Far Cry 2 and Vista loading times, summary
| Vista boot-up time | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Spinpoint F1-DT 750GB | OCZ Vertex SSD 30GB | OCZ Summit SSD 120GB (1910) | Kingston SSDNow V 64GB | Intel X25-M SSD 80GB |
| 73.11 | 42.8 | 41.08 | 44.52 | 42.25 |
| Far Cry 2 loading time | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Spinpoint F1-DT 750GB | OCZ Vertex SSD 30GB | OCZ Summit SSD 120GB (1910) | Kingston SSDNow V 64GB | Intel X25-M SSD 80GB |
| 56.4 | 50.05 | 49.71 | 52.23 | 49.15 |
Summary
Kingston has brought a number of budget SSDs to market in retail packages that offer a complete solution in a box. Our review sample, a 64GB SSDNow V-series notebook kit, ships with a 2.5in USB caddy and Acronis' True Image software for simple cloning and backup.
Priced at £99.99 and backed by a three-year warranty the drive's budget origins begin to show through once subjected to a battery of tests. Based around a JMicron controller that's been firmware-modified for smooth performance, our benchmarks show it to be relatively poor in relation to premium drives.
The intrinsic difficulty for Kingston is that decent-performing 64GB drives are now coming down in price to a level that challenges the SSDNow V. Crucial's CT64M225, based around a better-performing Indilinx controller, can be purchased for not much more, and a glut of Samsung-powered SSDs are beginning to become available for £100 or so on special deals. Still, if you value the software and caddy the effective price of the Kingston drive is reduced to around £80.
We recommend that Kingston drops the price by, say, £10, to really entice the user who's looking to add a reasonable-capacity SSD kit to a laptop, where pure performance isn't the primary criterion. Smooth performance and increased battery life are just two of the benefits we can think of straight away.
Kingston has now introduced the faster V+ range (220MB/s read and 140MB/s write) and we'll be taking a look at one in due course.
Bottom line: The Kingston SSDNow V-series 64GB notebook kit falls short when evaluated in pure performance terms, sure, but it provides a tenable option for consumers looking for a flexible storage upgrade for a notebook or mid-power PC.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the SSD is evaluated with respect to our 'mid-range components' criteria.
Kingston SSDNow V-series 64GB notebook kit
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Kingston
SSDNow V-series 64GB notebook kit is available from MyMemory.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim
