The Lexar Professional NM800 PRO with Heatsink M.2 SSD.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/

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Need to give your PC a speed boost? 

One of the best upgrades you can carry out is to swap out the storage drive for a faster drive (the other being to add more RAM, at least until you hit around 24GB or 32GB, after which the return on your investment diminishes dramatically, unless you have very specific workloads).

If your computer can be kitted out with an M.2 SSD (solid-state drive), then this is one of the best upgrades you can carry out. And one of the best M.2 SSDs out there isLexar's Professional NM800 PRO with Heatsink M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe SSD .

Yes, that's quite a name! 

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2TB Lexar Professional NM800 PRO with Heatsink M.2 SSD

$229.99 at Amazon

Not sure if your PC supports M.2 SSDs? I recommend checking the tech specs for your PC (specifically its motherboard), or alternatively you can download and install CPU-Z and use that software to check the specs of your PC.

Tech specs

• Capacity: 512GB/1TB/2TB
• Form factor: M.2 2280
• Speed:
  512GB: Sequential read up to 7450MBps, sequential write up to 3500MBps
  1 TB: Sequential read up 7500MBps, sequential write up to 6300MBps
  2TB: Sequential read up 7500MBps, sequential write up to 6500MBps
• PCIe standard: PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe 1.4 (backward-compatible with PCIe 3.0)
• Dimension (LxWxH): 80 x 22 x 10 mm / 3.15 x 0.87 x 0.39-inch
• Weight: 54 g / 0.12 lbs
• Warranty: Five-year limited warranty
• Shock resistance: 1,500G, duration 0.5ms, Half Sine Wave
• NAND Flash: 3D TLC
• MTBF: 1,500,000 hours

For the best write speeds, stick with the 1TB or 2TB versions.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/

Lexar is a brand that I totally trust when it comes to my storage needs. Whether it be SSDs or storage cards, I'm never disappointed by the quality, reliability, and performance.

And the NM800 PRO is no exception.

Built to support PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe 1.4, this drive is twice as fast as PCIe 3.0 SSDs, and a whopping up to 12 times faster than SATA SSDs.

Also: This flash drive will self-destruct (if you want it to)

This is a performance beast able to hit read speeds up to 7,500MBps, and write speeds up to 6,500MBps. I've tested the drive under a number of different conditions, and these claims translate into reality.

This is a fast drive (although do bear in mind that the 512GB version's write speeds are limited to 3,500MBps).

The addition of a heatsink means that the drive runs cool, which in turn means that it runs more reliably when pushed to the limits.

If you are looking for a fast, reliable storage drive to upgrade your PC, theLexar Professional NM800 PRO with Heatsink M.2 SSD won't disappoint.

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