The second-fastest SSD we've ever tested is an incredible bargain at up to $130 off

Forget Black Friday. If you're looking for a Samsung SSD deal, there's no need to wait, as you can currently save up to $130 on the ultra-fast Samsung 9100 Pro, putting this drive at its lowest price we've yet seen. As the second-fastest SSD we've ever tested, it's also a proper performance drive, and not some bargain bin option.

The only reason this drive doesn't sit on the main list of our best gaming SSD guide right now is because the WD Black SN8100 just snuck past it for overall speed, making that drive the fastest PCIe 5 SSD we've tested. However, the Samsung 9100 Pro is only a fraction slower, and its discounts right now make it a great buy, even if the WD Black SN8100 can also be found at competitive prices.

As a PCIe 5 SSD, the Samsung 9100 Pro is among the fastest currently available types of SSD, with its sequential read speed topping out at 14,800MB/s and its sequential write speed hitting 13,400MB/s. These figures are only just behind the WD Black SN8100, which claims 14,900MB/s read speed and 14,00MB/s write speed.

These figures were borne out in our testing too, with our Samsung 9100 Pro review showing the drive hitting 14,645MB/s read and 13,450MB/s write in the CrystalDiskMark benchmark. This drive also performed excellently in PCMark 10 and 3DMark storage benchmarks that test real game data loading times, coming in second to the WD Black SN8100 by a tiny margin.

What really sells this Samsung SSD compared to many earlier PCIe 5 SSDs is that it runs reasonably cool. First-generation PCIe 5 drives ran notoriously hot, such that they absolutely needed a sizeable heatsink and sometimes active cooling with a fan to prevent overheating and resultant slowdown. This drive still needs a small heatsink - whether one on your motherboard or the one that's optionally included with the drive - but that's all you need to keep its temps in check.

Normally starting at $199.99 for a 1TB drive and rising to $999.99 for an 8TB model, this is a premium, high-performance SSD. However, with its current discounts, it's a far more sensible buy for a normal gaming PC. The 1TB model is $60 off, bringing its price down to just $139.99. Meanwhile, the 2TB model gets an $80 saving, and the 4TB model gets a massive $130 saving. For some reason, the 8TB model only has a $100 discount, so it's still $899.99, but that was always going to be a luxury upgrade.

To grab these discounts, just head over to Samsung's store via this link.  The company has a range of other discounted drives there too, but this is the standout deal.