Kingston HyperX 3K 90GB SSD

Solid state drives are all the rage these days. Capacities are getting larger and price tags are getting smaller. Kingston has been known for their high performance line of HyperX SSD's for some time now. They've recently introduced the 3K series of SSD's as a lower price point to make them even more attractive to consumers. The trade-off? Shorter lifespan. But does it really matter all that much? Let's take a closer look and find out...

Introduction

Kingston is no stranger to the solid-state drive market. Their lineup consists of the SSDNow V drives for consumers, SSDNow V+ drives for enterprise use, SSDNow S drives for embedded applications and the HyperX lineup of enthusiast drives. Kingston also offers a wide range of desktop and notebook RAM, USB flash drives and flash-based media cards for a multitude of devices. The 90GB HyperX 3K SSD we'll be looking at today is one of their latest offerings from their HyperX lineup.

The HyperX lineup consists of the HyperX named drives and the newer 3K drives. The main difference between the two is the number of PE (program/erase) cycles the ONFi 2 NAND flash memory is rated to go through before failure. The standard HyperX drive is rated for 5000 PE cycles and the 3K is rated for - you guessed it - 3000 PE cycles. Both drives use the SandForce® SF-2281 controller and interface to your motherboard with the SATA III standard. Kingston has released the 3K series in an effort to give a lower price point for SSD's over their standard HyperX lineup with the sacrafice of drive longevety. Is that sacrafice worth it for the lower price? Well for the average consumer the 3K rating will last anywhere from 5-10 years of normal usage. By that time with emerging technologies most people will have long upgraded to something newer, bigger, faster and cheaper, so in reality it doesn't much matter unless you're doing some serious read/write stuff with your drive.

The Kingston HyperX 3K drives are available in 90GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities with ratings of 555MB/s read and 510MB/s write for all but the 480GB which is rated for 550MB/s and 450MB/s, respectively. The drives come in either boxes with bare drives or as upgrade kits that include some handy tools and software to make the task of upgrading your system to an SSD an easy one. Kingston sent us the upgrade kit so we can show you all the accessories and goodies included.

Kingston 90GB HyperX 3K SSD Features and Specifications:

• Sandforce controller technology
• High-speed SATA Rev 3.0 (6Gb/s) transfer speeds
• Advanced wear-leveling technology
• User-configurable over-provisioning
• Performance - incredible speeds for enhanced productivity
• Reliable - much less likely to fail than a standard hard drive
• Shock-proof - dropping your notebook no longer means losing your data
• Cool & quiet - runs silent and with no moving mechanical parts to generate heat
• Innovative - uses NAND Flash memory components
• Supports TRIM - enhances device wear leveling by eliminating merge operation for all deleted data blocks
• Supports S.M.A.R.T. - (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology)
• Guaranteed - three-year warranty (KC100 features a five-year warranty)

Capacities¹:
90GB, 120GB, 240GB, 480GB

Sequential reads²: SATA Rev 3.0
90GB/120GB/240GB - 555MB/s
480GB - 540MB/s

Sequential writes²: SATA Rev 3.0
90GB/120GB/240GB - 510MB/s
480GB - 450MB/s

Form factor: 2.5"

Dimensions: 69.85 x 100 x 9.5mm

Drive Operating Temperature: 0ºC ~ 70ºC

Storage Temperature: -40ºC ~ 85ºC

Vibration operating: 2.17G

Vibration non-operating: 20G

MBTF: 1,000,000 Hrs

Total Bytes Writtem (TBW)³:
90GB: 57.5TB (Based on 52GB per day for 3 years)
120GB: 76.8TB (Based on 70GB per day for 3 years)
240GB: 153.6TB (Based on 140GB per day for 3 years)
480GB: 307.2TB (Based on 280GB per day for 3 years)

Interface: SATA Rev 3.0 (6Gb/s), SATA Rev 2.0 (3Gb/s)

Controller: 2nd generation Sandforce® controller

Components: MLC NAND (3k P/E cycles)

Warranty/support: three-year warranty (KC100 features a five-year warranty), free technical support and legendary Kingston reliability

Sustained Randon 4K Read/Write²:
90GB - 20,000/50,000 IOPS
120GB - 20,000/60,000 IOPS
240GB - 40,000/57,000 IOPS
480GB: 60,000/45,000 IOPS

Max Random 4K R/W²:
90GB - 85,000/74,000 IOPS
120GB - 85,000/73,000 IOPS
240GB - 86,000/60,000 IOPS
480GB - 75,000/48,000 IOPS

PCMARK® Vantage HDD Suite Score²:
90GB/120GB/240GB/480GB: 60,000

SMART Tools:
Self Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology to ensure a healthy drive

Power Consumption:
0.455W (TYP) Idle / 1.58W (TYP) Read / 2.11W (TYP) Write

This SSD is designed for use in desktop and notebook computer workloads and is not intended for Server environments.
1. Some of the listed capacity on a Flash storage device is used for formatting and other functions and thus is not available for data storage. As such, the actual available capacity for data storage is less than what is listed on the products. For more information, go to Kingston's Flash Memory Guide.
2. Based on “out-of-box performance.” Speed may vary due to host hardware, software and usage.
3. Total Bytes Written (TBW) refers to how much total data can be written to an SSD for a given workload before the drive reaches its endurance limits.
4. Note: The over provisioning can only be modified at the user’s own risk and will require third party software to partition the drive. Kingston recommends that only experienced and knowledgeable users attempt to customize the over provisioning area. Kingston will not provide support or any additional tools to execute this feature.

Well now that all the technical stuff is out of the way what do you say we take a look at the Kingston HyperX 3K 90GB SSD?

Next: Packaging and Unboxing ->

1. Introduction
2. Packaging and Unboxing
3. A Closer Look
4. Testing
5. Conclusion

This product was provided free of charge by it's manufacturer for the purpose of review.