Top 5 internal drives: the state of solid-state drives

No matter how big or small your computer is, there are at least one internal drive on the inside to host its operating system and programs. This drive, be it a regular hard drive or a solid-state drive (SSD), generally comes in one of the two standards, 2.5-inch (for laptops) or 3.5-inch ford desktops. Most, if not all standard SSDs, however, come in the 2.5-inch design.  This is because a 2.5-inch drive can fit in both laptop and desktop computers, while the 3.5-inch drives can only fit in desktops. Also, due to the fact that SSDs have no moving part, its capacities generally don't depend on the physical size of the drive. Now if you have a computer with a hard drive, you definitely want to replace it with an SSD. This is the single upgrade that will bring a totally new life (performance, that is) to your computer. You can find out more on why that is here. And after that, you can also follow my how-to post if you need help with the actual replacement. The only question is, which SSD should you get. The truth is while not all SSDs are created equal, they are all so much faster than regular hard drives in terms of overall performance that the differences among them are only noticeable to those who have always used SSDs, of which even I can't claim to be one. That said, if you have a tight budget, just pick one that offers the most capacity for the least money. But if you want to also get the best bang for your buck, I have here the list of top five SSDs on the market, all things (pricing included) considered. This list will be updated on a regular basis as more drives are reviewed. Make sure you check at the bottom of this post for the list of drives that were previously on the top five list, too, since they are also excelent choices. Without further ado, here are the new top-five SSDs that you would want to use as your computer's boot drive, with the most recently reviewed on top. The Pro V 2.5-inch 7mm Ultra SSD is the second consumer-grade standard SSD from RunCore and is also the second on the market that comes in the new 7mm thickness, designed to fit in ultrabooks. The first is the 520 series from Intel. Like the Intel 420 series, the RunCore SSD doesn't work with just ultrabooks. The drive still uses the regular 2.5-inch standard's port design and will work with regular laptops and desktops. In fact it comes with a hard-drive bay converter to also fit in any 3.5-inch drive bay. While the first SSD from RunCore, the Pro V Max , was a little pricey, the Pro V 7mm SSD costs just $1.50 per gigabyte per its suggested retail price. This means the street pricing will likely be even lower. In my testing, it was very fast, even slightly faster than the Intel 520 series. Read the full review of the RunCore Pro V 2.5-inch 7mm Ultra SSD. Despite what you might think from the name, the Plextor M3 is not exactly an upgrade to the M2 version that came out a while ago. In fact, in my testing, the new drive was slightly slower than the previous model. More than making up for this, however, the M3 comes with a much friendlier price tag, costing about $1.40 per gigabyte, compared with $1.80 per gigabyte for the M2. Other than that, the new SSD, like all SATA 3-based SSDs, offers a great boost to the host computer's performance if you're moving from a regular hard drive. It also looks great and feels sturdy thanks to its aluminum casing. Read the full review of the Plextor M3 SSD. There's nothing really extreme about the SanDisk Extreme. Instead the drive is very standard, both in terms of design (2.5-inch, 9.5 millimeters) and performance. The Extreme did manage to top the chart of recently reviewed SSDs in terms of boot time, with the host computer taking just 11 seconds to fully load Windows. This is still just a few seconds less than the other SSDS, though. What makes the drive special is its pricing. The SanDisk Extreme is the first SSD I've reviewed that's quite attainable, with the 240GB version costing about $320 online. That's about $1.33 per gigabyte, one of the best values on the market. If you still feel that's expensive (which it still kind of is), you can opt for the 120GB version that costs just $149. Read the full review of the SanDisk Extreme SSD. The Intel SSD 520 Series, on the other hand, is a one-of-a-kind internal drive--yet still standard. This is because it's the first in the new 7mm thickness designed for use in ultrabooks. To make the drive also work with standard laptops, which generally use a 9.5mm-thick internal drive, the 520 Series comes with a removable frame piece that adds another 2.5mm to its thickness. And what's more, Intel also includes a 3.5-inch drive bay adapter and all the necessary cables for the drive to work in a desktop computer. The SSD is also special on the inside. In addition to the popular SandForce controller, it uses Intel's special firmware, version 400i, designed to boost its performance over other SSDs that use the same controller. And the drive indeed worked well in my testing. At its price of $350, the 240GB version is still a good deal considering all the accessories and the hard-drive cloning software the drive comes bundled with. Read the full review of the Intel SSD 520 Series. This is a top-of-the-line SATA 3 SSD that's not just fast but also really sleek-looking. In fact, it's sad that it's so sleek-looking since it's an internal hard drive that will be hidden away inside a computer's chassis. The Samsung 830 Series also offers the ability to turn its provisioning features on or off on the fly, making it the most flexible SSD on the market. The drive comes in many capacities, ranging from 64GB to 512GB, with the 512GB being the best deal at $670, for those who can afford it, since it offers the lowest cost per gigabyte currently available, just $1.31. Read the full review of the Samsung 830 Series.