It’s only taken a couple years for the SSD (Solid State Drive) talk to die down. Or, has it? A lot of folks weren’t sure about the technology when it first launched. But as more Controllers and different flavors of NAND are thrown in to the mix, performance and pricing are starting to convince us. It would appear that MLC isn’t as useless or as bad as originally thought.
A good example of MLC working would be the next revision of Kingston’s previous SSDNow V+ series which gets a new configuration that engineers felt was just better. With a few changes, they were able to get a bit more performance as well as bring the series a little more up to date with other products on the market. Let’s see if the change is for the better.
Features and Specifications
One of the benefits of SSDs is the fact that they can operate at temperatures out the range of a regular platter based hard drive. Another benefit is the fact that they are very small and they give great performance to systems like laptops that often get stuck with slower versions of these platter based drives. There are always folks who need very mobile computers for whatever purpose and that movement leads to vibrations which are never good for the spinning platters of a conventional drive.
Though the new Revision 2.0 of this drive shares the same name as its predecessor, you’ll know that you have the new revision by its model number. The original 128GB version was known as SNVP225-S2/128GB. The new revision is labeled SNVP325-S2/128GB. So if you’re in the store wondering which one you have in your hands, this is how you tell.
Version 2 comes in the same 64, 128, 256, and 512GB capacities as the original line. The improvement comes in the form of a new Toshiba controller as well as the addition of Toshiba NAND Flash memory. This configuration should improve both sequential read and write throughput by 10MB/s to 230MB/s and the read should settle at 180MB/s respectively. Version 1 contained a Samsung controller and was rated to 220MB/s Read and 170MB/s. That wasn’t too bad in terms of a mainstream SSD. But, if a slight improvement means faster for the same or lesser price, we’re all for it.
Straight to Installation
If you’ve seen the last SSD up close, then you’ve seen this one too: there are no physical changes to the drive. Since we’re checking out the OEM version of this model, it doesn’t come with mounting adapters, cables, or specific software which you’ll find in the retail package. If you already have these items from your previous SSD purchaes, then that’ll save you a few bucks. Otherwise, if you need those items to make it work, buy the retail version.
As usual, we’ve assembled a test system and have laid it out here so that if you choose, you can easily reproduce our results for your benefit. Here are the test system specs:
- Intel Core i7 975XE “Bloomfield” Processor
- GIGABYTE GA-X58-Extreme Motherboard
- Kingston HyperX 12GB 1600MHz DDR3
- SSD1: Kingston SSDNow 128GB V+ Rev 1.0
- SSD2: Kingston SSDNow 128GB V+ Rev 2.0
- SSD3: Patriot Memory TorqX 128GB SSD
- Zotac Geforce GTX295 Video Card
- Antec Quattro 1000 Watt Power Supply
We’re going to keep testing as simple as possible so you can apply it to your own system. Benchmarks were taken using SANDRA’s Physical Drive Test, QuickBench, Crystal Disk Benchmark, and ATTO just for the elite database admins that rely on small file performance. Most of these tests are free or have free trial offers if you want to compare your current system’s storage abilities to the figures we’ve been able to achieve.
SANDRA Physical Drive
Compared to the first revision of the SSDNow V+, the new version gets a nice boost across the board. Keep in mind that this is a “raw” benchmark with no OS on the SSDs since SANDRA can’t benchmark the write speeds with any kind of partition on it. This should be considered a best case scenario.
Crystal Disk Benchmark
We start off testing the V+ SSD with the 100MB file test. The benchmark puts the SSD through Sequential, 512KB, and 4KB tests to get the average transfer rates. It’s the 42MB/s 4KB Write speeds that are just great since this is quite a bit higher than most of the SSD averages around.
Increasing the files size to the 1000MB size is when things get interesting. That once uber 42MB/s rate drops to a more humble 18MB/s. This isn’t bad by any means. What this shows us is that the SSD is able to work with the more realistic 100MB files since we don’t typically mess with much larger files on the desktop.
QuickBench
The nice thing about QB is that it does both a decent thorough job of benchmarking data block and sequential transfer rates. Since we know that Version 2 is faster, we pair it up against the Indilinx based Patriot Memory 128GB TorqX.
Here, we see the V+ results after 5 passes. The numbers actually look pretty decent. Overall, this was about 11MB/s higher across the board versus the Version 1 in case you’re wondering.
The Patriot Memory TorqX takes the Indilinx controller on the offensive and throws down numbers that are just a little faster than the V+. The numbers come out to about 10MB/s faster across the read and write speeds. This seems to be the pattern so far. Let’s move on to ATTO and see if we can break that pattern in a final showdown.
ATTO
For a little extra credit, we tested the SSDNow V+ Version 2 Toshiba controller against the Indilinx controller on the Patriot Memory TorqX. Here we’ll be able to reveal just how well these controllers do with the traditionally humbling small file read and write tests. This is territory where many drives seem to either be OK, or fail miserably at.
First up is the Kingston SSDNow V+ Version 2. Overall, it does respectably with small and large data blocks. That’s a healthy 175MB/s write and 234MB/s read at the high point. Smaller files of course suffer, but that’s the par course for most value SSDs.
Next, we have the Patriot Memory TorqX and its solid Indilinx controller. This is one of the SSDs we have on hand that is equally priced. The Indilinx controller seems to do better with the data blocks including maxing out near 200MB/s Write and 261MB/s Read. The smaller files sizes are also better taken care of with this drive.
That means that if you’re running databases where small file sizes are common, you’ll want the Patriot. If it’s just general use then the Kingston SSDNow V+ Version 2 should also do the trick. The Patriot TorqX is also $50 more so it’s up to you whether you want to pay for the extra performance.
Final Thoughts
So, how does the Kingston SSDNow 128GB V+ Series Revision 2 SSD do versus much stronger competition? It does great against its predecessor and if all else is the same, and you’re picking one up, make sure it is the Version 2. However, the Toshiba controller onboard just isn’t up to scrapping with the Indilinx controller inside the slightly more premium priced Patriot Memory TorqX 128GB drive.
Looking back to how it has improved upon itself, the new revision is better throughout in all the tests thanks in part to the new Toshiba Controller and NAND Flash inside. Since we haven’t seen Samsung come up with anything much better it’s interesting to see Toshiba step up. If Toshiba is able to perform better, offer better support, and not cost more, it just makes it a smart move.
When the machines are shut down and SSDs all put away, its evident that the 128GB V+ Series SSDs have been given a nice upgrade. It still costs a rather hefty $349 at Newegg which puts the price right about the same as the previous Samsung powered Revision1 SSD. But, that’s still $50 cheaper than some units from other competitors. In this respect, it’s definitely a good value in the world of SSDs.
Pros
- Toshiba Controller is a welcomed update
- Faster than its predecessor
- Price is about $50 cheaper than the competition
- Still performs well at 50% capacity
- Improves Boot times significantly as usual
Cons
- SSDs are still generally an expensive upgrade but this one is a little cheaper than the rest
Overall Score: 8.5/10.0
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Kingston SSDNow V+ Series (Rev 2.0) 128GB SSD – Photo Gallery
