Manufacturer: Kingston Price: $ 220 US Author: Steve Date: 10/10/2010

[ Introduction ]

Today we are taking a look at the Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV425-S2 128GB solid-state drive which offers a reasonable amount of storage space at an affordable price. However as I found when playing around with the smaller 64GB version recently, these cheaper V Series models are not to be scoffed at... Kingston Technology is a well renowned memory module manufacturer, and like many of its competitors, they began dabbling with SSD technology almost two years ago now. However unlike most memory module manufacturers, which chased after cheaper alternatives to what Intel had on offer, Kingston decided to back Intel and released a range of rebadged Intel SSDs with their SSDNow E and M series. However despite being avid supporters of the Intel push to conquer the SSD market, Kingston did not win the kind of freedom they had hoped for. In an effort to compete with the likes of companies such as OCZ that were developing increasingly more affordable SSD products, Kingston announced the “V Series 40GB Boot Drive” on October 26th (2009) which was based on Intel's X25-M G2 technology. However, Intel never granted Kingston the right to implement the TRIM function once it became available for their X25-M G2 series and in the end Kingston was forced to dump the drive and search for something that could provide modern features. With that outcome, Intel released their own affordable 40GB SSD which is now known as the X25-V 40GB. Although this can be viewed as a slap in the face for Kingston, they managed to quickly fire back with the "SSDnow V Series" featuring 30GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities. On February 11th (2010) the press release read “Kingston Boosts Speed, Adds TRIM Support to Entry-Level SSD Line” and they were of course talking about their second-generation SSDNow V (Value) Series. The 30GB model can be had for a mere $91, while the 64GB version we are testing currently costs $120 ($135 desktop upgrade kit) and the largest capacity 128GB model sells for $225 ($240 desktop upgrade kit). The former is actually a member of the SNV125-S2 family and boasts a read/write throughput of 180MB/s - 50MB/s. The 64GB and 128GB units on the other hand are from the SNV425-S2 line and feature much more impressive read/write figures of 200MB/s - 110MB/s.

Table of Contents >>> Introduction <<< Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV425-S2 128GB in Detail How We Test, System Specs Benchmarks: File Copy Test Benchmarks: Real-World Applications Benchmarks: CrystalDiskMark 3.0 Benchmarks: AS SSD Benchmark Benchmarks: Atto Disk Benchmark Benchmarks: HD Tune Pro Conclusion Next Page ->

FootSoldier

Posted on: 10/13/2010 11:36 PM Here these are only slightly cheaper than the OCZ Vertex 2 drives but the performance is pretty good anyway so its probably justified.

archange Posts: 9 Joined: 2010-07-22

Posted on: 10/14/2010 06:39 AM Nice review, Steve, thank you. What I took away from this, is that OCZ Vertex 2 120GB is a pretty decent SSD. If I can make a suggestion, please add a combined results chart in the conclusion, so as to sum up all your tests. Best regards, archange

Minx	Posted on: 10/14/2010 10:36 AM I have the 64GB version. Got it when it first game out. Its a great SSD, works well and was pretty cheap. Thanks for the review on the bigger model.

Bluescreendeath

Posted on: 10/17/2010 09:27 PM SSDs are almost getting to the point where they are practical to use. Give it another year and we might be there Thanks for the review.

Viper

Posted on: 10/20/2010 01:08 PM For about $20 more is the Crucial C300 64GB a better buy than the 64GB version of this SSD?