The biggest consumer SSDs you can buy, ranked by price per terabyte. 3 8TB drives from 2 brands (Samsung, WD Black), with the live cost math against two 4TB drives, cheaper hard-drive alternatives, and who actually needs 8TB. Updated August 21, 2026.
Cheapest 8TB: WD Black SN850X 8TB — $1,489.99 ($186.25/TB)
8TB vs 2×4TB: Two WD Blue SN5100 4TB drives give you the same 8TB for $951.06 — about 36% less than the cheapest single 8TB (the WD Black SN850X 8TB at $1,489.99) — if your board has two free M.2 slots.
Last checked August 21, 2026. Prices come from Amazon US and are refreshed every day; $/TB is the listing price divided by raw capacity. Full methodology.
| $/TB | $/GB | Price | Lowest seen | Capacity | Interface | Gen | Read | Write | NAND | Warranty | Cond. | Product |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $186.25BEST | $0.186 | $1,489.99 | $1,299.99 | 8 TB | M.2 NVMe | Gen 4 | 7,300 MB/s | 6,300 MB/s | TLC | 5 yr | New | WD Black SN850X 8TB· 3rd-party |
| $237.50 | $0.237 | $1,899.99 | $1,549.99 | 8 TB | M.2 NVMe | Gen 5 | 14,900 MB/s | 13,700 MB/s | TLC | 5 yr | New | WD Black SN8100 8TB |
| $306.69 | $0.307 | $2,453.54 | $1,792.64 | 8 TB | M.2 NVMe | Gen 5 | 14,800 MB/s | 13,000 MB/s | TLC | 5 yr | New | Samsung 9100 Pro 8TB |
8TB is the ceiling of the consumer SSD market in August 2026, and the choice is still narrow: 3 drives from 2 brands (Samsung, WD Black). The cheapest 8TB we track is the WD Black SN850X 8TB at $1,489.99 ($186.25/TB). Historically you paid a steep premium per terabyte at 8TB versus 4TB — buying density into a single M.2 slot rather than value — but as more brands ship 8TB that gap has narrowed; the table below shows where it stands today.
If your motherboard has a spare M.2 slot, it is worth pricing two 4TB drives against one 8TB — both give the same 8TB. The live numbers, using the cheapest options we track:
| Option | Drive(s) | Total | $/TB | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 × 8TB NVMe | WD Black SN850X 8TB | $1,489.99 | $186.25 | One M.2 slot, max density |
| 2 × 4TB NVMe | 2× WD Blue SN5100 4TB | $951.06 | $118.88 | Needs 2 slots |
| 8TB HDD | e.g. WD/Seagate 8TB | ~$120 | ~$15 | Cold storage, slow, mechanical |
Two WD Blue SN5100 4TB drives give you the same 8TB for $951.06 — about 36% less than the cheapest single 8TB (the WD Black SN850X 8TB at $1,489.99) — if your board has two free M.2 slots. Either way, two 4TB drives can be kept as separate volumes or in RAID, while the single 8TB wins on slot count and gives you one contiguous volume.
4K/8K video editors who want a single scratch + media drive, large Steam libraries on one volume, local AI model storage, and small-form-factor or laptop builds with just one M.2 slot. Everyone else is better served by 2×4TB, or by a hard drive for bulk cold storage.
For storage where speed is secondary, an 8TB hard drive runs about $15/TB (~$120 for 8TB) — roughly one-ninth the cost per TB of an 8TB NVMe. An external 8TB SSD is slower over USB but avoids opening the case. The practical 8TB-on-a-budget answer for most people is one fast 2–4TB NVMe for active files plus a large HDD for archives.
If 8TB is more than you truly need, the best-value 4TB NVMe drive we track is the WD Blue SN5100 4TB at $118.88/TB ($475.53 total) — far better cost-per-TB than any 8TB drive. See all 4TB NVMe prices.
Neither makes a consumer 8TB NVMe as of August 2026: Crucial’s lineup tops out at 4TB (T500, T710) and Kingston’s NV3 at 2TB. The 8TB drives that do exist come from 2 brands — Samsung, WD Black — all listed in the table above.