Another year, another refresh. We usually see upgrades of previous models in an annual basis and for Kingston’s consumer-oriented solid-state drives (SSD) it is no exception. Today we’re back with another SSD review featuring Kingston’s latest value-segment solid-state drive targeted for upgraders and system-builders who want that extra boost in their systems without the premium of enthusiast options. We’ll be looking at the Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB and see if it fits nicely in the SSDNow family of products. Let’s make this showy!
[singlepic id=12567 w=600 h=300 float=center]Kingston is quite the mainstay in our review section. We’ve seen a lot of their products and is probably already very familiar to the majority of our readers. As one of the more prominent names in the PC scene, Kingston has a lot to live up to when producing new products and not just go the easy route of product refreshes. Today’s subject should be no exception. We’ve previously looked at their SSDs from the flagship HyperX SSD to the HyperX 3K SSD and theรย predecessorรย of our review subject for today, the SSDNow V+200. Let’s check out what the V300 brings to the table and see if it delivers a better deal for budget-conscious builders.
FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS
- Fastรย รขโฌโ 10x faster than a 7200RPM hard drive
- High Qualityรย รขโฌโ features an LSIรยฎ SandForceรยฎ controller customized for Kingston
- Reliableรย รขโฌโ with no moving parts, solid-state drives are less likely to fail than standard hard drives
- Economicalรย design optimized to make migrating to an SSD more affordable
- Convenientรย รขโฌโ all-in-one kits with all the components for easy installation
- Multiple capacitiesรย รขโฌโ to fit your workload
- Guaranteedรย รขโฌโ three-year warranty, free technical support and legendary Kingston reliability
CLOSER LOOK
[one_half][singlepic id=12617 รย w=300 h=220 float=center][/one_half][one_half_last][singlepic id=12619 w=300 h=220 float=center][/one_half_last] [singlepic id=12622 รย w=600 h=450 float=center]The Kingston SSDNow V300 comes in multiple packages such as the stand-alone SSD, a notebook upgrade kit, a desktop upgrade kit and a combo upgrade kit being the largest bundle. This gives the drive a lot of flexibility in terms of applications for adoption. Included in the bundle is an installation video as well as cloning software for newbies wanting to take on the task of upgrading their systems.
[one_half][singlepic id=12624 w=300 h=220 float=center][/one_half][one_half_last][singlepic id=12625 รย w=300 h=220 float=center][/one_half_last]The Kingston SSDNow V300 features the traditional SSDNow styling: a large Kingston Rex image with drive specifications and labels on top of a sand-blasted bronze metal body. This particular series introduces the 7mm form factor which sees the SSD pack more in a smaller chassis.
PERFORMANCE
Test Setup
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V Formula
Memory: Kingston HyperX Predator DDR3-2400
Storage: Kingston HyperX SSD 120GB
PSU: Seasonic X-760W
Cooling: Corsair H100 (Max)
We usedรย HD Tachรย 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. HD Tach is at end of life status right now but we believe the program still manages to present a valid picture what to expect from a storage product.
[singlepic id=13130 w=600 h=450 float=center]We can see the Kingston SSDNow V300 easily puts up numbers that the world’s fastest hard-drive can’t even accomplish. Compared to other SSDs in the upper segment, Kingston’s SSDNow V300 manages to get a good spot on average read performance.
[/tab] [tab title=”Maximum Write”]For potential write testing,รย HD Tuneรย was used to measure the drive’s write performance. Again, we focus on the average results for real-world relevance.
Focusing on average write results, the SSDNow V300 easily beats out all the drives in our graphs proving it can hang with the big boys.
[singlepic id=13121 w=600 h=450 float=center] [/tab] [tab title=”Crystal DiskMark”]Crystal Disk Markรย is storage benchmarking software was developed by รขโฌลhiyohiyoรขโฌย of Japan, and is available for free. Crystal Disk Mark measures sequential, and random read/write speeds of storage devices.
[singlepic id=13123 w=600 h=450 float=center] [singlepic id=13125 w=600 h=450 float=center]The primary point of interest in this test is small file operations in the 4K test. We can see write performance going well past the others in the test which is sure to please some users. Overall though, the Kingston SSDNow falters in the majority of the testing but this is in by no means makes the SSDNow V300 a slouch, the numbers here are very good and if you’re coming off a hard disk drive then they are quite impressive.
[/tab] [tab title=”AS SSD”]AS SSDรย 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=13132 w=600 h=450 float=center] [singlepic id=13133 w=600 h=450 float=center]Pretty similar scenario to the earlier test although we see a drop in performance numbers. Still, everything is up there where they should be.
[/tab] [tab title=”ATTO”]ATTO Disk Benchmarkรย benchmarks a drive’s read and write speeds with increasing file sizes and graphs them.
[singlepic id=13134 w=600 h=450 float=center] [singlepic id=13135 w=600 h=450 float=center]Given the best conditions, ATTO shows us that the Kingston SSDNow V300 can easily fair with the higher priced SSDs and manages to smoke-out even the Velociraptor which is dubbed as the fastest consumer hard drive in the market.
[/tab] [tab title=”File Transfer”]Weรขโฌ™ve taken our compression test files, a collection of images, documents and other files ranging from 1KB to 50MB amounting to 3,310 files for 2.49GB and then a large 12GB MKV file.
[singlepic id=13131 w=600 h=450 float=center]Not much comparative data as we’ve just added this test recently. We’ll update it as our library increases. For now we leave this up to your conclusion.
[/tab] [tab title=”Boot-Up Time”]To measure boot-up time we usedรย BootRacer. BootRacer is a free program that measures Windows boot-up times.
[singlepic id=13136 w=600 h=450 float=center]Again, not so much variance in terms of boot speed. The fact here is that the drive still puts us below 20-seconds which is something we’d always want.
[/tab] [tab title=”Performance Degradation”]One thing about SSD manufacturers is that they give the consumers some sort of false image of what their products can do. Solid-state drives by their very nature tend to go down a few levels after some usage and settle at a certain performance point which will be it’s “steady” state. What this means for you, the consumers, is that even though this drive can do 450/450MB it will not do that after you’ve used the drive over time. We’ve had our sample for a little over a month now and to accelerate the aging process we ran HD Tune Write Test a total of 10 times. Giving the drive a 10-minute break after each test to let the controller do it’s work and then resume. Immediately after the last run we perform a Crystal DiskMark run to see what happens.
[singlepic id=13127 w=600 h=450 float=center] [singlepic id=13129 w=600 h=450 float=center]The drive manages to retain its out-of-the-box performance, losing out only a couple MB/s in the process. The main hit here is in the 512K read test where we see a massive drop but nothing to be alarmed about.
[/tab] [/tabgroup]CONCLUSION
SSDs have saturated the market ever since the Thailand flooding which had hard drive prices soar to unwanted levels. Now that prices are steadying again, we see SSDs finally in place in nearly all shops with them filling that spot where consumers are looking for the perfect price/performance product. As Kingston is setting-out to position the SSDNow V300 as an upgrader’s choice, value is the name of the game but before we talk about that let’s break down our scores.
[singlepic id=12626 w=600 h=350 float=center]
For performance, we give the SSDNow V300 a solid 8 because there is still room for improvement. Build quality is an excellent 9.5, retaining the same design as its predescessors but having a slimmer profile. Also worth noting is that Kingston has fabricated some of the components, so this is a Kingston product through and through. Functionality is an above average 8.5, though SSDs may serve just one function its benefits to a general audience is limited by its performance and in this case, the SSDnow V300 does not fit well in the higher end enthusiast space to qualify in a wider range of usage. Bundle is also good with the Desktop/Notebook upgrade proving worthy bundles.
Finally we have value. Current pricing lists the 120GB variant at aroundรย รขโยฑ4,890. At this price range, the only competitors it has is from Sandisk and ADATA. We have yet to test any of those products so we can’t say anything regarding their value. Fact of the matter is, the value space is quite small in the SSD market and anything cheaper would have a smaller capacity or whatnot. Many upgraders would feel at home with 120GB especially those who just need a faster system with pretty much an on-the-cloud setup working for them. With availability the only thing holding back the SSDNow V300, its really hard to come by in our local market but we can see it aplenty in most international e-tailers so we’re hoping Kingston’s local distributor finds the time to get some of these babies to the local shore.
In closing, the Kingston SSDNow V300 provides a good choice for those looking to set-up a snappier, low-power, and quiet system. The SSDNow V300 is backed by 3-years of warranty and comes with free 24-hr tech support. We give the Kingston SSDnow V300 our top Recommendation and Bronze Award!
1 Comment
Now that good question will be……V300 or M4….. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm