INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Instead of individually testing solid state drives i mostly prefer to wait a while and conduct a thorough comparison between all the latest models in the market. Because of that a few months ago i gathered and compared 16 of the latest and fastest SATA III solid state drives to hit the market from most manufacturers in the field. However such massive comparisons is not something one can do very often not only because of time constraints but also because we rarely see similar products getting released by many manufacturers at the same time (graphics cards excluded) and so today we our review will be focused on a single solid state drive and more specifically the latest HyperX 3k 240GB model by Kingston.

 

   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.

 

   This review ended up being quite different than most I’ve done up until today since i had to rebench every single one of the SATA III solid state drives i have here currently (used to have even more) with the latest and primary Intel X79 test rig since the performance results i had recorded in my database were almost 6 months old (from the last comparison). That automatically means that all drives were updated to their latest firmware (at least the ones that can be updated) and so mainly because of that and also because of the quite faster X79 system (compared to the X58) the results are quite different (most increased) than the ones from 6 months ago. However this review is about the latest HyperX 3k SSD by Kingston so let's see just how well it compares with its immediate competition.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aside the main product image the front of the box also contains information like the drive model, capacity, reported speeds (ATTO), 3 years warranty and the controller manufacturer (Sandforce).

 

 

The main benefits of the HyperX 3k model are present at left side in both English and French.

 

 

The supported operating systems are listed at the top of the box.

 

 

At the rear you can see the bundle contents and a the two main benefits of the drive listed in 22 languages.

 

 

The drive is safely located inside a piece of black foam.

 

 

The bundle contains the HyperX 3k SSD, 2.5" USB enclosure, 3.5" to 2.5" bracket with screws, SATA cable, software CD (Acronis Cloning Suite) and a gunmetal blue pen-like screwdriver.

 

 

THE HYPERX 3K 240GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kingston packs the usual 2.5" USB enclosure with their upgrade bundle kit but although quite convenient and easy to use i still don't understand why they are not using an USB3.0 compatible instead (would make far more sense).

 

 

 

The HyperX 3k model features almost the same brushed aluminum top like the previous HyperX drives. However although the new 3k models feature the same Intel 25nm MLC NAND flash as the original HyperX models this time it's rated for 3.000 p/e cycles instead of 5.000 p/e cycles (used with the previous models). This difference has basically nothing to do (or very little) in terms of performance and will hardly ever affect regular users, however for professional and enterprise use (heavy read/write loads) 3.000 cycles is not what I’d recommended unless of course you can swap SSDs once every couple of years.

 

 

Just for the record i placed the new HyperX 3k drive next to the previous HyperX 5k drive and as you can see the only exterior differences are the color and the lack of the red Kingston logo.

 

 

As usual the rear sticker includes the drive capacity, certification logos, electrical requirements, serial number, roll-out date, country of manufacture, authenticity stamp and of course the company name.

 

 

At the rear end we see the usual SATA III connector and the 4 pins used for firmware upgrades (performed by Kingston).

 

 

The 240GB variant of the HyperX 3k features the same high performance SF-2281 controller from SandForce (just like the other HyperX models) and uses a total of 16 Intel 25nm MLC NAND ICs, each 16GB in size.

 

 

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 have always used 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 potentials buyer 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. Tests were performed in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation with every update installed up to April 15th 2012.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TUNE PRO / HD TACH RW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / IOMETER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Just by taking a look at the charts it’s quite evident that the HyperX 3k has almost zero performance differences with the 5k version since they both win each other in our benchmarks. True i can't really test the lifespan of both drives but all i can say is that for normal users (casual users, gamers and enthusiasts) the 3k p/e cycles featured by this model will not be a problem, at least not for the next 6 or 7 years (if not more). However if you are a photographer or a video editor and you read/write 20-40GB of data per day then even with all the various firmware optimizations 3k cycles should not last over 2-3 years which means that the 5k model is far more suitable for such heavy tasks (unless as mentioned you can afford new drives every 2-3 years). Certainly the same applies for enterprise environments only in that case even 2 years may just be too much to hope for.

 

   The entire Kingston HyperX 3k 240GB SSD upgrade bundle including both the 3.5" bracket and the 2.5" external USB enclosure currently retails at 309.99 inside the USA (Newegg) and 300Euros inside the EU (Amazon) a price tag which is roughly USD50/40Euros less than what the 5k model retails for currently. There's also the option of purchasing the standalone version of the HyperX 3k 240GB drive and save 10 bucks in the process but i really don't think it's worth it not with such a rich bundle. Overall a price difference of 14% may not seem as much especially for professionals who use such drives to make a living and thus require the best but for casual users, gamers and enthusiasts the HyperX 3k 240GB is a better offer and doesn't lack the performance levels of the 5k model which is enough for it to earn our Platinum award.

 

 

PROS

- Build Quality (Intel NAND, Enclosure)
- Performance (Almost Identical To The 5k Model)
- Upgrade Bundle (3.5" bracket/2.5" USB Enclosure)
- Price (For Some)
- 24/7 Support
- 3 Years Warranty 

 

 

CONS

- 3k Cycles (Not For Professional/Enterprise Use)