
- Easy installation across multiple devices, pairing with our custom SK hynix edition Macrium cloning software
The SK Hynix Gold S31 offers the next fastest write speeds with a rating of 525 MB/s and it has a 600 TBW durability rating, just like the Samsung model.
The drive costs about the same, though, making it an inferior purchase if the Samsung EVO model is available.
You can buy it on Amazon here.
Best for Value: SP A55
- 3D NAND flash are applied to deliver high transfer speeds
- Remarkable transfer speeds that enable faster bootup and improved overall system performance. The advanced SLC Cache Technology allows performance boost and longer lifespan
- 7mm slim design suitable for Ultrabooks and Ultra-slim notebooks.
- Supports TRIM command, Garbage Collection technology, RAID, and ECC (Error Checking & Correction) to provide the optimized performance and enhanced reliability.
- 3-year limited warranty. (Please register your product via SP official website to get the complete manufacturer warranty services, product support and more.)
The SB A55 is by far the most affordable SSD on this list.
This device offers a respectable durability rating of 500TBW, making it a good value for its price. If you want to keep your costs as low as possible, you could pay significantly less for this drive compared to the other products on this list. You’ll be stuck with only a 3-year warranty and write speeds of 450MB/s, but those are the only real downsides to this drive.
Find it on Amazon here.
Runner Up for Value: WD Blue
- Reliable everyday computing
- Western Digital quality and reliability
- Free Acronis True Image WD Edition cloning software
- Massive capacity up to 6TB
The Western Digital Blue SSD drives are very affordable. These drives are a bit more costly than the SP model, but you’ll go from a predicted lifespan of 500TBW to 600TBW and you’ll enjoy slightly faster write speeds of 500MB/s. The drive also comes with a longer warranty of 5 years versus the 3-year warranty from Silicone Power.
You can find it on Amazon here.
How to Pick the Best SSD for NAS: A Step-by-Step Guide
Different SSDs perform at different levels. When you choose a product, you must consider whether it’s a good value or not. Do this by looking at its price and what it offers to you. There were several key considerations we made when assembling this list of the best SSDs for NAS.
When choosing an SSD for use in NAS, there are four main considerations for most buyers:
- Durability
- Read and write speeds
- Price
- Warranty protection
Let’s look at each of these factors in detail to learn why each matters and how you can judge these factors yourself.
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Durability
For most SSDs, the amount of data that’s written to the drive is what eventually wears it out, causing it to fail. This is why a drive’s durability is estimated in TBW or terabytes written. The higher the TBW value is, the longer you can rely on the drive to continue performing. The TBW value is how many terabytes of data can be written to the drive before it’s likely to fail.
Read and Write Speeds
Most NAS drives are used to store data and provide access to that data to users across a network. For this reason, it’s important to be able to write data to the drive quickly and to read it from the drive fast. Most modern SSDs offer read speeds of about 560 MB/s, so it’s up to buyers to look closely at the write speeds offered to determine which drive is fastest. This is the second and usually lower value provided for the transfer specifications of a drive.
Price
The price of your storage drive will likely determine how much space you can purchase for your network storage solution. For many, price is a deciding factor.
Be careful to look at the capacity and the durability of the drive before deciding if a low-cost drive is a better value than a more expensive option. Use price to compare the other qualities of an SSD to help you choose the best value product for your needs.
Warranty Protection
Most SSD drives are covered by a warranty, but the warranty length on a drive varies. Some drives offer just a two or three-year warranty, while others provide warranty coverage for up to five years.
Choosing a drive with a better warranty will help you get a replacement drive if your drive fails faster than it’s designed to. It’s important to note that a warranty won’t guarantee the data on your drive is protected, which is why it’s best to regularly back up your drive data for reliability.
What to Know Before Buying an SSD for NAS
It’s important to note that, in many applications, a standard spinning drive is a more practical option for your NAS.
Spinning disk hard drives tend to be more durable when you are regularly writing and re-writing information and they are more affordable. If you want to minimize the sound and heat produced by your server, and you aren’t worried about the added cost involved, you can achieve good results with a durable SSD such as the Seagate Ironwolf 125.
Always look at the lifespan of an SSD before considering it for your NAS, or you could end up with a drive that fails sooner than it needs to. If you have a cutting-edge network that supports 10 GB/s data transfers and you want the best transfer speeds, you can benefit from the fastest SSDs you can add to your NAS.
Using an SSD for NAS: What it’s Like
For most users that switch to using SSDs for their network access servers, the largest differences they will notice will be less heat, less power consumption, and less noise.
If you want to enjoy the greatest file-transfer benefits, you must be willing to upgrade your network to support a 10GB/s bandwidth. If you do this, you’ll really benefit from the improved read and write speeds offered by your SSDs and will be able to move files more rapidly.
You can choose SSDs to make your NAS quieter and to lower your power requirements, but you’ll only need to worry about transfer speeds if you upgrade to a 10 GB/s network.
For many users, SSDs will be nice and quiet and cool, but they will wear out more quickly than traditional spinning disk hard drives. That’s why it’s important to decide whether you want the very best speeds available before you invest in SSDs for your network file storage.
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