Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ Review

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Product: 64GB SSDNow V+
Manufacturer: Kingston
Supplied by: Kingston
Price: 268USD/RM838
Launch Date: NA

Kingston is one of the favorite brands whenever people are looking for memory products but besides memory products, Kingston does offer other products as well such as USB flash drive, memory card and Solid State Drive. Today let us have a quick look on SSDNow V+ drive which is a performance SSD with affordable cost.

Company Profile

Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world's independent memory leader. Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and cell phones.

With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,500 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the "Best Companies to Work for in America" by Fortune magazine, Kingston's tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture.

Features

- Innovative - Uses MLC NAND flash memory components.
- Silent - Runs silent and cool with no moving mechanical parts.
- Shock Proof - No moving mechanical parts so the SSD handles rougher conditions.
- Supports S.M.A.R.T. Technology tells the user when a drive is about to fail
- Guaranteed - 3 year legendary Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support

Specification

Sequential Read Throughput - 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB - 220MB/s
Sequential Write Throughput - 64GB - 140MB/s, 128GB - 170MB/s, 256GB - 180MB/s
Form Factor - 2.5"
Interface - SATA 1.5 Gb/sec. and 3.0 Gb/sec
Capacity* - 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
Storage temperatures - -40 - 85°C
Operating temperatures - 0 ~ 70°C
Dimensions - 69.85 x 100 x 9.5 mm
Weight - 84 gram
IOPS** (Input and Output Operations Per Second) -
Random 4K read: 6300 IOPS
Random 4K write: 64GB = 84 IOPS
Random 4K write: 128GB = 158 IOPS
Random 4K write: 256GB = 291 IOPS
Vibration operating - 2.7G
Vibration non-operating - 20G
Power specs - 2.6 W - active / 0.15W Idle
Life expectancy** - 1,000,000 Hrs mean time before failure
Operating shock - 1500G

Package & Contents

Our Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ sample wasn't packed by an attractive colorful retail packaging since it is a media sample but the retail unit will be packed quite attractively. There isn't any bundled accessory for Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ drive except a user's manual which is a Multi-language quick reference guide.

A Closer Look: Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ drive

Same with other Kingston products, their SSDs can be categorized into three series; E-series (for server), M-series (for power users) and V-series (more suitable for consumers as V stands for value). Both of the E-series and M-series SSD are using Intel X25-E/M SATA SSD which are best-performing drives on the market now by delivering 250MB/s & 170MB/s (E-series), 250MB/s & 70MB/s (M-series) read & write speeds.

Before Kingston SSDNow V+ drive was launched, basically Kingston already launched SSDNow V series drive but the performance is much slower where it is only able to deliver 100/80MB/s read & write speeds. Anyway for Kingston SSDNow V+ drive, it comes with few capacities; 64GB, 12GB and 256GB. The read speed for Kingston SSDNow V+ drive is 220MB/s and 140MB/s write speed for 64GB model while 170/180MB/s for 128GB and 256GB models.

Kingston SSDNow V+ drive is a MLC NAND flash memory drive which is cheaper SSD format than SLC. Other great advantages of Kingston SSDNow V+ drive are shock proof, S.M.A.R.T. supported, 3 year legendary warranty and zero operating noise since it is not using mechanical components like traditional hard drive. The expected MTBF and operating shock of this drive are 1,000,000 and 1500G which are pretty standard for lately launched performance SSD drive.

So far Kingston only has SSD in 2.5" form factor but hopefully they will extend their SSD product range into other form factors such as PCI-E, 3.5" for providing wider range of offering. Same with other SSDs, Kingston SSDNow V+ drive comes with standard 2.5" form factor which is constructed with much lighter casing; with only 84grams.

In term of connectors and screw holes, Kingston SSDNow V+ drive has the exact layout as other standard 2.5" HDDs. However we hope to see a mini-B USB connector on Kingston SSDNow V+ drive where users can use it as an external HDD straightaway without additional external HDD enclosure. Kingston SSDNow V+ drive comes with a grey textured-surface casing which is looks very nice and the casing is fastened by four hexagon screws.

Most of the SSDs in the market are either made by JMicrons, Indilinx, Intel or Samsung controllers and Kingston SSDNow V+ drive is equipped with Samsung controller which is cheaper than others but it still performs much better than the controller of Kingston SSDNow V series drive. Anyway other two major chips of Kingston SSDNow V+ drive are made by Samsung as well.

Besides that Kingston SSDNow V+ drive is built in with 128MB onboard cache memory which is used to boost the SSD's performance. Since our sample is a 64GB Kingston SSDNow V+ drive, the PCB only comes with eight memory chips (six at front and two at back) rather than sixteen; more expensive memory chips but cheaper in term of PCB design and manufacturing cycle time.

Unlike other SSD makers, Kingston does offer upgrade bundles for their SSDNow V series drive which offers easiest and efficient way to upgrade from existing HDD to SSD to gain better performance especially in gaming. During the upgrade, OS reloading is not required as cloning software is provided for duplicating the contents from HDD to SSD. Hopefully such great feature will be implemented for SSDNow V+ drive as well.

Installation, Testing & Performance

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (Gigabyte G31M-ES2L)
Heatsink: Noctua NH-C12P
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate, OCZ 30GB Agility
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
Casing: In Win Maelstrom
PSU: Aerocool V12XT-800
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: DVD RW
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2/Vista Home Premium
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

In order to test out Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ drive, we have setup this drive as the primary drive of our system and installed a fresh new Window Vista Home Premium on it. For the benchmarking software, we have tested OCZ Agility SSD with CrystalDiskMark, HDTach, Everest and Sisoftsandra; which are pretty popular tools to benchmark a drive.

As you can see, Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ drive performs pretty well especially in read speed; averagely 220MB/s which is the rated speed in the specifications. Write speed of Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ drive is also not bad; averagely 140MB/s but Kingston SSDNow V+ 128/256GB models are able to achieve 170MB/s. With cheaper controller from Samsung, Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ drive is still able to maintain its performance as good as other controllers.

Verdicts

There is no doubt Kingston SSDNow V+ drive is a great SSD but in fact it is much better than SSDNow V series drive where both of the read/write speeds are almost doubled up. Besides that Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ drive is also equipped with 128MB onboard cache to boost the SSD's performance and the overall system respond time. MSRP for Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ drive is around 270USD which is still slightly below the average; not a bad deal if you are looking a branded and reliable SSD else you can probably wait another round as we believe the price of SSD will be dropped dramatically once the SSD technology is much mature.

Pros:

+ Impressive read speed; 220MB/s
+ 128MB onboard cache
+ Noiseless, light weight, shockproof
+ Cheap & greater controller
+ 3-year warranty

Cons:

- Missing of USB2.0 mini-B connector
- Lack of firmware upgrade

Thanks to Kingston for providing this sample for us to review.