INTRODUCTION

   M.2 NVMe SSD models may not offer the same price/capacity ratio nor do they share the same compatibility with older systems as their 2.5" SATA brothers but due to high demand and popularity levels manufacturers have shifted their focus almost entirely on them. Sure some 2.5" SSD models have been released lately (manufacturers do have to cater to the needs of consumers with older systems after all) but nowhere close in number compared to M.2 NVMe models (and that's not a bad thing since competition has forced prices to go down quite a bit). Kingston has released several M.2 SSD models to date the top of which was their KC1000 M.2 NVMe drive launched early last year. 1+ year later its successor called the KC2000 was just announced officially and the 1TB variant also found its way to our lab.

   Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Kingston designs, manufactures and distributes memory products for desktops, laptops, servers, printers, and Flash memory products for PDAs, mobile phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. Through its global network of subsidiaries and affiliates, Kingston has manufacturing facilities in California, Taiwan, China and sales representatives in the United States, Europe, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Australia, India, Taiwan, China, and Latin America.

   For their brand new KC2000 M.2 2280 SSD (PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 1.3 - currently available in 250/500/1000/2000GB capacities) Kingston paired the Silicon Motion SM2262EN 8-channel NAND flash controller with Toshiba's latest BiCS4 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash modules and 1GB LPDDR3 SDRAM (this configuration offers performance numbers of up to 3200MB/s in reads and 2200MB/s in writes). The SM2262EN NAND flash controller packs several technologies including Silicon Motion’s proprietary NANDXtend error-correcting code (ECC), datapath protection, end to end data protection with SRAM ECC, S.M.A.R.T, TRIM, NCQ, thermal-throttling, active garbage collection, DevSleep (device sleep), LDPC (Low Density Parity Check), SLC write acceleration (algorithms for optimal sustained performance), AES-256bit hardware encryption and of course fully supports TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (fully compatible with Microsoft's eDrive and EU's GDPR). In terms of endurance Kingston reports an MTBF (mean time between failures) of up to 2 million hours and TBW (total bytes written) numbers of up to 150TB for the 250GB model, 300TB for the 500GB model, 600TB for the 1TB model and 1200TB for the 2TB model (the entire line is covered by a 5-year limited warranty).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The KC2000 arrived inside a blister package that allows you to check the drive from the front (we did find it a bit odd that Kingston didn't list any performance numbers).

A few words about the product and its 5-year warranty are printed at the rear in several languages.

Along with the KC2000 M.2 NVMe SSD Kingston bundles a license key for the Acronis True Image HD cloning software.

THE KC2000 1TB

The KC2000 M.2 NVMe follows the typical 2280 form factor and our model makes use of both sides of the PCB.

On the top side of the PCB we find 4 Toshiba BiCS4 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash modules (each 128GB in capacity) and the Silicon Motion SM2262EN NAND flash controller.

4 more Toshiba BiCS4 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash modules (again 128GB in capacity each) are also located on the opposite side of the PCB alongside two 512MB LPDDR3 SDRAM modules.

SSD MANAGER

If you want to have some control over the drive and its security features you should download the SSD manager software from Kingston.

The software automatically detects available firmware updates and also allows the end user to check the status of the drive and its partitions (including temperatures, power on time and recorded failures), access SMART information, check the current state of TCG Opal and IEEE-1667 and read recorded logs.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After almost 10 years of testing solid state drives, we’ve 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*. Also, as of February 25th 2015 our results will also include the Storage Networking Industry Association’s (SNIA) IOMeter tests. These tests include a 12 Hour write test used to “simulate” performance degradation over time and a mixed workload test which basically shows what you can expect when using an SSD continuously for roughly two hours. Unfortunately, due to the time required for these tests we repeat them a total of 3 times and not 6 as the above.

   Many people have made inquiries about our charts in the past 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 10 Pro x64 installation with every update installed up to the 20th of May 2019.

* Since November 2018 our SSD comparison charts have been divided to 2.5” and M.2 models to reduce their growing size.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

TEST RESULTS – AS SSD / IOMETER

TEST RESULTS – IOMETER SNIA

CONCLUSION

   Not having tested the KC1000 model released last year puts us in a slight disadvantage since we can’t directly compare the new KC2000 to it. Still judging by the NAND flash controller used (8-channel Phison PS5007-E7) and also by what Kingston stated in its specifications table it’s clear that the KC2000 sports far better read and write performance numbers compared to its predecessor (2700 - 1600MB/s reported for the KC1000 and 3200 - 2200MB/s for the KC2000). Unfortunately, although the KC2000 is superior in terms of performance compared to its predecessor the KC1000 the same doesn’t apply for endurance since the KC1000 did offer higher TBW numbers (1000TB for the 960GB KC1000 and 600TB for the 1TB KC2000 – MTBF however has remained the same for both models at 2 million hours). Of course, this shouldn’t be much of a concern for gamers, enthusiasts and even most professionals but endurance/durability numbers do matter to some audiences. As for comparison with other models it’s quite clear that the ones using the new high-end E12 controller by Phison take the lead in most of our tests so you also need to take that into account before making your final decision.

   The KC2000 line of M.2 NVMe SSDs was officially announced by Kingston less than 4 days ago and so currently the 1TB model retails for 190.78Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which puts it well over other models like the P34A80 1TB model by Silicon Power and the MP510 960GB model by CORSAIR. Of course, both these models already count many months in the market so we do expect the price of the KC2000 model to also drop as time goes by and once availability becomes better but until then this is pretty much its sole drawback (and a big one at that). Still the KC2000 1TB M.2 NVMe did perform extremely well, sports several state-of-the-art technologies and is covered by a 5-year limited warranty so it certainly deserves our Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Performance (Up To 3200MB/s Read & 2200MB/s Write)
- Sustained Performance Levels (SNIA Tests)
- 5 Years Warranty
- Kingston SSD Manager Software

CONS

- Thermal Throttling (During Our SNIA Tests)
- Price (For Some)