Kingston SSDnow 100 V+ Raid 0 mini review

[SF3D]

Hi!

 

I got these brand new SSD disks from Kingston for performance testing.

I have been using old 250GB HDD disks in my bench setup for a long time.

Now it is time to replace those ancient things with better solution.

 

 

The best thing is, that nowadays setting up RAID configurations are as easy as single disks have been.

I am using HW raid with the mainboard. SW raid could give a littel bit better results,

but I was very happy with performance already.

 

Things what are hard to measure are the ones which seems to benefit most.

I am talking about general usability of your daily machine or your bench setup.

Everything seems to be smoother and faster with these. Even browsing internet is quicker.

Software installation and loading times are so much faster,

that you will not get nervous while installing same s**t again and again.

 

Features

 

* Innovative — uses MLC NAND flash memory components.

* Silent — runs silent and cool with no moving mechanical parts

* Shock-Proof — no moving mechanical parts so the SSD handles rougher conditions

* Supports S.M.A.R.T functions

* Guaranteed — three-year warranty, live 24/7 tech support

 

Specifications

 

* Form factor — 2.5"

* Interface — SATA 1.5Gb/s and 3.0Gb/s

* Capacities1 — 64 GB, 96 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB

* Dimensions — 69.85 x 100 x 9.5 mm

* Weight — 128 - 151 grams

* Storage temperatures — -40 ~ 85°C

* Operating temperatures — 0 ~ 70°C

* Vibration operating — 2.7G

* Vibration non-operating — 20G

* Sequential Read Throughput 2 — 230 MB/s

* Sequential Write Throughput 2 — 180 MB/s

* Power specs — Active - 3.4W (TYP)

Power specs — Idle - 0.05W

* MTBF — 1,000,000 Hrs

 

*Price in Finland: 260€ (520€ both)

 

Setup:

*ASUS Rampage III Extreme

*Intel Core i7 980X @ 4GHz

*Kingston HyperX 12GB 8-8-8-24 1T

*ASUS GTX 480

*2 x 1200W PSU

 

*Kingston SSDnow 100 V+ Raid 0

*Western Digital 250GB AAJS Raid 0

*Gigabyte I-ram (2GB DDR)

 

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

 

Test results:

Install Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

 

Installing Windows 7 is quite quick with SSD disks. I-ram is of course left out from this part.

Installation is from the "Install Win 7 ..." to first time on desktop with totally ready OS.

 

Win 7 boot time:

 

This is so amazing. The difference is huge and this is average of 3 boot periods.

Time is calculated from the beginning of load to desktop.

 

"Game" level loading time

I did not have time to install games to these drives,

so i simulated the game level load situation with 3DMark Vantage.

It is not even close, but it can give some idea about the performance.

 

GT1/GT2:

 

I-ram was strongest in this part. Normall HDD disk already made some difference,

so in real games, difference must be a lot larger.

 

Next tests are Futuremarks PCmark 05 and PCmark Vantage.

PCmark Vantage is the latest systems performance test and it is clearly the best software for it.

Too bad it is very long and very boring test.

Futuremark also force you to buy this software to be able to see scores properly.

 

PCmark05

 

PCMark Vantage PC suite

 

PCMark Vantage HDD suite:

 

In PCmark tests, HDD performance is crucial. You can clearly see, how bad scores the basic hard drives are producing.

 

Next I tested the typical software, which have been used to measure read and write speeds of HDD's.

 

HD Tach 3.0.4.0

 

Atto disk benchmark (Read/Write)

 

Crystal disk benchmark 3.0 (Read / Write)Testi 10. Crystal disk benchmark 3.0 (Read / Write)

 

 

These test are showing the difference between the old technology and new very clearly.

When you boot up your system, install os and install a lot of software million times in a year,

these SSD solutions are the ones, which will save your nerves a lot.

 

Then I decided to give + and - for these SSDnow SSD drives.

 

+Small physical size

+cool operating temperature

+no noise

+low power consumption

+fast in single and raid configurations

+durability

 

-price in finland and in general

-still small size (storage)

 

 

Now it is very easy decision, when I need to select drives for my daily machine or benching systems.

Edited November 14, 2010 by SF3D