Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB SSD Review

Rating: 9.0.

Today we are taking a look at the latest Solid State Drive from Kingston – the HyperX 3K 120GB which utilises the performance oriented Sandforce SF 2281 controller.

There is no doubt about it, the market today is flooded with solid state drives. Prices are dropping all the time and a wider audience are beginning to realise that adding one into a new system can dramatically improve the overall experience.

Sandforce SF-2281 powered drives are a dime a dozen in 2012, but Kingston have released the Kingston HyperX 3K series with a primary focus on getting the lowest possible price. The 120GB version we are reviewing today for instance is only £118.99 inc vat from Overclockers in the UK. Six months ago, a drive like this would have cost £50 more, at least.

‘3K' means that Kingston have moved to cost effective 3k PE (program/erase cycles) NAND. ‘3K' means that the drive should last 3,000 full writes of the disk capacity. In reality the 3K drives will still last a long time, many years, under normal use.

Specifications:

• Capacity: 120GB
• Controller: SandForce SF-2281
• Maximum Read: 555MB/sec
• Maximum Write: 510MB/sec
• Max I/O Per Second (IOPS): 95000 IOPS (4KB File, READ)
• NAND Flash: Multi-Level Cell (MLC)
• Interface: SATA-III / 6Gbps (Backwards compatible with SATA-II / 3Gbps)
• TRIM Support (Requires Windows 7)
• Warranty: 3 Years

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