Legit Storage Reviews
Kingston 30GB SSDNow V Series Boot Drive Review
| Manufacturer: | Kingston |
| Product: | Kingston 30GB SSDNow V Series Gen 2 Boot Drive |
| Date: | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Joe Evans - |
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A Closer Look & Test System
Cracking open the case of the Kingston V Series 30GB boot drive, we see that due to the smaller capacity of the drive, the entire body of the case need not be filled. Some of you may have seen the Kingston video where they shot an arrow through the drive and it still worked. Now you know the secret.
On the back lies the Toshiba NAND but we couldn’t actually get the screws out to pull the guts fully out without potentially breaking something. This is different from the larger drives which were not screwed in at all. This may be related to the shock and G-force resistance and shouldn't be a concern as there should never be a need to pull an SSD apart other than curiosity.
On the front of the PCB is a Micron 64MB DRAM chip with the part number MT46H16M32LFCM-6 IT:B. This 64MB DRAM has a clock rate of 167MHz and serves as cache for the Toshiba T6UG1XBG SSD controller that is being used on the 30GB boot drive. This is the same exact controller that is used on the higher performing Kingston V+ Seires of SSDs, so this is a great controller to see on the budget priced boot drive. This controller includes all the latest features like native TRIM function for those running Windows 7.
The bundled Acronis True Image HD software is easy to use but limited in that it only helps you migrate your OS to the new drive. I would caution against cloning over from HDD to an SSD because the drive alignment may not be optimal for an SSD. I won't get into the details of that here, there's plenty of information on the web about proper alignment worst case, you may see performance hit so nothing too terrible but it kinda defeats the purpose of moving to an SSD. The software is relatively easy to use and has a wizard interface to walk you through the process. I was able to clone the OS from another 30GB SSD and spent time actually writing this article on the drive itself.
TEST SYSTEM
The test system used is comprised of the following:
I really need to get an open case test bench!
All tests were performed on a fresh install of Windows 7 x64 with no other applications running using AHCI mode set through the BIOS. The Asus P6T motherboard uses a ICH10R south bridge chipset which supports TRIM and in between every test, the drive was wiped completely and left for 20 minutes to ensure the TRIM function had time to do its job. All components were set to their default speeds.
As you can see from the readout on CrystalDiskInfo, S.M.A.R.T. is enabled, as is TRIM. This is a great tool to see what version of firmware the drive is running as well in the event there are updates available.
Next Page - ATTO v2.41 & AS SSD Benchmarks
| Review Index |
|
Page 1 - Kingston 30GB SSDNow V Series SSD
Page 2 - A Closer Look & Test System Page 3 - ATTO v2.41 & AS SSD Benchmarks Page 4 - HD Tune Pro v4.01 Page 5 - HD Tach v3.0.4.0 & CrystalDiskMark v3.0 Page 6 - PCMark Vantage Page 7 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions |
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