The best 4TB NVMe SSD today is the Crucial P310 2280 4TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe Gaming PS5 SSD with Heatsink at $539.95 ($134.99/TB), as of 2026-10-03.
Recomputed every refresh · last updated · 14 listings in the field
The Crucial P310 2280 4TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe Gaming PS5 SSD with Heatsink takes it at $134.99/TB against the runner-up's $145.00/TB - a margin of $10.01/TB, or 7.4%. That gap is computed, not asserted: it is the arithmetic difference between the two cheapest qualifying listings we hold, and it is the whole of the reason one is above the other.
It sits in a field of 14 qualifying listings. It is new stock, NVMe-PCIe4.
Best = lowest cost per terabyte among in-stock, known-brand consumer M.2 NVMe drives at 4TB. Not a benchmark ranking: we publish no read/write test figures and this verdict contains none.
Most "best drive" pages do not tell you what best meant, which makes them impossible to argue with and therefore impossible to trust. Ours is one sentence and you can reject it: if you would rather optimise for warranty length, for a specific manufacturer, or for the lowest absolute price rather than the lowest price per unit, the full field is ranked below and you can take a different row knowing exactly what you are trading.
Cost per terabyte is one axis. A separate one worth knowing before you buy is whether a drive carries a DRAM cache, relies on Host Memory Buffer, or leans on SLC caching instead - three different mechanisms this page's criterion does not distinguish between. See DRAM cache vs DRAM-less, explained for what each means and which of our tracked drives use which, sourced per model.
What the criterion deliberately excludes: any seller we do not recognise and anything out of stock at the moment the page rendered. SAS drives are excluded here because they need a host bus adapter and a backplane that a desktop or consumer NAS does not have.
| # | Drive | Capacity | Price | Per TB | Buy/View Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WINNER | Crucial P310 2280 4TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe Gaming PS5 SSD with Heatsink | 4TB | $539.95 | $134.99 | Buy/View Price |
| 2 | Lexar 4TB Play 2280 SE PCIe 4.0 SSD with Heatsink for PS5 | 4TB | $579.99 | $145.00 | Buy/View Price |
| 3 | WD_Black SN7100 4TB NVMe SSD | 4TB | $579.99 | $145.00 | Buy/View Price |
| 4 | Lexar 4TB NM790 NVMe SSD w/Heatsink | 4TB | $616.46 | $154.12 | Buy/View Price |
| 5 | Crucial T705 PCIe Gen5 NVMe 4TB SSD with Heatsink | 4TB | $627.50 | $156.88 | Buy/View Price |
The log records a winner only when it changes and shows the model and date, not a past listing price. Current prices remain in the live table; the change log records product identity only.
Creative work with large scratch files, local AI model libraries, and anyone who has outgrown 2TB without wanting a second drive.
4TB carries a premium over 2TB rather than a discount - the flash density needed is at the edge of what consumer controllers address efficiently, and the price reflects it.
Worth knowing: Heatsink and thickness matter at this capacity because these drives are often double-sided - NAND on both faces of the board. A double-sided drive will not fit some laptop bays or the PlayStation 5 expansion slot with a heatsink attached, and the listing rarely says which it is. Check the clearance you actually have before buying, because a 4TB drive that does not physically fit is an expensive returns process.
The 14 qualifying listings run from $134.99/TB to $300.00/TB, a spread of $165.01/TB between the cheapest and dearest drive that meets the same standard. That spread is worth looking at before you act on the verdict: a tight field means the market has settled and the winner is a few percent ahead of an equivalent product, while a wide one means the drives differ in something the criterion does not capture - usually product line, warranty term or how long the listing has been sitting.
5 brands are represented. More than one manufacturer competing at the same specification is what makes the cheapest listing meaningful rather than incidental.
The median listing in this field sits at $209.75/TB, 55% above the winner. Every drive in this field is the same capacity, so the per-terabyte ranking and the price ranking are the same ranking - the cheapest drive is the winner by definition.
Solid-state storage is the one category on this site where the cheapest terabyte and the right purchase diverge most often, because M.2 drives that share a capacity and a form factor can be built to entirely different specifications while looking identical in a listing. A cost-per-terabyte ranking is still the correct starting point - it is the only figure comparable across every drive in the field - but it needs reading alongside three specifications the price alone will not tell you.
Two M.2 drives at the same capacity and a similar price can be materially different products, and the differences are not visible in a cost-per-terabyte ranking. The three that matter most are the PCIe generation, whether the drive has its own DRAM cache, and the NAND type.
Generation first: a Gen3 drive and a Gen5 drive both fit the same slot and both work, and they are different products at different prices. We do not test speed, so this page does not tell you whether the newer generation matters for what you do. The ranked field below names the interface where our catalogue records it, and a cheap drive in this ranking is sometimes cheap because it is an older generation.
DRAM cache is a specification that differs between budget and mainstream drives at the same capacity. Our catalogue does not record it for every drive and we do not test what it changes, so it is not part of this ranking; the maker's data sheet states whether a drive has it.
We do not benchmark any of this and this page publishes no speed figures. What we can tell you is the price, the capacity and, where the catalogue records it, the interface - and that the cheapest terabyte in a field is often cheapest for a reason worth understanding before you buy it.
It is a price-and-fitness answer and nothing more. We do not run a test lab, we publish no read or write figures, and there is no claim anywhere on this page that one drive is faster than another. Ranking storage by speed requires measuring it, and anyone who does should tell you how; we would rather rank on what a catalogue can actually observe, day after day.
It also cannot tell you how a manufacturer handles a warranty claim, how loud a drive is in a room you sit in, or whether a particular batch had a bad year. Those are the things a review is for. What this page does that a review cannot is stay correct: it is recomputed when you load it, and the field it beat is printed underneath so you can see the answer being earned rather than asserted.
This page gives one answer. If you want the full catalogue rather than a verdict, these are the pages that carry it:
Gaming SSD hub · 4TB Gen4 vs Gen5, live · M.2 NVMe drives compared · Every verdict we publish · Where prices are heading · CMR/SMR list
Today's cheapest is not a reason to buy today. This answer is recomputed from live prices, so it will change - sometimes in your favour. Buy when you need the capacity, not because a page named a winner, and read the criterion above: it ranks what we can measure, which is price and fitness, not everything that matters to you.
Crucial P310 2280 4TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe Gaming PS5 SSD with Heatsink, at $539.95 ($134.99/TB). That is the lowest cost per terabyte among the 14 listings that meet this page's criteria. It is a price-and-fitness verdict rather than a performance ranking.
We have been logging the winner for this page since 2026-08-19, and every change since then is listed above with its date. The honest answer is that it depends on how deep the field is: a capacity with fifteen competing listings changes hands often, one with three barely moves. That log is the thing a written-once article cannot produce, and it is why this page exists in this form.
Because the criterion is cost per terabyte, not brand reputation, and it is printed on this page precisely so you can disagree with it. Every drive in the field passes a brand gate - we will not name an unrecognised seller as an answer - but among drives that pass, the cheapest terabyte wins. If you value a specific manufacturer's warranty handling or a particular product line, the full field below is ranked and you can pick a different row with the trade-off visible.
No, and this is the most important limitation on the page. We do not benchmark drives, we do not publish read or write figures, and nothing here claims one drive is faster than another. What we can measure is price, availability, capacity, interface and recording technology, so the verdict is built from those. Anyone ranking drives by speed should tell you how they measured; we would rather rank on what we can actually observe.
How much weight the verdict carries. 14 listings meet the criteria right now. That is a deep field: several sellers are competing and the winner earned it against real alternatives.