Legit Storage Reviews
Kingston 128GB V+ Series SNV325-S2 SSD Review
| Manufacturer: | Kingston |
| Product: | SNV325-S2/128GB |
| Date: | Tue, Jan 26, 2010 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Nathan Kirsch - |
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Inside The 2nd Gen SSDNow V+ Drive
Since we have never seen what components are being used inside the second generation Kingston SSDNow V+ series we opened up our 128GB drive to see what the internals look like.
After removing the four 1.5mm Allen head screws that hold down the
Kingston SSDNow V+ Series cover we were able to lift off the cover and
see what makes this little SSD tick. With the cover removed we see a
total of eight Toshiba MLC NAND Flash memory chips, a Toshiba controller and a Micron DRAM IC that serves as a cache chip. One very interesting thing was noticed once we opened up the SSD, and that is the fact that a thermal pad is placed between the metal casing and the components on the PCB. This helps transfer the heat away from the components, which helps keep them cool and the large metal casing acts like a heat spreader. This is something that we haven't seen before and is very interesting.
Here is a closer look component side of the PCB where you can make out the eight TH58NVG7D7EBAK0 MLC NAND Flash memory chips that are being used on the drive. This drive with these chips is pretty much bullet proof as it has an operating vibrating tolerance of 2.7G! The non-operating vibration tolerance is 20G, which is amazing when you think about how much force that would be.
Flipping the PCB over we can take a look at the other side, which is bare and has just the sticker on it from Toshiba. This sticker also states what firmware comes with the drive and in our case it was firmware version AGYA0201.
The heart and soul of all Kingston V+ Series SSDs is the Toshiba T6UG1XBG SSD controller pictured above. This controller is manufactured on the 43nm process and includes all the latest features like native TRIM support. Sitting next to the controller on the left hand side is a single 128MB Micron 9LA17-D9HSJ DDR DRAM module that is used for cache, which helps improve the drive's performance. Kingston says that this configuration can really perform as it comes with a read speed of up to 230MB/s and write performance rating of up to 180MB/s.
The eight Toshiba TH58NVG7D7EBAK0 MLC NAND Flash modules are used on this drive, which are newer multi-layer cell chips from Toshiba.
The life expectancy of the Kingston SSDNow V+ series drives is 1.0 million hours mean time before failure (MTBF). This means that the drive should easily live longer than the 3-year warranty that comes with it. Kingston Technology backs their SSDs with 24/7 tech support on top of the three-year warranty, which is nice when you need help during odd hours or on the weekend.
Next Page - The Test System
| Review Index |
|
Page 1 - Kingston's SNV325-S2/128GB SSD
Page 2 - Inside The 2nd Gen SSDNow V+ Drive Page 3 - The Test System Page 4 - HD Tach v3.0.4.0 Page 5 - HD Tune v3.50 Page 6 - HD Tune v3.50 - Random Access Page 7 - SiSoftware Sandra 2010 Page 8 - CrystalDiskMark v2.2 Page 9 - ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.34 Page 10 - PCMark Vantage Page 11 - AS SSD Benchmark Page 12 - Capacity and Windows 7 Page 13 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions |
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