Kingston's HyperX 3K drives are budget
versions of the original, much-praised HyperX line, and come in several
versions: 90GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB. Although it's the cheaper end of the
spectrum that we're interested in right now, it's worth pointing out before we
start that pound-for-pound, you get the best value out of the 240GB model.
Another SandForce-based SSD, this one
contains a slightly more expensive toggle-mode memory rather than synchronous
or asynchronous, but with good reason: it performs better. It's slightly more
expensive, but at capacities this small it's hard to tell.
The benefits are apparent, though. The
speed of this HyperX 3K 90GB drive compares well to the original HyperX drives
(which are more expensive), meaning that budget-oriented or not, you get strong
performance here. Actual read speeds average above 200MB/S and write speeds
above 100MB/s, which is far better than they have any right to be under $160.
Idle power consumption is very good, making
this drive well suited to low-power situations. It could be a little more
energy efficient when in use, but compared to the Agility 3 (which sucks up
three times as much power even when it's standing still) the performance is
acceptable.
At 90GB, the capacity is comfortably large
enough for you to run as a primary drive, and its strong performance means that
unless you're sitting there with stopwatch in hand, you won't notice any
difference over the more expensive Kingston models.
If you're wondering where the compromise
is, it's simple: Kingston has used lower quality memory in the drives so it can
drive down the cost, but the difference is negligible: the quoted life-span is
15% lower than the HyperX range in terms of number of reads/writes, but only
the heaviest or most stubborn users would ever get anywhere near that amount
before it becomes time to upgrade. By the time this drive wears out, SSD drives
will be as cheap as HDD drives are now.
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Details
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Price
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$136
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Capacity
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90GB
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Read speed
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555MB/S
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Write speed
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51 OMB/s
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Max power consumption
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2.1W
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Idle power consumption
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0.46W
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