Guide To Price Search

Quick start

1. Start broad: a brand (crucial), a model (990 pro) or a need (ps5).
2. Look at the count, then add one word at a time to narrow it (crucial 2tb, crucial 2tb gen4).
3. Add a budget right in the search box: crucial 2tb under 300.
4. Too few results? Take the last word back out, or use Clear Search and start again.

Examples

• A 2TB Gen4 drive for a desktop, under $200 — search gen4 under 200, then pick Capacity 2TB and sort Best $/GB.
• A Steam Deck upgrade — search 2230, then pick Capacity 1TB and sort Lowest price.
• A PS5 drive with a heatsink — search ps5 heatsink, then pick Interface PCIe Gen4.
• Today’s best external-drive deals — search external, then pick Deals On sale and sort Biggest discount.

How search works

• Every word must be found, in any order. samsung 4tb and 4tb samsung give the same results.
• There is no “or”. samsung or crucial looks for all three words and usually finds nothing. Search one brand at a time.
• Part of a model or part number is enough. sn850 finds SN850X and tm8ffc finds TM8FFC004: type the start, at least 3 characters. Brand and feature words must be whole, so sams finds nothing and pc doesn’t match “pcie”.
• Capitals and quote marks are ignored, so there are no exact-phrase searches.
• Search runs when you press Search (or Enter), not as you type.
• Keep it short. Only the first 100 characters and the first 8 different words are used.
• Apostrophes are dropped. Type hynix, not hynix's.
• Common spellings are understood. m.2, gen 4, pcie 4.0, 2 tb, usb 3.2 and 5 year are read as m2, gen4, 2tb, usb32 and 5yr.
• Filler words are skipped: ssd, drive, best, for, the, with, and, usb-c. best ssd for steam deck searches steam deck.
• A minus sign doesn’t exclude a word. Use the filter chips, or a “no-” feature word such as no-heatsink (see Feature words below).
• Your search stays in the address bar. Bookmark or share the page and the same results come back.

What you can search for

• Brand — crucial, teamgroup, sandisk.
• Model or series — p310, 990 pro, sn850, vulcan. Partial model numbers work: sn850 finds SN850X.
• Part number — tm8ffc004. The start of the manufacturer part number works too (tm8ffc).
• Capacity — 2tb, 500gb. 2 tb and 2 terabytes work too.
• Form factor — 2280, 2230, m2. m.2 works too.
• Interface — gen4, gen5, nvme, sata, usb4. gen 4, pcie 4.0 and pcie4 all read as gen4; usb 3.2 reads as usb32.
• Retailer — amazon, newegg, walmart. Or use the Retailer chips.
• Feature — heatsink, dram, hmb, slc. See Feature words below.
• Warranty — 5yr, warranty. 5 year works too.
• Use — laptops, desktops, ps5.

Combining words

• crucial 2tb — Crucial drives at 2TB.
• samsung gen5 4tb — Samsung PCIe Gen5 drives at 4TB.
• 2230 1tb — 1TB M.2 2230 drives (Steam Deck, ROG Ally and similar).
• teamgroup 5yr — TEAMGROUP drives with a 5-year warranty.
• dram gen4 2tb — 2TB Gen4 drives with DRAM cache.
• sandisk amazon — SanDisk prices at Amazon.

Feature words: having it vs. not having it

Some drives are tagged by what they lack, such as no-heatsink or dram-less. Search reads those tags the right way round: a feature word finds drives that have the feature, and the “no-” or “-less” form finds drives that don’t.

• heatsink — drives that ship with a heatsink, and heatsink accessories. Bare drives tagged “no-heatsink” stay out.
• no heatsink, no-heatsink or noheatsink — bare drives. Drives with a heatsink stay out.
• bare-drive — bare drives.
• dram — drives with a DRAM cache. DRAM-less drives stay out.
• dram-less, dramless or no dram — DRAM-less drives. Drives with DRAM stay out.
• hmb — DRAM-less drives that use Host Memory Buffer. Drives tagged “no-hmb” stay out.
• samsung no-heatsink — bare Samsung drives.
• heatsink 2tb gen5 — 2TB Gen5 drives that come with a heatsink.

How a row is priced

• Each row is one drive at one capacity. Its price is the best offer that matches your search, price and filters.
• An offer sold by the retailer itself heads the row. A marketplace (third-party) seller heads it only when no retailer sells it, and the row says so.
• Filters change the price you see. Pick the Best Buy retailer chip and each row shows Best Buy’s price, not the cheapest anywhere.

Landing on one drive. When your search narrows the list to a single drive — say crucial p310 2x80 — the page shows a link to that drive’s own pricing page, with every capacity and retailer side by side.

Searching by price

Set a budget two ways: type it into the search box in plain words, or fill in the Min and Max boxes. Both give the same result, and the price you set shows as a label such as Up to $150.

Typing a price

Add a price phrase to any search. diySSD takes the phrase out of the search, fills in Min or Max for you, and searches the words that are left.

• under 150 — Up to $150.
• crucial 2tb under 150 — searches crucial 2tb, Up to $150.
• $150 — Up to $150. A dollar amount on its own is a budget.
• below 200, less than 200, up to 200, at most 200, no more than 200, max 200 — Up to $200.
• <200, <=200, ≤200 — Up to $200.
• 200 or less, 200 and under, 200 max — Up to $200.
• over 100, above 100, more than 100, at least 100, min 100 — $100 and up.
• >100, >=100, ≥100 — $100 and up.
• 100 or more, 100 and up, 100+ — $100 and up.
• 100-150, 100 to 150, $100–$150 — $100–$150.
• between 100 and 150, from 100 to 150 — $100–$150.
• over 100 under 150, >100 and <150 — $100–$150.
• gen5 4tb 500-700 — searches gen5 4tb, $500–$700.
• samsung under $1,000 — searches samsung, Up to $1,000.
• 8tb 1k-1.5k — searches 8tb, $1,000–$1,500.
• sandisk under 99.99 — searches sandisk, Up to $99.99.

How price bounds behave

• Bounds include the amount. under 150 includes a $150 drive.
• Backwards ranges are fixed for you. 150-100 is read as $100–$150.
• The last one wins. under 200 under 150 sets Up to $150.
• A typed price replaces the boxes. If Max already says 150 and you search over 200, the result is $200 and up — not $150–$200.
• Offers without a shown price drop out while any price is set, because they can’t be checked against your budget.

The Min and Max boxes

Type a number in either box and press Search. They accept 150, $150, 1,000, $1,000, 149.99 and 1k. Anything else is ignored. Leave one empty for an open-ended budget: Min 300 with Max empty means $300 and up.

What is not read as a price

Numbers that are part of a drive’s name or specs stay in the search as words.

• 990 pro — the words “990” and “pro”. A number on its own, with no $ or price word, is a model number.
• 2280 — the word “2280”. It’s a form factor, not a price.
• gen4, sn850 — words. Numbers inside a word are never prices.
• under 2tb — the words “under” and “2tb”. A number with a unit (TB, GB, MB/s, Gbps, W, mm, TBW, IOPS) is a spec.
• 7000mb/s — the word “7000mb/s”. It’s a speed, not a price.
• 20% off — ignored, with a note. Searching by discount isn’t supported; use the On sale chip or the Biggest discount sort.

One known mix-up: 2242-2280 looks like a price range and is read as $2,242–$2,280. To find drives that fit either size, use the M.2 2242 or M.2 2280 form factor chip instead.

Filters and sort

Filters, price and search all work at once: search picks the words, price sets the budget, and each filter chip narrows to one value. Pick a chip once to turn it on; pick it again to turn it off.

• Retailer — Amazon, Newegg, Walmart, Best Buy, B&H, SanDisk Direct; the rest under More retailers. Use it to shop at one store.
• Interface — PCIe Gen5, PCIe Gen4, PCIe Gen3, Thunderbolt / USB4, USB 20 Gbps, USB 10 Gbps, USB 5 Gbps, SATA. Use it to match your slot or port.
• Deals — On sale, At lowest tracked price. “On sale” means the retailer shows a markdown; “At lowest tracked price” means the lowest price diySSD has recorded.
• Capacity — 128GB to 8TB, one size at a time.
• Form factor — M.2 2280, M.2 2230, M.2 2242, 2.5-inch, External, Flash Drive, Proprietary, Accessory. Use it for fit; “Accessory” holds heatsinks, enclosures and adapters.

Reading the chips

• The number on a chip is how many rows you’d see if you picked it, with your current search, price and other filters.
• A greyed-out chip has no matches right now. It stays in place so the row doesn’t jump around.
• One value per filter. Picking Newegg replaces Amazon; it doesn’t add to it. Filters of different kinds combine: Newegg and 2TB and On sale.
• All in a filter row clears just that filter.

Sort

• Best $/GB (default) — lowest price per gigabyte first. Best for getting the most storage for the money.
• Lowest price — cheapest row first. Best when working to a fixed budget.
• Biggest discount — largest markdown first. Best for bargain hunting; rows with no markdown go last.

Show More. The Pricing Catalog shows 24 rows at a time. Show More adds the next batch and keeps your place. Show all appears when every remaining match fits on the page.

Clearing and starting over

Each clear link undoes one thing and keeps the rest, so you can back out a step without losing your setup. A link only appears when there is something for it to clear.

• Clear Search Results removes your search words and any price, and keeps filters and sort.
• Clear price removes the price only, and keeps search words, filters and sort.
• Clear filters removes every filter chip, and keeps search words, price and sort.
• Start over removes everything and returns the page to how it first loads.

Example. You searched crucial 2tb under 150, picked Amazon and sorted by Lowest price:

• Clear price → all Crucial 2TB rows at Amazon, any price, lowest first.
• Clear Search Results → everything at Amazon, any price, lowest first.
• Clear filters → Crucial 2TB under $150 at every retailer, lowest first.
• Start over → the full catalog, sorted by Best $/GB.

Picking a chip, a sort or a price also starts you back at the top of the list.

No results? Common fixes

Most empty searches have one word too many or one word written differently from how diySSD writes it. Take the last word out first.

• samsung or crucial finds nothing. Every word must match, including “or”. Search samsung, then crucial.
• sams finds nothing. Brand names must be whole words. Type samsung.
• pc doesn’t find PCIe drives. pc is a whole word, not part of “pcie”. Type gen4, or pick an Interface chip.
• under 2tb finds nothing. Capacities aren’t price limits, so “under” stays as a word. Pick the capacity chip you want.
• 20% off gives a note. Discount search isn’t supported. Use the On sale chip or the Biggest discount sort.
• heatsink hides bare drives. That’s by design. Search no-heatsink or bare-drive for bare drives.
• A search worked, then a chip emptied it. The chip and the search together leave nothing. Check the chip counts, or pick All in that filter row.
• The price label won’t go away. A price stays until you clear it. Use Clear price, or Clear Search Results.

Still stuck? Clear search clear results or Reset page returns the page to its first view. A single brand name is the safest place to begin again.