Kingston ssdnow v300 120gb ssd review: Kingston SSDNow V300 (120GB & 240GB) Review

Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB review

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Can Kingston’s latest drive give the SandForce controller a new lease of life?

Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB

TechRadar Verdict

Cons

• —

  Incompressible data performance could be better

• —

  SandForce showing signs of age

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This must be a frustrating time for any manufacturer producing SSDs with the SandForce controller. You’re sat waiting for the next generation of controller while Marvell, OCZ and Samsung gleefully launch their own to entice the market. If you’re a smaller company you just have to suck it up, but if you’re Intel or Kingston, you must act now to try to stem the interest in the new toys.

Just as Intel has done with the 335 series, Kingston has come up with a new range of drives matching the old LSI SandForce SF-2281 controllers with the latest ideas in NAND technology. Where the 335 uses the latest Intel’s own 20nm MLC NAND, Kingston has turned to Toshiba for the NAND in the SSDNow 300V.

Aimed at consumers and business users, the SSDNow V300 is built around Toshiba’s latest 19nm Toggle NAND, making it the first SandForce equipped drive to do so. Plextor is already using it in the M5 Pro series, but its drives use Marvell controllers.

The officially quoted sustained read/write figures for the drive are 450MB/s for both, which actually turned out to be a very conservative estimate compared to the figures we got when testing the drives with the ATTO benchmark. We recorded a read figure of 556MB/s and 527MB/s for writes, which is significantly better than advertised, but not something you’re going to know unless you sit there staring at benchmarks all day.

Like us. When it comes to being tested with incompressible data, the old Achilles’ heel of the SandForce controller shows itself. The performance of the drive dips dramatically, as expected in the AS SSD benchmark, producing sequential reads of 458MB/s and writes of just 164MB/s.

It was a similar story with the CrystalDiskMark benchmark. The default incompressible data test produced sequential read/write scores of 424MB/s and 173MB/s respectively.

• Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB (SSD) at Newegg for $69.98

Benchmarks

Sequential read performance
AS SSD: Megabytes per second: Bigger is better
KINGSTON SSDNOW 300V 120GB: 458
OCZ VERTEX 4 256GB (V1.5FW): 435
INTEL SSD 335 240GB: 484

Sequential write performance
AS SSD: Megabytes per second: Bigger is better
KINGSTON SSDNOW 300V 120GB: 164
OCZ VERTEX 4 256GB (V1.5FW): 477
INTEL SSD 335 240GB: 313

4K random write performance
AS SSD: Megabytes per second: Bigger is better
KINGSTON SSDNOW 300V 120GB: 57
OCZ VERTEX 4 256GB (V1. 5FW): 57
INTEL SSD 335 240GB: 56

Branded

Currently the drive is available in just three capacities — 60GB, 120GB and 240GB — with each capacity available in four different options: bare drive, notebook upgrade, desktop upgrade and a combo notebook/desktop upgrade kit. The latter was how Kingston supplied our 120GB review sample.

The notebook/desktop combo comes with an impressive box full of goodies: a pair of 3.5-inch mounting brackets for a PC, plus data and power cables, a 2.5-inch external USB 2.0 drive enclosure, a 7mm to 9.5mm adaptor so you can fit the drive into chunkier notebooks without it rattling around, an installation DVD and finally some hard drive cloning software. That’s a whole lot of goodies, and thankfully makes upgrading a real cinch.

We’ve certainly seen some faster drives out there in the wild, and the SandForce controller is starting to really show its age now. Kingston though is being very aggressive in terms of pricing, and in such a crowded market that could give it an undeniable edge. With all that said though, prices of the quicker drives are dropping, so you could bide your time.

Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB: Price Comparison

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Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD Review

By Joe Evans •

December 27, 2012

Kingston Targets The Budget Minded Again

While Kingston has put out some enthusiast level drives under their HyperX brand, their bread and butter lies with the more cost conscious consumer oriented drives or ‘value’ drives as they are known in the industry. As such, they have a number of V series drives that are strong performers, yet are easy on the wallet. If it doesn’t jump out at you already, we’ll tell you that V stands for value and is exactly what Kingston hopes you see a lot of in their new V300 series of drives powered by the ubiquitous SandForce SF-2281 controller. We already know that this controller is a winner and it will now be paired with 19nm NAND flash which is not something we’ve tested before so it will be interesting to see how it performs.

Kingston has also taken on more of the fabrication piece to help drive down costs to offer the drives at a lower price point. As such, we find the 120GB bundle version (SV300S3D7/120G) they sent us selling on the open market at $124. Don’t make the mistake of equating a ‘value’ product with poor performance and shoddy fabrication. Each drive comes backed with a three year warranty and Kingston’s customer support. It also comes with some admirable read/write specifications of 450MB/s each, which you’ll see later that we exceeded in some instances of our tests.

Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB features and specifications:

• Form factor:

• 2.5″

Interface:

• SATA Rev. 3.0 (6Gb/s) – backwards compatible to SATA Rev. 2.0

Capacities:

• 60GB, 120GB, 240GB

Sequential Reads:

• SATA Rev. 3.0 up to: 450MB/s

Sequential Writes:

• SATA Rev. 3.0 up to: 450MB/s

Maximum Random 4k Read/Write:

• 60GB — up to 85,000/ up to 60,000 IOPS
• 120GB — up to 85,000 / up to 55,000 IOPS
• 240GB — up to 85,000 / up to 43,000 IOPS

PCMARK® Vantage HDD Suite Score:

• 60GB: 39,000
• 120GB: 49,000
• 240GB: 57,000

Power Consumption:

• 0.640W Idle / 1.423 W Read / 2.052 W Write

Storage temperatures:

-40 to 85°C

Operating temperatures:

• 0 to 70°C

Dimensions:

• 69.8mm x 100.1mm x 7mm

Weight:

• 86g

Vibration operating:

• 2.17G Peak (7–800Hz)

Vibration non-operating:

• 20G Peak (10–2000Hz)

Life expectancy:

• 1 million hours MTBF

Warranty/support:

• Three-year warranty with free technical support

Total Bytes Written (TBW):

• 60GB: 32TB
• 120GB: 64TB
• 240GB: 128TB

The exterior shell design doesn’t deviate from previous and others in the ‘V’ lines with a textured aluminum gray shell and the familiar Kingston red/black/white color scheme with the image of Redhead a. k.a. “Rex” featured prominently as always. It’s a 7mm thick drive making it usable for most any mobile PC that uses a SATA connector.

The desktop bundle we received with the drive comes with all the niceties needed to install and migration your shiny new drive. First we have the installation DVD and the DVD containing the drive cloning software (very handy). Next, we have the rails for mounting the drive should your case not support the direct mounting of 2.5″ form factor drives. Finally, they also supply SATA power and data cables should you need them. Overall, a very nice bundle that adds more value (there’s that word again) to the purchase.

Questions or comments?
View this thread in our forums!

Kingston SSDNOW V300 120GB (SV300S3N7A/120G) reviews, video review, characteristics, description

• Home
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• Kingston SSDNOW V300 120GB (SV300S3N7N7A/120g) 9000 9000 9000 9000/1201A/1201A/120g)

  6epuk

  Take it — you won’t regret it

  Great! Just right for the system, especially if you install work programs on it. Write/read 450 MB. I thought there would be an HDD box in the kit, but alas, it turns out we don’t have such a model, although it should be for every Read and write speed. Price Hdd-box not included

  Aleksan4eS

  The best SSD in this price range, from a well-known company

  Great! the response of applications has become much higher, we can say that all applications open instantly. Booting Windows 10 from the moment you press the power button is 10-12 seconds.
  The test speed indicators are shown in the screenshot. nine0021 1 — low price 2 — speed 3 — high-quality assembly, well-known manufacturer not identified

  angry_man

  Just right for home and office computers as housing for operating systems!

  Good For such a price, a normal solid state. Pretty nimble. I use it under the system, and under the file washer there was a regular HDD. There are no glitches and complaints, if there are problems, I will unsubscribe. — Silence (SSD rules!)
  -Low power consumption.
  -High speed! nine0021 -No for this device in this price range!

  Bender_Bending_RodrigueZ

  5 out of 5

  Excellent! Very nothing, despite the budget. Naturally, it is not logical to store files there (you never know), but to install the OS, that’s it. — Performance compared to classic HDDs
  -Low power consumption
  -Silence (stupidly there is nothing to make noise) Not detected.

  Daaaarth_VADer

  Good!

  Excellent! I’ve been using it for half a year. Fast, silent, cold. For the price it’s a great device. Should not be used for older controllers without AHCI support. Speed. Silence, here they have no equal. Small power consumption. Cold Not detected!

  DeaDMaN-xXx

  Super SSD broom for Windows!

  Excellent! Good screw!
  Bought specifically for the operating system. Windows is installed very quickly, loading is generally a fairy tale 10-14 seconds) I just swell from such a gorgeous speed of the OS))
  Light, very light.
  I was pleased with the performance, the price too (I took it not so long ago, therefore I didn’t pay big money for it as it was about 2 years ago its price). In general, I am very pleased with the broom, and the same manufacturer I have in the form of DDR3 — it also works like a watch) I advise everyone! nine0021 Lightweight. Super. Nimble. Cold. Price. Volume. Manufacturer Did not reveal

  Kottega

  An excellent alternative to HDD as a disk under OS

  Excellent! I have been using it for almost a year, I took it under the system. Windows is installed without problems as on a regular hard drive, it loads in 15-20 seconds. In general, the system has become faster, more pleasant to work with. Speed. Well, the quality of Kingston The price is still high on the SSD

  matwei

  Price + quality

  Great! Great SSD for the money. One and a half year serves under the system. Both on PC and now on laptop. Responsiveness is excellent. No problem at work. Price
  Performance
  Outer case included No for this price

  Mrachnyj_Kex

  An excellent solution for speeding up outdated equipment.

  

  Good I purchased this SSD for my old Asus x51rl laptop. Productivity increased at times, which I was very happy about. However, before installing it, I tested it on a stationary computer with the CrystakDiskMark utility and the results were not much higher than those in the first review of this device.
  In tests from AIDA64, the peak values ​​\u200b\u200bof the promised 450 MB / s slipped from time to time Perfect for outdated computers and laptops, and in modern ones it will work quite quickly. Didn’t live up to expectations in tests.

  [email protected]

  I advise everyone

  Excellent! Very happy! I put it instead of 500gb wd and my 7 windows showed 7.9 instead of 5.6 points. Windows began to load in 7 seconds, and in tanks about 15 fps was added Price, speed, and Kingston company No

  Eugene

  Cheap and very angry

  Excellent! My first ssd, I took it for video editing, music and games. I can say one thing for sure — the music software has become much more responsive (especially NI Kontakt 5 with its tons of libraries … provided that they are all on the ssdshke), working with video files has also become much more positive (tested Premier and Sony Vegas), with games everything is also good, but not as much as with audio / video editors — levels / locations are loaded much faster, fps has become significantly more stable (the fps pool has changed from 10 fps to 5-6i — the difference between «heavily loaded» scenes and «lightly loaded»), in MMO projects are all very normal, just like in MOVs (Dota 2 — FPS is kept at a stable level, there are no subsidences and freezes, map loading and reconnect, so the process has become almost imperceptible in general). To sum up — this ssd is now a must-have if you are one of these characters:
  1) «sound»
  2) «progger» or any other IT specialist (compiling code and working with virtual machines is much more positive)
  3) blogger/video blogger
  4) just a fan of playing video games in comfort (or one or two — for example, I’m not such an avid gamer, but I don’t mind playing DotA in the evenings to unload my brain after work).
  This SSD, with a very low cost (costs around $ 30 — not that much money) is able to significantly «cheer up» almost any computer (starting from «necrocomps» and «necronotes» — devices of the years 2010-2013, ending with modern gaming / semi-gaming assemblies and devices — so my computer with AMD Athlon x4 860K 8 GB RAM GTX960 4gb has become noticeably more cheerful too — for the most part in small things, but it’s still nice when the computer turns on / off in 2-3 seconds or, say, programs and games are launched without agonizing expectations, in theory, due to the expansion of the «paging» file, you can achieve more performance, but did not experiment — I already have enough of it for my eyes). Above. Not identified.

  Maxim

  Brakes — in the past.

  Great! I have the same one at work.

  A smart thing — Windows loads in 10-15 seconds. Skype, office — instantly. Everything works very fast.

  When buying a home PC, I will only buy with such a hard drive. nine0021 Performance. They are not. If you find fault — the price, but it’s worth it.

  Nikita

  The era of SSD has not yet come

  Mediocre Cheap SSD for the system disk, in photo 1 and 2 — comparison of my SSD and HDD under Windows 8, in photo 2 — SSD under Windows 7. The advantage of SSD in speed of reading and writing random data is obvious, but in real life there is a difference only when working with large software packages. For entertainment, it is better to take a terabyte hard drive and enjoy life. In 5-7 years, SSDs will take the lead, but for now, cheap SSDs do not live up to expectations. nine0021 Price Speed ​​

  Nikita

  Note to SSD manufacturers.

  Excellent! I recently purchased this SSD for a system on a stationary computer. I have little experience with SSDs and am aware of their read/write speeds. Of course, there are claims to all SSD manufacturers (see below). Speed. Compactness No slide (adapter) from 2.5 to 3.5. No fixing bolts

  Oleg

  Fast, silent, cold. nine0020

  Excellent! Excellent SSD for the money. Excellent responsiveness. No problem at work. Price
  Performance Not at this price

  Oleg Baslak

  Completely satisfied with the purchase

  Excellent! Actually, I wanted to buy an SSD from Samsung, but I had to take something cheaper. Works flawlessly, corresponds to the declared characteristics. Budget
  Excellent value for money For the money, this is probably the best offer

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  Average rating: 4.5, opinions:

  OCZ Vertex 4 M 512GB (VTX4-25SAT3-512G.M)

  Average rating: 4.5, opinions:

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