INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   2014 is finally here people and just like one of my friends says each year is a brand new 365 paged book so make sure you all write each page the best way you can. 2014 is a particularly special year since there are many things for us to look forward including the new X99 chipset based mainboards by Intel (finally something to replace our X79 system although we will keep it as well to continue with some of our databases) which will also use the brand new DDR4 RAM, new SSD/HDD hybrid models with large capacity NAND flash, new HDDs with at least 6TB capacities and of course new SSD NAND flash controllers. CES may just be 4 days away but some prototypes may actually make it there in time (if not we will probably see them in this year’s CeBIT) so if you live near Las Vegas i strongly recommend attending if you'd like a first row seat on everything new to come in 2014. Now normal SATA III SSDs may not be the hottest hardware component around currently but thanks to all the continuous price drops sales keep increasing so naturally every manufacturer out there wants a piece of the pie. Kingston has been amongst the top players for quite some time now and although they have enough SSD models to cover every consumer out there still they keep adding more the last of which is the SSDnow KC300.

 

   Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader. Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2009, the company's sales reached $4.1 billion. With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success. Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

 

   For the new KC300 Kingston has followed the same path as they have done in the past so under the hood once again we see the SandForce SF-2281 controller by LSI (perhaps the most popular controller of 2012/2013) featuring RAISE (error correction, RAID like protection and recovery) DuraClass (advanced wear leveling and monitoring algorithms), DuraWrite technology (up to 20x or more the flash endurance compared to some controllers), TRIM, AES 128-bit encryption and intelligent garbage collection. Once again the SF-2281 is paired with Toshibas 19nm Toggle NAND flash memory modules which we've seen used in several of the latest SSD models to hit the market by quite a few manufacturers. So yes at least at first glance the KC300 doesn't seem very new since it shares many components with some other models in the Kingston product line but since firmware always plays a significant part in terms of performance we can never be too certain about what to expect.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We received the full KC300 240GB bundle which arrived inside a box with a product picture at the front along with the capacity of the drive in the box, the performance levels and the 3 years warranty, LSI and Kingston logos.

 

 

A few words about the product and the rated performance levels are placed at the bottom.

 

 

Pictures of the bundle are placed at the rear right above a description of the product printed in multiple languages.

 

 

The entire bundle is placed inside a secondary thick cardboard box.

 

 

Inside the cardboard box you will find the KC300 240GB, 7mm to 9.5mm adapter/bracket, 2.5" external USB 2.0 enclosure, 3.5" mounting bracket with several screws, SATA power/data cables, software CD (cloning software) and a getting started guide.

 

 

THE SSDNOW KC300 240GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design-wise the KC300 240GB is much like every other Kingston SSD we've tested to date so once again we see a large sticker at the top of a gray aluminum housing.

 

 

Typically the sticker at the top contains information such as the capacity of the drive, serial number, barcode, electrical requirements, origin of manufacture, several certification logos and the model number.

 

 

Nothing interesting at the rear just the same gray color as the front.

 

 

We see no pins right next the SATA power and data connectors which means easier/faster FW updates.

 

 

It seems that more and more SSD manufacturers use blue PCBs (not that it really matters).

 

 

The SSDnow KC300 240GB features a total of sixteen 16GB NAND flash modules by Toshiba (8 on each side of the PCB) and of course the Sandforce SF-2281 controller.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY 

 

   After roughly 5 years of testing sold state drives i have concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts.

 

   Many people made inquiries about the charts ever since the last comparison so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation with every update installed up to December 29th 2013.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TUNE PRO / HD TACH RW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / IOMETER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   After checking all of our results the KC300 240GB initially seems to be just another SSD based on the Sandforce SF-2281 controller (not a bad thing by the way) but it only takes one look at our IOmeter results to see that Kingston has actually pushed the performance of the drive quite considerably. Now as you can all see we don't focus our efforts in testing every SSD model out there so our database is not as rich as it could be but still the SSDnow KC300 240GB is second only to the PCIex based REVODRIVE3 240GB by OCZ when it comes to I/Os and that's not something easy. Of course for us this means that the results are somewhat balanced since the SSDnow KC300 240GB didn't do so well in a couple of tests but some people believe that I/Os are the most important test when reviewing storage media so regardless of how one sees it it's actually a win, win scenario. The bundle is also a nice touch both for desktop and notebook owners although Kingston also has the entire SSDnow KC300 line available as standalone SSDs for people who care not about the external enclosure and the 3.5" adapter so it's always good to have that option as well.

 

   As we speak the Kingston SSDnow KC300 240GB SSD Upgrade Kit (SKC300S3B7A/240G) retails for USD227.51 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 180Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price which lands it right next to numerous equal capacity alternatives. Of course aside its very good performance especially in IOmeter the SSDnow KC300 240GB SSD Upgrade Kit also offers the external USB 2.0 enclosure and an 3.5" bracket so if you don't need those you can save around 10-15% thus giving the drive a much more competitive price/performance ratio. In the end it comes down to what you want but that being said thanks to its very good overall performance the KC300 240GB gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (SF-2281/ Internal Thermal Pads/ Toshiba 19nm NAND)
- Very Good Performance (Especially In IOmeter)
- Bundle (2.5" USB Enclosure/ 3.5" bracket/ 7mm To 9.5mm Adapter/ SATA III Cable/ SATA Power Connector/ Cloning Software)
- 3 Year Warranty With Free Technical Support
- Available As Standalone
- Idle Power Consumption (0.08W)
- Price (For Some)

 

 

CONS

- SandForce SF-2281 Controller Is Not Getting Any Younger