Samsung 980

Samsung 980, 990, or 9100 pro are all solid choices. They are all very close in performance but just different generations.

Specifications: SSD: Samsung 980 1TB (Interface: PCle NVMe, Form Factor: M.2)

If you must, I'd go for the Samsung 980. I'd check each model's rated "Terabytes Written" life expectancy, but because I know NV2 and 3 are more on the cheaper side, I'd wager the Samsung one has a better durability

Yes, the 980 is Gen3 and efficient.

I use my old Samsung 980 as an external drive on a 5Gbit USB 3.0 port and all games work fine on it. I use it for games and media (torrents) while keeping my internal 990 Evo+ on low writes.

I've had my build working for years with a 980 1TB, but it wasn't enough space, so I bought a Samsung 990 Pro 4TB with Heatsink in-person from a trustworthy vendor.

If you were going closer to the lower end around 1000, I’d probably recommend something like a Ryzen 5 7600 for the CPU, an RTX 4060 or RX 7600 for the graphics card, 16GB or ideally 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD like a Samsung 980 or WD SN770, a B650 motherboard, a 650 watt power supply from Corsair or EVGA, and just a normal airflow case like a Phanteks or NZXT H5 Flow.