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Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB Review
Kingston has produced an impressive range of
consumer-focused solid state drives with its "SSDNow" series over the
last several years. Although the SSDNow series has done fine in terms of sales
Kingston didn't get an overwhelming response from serious tech enthusiasts and
gamers. That changed when the team at Kingston started offering higher
performance SSDs under the company's "HyperX" line of memory
components for gamers.
The HyperX 3K is a more budget-friendly version of the
Kingston HyperX SSD. The only thing that sets this black and gray drive apart
from the original black and blue HyperX SSD is that the 3K drive uses lower
cost MLC NAND flash rated at 3,000 P/E cycles instead of the more expensive
Intel 25nm Compute Quality MLC NAND flash rated at 5,000 P/E Cycles. That might
sound horrible but in real-world terms even a serious gamer who stresses the
drive on a regular basis is unlikely to reach the limitations of the drive
before the 5-year projected lifespan ends.
In reality, what you get is a less expensive SSD that still
delivers exceptional performance.
The specifications for the Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD are
as follows:
- Model: SH103S3/240G
- Form Factor: 2.5" (9.5mm thickness)
- Capacity: 240GB
- Memory Type: MLC
- Interface: SATA III
- Controller: SandForce
- Weight: 97g
- Advertised Max Sequential Read: Up to 555 MB/s
- Advertised Max Sequential Write: Up to 510 MB/s
- Advertised 4KB Random Read: Up to 86,000 IOPS
- Advertised 4KB Random Write: Up to 60,000 IOPS
- MTBF: 1,000,000 hours
- MSRP: $300
- Average Retail Price: $240
