By Chris Scott Barr

We’re no strangers to SSD’s here at OhGizmo, as we’ve already had the pleasure of reviewing a couple. Today Kingston announced their second generation of SSDNow V+ drives. These are their higher-end enthusiast drives, very similar to the OCZ Summit drive that we reviewed a few months ago. Kingston sent over one of these new SSD’s so that we could put it to the test.

Just like the V Series drive that we reviewed back in August, the V+ is available in a bundle or as just a standalone drive. The bundle includes mounting brackets, a 4-pin power cable converter, SATA cable and USB enclosure (for your old drive) and drive cloning software. The bundle will only set you back around an extra $15, which is more than enough to justify the cost. Heck, the Acronis drive cloning software alone is worth it.

Features

• Sequential Speed: 230MB/sec. read 180MB/sec. write
• Innovative: 2.5″ form factor; uses MLC NAND Flash memory components
• Silent: runs silent and cool with no moving parts
• Shock Resistant: no moving mechanical parts means the SSD handles rougher conditions
• Supports S.M.A.R.T.: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology
• Guaranteed: three-year Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support
• Interface: SATA 1.5Gb/sec. and 3.0Gb/sec.
• Capacity1: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
• Storage temperatures: -40° C to 85° C
• Operating temperatures: 0° C to 70° C
• Dimensions: 69.85mm x 100mm x 9.5mm
• Weight: 84 grams
• Vibration operating: 2.17G
• Vibration non-operating: 20G
• Operating Shock: 1500G
• Power specs: 2.6W active; 0.15W idle
• Life expectancy: 1,000,000 hours MTBF

Those sequential read/write speeds are some of the more impressive that I’ve seen in this class of SSD. Of course we’ll have to see how it holds up in real-world testing. The new V+ drives also feature TRIM support, which should help it maintain these high speeds throughout its lifespan.

Test System

We’re using the same test system as our previous SSD reviews. This keeps all of our old scores relevant.

Motherboard: Asus P6T
RAM: 6GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Blade Series (CAS 6-6-6-24)
GPU: MSI Radeon 4890 OC Edition (1GB DDR5)
HDD: Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache
HDD: OCZ Summit Series 64GB SSD
HDD: Kingston SSDNow V-Series
OS: Windows 7

CrystalDiskMark

I was a little disappointed to see that the drive didn’t quite live up to the promised write speed that Kingston advertized, though it was spot-on with the read speeds. That said, it still knocked the pants off of the similarly-classed OCZ Summit in a few of the tests.

ATTO

Here we see scores a little closer to what Kingston has specified. We also see it deliver a dominating lead in write speeds over the OCZ Summit. Of course synthetic tests only tell us so much. On to the good stuff!

Crysis Load Times

I honestly didn’t expect to shave another 6 seconds off of the load time here. While an SSD isn’t going to improve your frame rate, it will make sure that you get into the action as quick as possible.

Copying 5GB Of Mixed Data

This is the test that is going to make any SSD shine, and shine the V+ Gen. 2 did. Those high write speeds got the transfer time down to just over a minute. That’s less that 1/3 of the time it took with a standard 7200RPM SATA hard drive.

Windows Boot Time

Unfortunately I think that we’ve hit the wall with Windows boot times. Most of the time here is actually spent waiting on the motherboard to do its thing. The amount of time spent loading Windows is relatively short, so I don’t expect to shave much more off of this, even with future drives.

Verdict

When compared apples-to-apples against the OCZ Summit, this drive clearly stands above. Not only do you get more value (thanks to the offered bundle) but you’re getting significantly higher speeds. The 128GB drive that we tested retails for $512, ($528 if you opt for the bundle) which definitely puts this into the enthusiast class. If you’re looking to spend that kind of money on a new SSD, I wouldn’t have to think twice about recommending the Kingston SSDNow V+ Gen. 2. You can also find it in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB flavors.

[ Kingston ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Last week we showed you one of our first SSD’s that we’ve had a chance to review here at OhGizmo. It performed very well, but it was also had a small capacity and a large price tag. If you’re not looking to spend quite that much, but still want to upgrade from that old spinning drive, then you might try more of an entry-level drive. Kingston was kind enough to send over one of their V Series drives, which I’ve spent some time testing.

We were able to test out the SSDNow V Series 128GB Desktop Bundle. 128GB should be plenty of space for most users, though some may still want a secondary drive if they tend to have a lot of larger files that they need. You won’t have to be nearly as careful with space as you would on say the 64GB drive we tested last week.

Features

Kingston’s SSDNow V Series drives are aimed at the average consumer, rather than the enterprise user. You can expect to see read speeds of up to 100MB/s and write speeds of 80MB/s. These should be enough to give you a significant boost over your older, slower hard drives, especially if you’re replacing a 5400RPM laptop drive.

First Look

Like most SSDs, the SSDNow V comes in a 2.5-inch form-factor, which is great for laptops, but not for desktops. Since this is the desktop kit, it comes with two very convenient brackets. You can use these to install up to two 2.5-inch hard drives in a regular 3.5-inch drive bay. I definitely have to give Kingston a big thumbs-up on this, as in my last tests I simply had to position the drive in an open bay and hope for the best. They were definitely thinking about the average end-user with this addition.

Test System

This is the same system we used in the last test, so you’ll see some familiar scores.

Motherboard: Asus P6T
RAM: 6GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Blade Series (CAS 6-6-6-24)
GPU: MSI Radeon 4890 OC Edition (1GB DDR5)
HDD: Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache
HDD: OCZ Summit Series 64GB SSD
OS: Windows 7 RC1 (Build 7100)

CrystalDiskMark

There are some big differences here, which aren’t all that surprising. This isn’t a performance drive like the OCZ Summit, so we expected some lower speeds. What I didn’t expect was for the drive to actually beat the speeds given by Kingston. Read speeds were significantly higher, and the sequential write speed was just a tad higher.

ATTO

Again, the drive outperformed Kingston’s given speeds, which is always a pleasure to see.

Crysis Load Times

The first real-world test shows that even with the extra speed on its side, the OCZ doesn’t actually make a huge difference. What we’re really concerned about is that it still blew away the older HHD by a good margin.

Copying 5GB Of Mixed Data

The higher speeds of the OCZ Summit really shine here, copying the files in almost half of the time. Still, the Kingston V gets the job done  considerably quicker than the HDD, which is the important thing to consider when upgrading to a drive like this.

Windows Boot Time

As with loading applications, Windows boots much faster with a SSD. The Summit was only a mere 3 seconds faster, and the Western Digital hard drive was 16 seconds slower.

Verdict

In the synthetic tests, the Kingston V series drive wasn’t able to keep pace with the faster OCZ Summit, but they’re both in a different class, which makes them hard to compare directly. When it came time for the real-world tests, the difference wasn’t nearly as noticeable. At the end of the day, The Kingston SSDNow V series is going to give you a significant performance boost over that old spinning hard drive in your computer. The $249 price makes it one of the least expensive 128GB SSDs out there, and thus a great deal. If you’re looking to upgrade your hard drive, I would definitely recommend this one.

[ Kingston ]

By Shane McGlaun

I have yet to jump on the SSD bandwagon and most consumers are probably the same way. I have tested netbooks with SSDs inside and while the performance gains installing applications and booting the systems are noticeable, they aren’t enough to justify the extra cost in my book.

The price of SSDs is coming down, albeit slowly. Kingston has a new SSD upgrade kit that is now available called the SSDNow M Series that comes with all the gear you need to install an SSD inside your desktop computer or notebook.

The kit is available with a 80GB or a 160GB Intel X-25M SATA SSD, Acronis True Image hard drive cloning software, a USB enclosure for notebooks, 2.5″ to 3.5″ drive bay mounting brackets, and a SATA power and data cable extender for desktop machines. The SSDs promise read speeds of 250MB/sec and write speeds of 70MB/sec. Pricing is $427.50 for the 80GB kit and $843 for the 160GB kit.

[ Kingston ]