Putting value first
Part of the value range, as denoted by the 'V' nomenclature, Kingston also sells rebranded Intel X25-E and X25-M drives for the server and high-end markets.
Kingston releases the V-series drives in two capacities - 64GB and 128GB - and each can be purchased as a standalone 2.5in drive, bundled with a notebook kit, as shown here, or as a desktop kit.
The kit includes the SATA drive, obviously, a 2.5in USB-connected enclosure, USB cable, and drive backup/cloning software via Acronis' excellent True Image software.
We tested the software by cloning a 16GB partition from a mechanical Seagate Momentus 5400.4 120GB drive on to the Kingston SSD. The process took 19 minutes, identical to cloning it back.
As competitors charge well in excess of £100 for a bare 64GB drive, the question arises as to how Kingston has managed to produce such a value-oriented drive with the above-mentioned extras?
The answer lies with the controller and chips residing inside the aluminium casing. Kingston uses a heavily-tweaked version of the (in)famous JMicron controller that's been specified on previous-generation SSDs, and the company claims to have eradicated the 'stuttering' problem found on those drives. There are no advanced features such as a TRIM command, so consider this a very much no-frills SSD.
Keeping costs down, there's on-drive cache and the throughput speed is rated at 100MB/s read and 80MB/s write, down from the 200MB/s and 150MB/s on premium SSDs equipped with either Samsung or Indilinx controllers. Given the pricing, Kingston, it seems, is trying to find some middle ground between full-blown, premium SSDs and larger, slower mechanical drives.
Backed by a three-year warranty and the intrinsic benefits of SSDs - near-shockproof operation, silence, power - let's take a look at some numbers and pass judgement.
