The SSD market is arguably one of the fiercly contested segment in today’s enthusiast and performance market. Manufacturers are resorting to more and more ways to sway consumers into their favor and usually that goes by way of top performance. But getting the highest performance part does warrant a premium and that’s isn’t for everyone. Also, performance for a given technology itself could have reached its peak therefore competition is solely based on value and features. That said, some resort to cost-cutting measures to keep their products competitive but sacrifices are made.
Enter Kingston’s latest entry into the HyperX line-up: the HyperX 3K SSD. This Sandforce powered drive is rated to perform similarly to its bigger brother, the original HyperX SSD but at a much lower price point since this drive uses cheaper NAND flash rated for 3,000 program/erase(P/E) cycles compared to the original’s 5,000 P/E cycles. For the average gamer who uses their SSD to store their games for faster load times, this means if you install a 10GB game every day, the drive will still last you around 8 years. Note the EVERY DAY part. The same applies to any average user.
Kingston sent us over a 90GB model of the HyperX 3K, rated at 555MB/s read and 510MB/s write, this SSD is expected to perform the same as its higher-end brother. Will this product honor the HyperX family? We’ll find out and let’s make this showy!
PRODUCT GALLERY
[tabs tab1=”Packaging” tab2=”Closer Look”] [tab] [singlepic id=6135 w=320 h=240 float=center]
The HyperX 3K arrives in a similar packaging to the original HyperX: a nice picture of the prooduct centered with the capacity and performance rating of the SSD. Right below we see that this is product is backed by a 3 year warranty and comes with free technical support. Notice that the HyperX 3K comes in black and further differentiates itself with higher advertised rating than the original HyperX SSD.
The other side of the packaging has marketing bullets translated in multiple languages. A couple notches down we see the package contents which includes the HyperX 3K SSD itself, a 3.5″ tray bracket and some mounting screws. Notice the remark right below the content description saying that this SSD is design for desktops and notebooks and NOT for servers.
[singlepic id=6138 w=320 h=240 float=center] [/tab] [tab] [singlepic id=6140 w=320 h=240 float=center]Checking out the SSD itself, the HyperX 3K is ligned with dark grey-black highlights versus the metallic blue trims of the original HyperX SSD. The case still retains the brushed metal body that houses both variants with the embossed HyperX logo adorning the top.
[singlepic id=6141 w=320 h=240 float=center]Flipping the SSD over we see screws securing the body with one covered by a warranty sticker. Some details can be seen in the center sticker but nothing too prominent.
[one_half last=”no”][singlepic id=6142 w=280 h=160 float=center][/one_half][one_half last=”yes”][singlepic id=6143 w=280 h=160 float=center][/one_half]The 3.5″ tray is a bit of a hit or miss. Its straight up HyperX theme and clad in metallic blue. I personally would’ve preferred it to be in black/dark-grey just like the HyperX 3K styling.
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PERFORMANCE
| CPU | Intel Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition |
| MOTHERBOARD | ECS X79R-AX |
| VIDEO CARD | Gainward GTX560 Ti 448 |
| STORAGE | Kingston HyperX SSD 120GB, Seagate XT 3TB, Seagate Barracuda 3TB, Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 90GB, Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB |
| PSU | CoolerMaster GX750 Bronze |
| COOLING | Corsair H80 |
| OS | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1 |
We would like to thank Kingston, Intel, ECS and Seagate for providing the hardware and equipment for this review.
[tabs tab1=”Read Test” tab2=”Write Test” tab3=”Crystal DiskMark” tab4=”AS SSD” tab5=”ATTO” tab6=”Boot-up Time”] [tab]We used HD Tach to measure the potential read speed of our SSD. The average read speed is what matters in this test as this is more indicative of the drive’s performance on a day to day basis.
[singlepic id=6447 w=540 h=480 float=center]From the chart above we see the HyperX 3K neck to neck with its older brother and leaves the high-performance VelociRaptor behind in this test.
[/tab] [tab]For write testing, HD Tune was used to measure the drive’s write performance. Again, we focus on the average results.
[singlepic id=6442 w=540 h=480 float=center]Again, we see some pretty close numbers from the HyperX products further solidifying Kingston’s promise of HyperX performance but at a fraction of the cost.
[/tab] [tab]Crystal Disk Mark is storage benchmarking software was developed by “hiyohiyo†of Japan, and is available for free. Crystal Disk Mark  measures sequential, and random read/write speeds of storage devices.
[singlepic id=6443 w=540 h=480 float=center][singlepic id=6444 w=540 h=480 float=center][singlepic id=6445 w=540 h=480 float=center][singlepic id=6446 w=540 h=480 float=center]This test just proves more and more that the HyperX 3K is nothing short of its older brother and truly makes itself shine more. The HyperX is already an impressive performer and seeing results like this from its less expensive variant is truly good news.[/tab] [tab]
AS SSD is a benchmark tool that determines the performance of Solid State Drives but can also be used to measure hard drives, it just takes longer. The tool contains six synthetic and three copy tests .
[singlepic id=6448 w=540 h=480 float=center][singlepic id=6449 w=540 h=480 float=center][/tab] [tab]ATTO Disk Benchmark benchmarks a drive’s read and write speeds with increasing file sizes and graphs them.
[singlepic id=6450 w=540 h=480 float=center][singlepic id=6452 w=540 h=480 float=center]We already know the the original HyperX SSD is one great drive. It performs fast and smokes a lot of the competition. The HyperX 3K is the same… and more affordable. We can go on and be technical but there’s really nothing to be technical about when you have a budget-targeted SSD in front of you spitting out 530MB/s write speeds. That’s even more than what Kingston rated this drive to do.
[/tab] [tab]To measure boot-up time we used BootRacer. BootRacer is a free program that measures Windows boot-up times.
[singlepic id=6451 w=540 h=480 float=center]We compare our result with some very fast drives in our list and just any other SSD, the HyperX 3K comes out with very good results.
[/tab] [/tabs]CONCLUSION
Its quite clear that the HyperX 3K performs identically to the original HyperX SSD. Kingston makes the deal sweeter by offering this new solution at a much lower price point. Users get top-end performance for a lower cost. Now with all the talk about P/E cycles, the main concern of most buyers is why choose this over the original? Well, as we’ve answered in the opening paragraphs of this review, the lifespan of the drive is depending on the usage of the users. With most users and gamers using their SSDs as a boot and application drive, the scenario we presented is not going to be a daily matter. Even if it were, it’d still keep the drive kicking after a long while. Kingston lists the 90GB model for $140 but you can find ones online for around $90-$119 putting it in a very competitive spot. No word yet on local availability, we will update you once we get word on that. This drive could’ve raked in a perfect 10 from me but I think Kingston could’ve opted for a better naming scheme so potential buyers don’t go scared off when they find out what that 3K means even if it isn’t really that significant a figure for daily users. Also I still want a black tray for it.
[singlepic id=6138 w=320 h=240 float=center]If you’re in need of an SSD to juice up your rig and are trying to keep everything under a budget, the HyperX 3K is a suitable solution. Backed by a 3-year warranty, Kingston ensures users’ won’t be getting a brick in that timeframe. We highly recommend the HyperX 3K SSD for those trying to get into the enthusiast SSD game and don’t want to break the bank in one go.
