Best Hard Drives of 2026
The pillars of this ranking: Steam's July 2026 installed storage capacity, Amazon's best-selling internal SSD models, and TrendForce's 1Q26 enterprise SSD vendor revenue.
How This Article Is Organized
Last Updated 2026-08-09. The headline says “hard drives,” but the main table in the article focuses onSpecific Model / Manufacturer: Steam July 2026BuildsTotal Capacity(without distinguishing SSD vs. HDD); Amazon US Internal SSD Best SellersModel; TrendForce Q1 2026 Enterprise SSD Vendor Revenue。CPU、MemorySame methodology: installed base + retail models + industry shipments.
| Source | Date | What we're tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Hardware Survey · Hard Drive Space | July 2026 | Total capacity / free space distribution |
| Digital Foundry(June roundup, with July trends continuing) | 2026-06～07 | >1TB drops below half, 750–999GB climbs |
| Amazon US · Internal Solid State Drives | Snapshot as of 2026-08-09 | Best-selling internal SSD models, ranked |
| TrendForce 1Q26 Enterprise SSD | 2026 Q1 | Enterprise SSD vendor revenue (in hundreds of millions of USD) |
Steam installed capacity: >1TB drops below half
Total Hard Drive Space, July 2026:Above 1 TB approximately 49.33%(down about 0.70 percentage points quarter-over-quarter), now under half. Next is 750GB–999GB at roughly 24.22%, followed by 250–499GB at about 18.06%,100–249GB at roughly 5.73%. Steam’s figure reflects total system capacity, not broken down by SSD or HDD.
| # | Capacity tier | Steam, July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Above 1 TB | 49.33% |
| 2 | 750 GB – 999 GB | 24.22% |
| 3 | 250 GB – 499 GB | 18.06% |
| 4 | 100 GB – 249 GB | 5.73% |
| 5 | 500 GB – 749 GB | 2.44% |
| 6 | 10 GB – 99 GB | 0.20% |
As for free space, roughly 23.54% of machines had 100–249 GB available, 22.82% had 250–499 GB, and 16.16% had 10–99 GB—meaning a sizable chunk of systems are getting tight on storage. In the June roundup, Digital Foundry tied the sub-50% share of >1 TB drives to rising storage prices and people buying smaller SSDs; July’s numbers point the same way.
Retail SSD models: Amazon US (2026-08-09)
On that day, the top three spots on the “Internal Solid State Drives” bestseller list were all Samsung:990 PRO 2TB、990 EVO Plus 4TB、9100 PRO 2TB(PCIe 5.0). Further down were the Kingston NV3 1TB, WD_Black SN7100 1TB, and volume-oriented SATA drives (PNY CS900, 870 EVO, BX500).
| # | Model | Spec summary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samsung 990 PRO 2TB | PCIe 4.0 M.2, with sequential read speeds rated up to approximately 7,450 MB/s |
| 2 | Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB | PCIe 4×4 / 5×2, with sequential read speeds rated up to approximately 7,250 MB/s |
| 3 | Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB | PCIe 5.0×4, with sequential read speeds rated up to approximately 14,700 MB/s |
| 4 | Kingston NV3 1TB | PCIe 4.0 M.2, with sequential read speeds rated up to approximately 6,000 MB/s |
| 5 | WD_Black SN7100 1TB | PCIe 4.0, with sequential read speeds rated up to approximately 7,250 MB/s |
| 6 | PNY CS900 250GB | 2.5" SATA |
| 7 | SanDisk Optimus 5100 500GB | PCIe 4.0 M.2, with sequential read speeds rated up to approximately 6,600 MB/s |
| 8 | Samsung 870 EVO 2TB | 2.5" SATA, with sequential read speeds rated up to approximately 560 MB/s |
| 9 | Crucial P3 1TB | PCIe Gen3 NVMe, with a rated sequential read speed of up to roughly 3500 MB/s |
| 10 | fanxiang S101 1TB | 2.5" SATA |
| 11 | WD_BLACK SN850P 1TB (PS5) | Console expansion drive with integrated heatsink |
| 12 | Crucial P310 1TB | PCIe Gen4, with a rated sequential read speed of up to roughly 7100 MB/s |
| 13 | Crucial BX500 1TB | 2.5" SATA, with a rated sequential read speed of up to roughly 540 MB/s |
| 14 | WD_BLACK SN850X 2TB | PCIe 4.0, with a rated sequential read speed of up to roughly 7300 MB/s |
| 15 | Patriot P210 256GB | 2.5" SATA |
Further down the list, you'll also find the Lexar NM790, TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z, WD Blue SN5000 / SN5100, and the SN8100 (PCIe 5.0), among others. High-end gaming and console expansion drives share the chart with entry-level SATA models, spanning a wide range of capacities and interfaces.
Enterprise SSD vendors: TrendForce 1Q26
Enterprise-grade drive revenue for the quarter came in at approximately $18.46 billion, up roughly +86.1%; contract pricing reports suggest an increase of about 80%. From the vendor side (per TrendForce's press release):
| # | Vendor | 1Q26 Enterprise SSD Revenue (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samsung | $7.05 billion (up ~92.8% QoQ) |
| 2 | SK hynix Group (including Solidigm) | $4.64 billion |
| 3 | Micron | ~$3.09 billion |
| 4 | Kioxia | ~$2.22 billion |
| 5 | SanDisk | ~$1.47 billion |
This is the data center / CSP procurement channel, not the same shelf as Amazon's consumer-grade 990 PRO; Samsung leads in both, but the channel dynamics differ.
The template below lists entries by Steam capacity tier and the SSD models that came up repeatedly above. For CPU / memory, seeCPU 2026、Memory 2026; for graphics cards, seeGraphics Card Rankings。
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