Transcend 500GB SSD SATA III

A tough little SATA drive with endurance for days, but it's only worth buying if your machine can't take NVMe. If you've got an M.2 slot, pretend this doesn't exist.

The sequential numbers are fine for SATA, 530 MB/s read and 480 MB/s write. Nothing to write home about, but that's the interface's fault, not Transcend's. What surprised us is the endurance. 720 TBW on a budget DRAM-less drive is genuinely impressive, landing in the 96th percentile for endurance in our database. The random performance is a different story. 55K read IOPS and 75K write IOPS put it in the bottom half for random workloads, which means heavy multitasking or database work will feel sluggish compared to even a mid-range NVMe drive. The SLC cache helps with bursty writes, but once it fills up, expect speeds to dip.

The SSD225 doesn't really compete with the Crucial T500, Samsung 990 EVO, or WD Blue SN5100. Those are NVMe drives that run circles around it in speed. The real comparison is against other SATA SSDs like the Crucial BX500 or Samsung 870 EVO. Against the BX500, the Transcend wins on endurance and software support. Against the 870 EVO, Samsung's drive has better random performance and a longer track record, but usually costs more. If your machine only has SATA ports, the SSD225 is a reasonable choice. If you have an M.2 slot, skip this and get an NVMe drive.

Pricing is all over the place depending on where you live. In the US it's around $94, which is okay but not great. In Europe you'll see anywhere from EUR 90 to EUR 163, and that spread is wild. If you're in Germany, Spain, France, or Italy, shop around because paying EUR 163 for this drive is a bad deal when it's available for EUR 90. At the low end of that range, it's a solid budget pick. At the high end, you're getting ripped off. For the money, the endurance rating is the real selling point.

The Transcend SSD225 is a SATA SSD for people who still have a laptop or desktop with a spinning hard drive and just want it to feel alive again. This is not a speed demon. It tops out around 530 MB/s read and 480 MB/s write, which is basically the ceiling for SATA III. But if you're coming from a 5400 RPM hard drive, this thing will feel like a whole new computer. The one thing to know: it's a cheap, reliable way to breathe life into an older machine, and it's built to last with a 720 TBW endurance rating that puts it in the top tier for longevity.

If you're building a new PC or upgrading a laptop with an M.2 slot, this isn't the drive for you. Go get a Crucial T500 or Samsung 990 EVO instead. You'll pay a bit more and get five to ten times the speed. This drive is for SATA-only machines and budget upgrades, not for anyone chasing performance.

The Transcend SSD225 is a no-brainer if you're reviving an old laptop or desktop with a SATA port and a hard drive. The endurance rating is exceptional, the price is right at the low end, and it'll make an old machine feel snappy again. But don't buy this for a new build or anything with an M.2 slot. You'd be leaving massive performance on the table. For its intended purpose, it's a solid buy. For anything else, look elsewhere.