INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Seven to eight years ago enthusiasts, professionals and hardcore gamers who decided to trust a brand new and revolutionary storage technology called solid state drives only had products from a handful of manufacturers to choose from including Intel, Micron, SanDisk, Kingston, OCZ and Corsair. Of course by then SSD technology had been in the works and evolving for much longer (over a decade actually) but it wasn't until 2007 that it made its first "shy" steps in the consumer market and thus was available to the masses at quite reasonable prices. Today there are literally hundreds of SSD manufacturers (most are OEM ones) around but it's always preferable to pick a model by one of the first ones to jump in the SSD wagon and since Kingston just released the latest addition in their HyperX line called the Savage we decided to take a look and see how it does.

   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, Canada, Europe, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Australia, New Zealand, India, Taiwan, China, and Latin America.

   For the HyperX Savage model Kingston took a similar path like Patriot and their Ignite series so once again under the hood we find a Phison PS3110-S10 quad-core, eight channel controller paired with Toshiba’s A19 Toggle Mode NAND flash however (Patriot used Micron ones). We have established quite a few times in the past that the S10 controller by Phison may not be the fastest one in the market currently (it does however offer performance levels of up to 560MB/s read and 530MB/s write) but it does offer a good feature set including enterprise grade end-to-end data path protection, built-in dynamic and static wear-leveling, AES-256 encryption, Smart ECC (via BCH ECC) and DevSleep (power saving). The HyperX Savage line of SSDs by Kingston is currently available in 120GB, 240GB, 480GB and 960GB capacities (with us we have the 240GB model) and is covered by a 3 year warranty.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each model in the HyperX Savage line of SSDs is available as a standalone drive with a few basic items in the bundle or as a desktop upgrade kit. We got the basic version which has a large product image at the front of the box.

 

 

At the rear of the box we find both a picture of the bundle and a list along with a product description in many languages.

 

 

The drive is placed inside a piece of foam while the rest of the bundle is placed right beneath it.

 

 

Leaving out the HyperX Savage SSD the box also contains a 3.5 to 2.5 mounting bracket, 8 mounting screws, 7mm to 9.5mm bracket, HyperX sticker, warranty information paper and a piece of paper with a license key for the Acronis True Image HD cloning software.

 

 

THE HYPERX SAVAGE 240GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The HyperX Savage SSD may be yet another 7mm model but thanks to the red and black color combination it looks quite unique.

 

 

A small sticker at the rear indicates the drive capacity, part number, serial number, installed firmware version electrical specifications and several warning and certification logos.

 

 

At the end of the drive we find the usual SATA data and power connectors.

 

 

One side of the PCB has eight A19 64Gbit MLC NAND flash modules by Toshiba with the Kingston logo on them (16GB each).

 

 

Another four NAND flash modules are placed on the opposite side (again 16GB each).

 

 

Here we also see a 256MB Nanya DDR3L 1600 module and the Phison S10 controller.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   After over 7 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. 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 7 Ultimate x64 installation with every update installed up to July 11th 2015.

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   With the arrival of the HyperX Savage SSD line it’s quite obvious that Kingston is trying to phase out the older HyperX 3k model and although it’s not really that old I think it’s the right move. Unfortunately although Phison has come a long way since the “good” S8 controller the S10 is far from perfect and so just like the Patriot Ignite series it doesn’t do that well in our SNIA IOMeter testing suite. Of course we’ve pointed out several times that this is something that concerns enterprise users and professionals mostly but still it’s something I hope Phison improves soon either via a firmware update or by releasing a new controller. When it comes to regular tests however the HyperX Savage proved to be a very fast and feature-rich SSD indeed worthy of replacing the very good HyperX 3k model (if that’s indeed what Kingston is aiming at).

   SSD prices have dropped very low in the recent years so a 240GB model is not going to exceed the 0.5 cent per GB mark and the HyperX Savage by Kingston doesn’t since it currently retails for USD106.79 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 113Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Of course if you’re a professional looking for performance endurance over time then I wouldn’t recommend the HyperX Savage line solely based on our IOMeter SNIA tests (or at least until Phison releases a firmware that changes this). On the other hand however regular consumers, enthusiasts and gamers now have one more valid option in the market and since it’s a very fast one it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Quality (Toshiba A19 Toggle NAND Flash)
- Very Good Performance
- Feature Set
- 1.000.000 Hours MTBF
- 3 Year Warranty
- Bundle
- Color Combination (For Some)
- Price (For Some)

 

CONS

- Constant Performance (For Some)