Remember when SSDs were expensive? Those days are long gone, and HP's 500GB EX900 SSD is now available at this price. Use coupon code "45242" at checkout to get it for just $52.99 from Staples.

This coupon code will give you $15 off a purchase of $60 or more. In this case, the 500GB is listed at $67.99. Already a fair price, but the discount makes it even more affordable.

As for entering the coupon code, the process is a bit tricky. When you head to the cart, click the "Apply/Edit Coupon" link in the order summary and enter the coupon code. At first I thought it was invalid, since the discount still doesn't show up. However, when you proceed to the billing page, the discount should finally appear.

Looking at Newegg's SSD collection, prices for 500GB-class models start at about $60 and go up from there. Most of the less expensive ones are 2.5-inch drives with SATA 6Gbps interfaces and read/write speeds in the 500MB/sec range.

HP's EX900 is an M.2 form factor drive with a faster NVMe interface. With read speeds up to 2,100 MB/sec and write speeds up to 1,500 MB/sec, the speed difference between NVMe SSDs and SATA SSDs is not necessary for gaming, but for other tasks (such as transferring large files) there is a difference. Also, the lower price makes it easier to recommend this one for the 500GB area.