--- title: I tested what a $400 NVMe does that an $80 SATA SSD... description: A hands-on comparison between a $400 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD (Crucial T500) and an $80 SATA SSD (Crucial BX500) reveals that real-world performance differences are... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-what-a-400-nvme-does-that-an-80-sata-ssd-can-t-and-the-list-embarrassed-me-vwhm4vluc twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I tested what a $400 NVMe does that an $80 SATA SSD can't, and the list embarrassed me | daily.dev og:description: A hands-on comparison between a $400 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD (Crucial T500) and an $80 SATA SSD (Crucial BX500) reveals that real-world performance differences are... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-what-a-400-nvme-does-that-an-80-sata-ssd-can-t-and-the-list-embarrassed-me-vwhm4vluc og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/vWHM4vlUC.png og:image:alt: I tested what a $400 NVMe does that an $80 SATA SSD can't, and the list embarrassed me og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I tested what a $400 NVMe does that an $80 SATA SSD can't, and the list embarrassed me **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hands-on comparison between a $400 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD (Crucial T500) and an $80 SATA SSD (Crucial BX500) reveals that real-world performance differences are minimal for most users. Boot times differ by only 5 seconds, and game load times across Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, Alan Wake 2, and Spider-Man 2 show NVMe advantages of just 0.2–2.5 seconds. The conclusion: for everyday tasks like browsing, gaming, and office work, SATA SSDs offer excellent price-to-performance value at roughly one-fifth the cost. NVMe remains worthwhile only for heavy workloads involving large sequential file transfers like video editing. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I thought SATA SSDs were dead, but running my OS on one proved otherwise](https://daily.dev/posts/i-thought-sata-ssds-were-dead-but-running-my-os-on-one-proved-otherwise-yuybltzqs) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your next SSD might be SATA again — here's why that's not a problem](https://daily.dev/posts/your-next-ssd-might-be-sata-again-here-s-why-that-s-not-a-problem-lnlglshjx) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [My first NVMe upgrade taught me the drive was never the bottleneck I thought it was](https://daily.dev/posts/my-first-nvme-upgrade-taught-me-the-drive-was-never-the-bottleneck-i-thought-it-was-1drew6lux) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [NVMe is faster on paper, but your actual workload probably doesn't care](https://daily.dev/posts/nvme-is-faster-on-paper-but-your-actual-workload-probably-doesn-t-care-v9p69pofm) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I almost spent $200 on an NVMe SSD, but this one motherboard port let me upgrade my storage for half the price](https://daily.dev/posts/i-almost-spent-200-on-an-nvme-ssd-but-this-one-motherboard-port-let-me-upgrade-my-storage-for-half-tnpvihlzv) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#storage](https://daily.dev/tags/storage) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-what-a-400-nvme-does-that-an-80-sata-ssd-can-t-and-the-list-embarrassed-me-vwhm4vluc) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I tested what a $400 NVMe does that an $80 SATA SSD can't, and the list embarrassed me","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-what-a-400-nvme-does-that-an-80-sata-ssd-can-t-and-the-list-embarrassed-me-vwhm4vluc","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-what-a-400-nvme-does-that-an-80-sata-ssd-can-t-and-the-list-embarrassed-me-vwhm4vluc"},"datePublished":"2026-07-14T16:02:42.979Z","dateModified":"2026-07-14T16:03:07.375Z","description":"A hands-on comparison between a $400 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD (Crucial T500) and an $80 SATA SSD (Crucial BX500) reveals that real-world performance differences are...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3dbfaf5fab3a86de3ec8c5bb08af03d6?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3dbfaf5fab3a86de3ec8c5bb08af03d6?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-what-a-400-nvme-does-that-an-80-sata-ssd-can-t-and-the-list-embarrassed-me-vwhm4vluc","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"storage","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I tested what a $400 NVMe does that an $80 SATA SSD can't, and the list embarrassed me"}]} ```