Kingston’s latest drive tries to offer both
speed and versatility, but does it succeed?
Kingston
SSDNow V+ 200 – 90GB
Solid speed and a broad range of accessories make this
an exceptionally versatile option.
The
SSDNow V Series is the latest addition to Kingston's Value
family
Kingston’s latest SSDNow drive aims to
fully exploit the speed offered by SATA 6Gbps to give your PC a boost, but
that’s not all you’ll find in the box.
There’s plenty of versatility from a
broader range of accessories that we’re used to seeing packaged with
solid-state storage. For starters, there’s a metal bracket used for adapting
the 2.5” disk into the 3.5” hard disk bays that are common for most PCs –
something that’s not always included.
There’s a SATA cable too, and a power lead
that converts a Molex connector to the type of power connection used on the
drive – vital if you’re upgrading a particularly old PC. Those who don’t want
to upgrade a PC will also be heartened to see an external caddy and USB cable.
This versatility isn’t at the expense of
performance. The Kingston’s large file write speed of 488.5MB/s is hardly
slower than the superb speed offered by the half-size Sandisk Extreme drive
also reviewed in this issue, and its large file write pace of 192.6MB/s isn’t
far behind either. And in our small file read test the Kingston’s 40.6MB/s
result is marginally quicker.
The third-party AS SSD test, though,
indicated that the Kingston’s performance is more geared towards the mainstream
than its Extreme rival. Its sequential file reading score of 213.2MB/s is
around half the speed of the Sandisk, for instance.
That’s still excellent performance, though,
and it’s been achieved with a major change to the specification. Older Kingston
models made do with Toshiba controllers, but the firm hasn’t provided a
SATA/600 controller that matches Kingston’s requirements – so it’s switched to
the Sandforce SF-2281. It’s previously been used in drives as powerful as
Kingston’s own enthusiast-level Hyperx, and it’s combined with 25nm NAND chips.
Kingston
SSDNow V+ 200 – 480GB
This particular model of drive, at 240GB,
is large enough to be used as a system drive if you’re not concerned about
keeping your games or media collection on solid-state chips, and its $365 price
is a step lower than you’ll pay for enthusiast-level drives.
A range of other capacities are also
available. Kingston offers the drive at 60GB, 90GB, 120GB and 480GB, with
prices ranging from $105 for the 60GB model – big enough for Windows and little
else – to $725 for the mammoth 480GB drive.
One thing common between the drives,
though, is the versatility on offer: all include the desktop mounting kits and
the external caddies. They’re not things we see bundled with SSDs and mean that
it’s available for use in a range of different scenarios immediately.
It’s that, along with the excellent
performance, that appeals about the Kingston: it’s fast enough to cope with all
but the most intensive of applications, and it’s got a range of accessories
that puts practically every other drive to shame. That’s why we’re recommending
Kingston’s latest.
Details
Price: $365
Manufacturer: Kingston
Website: www.kingston.com
Example
configuration
240GB capacity (223GB formatted)
SATA/600 connection
2.5” form factor
Three-year RTB warranty
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