The top 3 hard drive deals this Black Friday, according to our tech reporter
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Black Friday is one of the best times of the year to upgrade your PC storage. Right now, you can snag excellent Black Friday hard drive deals, and I've scoured through all of the discounts to find three models that I think are especially worth the money.
As a tech reporter, I value the latest and fastest types of storage, both for work and for gaming. With that in mind, the three best Black Friday hard drive deals I'm recommending include some of the fastest and most modern solid state drives (SSDs) you can buy. The Samsung 990 Pro is a particularly great option for 40% off, and it's our top pick for speed in our guide to the best SSDs for PS5.
All of the hard drives I recommend below use the M.2 form factor running on PCIe Gen4 and NVMe protocols, which makes them excellent options for PCs and PS5 consoles. You'll just need to ensure that your PC has ports that support the M.2 design.
Best Black Friday deals on hard drives today
Does my hard drive need a heatsink?
All three of the hard drives I recommend come with heatsinks to help cool them during heavy use. For most people, heatsinks are more of a "nice-to-have" extra than a necessity, and heatsinks may not always fit depending on your motherboard and GPU. However, heatsinks are recommended by Sony for use in a PS5.
Which brand hard drive should you buy?
As for which of the above drives you should pick, it comes down to brand recognition and reputation more than anything else. Samsung has made a name for itself for its fast and reliable SSDs. Plus, it produces its own memory chips that other companies use, so its own SSDs should be (and are) top notch. As such, Samsung SSDs tend to be pricier.
However, even less recognizable brands, like Nextorage, have received very positive user and critic reviews. And you can find drives with more storage from these companies for less money than options from brands like Samsung. With that in mind, I think brands like Nextorage and are a good pick for people who want more than 1TB on a budget.