CONCLUSION

   Whenever we receive an enterprise class oriented SSD model it's usually based on the SAS connectivity so when we read that the E50 was based on SATA III we knew that it wasn't aimed towards the most demanding and write heavy environments and the somewhat small write lifespan compared to that of its larger brother the E100 is quite evident of that (3 DWPD/11 DWPD - Drive Writes Per Day). However since Kingston obviously wanted to manufacture a cost-effective enterprise class SSD ment to replace 10/15k HDDs i think that's not something most people will care about. Performance numbers may not be on par with what we've seen by even some consumer SSD models but the drives like the SSDNow E50 100G are not about performance but data safety and the LSI SandForce SF-2581 controller excels at that. Of course much like most SSDs out there the 240GB variant should perform better compared to our 100GB model so that's also something potential buyers should keep in mind.

   Price is perhaps one of the top decisive factors when choosing the right SSD for the job and although with a current price tag set at USD151.41 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 158.74Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the SSDNow E50 100GB model may not be able to compete with some consumer oriented models we need to remember that we're not talking about a product aimed at that segment of the market to begin with. Bottom line that means consumers who don't need the enterprise class safety features offered by the E50 should look elsewhere for a better deal, however that doesn't apply t professionals and enterprise users alike and since the performance levels although far from stellar are very good the SSDNow E50 100G Solid State Drive by Kingston gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Enterprise Grade/1.000.000 Hours MTBF)
- Very Good Performance
- Power Loss Protection/DuraClass/DuraWrite/RAISE Features
- Power Consumption (2.74W MAX)
- 3 Years Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)