Guide To Product Search

Find it fast

The Product Catalog lists every drive and accessory diySSD covers, one card per product. Type a few words, press Search, and the catalog shows only the products whose details contain every word you typed. Part of a word is enough: sn850 finds SN850X.

Thirty-second start

1. Start broad: a brand (crucial), a model (990 pro) or a use (gaming).
2. Under Form factor, pick the chip that fits your machine: M.2 2280 for most desktops and laptops, M.2 2230 for the Steam Deck, ROG Ally and similar handhelds.
3. Under Interface, pick a chip to compare like with like. Scores are rated within each interface (see Scores below).
4. Too many cards? Add one word. Too few? Take the last word back out, or use Clear Search Results and start again.

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 word is enough. sn850 finds SN850X, and t70 finds the T700 and T705. A short word can turn up surprises, so add a second word to tighten it.
• 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.
• A minus sign doesn’t exclude a word. Use the filter chips to narrow instead.
• Your search stays in the address bar. Bookmark or share the page and the same results come back.

What you can search for

• Brand — samsung, crucial, teamgroup, sandisk.
• Model or series — 990 pro, t705, sn8100, fury. Partial model numbers work.
• Interface — gen5, gen4, nvme, sata, usb4, thunderbolt. Write gen4 as one word; gen 4 searches “gen” and “4” separately.
• Form factor — 2280, 2230, 2242, external. Write M.2 as m2; the dot stops a match.
• Capacity — 2tb, 8tb. Finds products sold in that size. Write it without a space.
• Best for — gaming, workloads. Each card’s “Best for” line shows the use diySSD rates it for.
• Heatsink — heatsink finds drives offered with a heatsink, and bare-drive finds drives offered without one. Many drives are sold both ways, so they show up for either word. The Bare-drive and Heatsink tags on each card show which versions exist.

Combining words

• crucial gen5 — Crucial’s PCIe Gen5 drives.
• 2230 2tb — M.2 2230 drives sold in 2TB.
• samsung external — Samsung’s external drives.
• gaming gen4 — PCIe Gen4 drives rated for gaming.

Filters

Search and filters work together: search picks the words, and each chip narrows to one value. Pick a chip once to turn it on; pick it again to turn it off.

• Form factors — M.2 2280, External, M.2 2230, 2.5-inch, Flash Drive, M.2 2242, Proprietary. Use it for fit: a drive that doesn’t fit your slot or bay is the wrong drive however fast it is.
• Interfaces — 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.

Reading the chips

• The number on a chip is how many products you’d see if you picked it, with your current search and the other filter.
• 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 M.2 2230 replaces M.2 2280. The two filters combine: M.2 2280 and PCIe Gen5.
• All in a filter row clears just that filter.
• A few products have no Interface chip. Accessories with no drive inside and a handful of specialty drives appear under All and through search, but not under any Interface chip.

Scores and the Interface filter. Each card’s score is rated against other drives with the same interface, so “9.0 for PCIe Gen4” and “9.0 for PCIe Gen5” are not the same speed. Pick an Interface chip and every score on screen is directly comparable.

Order and Show More

The catalog has no sort options; products appear in a fixed order. It shows 12 products at a time. Show More adds the next 12 and keeps your place, and Show all appears when every remaining match fits on the page.

Prices from the catalog

The catalog has no price search. 990 pro under 150 searches for the words “under” and “150”, not a budget, and usually finds nothing. To shop to a budget, search the Pricing Catalog instead.

A card links to that drive’s pricing page when diySSD is tracking current prices for it. Drives without a link have no current prices to show.

Clearing and starting over

Each clear link undoes one thing and keeps the rest. A link only appears when there is something for it to clear.

• Clear Search Results removes your search words and keeps the chips.
• Clear filters removes both chips and keeps your search words.
• Start over removes everything and returns the page to how it first loads.

Picking a chip also starts you back at the top of the list.

No results? Common fixes

Most empty searches have one word too many, or a 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.
• m.2 2tb finds nothing. The dot in “m.2” stops a match. Type m2 2tb, or pick a Form factor chip.
• 2 tb finds too much. “2” and “tb” are searched separately. Type 2tb.
• gen 4 finds odd results. “gen” and “4” are searched separately. Type gen4, or pick the PCIe Gen4 chip.
• 990 pro under 150 finds nothing. There is no price search here. Use the Pricing Catalog.
• 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.

Still stuck? Start over returns the page to its first view, and a single brand name is the safest place to begin again.

Quick reference

• Every word must match, in any order; part of a word is enough.
• Two filters: Form factors and Interfaces, one chip each.
• Scores compare fairly within one interface.
• 12 products at a time, with Show More and Show all.
• Fixed order; no sort.
• No price search — use the Pricing Catalog.
• Clear links: Clear Search Results, Clear filters, Start over.