This mammoth 8TB external SanDisk SSD is more affordable than expected

Western Digital has introduced an external SSD with an enormous storage capacity – it's largest yet.

The SanDisk Desktop Drive now comes with 8TB of space and perhaps the best news is that the price isn't as crazy as you'd think.

We're all using many more files these days, at much bigger sizes, so extra storage is welcome – especially when using a laptop that is hard to expand otherwise. And, considering how quickly we need to access them, SSD is almost a must.

The new drive has read speeds up to 1GB/s, which is up to four times faster than a traditional external hard drive, and write speeds of up to 900MB/s. That's essential if you're pulling 8K video, for example, and want the experience to work as if its stored internally.

The Desktop Drive uses USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2) so is only limited by the ports on your PC or MacBook. You also get a USB-C to USB-A cable included, although connecting it to standard USB will naturally reduce the speeds.

It comes with exFAT formatting as default, so is plug and play, although you can reformat it to whichever standard you need. It also works with Apple Time Machine "from the box".

The 8TB SanDisk Desktop Drive is available from the Western Digital website now, priced at £633.99 in the UK, $699.99 in the States.

However, if you don't need that much storage and want to save a bit of cash, there's a 4TB version too, priced at £359.99 / $379.99.

Both sizes come with a 3-year limited warranty.

If you also have an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, there's also a sale on the WD_Black C50 Expansion Card at present. You can introduce an extra 512GB or 1TB of SSD storage to your console at a healthy discount.

Check out the offers below.