Kingston A2000 1TB SSD Review
Final Thoughts & Conclusions
The Kingston A2000 series is impressive and appears to be ready to shake up the entry-level NVMe SSD market. Now that the MSRP is down to $0.10 per GB on NVMe drives it is going to drive more system builders and DIY users to stop using SATA III SSDs all together. The Kingston A2000 1TB drive at $99.99 MSRP is priced below many of the big name 1TB SATA III SSDs that are on the market today and offers substantially better performance. Most modern laptops and desktop motherboards have an M.2 slot on them, so most users have the ability to install one of these drives their system if they need to upgrade. Being able to ditch the SATA power and data cables really helps clean up the wiring and allows for better airflow on desktop PCs. SATA III drives will still be around for years to come, but NVMe SSDs are more than ready for the entry-level market as you can see from out results.
When it comes to performance on the 1TB Kingston A2000 drive we were able to reach the drives rated sequential Read/Write speeds of 2.2 GB/s read and 2.0 GB/s write on CrystalDiskMark. The exact peak speeds we managed to hit were 2,271.01 MB/s read and 2,161.60 MB/s write in the standard sequential tests that are done at Q8T1. Peakr random 4K Read/Write performance was at 265,000 IOPS read and 280,000 IOPS write. These are very solid numbers for a value drive and are hard to complain about.
The Kingston A2000 series runs $39.99 for 250GB, for $59.99 500GB, and $99.99 for the 1TB model that we reviewed today. All are backed by a 5-year warranty and come with drive cloning software to make data migration super easy. With solid performance for the entry-level, encryption support for those looking to use Microsofts BitLocker eDrive feature, a lengthy warranty and impressive price, the Kingston A2000 series is more than deserving of our Value Award. This drive needs to be on your short list!
Legit Bottom Line: The Kingston A2000 is a great value NVMe drive that raises the bar for what one can and should expect from any value oriented SSD.