Kingston Solid State Drives

Kingston has a solid line-up of solid state drive products. In fact, they can be considered to have one of the most extensive SSD line-ups in the industry, by providing consumers not only with solid state drives but also USB upgrade kits.

Kingston currently has four product lines :

• the SSDNow E Series - repackaged Intel X25-E solid state drives for servers,
• the SSDNow M Series - repackaged Intel X25-M solid state drives for power users,
• the SSDNow V+ Series - performance-grade solid state drives at affordable prices, and
• the SSDNow V Series - affordable solid state drives for general use.

Kingston launched their second-generation SSDNow V series on January 11, 2010. The new SSDNow V solid state drives feature TRIM support in Windows 7, better performance and come in 3 capacities - 128 GB, 64 GB and 30 GB. Kingston lists these as the SSDNow V's key features :

• Innovative - Uses MLC NAND flash memory components.

• Silent - Runs silent and cool with no moving mechanical parts.

• Shock Resistant - No moving mechanical parts so the SSD handles rougher conditions.

• Supports TRIM -TRIM notifies the SSD which data blocks are available to be written to.

• Supports S.M.A.R.T. - Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology to help maintain a healthy drive.

• Guaranteed - 3 year legendary Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support.

In this review, we will be looking at Kingston's desktop upgrade kit for the second-generation 30 GB Kingston SSDNow V solid state drive. Let's find out how well this drive performs!

Packaging

Kingston sent us the SSDNow V 30 GB desktop upgrade kit. This differs from the drive-only option in that it comes with a set of 3.5" mounting brackets and assorted accessories. The solid state drive itself remains the same in both versions, right down to the excellent 3-year warranty.

Inside the cardboard box is a plastic tray that provides ample protection for the drive and its accessories. The Kingston SSDNow V 30 GB desktop upgrade kit comes with the following items :

• Kingston SSDNow V 30 GB solid state drive
• 2.5" to 3.5" mounting brackets and mounting screws
• SATA power and data cables
• CD containing hard drive cloning software (Acronis True Image HD) and installation guides (for both notebooks and desktops)

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support out work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!