Kingston A1000 480GB NVMe SSD Review

1. Introduction2. Kingston A1000 480GB3. Testing Methodology4. CrystalDiskMark5. ATTO Disk Benchmark6. AS SSD7. IOMETER8. 128KB Sequential Performance9. 4K Random Read v QD Performance10. 4K Random Write v QD Performance11. 4K 70/30 Mixed Performance12. Throughput13. PCMark 8 - Storage Consistency14. PCMark 8 - Individual Test Suites15. PCMark 8 Storage Test - Individual Test Suites16. Performance Stability17. Real Life File Testing18. Closing Thoughts19. View All Pages

Having previously reviewed the DCP1000, a monster of a drive aimed squarely at the enterprise market segment, it has been quite interesting to review the new A1000 as it is aimed at the entry/value part of the market.

In terms of performance, Kingston quotes sequential read & write figures for the 480GB drive as up to 1,500MB/s and up to 900MB/s respectively. Under testing we found those figures to be a little on the conservative side as the review sample produced a read figure of 1,767MB/s and 1,010MB/s in the ATTO benchmark.

It was a similar story with the random 4K performance. Officially the drive is rated fpr up to 100,000 IOPS reads and up to 90,000 IOPS for writes. Using our IOMeter 4K tests, however, we got a figure of 162,356 IOPS for reads and 98,420 IOPS for writes.

At the time of writing this review the A1000 isn't supported by Kingston's SSD Manager software utility but the company informed us that an update to the software to bring A1000 support is on its way.

The entry level NVMe drive market is a whole new ball game for drive manufacturers and in the next few months we are bound to see many more drives pitched at this segment launching. In the meantime, Kingston have laid down a very good marker in the 480GB A1000. As an entry level NVMe drive it has decent performance and comes with a very competitive price tag.

We found the 480GB Kingston A1000 available on ebuyer.com for £134.99 (inc VAT) HERE.

Pros

• Overall performance.
• 5-year warranty.

Cons

• At the time of writing, there is no Kingston SSD Manager support for the drive .
  

KitGuru says: Kingston's first foray into the entry level NVMe drive segment is a good one; the A1000 performs well and it comes with a five-year warranty.

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