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

The Sandforce controller may be considered as old technology these days, especially with more advanced Marvell offerings giving us higher capacities at better speeds, but it’s still a pretty effective workhorse. In this case, the drive offers a one million hour MTBF and a three-year Kingston warranty, which is more than enough for most average systems.

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The SandForce controller also gets some stick when it comes to performance. In our tests, the Kingston SSDNow V300 managed 556MB/S in the 8192KB sequential read tests and 531MB/S in the same write test. The 4KB tests, where the SandForce technology has often left a lot to be desired, managed 160MB/S reading and 254MB/S writing. The Kingston V300 is pretty fast, then, and will no doubt keep most home users and enthusiasts quite happy.

Kingston advertises this model as a more affordable way to get high-end speeds, with extra testimonials from people from various walks of life and a stark ’10X Faster’ label across the packaging. It’s certainly fast enough for most users’ systems, and it makes for a fine system drive.

Power consumption on this drive is rated at 0.6W when idle, increasing to 1.4W when reading and 2.05W when writing. Considering it’s virtually impossible to tell exactly what an operating is doing most of the time (even when you think it’s solely writing there’s plenty of reading going on), we can guess that the overall maximum power usage is upwards of 2W when in full use.

Having said all that, the Kingston SSDNow V300 still represents an fast and cost effective solution to upgrade from an older hard drive. It’s definitely more than capable of speeding a system up and lessening the power use over time.

The Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB is a good enough SSD for most users. It only costs just £35, and it’s fast enough for desktop users who don’t do too much gaming. However, if you want faster speeds and more capacity, and you’re planning on sticking to the Kingston range of SSDs, then the HyperX 3K models will be the ones for you.

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Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB

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Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD Review – Techgage

Note: Since the publication of this review, Kingston has changed the NAND used in the V300, rendering our results inaccurate. Please refer here for more information.

Kingston is no stranger to SSDs; in fact, over the last five years the company has offered the most diverse repertoire of drives available. Specifically, it’s utilized one or more generations of controllers from Toshiba, Marvell, JMicron, Samsung, and even SandForce, with its high-performance HyperX SSD series. To add to that list, it also has the unique distinction of being the only company ever authorized to sell SSDs with Intel controllers inside. With such a history behind it, it should be clear that Kingston isn’t just another name floating around the SSD market; rather, it’s one of the major players.

To start off  the New Year, the company has ushered out a new line of budget SSDs, called SSDNow V300 – but there is something different about this one. It’s been a little over a year since Kingston introduced its flagship HyperX brand to the SSD market using the well-known LSI SandForce SF-2281 controllers – what’s new, is that the same controller can now be found inside this value-branded V300 offering as well.

The SSDNow V300 offers all the same SF-2281 features one has come to expect, including SATA 6Gbps (3.0) support and high performance with compressible data, although with the usual Kingston extras such as tweaked SandForce firmware, the use of thermal pads on drive components, and a three-year warranty. Actually, the only real distinction between the HyperX and the V300 is the NAND itself. To produce a budget-friendly SSD Kingston is pairing the V300 with newly-launched 19nm Toshiba Toggle NAND. Out of the three common varieties of NAND, Toggle-based NAND is the best type for performance, so our test results may prove interesting.

The SSDNow V300 is available by itself and in desktop and laptop upgrade kits. The desktop kit includes the usual 3.5” brackets, data and power cables, a disc containing Acronis True Image cloning software and an installation video. The laptop kit differs in that it features a small pocket-sized USB enclosure that the SSD slips inside for easy transport and portable use as an external USB drive. The laptop kit replaces the desktop bracket for a 7mm to 9.5mm adapter, as the V300 follows the current trend toward the 7mm form factor.

The performance numbers are a little peculiar given that the smallest SSD offers the highest IOPS rating, but even if the ratings were accidentally reversed in the spec sheet, the differences are minor. The results are also highly generalized, but we have listed what is included in the datasheet. Performance should instead be closer toward the listed specs with the larger capacity models, especially given this is what the reference PCMark Vantage numbers would indicate.

Something else worth pointing out are the endurance figures. While SandForce controllers rely on data compression to achieve top performance, this has a beneficial side effect of minimizing the writes to the NAND and thereby increasing the actual endurance rating. The 128GB OCZ Vector may have a five-year warranty for example, but interestingly Kingston rates the smaller 60GB V300 SSD with a nearly equivalent minimum write rating (32TB vs 36.5TB). With 64TB and 128TB ratings for the larger capacity SSDs, it’s most likely one will be replacing their SSD to a SATA Express-capable drive before it ever has a chance to wear out. If that wasn’t enough, these are not even finite lifespan limits, just the bare minimum of writes the NAND is expected to perform reliably – the SSDs should last even longer.

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SSDNow V300 — Support

V300 (SV300S3)

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1:29

How to install SATA 2.5″ SSD on

laptop

1:30

How to Install a 2.5″ SATA SSD in a Desktop PC

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is the discharge of accumulated static electricity. ESD should not be underestimated, it is one of the few things that a person can do to damage or render unusable a computer or hardware components. For example, it occurs if you rub your feet on the carpet, and then touch something metal. The person may not feel ESR; it only occurs when working inside the computer or touching hardware.

How to prevent ESD
The best way to avoid ESD is to wear an antistatic wrist strap or ground loop/plate. However, these measures are not available to most users, so the following are ways to minimize the risk of ESD.

• Standing — It is recommended that you stand when working with computer components. Sitting in a chair generates more electrostatic charge.
• Wires — make sure that all wires (power wire, mice, keyboards, etc.) are removed from the back of the computer.
• Clothing — do not wear clothing that generates a large electrostatic charge (such as a wool sweater).
• Accessories — To reduce ESD and prevent other problems, remove all jewelry.
• Weather — electrical storms (thunderstorms) may increase the risk of ESD; try not to work on your computer during a thunderstorm unless absolutely necessary. In dry regions, the air itself becomes part of the electrostatic charging system with every airflow (wind, air conditioning, fan) passing over the insulated surface. On the other hand, high levels of humidity lead to corrosion of connecting cables and other electrical connections.

To learn more about ESD and electronic equipment protection, visit the following site.

ESD Association
https://www.esda.org

FAQ: KTC-Gen-ESD

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Secure Erase User Guide for Linux
This guide will walk you through securely erasing your Kingston SSD using Linux tools Please make sure to have a full backup of any important data before you proceed!

Prerequisites
• You must have root privileges.
• You must have your SSD connected to the system as a secondary (non-OS) drive.
• You must have lsscsi and hdparm installed. You may need to install them with your distribution’s package manager.
• Your drive must not be in a security freeze.
• Your drive must not be password protected.

Instructions
1. Find the device name (/dev/sdX) of the drive you wish to erase:
# lsscsi

2. Make sure drive security is not frozen:
# hdparm -I /dev/sdX | grep frozen

If the output shows «frozen» (instead of «not frozen») then you cannot continue to the next step. You must try to remove the security freeze by trying one of the following methods:

Method 1: Put the system to sleep (suspend to RAM) and wake it up. On most distributions the command to suspend is:
# systemctl suspend

Now issue the hdparm command again. If it worked the output will show “not frozen” (instead of “frozen”).
Method 2: Hot plug the drive. This is done by physically unplugging the SATA power cable from the drive and plugging it back in while the system is powered on. You may need to enable hot plug in BIOS. Not all systems support hot plug.

Now issue the hdparm command again. If it worked the output will show “not frozen” (instead of “frozen”).

3. Set a user password on the drive. The password can be anything. Here we are setting the password to “p”:
# hdparm —security-set-pass p /dev/sdX

4. Issue the secure erase command to the drive using the same password:
# hdparm —security-erase p /dev/sdX

This command may take a few minutes to complete. The drive password is removed upon successful completion.
If the secure erase is interrupted or otherwise fails your drive may become security locked. In this case you can remove the security lock using the command below and then try the secure erase procedure again:
# hdparm —security-disable p /dev/sdX
 
SATA Secure Erase Example

NVMe Secure Erase Procedure

Warning
Please make sure to have a full backup of any important data before you proceed!

Prerequisites
• You must have root privileges.
• You must have your SSD connected to the system as a secondary (non-OS) drive.
• You must have nvme-cli installed. You may need to install it with your distribution’s package manager.
• Your drive must not be password protected.

Instructions
1. Find the device name (/dev/nvmeXn1) of the drive you wish to erase:
# nvme list

2. Issue the format command to the drive. Here we set the secure erase setting to 1 which indicates a user data erase:
# nvme format /dev/nvmeXn1 —ses=1

This command may take a few minutes to complete.

 
NVMe Secure Erase Example

FAQ: KSM-SE-LIX

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TRIM and memory scrubbing are technologies used in modern SSDs to improve performance and service life. Prior to using the SSD, all NAND blocks are empty, so new data can be written to empty blocks in one operation. Over time, most empty blocks will become usable and contain user data. In order to write new data to used blocks, the SSD must perform a read-modify-write cycle. The read-modify-write cycle reduces the overall performance of the drive because it now has to perform three operations instead of one. The read-modify-write cycle also results in more writes, which reduces the overall life of the SSD.

The Trim and Memory Cleanup functions can work together to increase the performance and lifespan of an SSD by freeing up used blocks. Memory Scavenging is a feature built into the SSD controller that merges the data stored in used blocks to free up more blocks. This process runs in the background and is handled entirely by the SSD itself. However, the SSD may not know which blocks contain user data and which blocks contain stale data that the user has already deleted. This is where the TRIM function comes to the rescue. TRIM allows the operating system to inform the SSD that data has been deleted so that it can free previously used blocks. For the TRIM feature to work, it must be supported by both the operating system and the SSD. Currently, most modern operating systems and SSDs support TRIM, but most RAID configurations do not.

Kingston SSDs use both garbage collection and TRIM technologies to maintain the best possible performance and lifetime.

Learn more

FAQ: KSD-011411-GEN-13

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V300 SSDs are entry-level SSDs designed for mainstream users. To achieve the best price-performance ratio, Kingston purchases NAND flash components from various high-end NAND memory manufacturers. Our V300 SSDs are manufactured using either synchronous or asynchronous flash components NAND.Kingston tests the V300 SSD using ATTO 2.41 software to achieve read/write speeds of at least 450MB/s. Different results may occur when testing with applications other than ATTO 2.41. The document below provides a more detailed description of SSD testing and performance.

V300 Test Brief

FAQ: KSD-013114-300-01

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The firmware versions available on our website have been tested for all versions of this product line. All subsequent firmware releases are upgrades to support new hardware. A new available firmware version that fixes a problem or changes the specification of a drive model is published after testing for all available modifications.

FAQ: KSD-021715-LSI-03

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Users have reported that some SSDNow SSDs experience slow performance.
If you have an older SSD that does not have effective garbage collection, then the performance of that SSD will degrade over time.
This is due to the way the system overwrites data marked for deletion.

Try using a secure erase software tool (such as HDDErase) to completely wipe the drive and restore it to its original state.

FAQ: KSD-011411-GEN-12

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Any of our company’s solid state drives can be used to create a RAID array.
However, due to technical limitations on drive wear and tear, only devices with certain part numbers should be used in RAID arrays. Before installing SSDs in servers, contact Kingston to determine the best Kingston SSDs to serve your workload.

FAQ: KSD-052511-GEN-17

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Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting (S. M.A.R.T.) technology is a built-in HDD and SSD health monitoring feature.
It allows users to monitor the status of devices.
To take S.M.A.R.T. specialized software is used. All of our SSDNow SSDs support S.M.A.R.T.

FAQ: KSD-011411-GEN-10

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Kingston understands the importance of maintaining the privacy and security of personal and customer information.
Kingston takes steps to ensure the privacy of its customers when returning SSDs to the warranty return department for replacement or repair under warranty.
An SSD that arrives at our repair center undergoes rigorous testing.
During the first phase of testing, the SSD undergoes an ATA-standard Secure Erase process that removes all data from the drive.
ATA Secure Erase is a data deletion procedure approved by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST 800-88) as a legally permitted method for permanently deleting sensitive user data.
If the SSD is not functioning and is unable to complete the ATA standard secure erase procedure, it is dismantled and the NAND flash chips are destroyed.

FAQ: KSD-022411-GEN-15

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In Windows — Open the control panel, open administrative tools and then open computer management. Click on Disk Management and see if the SSD drive is seen in the right window pane. If it is, right click on where it is labeled as disk 1, disk 2, etc and select «Initialize disk» (this may come up automatically when you go to Disk Management). Next, right-click on the area to the right of the disk label and choose «New Simple Volume». Continue with the wizard by choosing the size, drive letter and formatting of the partition.

In macOS — A «disk insertion» window will appear. Click on the «initialize» button. This will take you to the disk utility. Select the Kingston drive from the list of drives on the left side of the Window. From the actions available, choose partition. For the «Volume Scheme», choose «1 partition». For the format, choose MacOS extended for a permanent drive. Choose ExFAT for an external drive (available on MacOS 10. 6.6 and above). click apply. A warning windows will appear stating you will erase all data from the drive. Click on the partition button at the bottom.

FAQ: c

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Our SATA III (6Gb/s) SSDs are tested for backward compatibility with SATA II (3Gb/s). They are not designed or tested for backward compatibility with SATA I (1.5Gb/s) connectors. Most systems built before 2008 use SATA I connectors. Most likely, our SSDs will not work in such systems.

FAQ: KSD-022714-LSI-03

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SSDs do not require defragmentation.
Since they do not use physical magnetic disks, there is no need to organize data to reduce lookup time.
Therefore, defragmenting a solid state drive is notoriously ineffective.
In addition, defragmenting an SSD can cause excessive wear on certain areas of the drive.
Solid state drives are designed to write data evenly across the entire drive to reduce wear and tear on individual areas.
However, if you defragment your SSD multiple times, it won’t hurt it.
However, if this operation is performed continuously for a long period of time, the life of the drive may be shortened as a result.

FAQ: KSD-011411-GEN-03

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The Windows Experience Index (WEI) only measures the relative performance of components.
The tests for computing the WEI index take a very short time, they only measure the characteristics of the hardware, and not the quality of the interaction of components under the load that is created by the software.

Thus, WEI does not measure system performance, but only the relative capabilities of the hardware when running Windows 7. Read the WEI article at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/01/19/engineering-the-windows-7-windows-experience-index.aspx

On Windows Vista, the WEI scores range from 1.0 to 5.9.
In Windows 7, the range has been increased to 7.9.

FAQ: KSD-011411-GEN-08

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First, open an elevated command prompt window.

To open an elevated command prompt window, follow these steps:
Click on the Start button circle > type CMD.exe in the search box > right-click on the CMD command and select «Run as administrator» (if asked for confirmation, click «Yes»).

To check if the use of the TRIM command is enabled, type the following command and press Enter at an elevated command prompt:

fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify disabled) DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (use of Windows TRIM commands enabled)

To enable the use of the TRIM command, type the following command and press Enter at an elevated command prompt:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0

To disable the use of the TRIM command, type the following command and press Enter at an elevated command prompt:

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If the computer has an Intel-based system, try disabling the Intel RST driver and reverting to the default Microsoft AHCI driver, then start the Toolbox. AMD AHCI driver may block Toolbox 9 on an AMD based system0003

The Windows AHCI driver needs to be loaded. To do this, right-click on the «Computer» icon and select «Manage». Navigate to the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers section and select an AMD SATA or Intel SATA controller. Right-click this controller and select «Update Driver». Select «Browse» > «I will choose the driver myself». Select Standard AHCI from the list. Then restart your computer. After that, starting the Toolbox should be possible.

FAQ: KSD-100812-LSI-02

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There is a compatibility issue between older Macbooks and Macbook pros regarding SATA II ports and LSI (Sandforce) based SSDs.
There are currently no user-downloadable updates available to address this issue.

FAQ: KSD-091712-LSI-01

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If an SSD is displayed in the BIOS, but the drive is not recognized during Windows 7 Setup:
Do the following:

Disconnect all other hard drives or SSDs. Boot from the Windows 7 installation disc. Select the fix feature, then advanced features, then command prompt. Type: «diskpart» (without quotes) and press Enter. The command line will be called «diskpart». Type the following commands, pressing Enter after each command.

Diskpart > Select Disk 0
Diskpart > Clean
Diskpart > Create Partition Primary Align=1024
Diskpart > Format Quick FS=NTFS
Diskpart > List Partition
Diskpart > Active
Diskpart > Exit

Then restart your computer from the Windows 7 installation disc.

KSD-100214-GEN-20

FAQ: KSD-100214-GEN-20

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During the OS installation, go to UTILITIES / TERMINAL　

In terminal type:　

diskutil list 　

Then press RETURN. Scroll up to top and verify the Kingston SSD disk (i.e. disk0, disk1, etc).

Then type:　

diskutil mountDISK disk0 (or whichever ddisk is the Kingston SSD).

Then press RETURN. It should show «mounted successfully».

Then type:　

diskutil eraseDISK apfs YOURDRIVENAME disk0 (or whichever disk is the Kingston SSD)　

Warning – This step (eraseDISK command) will delete all data on the target drive. Confirm that you have selected the drive you wish to delete and then continue.

Then press RETURN. It should show «successful». Then exit terminal and proceed with the normal installation of the OS.

FAQ: KSD-092917-GEN-21

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Encrypted SSDs use the hard disk security command available on most business-class computers and motherboards.
It is accessed through the BIOS.
This will allow you to create a password for multiple hard drives and solid state drives and securely remove those drives if needed.
Some computers are not equipped with this feature.
In this case, the drive can still be used, only these security features will not be available.
Do not confuse the BIOS system password with the hard disk security password.

FAQ: KSD-011411-ENC-01

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Yes, you will be able to use the drive, but you must first disable the security feature for the drive on the source computer.
Then you can re-enable it on the target computer.

FAQ: KSD-011411-ENC-02

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No. If you forget your disk password, you will not be able to access it.
Please note that password loss is not covered by the Kingston warranty.

The only exception to this rule is the use of a master or administrator password for the drive.
The BIOS must support this feature, and it must also be enabled before the ATA security feature can be initialized for this drive.
Using the master password will allow the administrator to reset the password for the drive.

FAQ: KSD-011411-ENC-03

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Kingston SSDNow V300 reviews, price

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