Kingston Rolls Out 512GB SSDNow V+ Drive

Solid state drives are already known for their ability to deliver read and write speeds significantly better than those achievable by hard drives. The area where SSDs are still lacking, however, is that of storage capacity itself. Eager to lower the space gap between HDDs and SSDs is Kingston, which has released a solid state drive with no less than 512GB of storage. As part of the SSDNow V+ series, the new product boasts significant performance improvements compared with hard disks.

The SSDNow V+ series of solid state drives now features devices with storage capacities ranging between 64GB and 512GB. The 512GB model, being the latest introduced, was tested out by the company itself against a 7200RPM HDD. While the latter scored 3,294 points on PCMark Vantage 1.0.1 for Windows 7, the 512GB SSDNow V+ reached 28,264. The system used in the testing was made up of an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 CPU at 2.83GHz, an Intel DG945ID desktop motherboard, 4GB of RAM, on-board SATA 3Gbps and Windows 7 Professional x64 bit with AHCI enabled.

The solid state drive itself is constructed with multi-level cell (MLC) NAND memory chips. Its read speed can reach as high as 230MB/s, whereas its maximum write speed is of 180MB/s. The device supports the TRIM command for Windows 7 and has a mean time before failure (MTBF) estimated at one million hours. Unfortunately, the memory- and storage-solution developer did not test the SSDNow V+ 512GB against other SSDs, even though there was quite a fair number of them to choose from.

The product's price, when sold on its own, is of $1,598 (the equivalent of 1,127 Euro or £989.34). For added convenience, however, Kingston is also offering the SSD bundle with a 2.5-inch USB enclosure, 3.5-inch mounting brackets and SATA data and power cables, as well as cloning software. The bundle's price is of $1,698 (1,197.63 Euro).