Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 64GB Review

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Product: SSDNow V+ 180 64GB
Manufacturer: Kingston
Supplied by: Kingston
Price: 179USD/RM549
Launch Date: Sept 2010

The Most common form factor for SSD (Solid State Drive) in the market is the 2.5" size but SSD does come with other form factors as well such as 3.5", 1.8", PCIe, mini PCIe, USB and etc. Today we have a chance to have a quick review on Kingston SSDNow V+ 180; a 1.8" SSD which is suitable for compact or small size performance laptop.

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 TRIM - Enhances device wear leveling by eliminating merge operation for all deleted data blocks
• Supports S.M.A.R.T. functions
• Guaranteed - 3 year legendary Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support
• Cache - 128MB onboard cache
• Garbage collection feature - Enables high SSD write performance even when operating system does not support TRIM

Specifications:

• Capacity* - 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
• Storage temperatures - -40° - 85°C
• Operating temperatures - 0° - 70°C
• Dimensions - 54 x 78.5 x 5 mm
• Weight - 48 grams
• Vibration operating - 2.7G (7-800Hz)
• Vibration non-operating - 20G (20-2000Hz)
• Sequential Read Throughput - 230MB/s
• Sequential Write Throughput - 180MB/s
• PCMark Vantage Score+
64GB - 38,177
128GB - 38,065
256GB - 38,272
• Form Factor - 1.8"
• Interface - micro SATA 1.5GB/sec. and 3.0 GB/sec
• Power specs - 2.9 W - active / 47 mW Idle
• Life expectancy** - 1,000,000 Hrs mean time before failure
• Operating shock - 1500G

Kingston SSDNow V+180 Series Drive Part Number:

SVP180S2/64G
SVP180S2/128G
SVP180S2/256G

Package & Contents

Our Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 64GB sample comes in retail pack (unlike our previous SSDNow V+ 100) which looks interesting and thanks to the sealed transparent container. No other accessory is bundled for Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 except some user guides but we do hope a microSATA to SATA converter is provided as it is not easy to look for such accessory in certain regions.

Same with other Kingston SSDs, Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 comes with 3-year legendary Kingston warranty with 24/7 tech support. Let us verify and see whether Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is able to deliver the 5X faster speed than those standard 5400RPM HDD based on the marketing printing on the packaging.

A Closer Look on Kingston SSDnow V+ 180

Before we look into the Kingston SSDNow V+ 180, let us go through the entire Kingston SSD family. There are total six series at this moment to fulfill different requirements; E series, M series, V+ series, SSDNow V+ 100e series, SSDNow V+ 180 series and V series. Unlike other SSD vendors, Kingston only focuses and wisely spends their resources on SSD in 2.5" form factor which has much higher demands than others.

Among all the Kingston SSD family, Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is the only series that comes in 1.8" form factor but the demand for such form factor is not high due to the price and popularity. Currently there are three capacities available for Kingston SSDNow V+ 180; 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. In case you are not aware the exact dimension for a 1.8" drive is 54 x 78.5 x 5 mm and Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is having very light weight at 48 grams only.

In general SSD is a better choice than traditional HDD in most of the aspects except cost, limited number of writes, software encryption limitations and etc. Anyway Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is having sequential read and write throughput about 230MB/s and 180MB/s (awesome performance) and it is not affected by the capacities as all these three available capacities are having similar performance.

Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is using MLC NAND flash memory and TRIM is supported which is used to enhance the device wear leveling by eliminating merge operation for all deleted data blocks. Other great features of SSD over HDD are shock proof and zero noise since there are no mechanical moving part within the drive. In term of interface, Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is using micro SATA which is able to deliver the same performance as normal SATA interface.

The outer aluminum chassis of Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 can be removed out with care but warranty will be voided so it is not recommended for consumer to do so (only for reviewing purpose). Both sides of Kingston SSDNow V+ 180's PCB are well protected with thermal pad so that heat can be dissipated in a much effective way.

Our Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is 64GB version and there are eight memory chip in total which means each memory chip is having 8GB capacity. Toshiba T6UG1XBG is the SSD controller which is being used for second generation Kingston SSDNow V+ to replace Samsung controller in previous generation. OKA17-D9HSJ is Micron 128MB onboard memory cache which enhances the fast transaction buffering like the 8MB, 16MB buffer cache on traditional HDDs.

Installation, Testing & Performance

Here is the side by side dimension comparison between a 2.5" HDD and Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 (1.8"). For the setup and testing, we managed to fit the Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 on our HP EliteBook 2540p; just perfect else we will have problem to find the microSATA to SATA converter in the market (Malaysia Lowyat Plaza doesn't have it as well). A fresh OS was installed on our test bed together with Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 before we can run some window benchmarking tests on it.

Test Bed

Notebook: HP EliteBook 2540p
Processor: Intel i7-640LM @ 2.13GHz
Memory: 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM
Display: 12.1" LED-backlit WXGA anti-glare
Graphic Card: Intel HD Graphics
Optical Drive: Panasonic 9.5mm DVD RAM
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: Arctic Sound P311
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Operating System: Window XP Pro SP3/Win 7 Pro
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here is our obtained result on Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 by using other HP EliteBook 2540p which is equipped with a 1.8" SATA HDD as well. We have performed similar tested on both of these drives (1.8" SATA HDD and 1.8" MicroSATA SSD) and the results are fascinating as Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is almost ~ 6-7 times better than the SATA HDD (more than 5x faster speed that Kingston has claimed). Besides that the performance gap between the read and write performance of Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 are quite close which are only obtainable with high performance SSD.

Verdicts

Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is a 1.8" SSD but its performance is just as good as other 2.5" SSDs where it is able to achieve read and write speeds at 200MB/s and 180MB/s; pretty to close to its specifications. If you are looking for a 1.8" to fit into your notebook (upgrading from HDD to SSD) then Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 is not a bad choice at all else we do not see any point for you to get a 1.8" SSD for external storage usage as there are limited choices on 1.8" external HDD enclosures as well as MicroSATA to SATA converter. Anyway this second generation Kingston SSDNow V+ SSD comes with much affordable price at only 179USD for 64GB.

Pros:

+ Impressive performance
+ TRIM supported
+ 128MB onboard memory cache
+ Noiseless, light weight & shockproof
+ 3-year warranty
+ Much affordable cost

Cons:

- NA but wish a converter is bundled

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