Top 5 Best Chinese SSDs on AliExpress – buying guide

Everyone (and by everyone, I mean PC heads like you, not my grandma obviously) wants faster, more durable storage on their computers.

That’s long for saying they want SSDs. Short for solid-state drives, SSDs are just what the doctor ordered if speed, reliability, and durability matter to you. Practically all new-gen PCs now ship with an SSD onboard.

If your computer still runs on an HDD and you’re here, you’re probably planning an upgrade. But not just any upgrade, an upgrade that’s kind to your pocket. AliExpress stocks some cheap, easy-on-the-pocket SSDs.

In this guide, I talk about what to look out for when shopping for these budget-friendly SSDs, and in the end, I outline the best SSDs you buy on AliExpress right now.

Overall best Chinese SSD – Samsung 870 Evo

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Specifications

• Capacities: 240GB, 480GB, 512GB, 960GB, 1TB, 2TB
• Form factor: SATA
• Transfer protocol/Interface: ACHi/ SATA3
• Sequential read/write speeds: 550Mbps/ 500Mbps

For the best bang for buck factor, very few SSDs on AliExpress match the Samsung 870 Evo, and for the few that do, it’ll be hard finding another that comes with a five years warranty.

Granted, this is a 2.5-inch SATA 3 SSD, not an M.2 NVME drive, but like I said, except you’re doing some really high-performance stuff, SATA 3.0 is good enough. I mean, we’re talking about read/write speeds of up to 550Mbps on this drive.

That’s more than enough to handle any mid to high-level gaming, computing or server needs.

Build quality is excellent. This is a 2.5 incher, and they’re known to come in cases. On this, it’s plastic, but it’s plastic that feels durable while being very light.

1st runner up – Samsung 970 Evo plus

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Specifications

• Capacities: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
• Form factor: M.2
• Transfer protocol/Interface: NVMe/ PCLe
• Sequential read/write speeds: 1700Mbps/ 24000Mbps

If high-level performance means a lot to you, then the Samsung 970 Evo plus is a better fit compared to the 870 Evo. This is a full-on NVMe card, and from the name, you can tell it’s in the M.2 format as well.

Write speeds are in the 1700Mbps range, and read speed clock out a maximum 2400Mbps. Those dizzying numbers, especially when you consider the fact that these retail for just about a hundred bucks.

Like the 870 Evo, build quality here is excellent as well. You’ve got a graphene cooling tag interspersed with the drive board layers to improve cooling.

The drive itself measures 80mm by 22mm, which is just about compact enough to squeeze into any motherboard form factor.

As a cream topping the delightful cake of the Samsung 970 Evo plus, this ships with a 3-year warranty cover. Not up to the 870 Evo for sure, but still very impressive, again, when you consider the price.

2nd runner up – the Corsair MP600 Pro LPX SSD

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Specifications

• Capacities: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
• Form factor: M.2
• Transfer protocol/Interface: NVMe/ PCLe
• Sequential read/write speeds: 3300Mbps/ 2500Mbps

Strictly speaking, the Corsair MP600 Pro LPX is a better SSD than the Samsung 970 Evo plus. Both are M.2 NVMe cards but build quality is noticeably better, and this has read/write speeds of 3300Mbps and 2500Mbps.

Corsair includes a hefty 6-year warranty if you’re having any doubts about the quality of their drive.

The ship with specially made aluminum cooling fins as standard and that means better cooling capacity, which has an effect on performance. Plus, this comes with ECC error detecting as standard. If you don’t know what that is, ECC error detection is basically a system to catch and correct errors that can occur during data transfer.

So why does the Corsair MP600 Pro LPX lose the second position to the Samsung 970 Evo plus? Well, it’s the price. If you choose to go for the Corsair MP600 Pro LPX, you’ll be spending on average thirty bucks more for any memory tier. And except you explicitly need the extra bits of technology on this card, I’ll go as far as saying the 970 Evo plus should pretty much serve all your needs.

So to summarize, if you do need the added performance on this card, then it’s a definite better buy than the Samsung 970 Evo plus. But if you’re just the average Joe who needs an NVME SSD for some high-performance graphics design work, gaming, or server structure, then the 970 Evo Plus is more than enough.

3rd runner up – the Western Digital SN850

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Specifications

• Capacities: 1TB
• Form factor: M.2
• Transfer protocol/Interface: NVMe/ PCLe
• Sequential read/write speeds: 7000Mbps/ 5300Mbps

The WD SN850 is our money no object pick. It’s the best SSD on this list by a long margin but for all its added functionality and quality, be ready to shell out almost $500 for the 2TB variant. I’m guessing you’re on this page because you’re working with a budget, which is why this isn’t outright top of this list.

For the lump sum, you get read speeds of up 7000Mpbs, almost thrice the number on the Asgard M.2. Even more outstanding is the build quality of this card. It’s way better than the Asgard, and that’s saying a lot because even the Asgard is a very well-built SSD. WD has slammed a five warranty on this to show how much they trust their build.

The SN805 is RGB lighting compatible if you’re the type who loves to do some dashboard customization and beautification. If you pay more, you can also get it with a heatsink for better cooling performance. And before I forget, this ships with PCLe Gen 4 technology.

The other two M.2 cards are Gen 3 PCle compliant. Gen 4 PCIe is faster than Gen 3, obviously, but you need a compatible motherboard to take advantage of this speed bump, and again, provided you’re not planning on running some extreme performance tasks on your PC, Gen 3 is more than enough.

4th runner up – the Corsair Force MP510

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Specifications

• Capacities: 240GB, 480GB
• Form factor: M.2
• Transfer protocol/Interface: NVMe/ PCLe
• Sequential read/write speeds: 3300Mbps/ 25000Mbps

If you wanted an SSD that fell between the WD SN805 and the Asgard in terms of price and performance, then you should consider the Corsair Force MP510. At 3480Mbps/3000Mbps, read and write speeds on this is slightly better than what you’d get on the Asgard.

Build quality, on the other hand, approaches the levels you’d see on the WD SN508, with the MP510 being based on the same 3D TLC NAND architecture as the SN508.

This extra bump in performance and build quality adds another $100 bucks to the price of Corsair force MP510 when compared to the Asgard M.2.

However, it’s still almost $300 cheaper than the WD SN508. If you need a performance bump above what the Asgard delivers but below the high-flying standards of the WD SN508, then this is a great buy.

That about sums it up as far as the best SSDs on AliExpress goes. Obviously, there are tons of other options, but if you did a search for an SSD on AliExpress, you’d find out that very few offer the same value for money as what I’ve outlined above. I’ll surely update this list periodically to keep up with market changes.

What to look out for when buying an SSD

SSDs come in different shapes, sizes and forms as you’ve seen from this list. The best one for you depends largely on your needs and current setup. But to summarize, here’s what you need to consider.

The form factor or configuration

SSDs come in two common form factors – M.2 or 2.5-inch form factor. Don’t let the technical lingo startle you. What you need to know is the M.2 config is the more recent of the two.

They are noticeably faster with a sleeker, more compact build and, as you would expect, are costlier too.

2.5-inch SSDs on their part are not slow; they’re still SSDs, after all. However, their build is noticeably chunkier than the sleek M.2 cards, meaning they take more motherboard real estate.

If you’re buying an M.2 card, your motherboard must have a corresponding M.2 slot. Conversely, if you’re buying a 2.5 inch SSD, your motherboard should have a fitting drive bay.

Both M.2 and 2.5-inch drives can fit through a PCIe slot which comes as standard on practically every motherboard today, but you’ll need an extra adapter to make it fit.

The speed

The speed of an SSD is in part dependent on the data transmission protocol it employs, and when it comes to transmission protocols, there are two major types, namely SATA and NVME.

SATA is the popular, more common option, and that’s because it’s been around for years. On paper, SATA SSDs which use the AHCI transfer protocol are slower than their NVME counterparts, but except you’re setting up for some major throughput performance, the speed difference may not really matter.

NVME is the more recent transfer protocol, and expectedly it’s faster (up to 10x faster) and more resistant to data transmission errors. Note that NVME drives connect to your motherboard via an M.2 or PCle slot. SATA SSDs typically plug into a SATA port or a PCI slot via an adapter. That’s all roundabout way of saying if a drive is M.2, then it most likely will be an NVMe card, although not all M.2 cards are NVMe.

Now there are many other features (whether the drive is NAND or NOR) to look out for in an SSD, but these don’t matter, except you’re doing something really technical. The form factor, the speed, and other obvious traits such as the build quality and storage size are all you should bother yourself with.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the best SSDs on AliExpress sorted based on what I’ve just talked about.

Frequently asked questions

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