Hardware Bistro

Product: SSDNow V+200 90GB
Manufacturer: Kingston
Supplied by: Kingston
Price: 150USD/RM460
Launch Date: Jan 2012

 

Kingston SSDNow has been in the market for quite some time and couple months ago, Kingston has announced its next generation of SSDNow V+200 which comes with much better performance yet affordable. Some of the unique selling points of the new SSDNow V+200 are the high speed SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s), SandForce SF-2281 processor, DuraWrite, RAISE and etc. Let us deep dive this product without further delay.

 

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

Multiple capacities - the right capacity to meet your storage standards
Endurance - Data Integrity Protection featuring DuraClass Technology
Dependable - RAISE for advanced data reliability
Secure - Self-Encrypting drive
Durable - DuraWrite optimizes writes to extend endurance
Guaranteed - three-year warranty

 

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Same with previous Kingston SSDNow V+200, this new generation SSD is also packed with transparent packaging but it is in blue theme instead of green theme. No other accessory is bundled in this standalone version except a simple user manual; however upgrade kit version comes with other accessories. Three years warranty with 24/7 support for certain countries (Asia comes with free support tech) is given for Kingston SSDNow V+200 which is definitely great to have.

 

A Closer Look on Kingston SSDNow V+200

Kingston has categorized all its SSD products into four categories; consumer (offers improved speed and reliability over traditional HDDs), business (maximum performance and stability for minimal TCO), system builders (as a small capacity HDD replacements, ideal for non-PC applications) and enthusiasts (delivers extreme performance for extreme performer). 

Among the Kingston business SSD, there are three sub categories; SSDNow V+180, Kingston SSDNow V+200 and Kingston SSDNow KC100. Except the SSDNow V+180 which comes with 1.8" form factor & SATA2, the rest of two models come with 2.5" form factor & SATA3. Due to much durability of Kingston SSDNow KC100, five year warranty is given to prove its reliability. 

 

Same with other Kingston SSD, SSDNow V+200 is also equipped with matte black metal enclosure which is not only has premium outlook, light weight but also pretty good for heat dissipation. Kingston SSDNow V+200 only has total 115 grams which is extremely light and its 2.5" form factor can be used to replace any traditional 2.5" form factor HDD in notebook, netbook, media player and etc. 

New generation of Kingston SSDNow V+200 has five capacities available; 60GB, 90GB, 120GB, 240GB & 480GB. With the new interface of SATA3 6Gb/s, it is much preferable due to its super speed; 535MB/s & 460/480MB/s seq reading & writing speeds in SATA3 while only 280MB/s & 260MB/s in SATA2. Same with other SSDs, Kingston SSDNow V+200 is having 1,000,000 MTBF. 

Kingston SSDNow V+200 is equipped 2nd generation of SATA3 SandForce SF-2281 which is superb in sequential read/writes combined with 25nm Asynchronous NAND (8GB x 12pcs) for exceptional quality, performance yet affordable (sync NAND flash will be much expensive). 8GB x 12 equals to 96GB but the additional 6GB is used by SandForce controller to maximize the SSD performance and reliability. 

Besides the superb read and write speeds, SandForce SF-2281 is also equipped with Data Integrity Protection that features DuraClass Technology plus RAISE for advanced data reliability (256-AES encryption and wear leveling). The hardware 256-AES encryption is much better than software encryption which is not only burden up the SSD but also affects the SSD's performance. 

There are standard and performance upgrade kit versions for Kingston SSDNow V+200; same like previous generation. Standard version of Kingston SSDNow V+200 only comes with the SSD itself while performance upgrade kit comes with additional accessories like 2.5" HDD external enclosure, desktop kit, SATA & USB cables and Cronis True Image cloning software CD.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

Installation for Kingston SSDNow V+200 is exactly same with other 2.5" HDD, there is no physical difference between them. However it is advisable to setup Kingston SSDNow V+200 as the boot drive to fully utilize its ability, the blazing read and write speeds. Kingston SSDNow V+200 can be installed in a notebook, desktop or even an external HDD enclosure as long as it is fitted; physically and can be connected to the device's SATA and power cables. Most of the modern desktop chassis do come with an unique bay for 2.5" HDD or else an aftermarket 2.5" HDD bay can be purchased if SSD is preferred to boost up the boot drive performance. A clean format and OS installation should be performed; just the same way for traditional HDD.

 

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/Gigabyte G31M-ES2L
Heatsink: Noctua NH-C14
Memory: Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 90GB
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
PCIe: Aten IC320U USB 3.0
Casing: BitFenix Colossus Venom
HDD Cage: Icy Dock MB994SP-4S
PSU: OCZ ZX 850W
Optical Drive: HLDS DVD RW +/-
Controller: Aerocool Touch 2000
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Operating System: Window XP Pro SP2/Win 7 HP
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here are the Kingston SSDNow V+200 test results with CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64. For the standard (default) testing, Kingston SSDNow V+200 is having 203MB/s reading and 141MB/s writing speeds. These results are pretty standard and definitely not as good as those synchronous NAND SSDs which are much expensive and not many people is willing to spend on it. However when enabling the highly compressible 0x00 (0 Fill) data mode, the SSDNow V+200 is able to achieve much higher reading and writing speeds at 546.0 MB/s and 498 MB/s. These results are awesome as these data are even higher than what Kingston has rated in the Kingston SSDNow V+200's specifications. In term of reliability and stability, Kingston SSDNow V+200 didn't let us down throughout the whole testing period and very minimal heat is generated which could be due to great internal cooling circulation that we have on our desktop rig. 

Here is the official introduction video about Kingston SSDNow V+200; feel free to view it for more interactive preview.

 

Verdicts

With this latest generation of Kingston SSDNow V+200, the balance of the performance and cost has been further fined tuned now and it is very affordable with its tremendous performance. Some of the highlights of new batch of Kingston SSDNow V+200 are SandForce SF-2281, SATA III interface (6Gb/s), hardware AES-256 encryption, SandForce's RAISE and etc. Few storage options are available from 60GB, 90GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB which are more than enough to be setup as boot drive to maximize its performance and get faster ROI. With the attractive and affordable pricing of the newer generation Kingston SSDNow V+200, it is definitely more worthy to get it and SSD is no longer a dream for budget constraint enthusiasts. 

Pros:

+ Value of money
+ Impressive performance
+ Equipped with SandForce SF-2281
+ SATA III interface (6Gb/s)
+ 60GB till 480GB storage options
+ Hardware AES-256 encryption
+ SandForce's RAISE Technology
+ Available in standalone or bundle kit
+ 3 year warranty

Cons:

- Incompressible data performance could be further improved

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

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