14 DAY TRIAL // One problem with most solid state drives is that they trade capacity for performance, compared to HDDs. However, there are exceptions, like the SSDNow V310 that Kingston has just released.
In truth, the SSD is still leagues behind hard drives, especially now that Seagate is actually providing customers with 8 TB HDD monsters.
On the other hand, SSDs seldom go above 500-512 GB, at least in 2.5-inch SATA-ready form, but the new one from Kingston goes well beyond that, to 960 GB.
It’s almost a shame that it doesn’t use a SandForce controller, since it would give it read and write speeds of over 500 MB/s. As it is, the top throughput is of 450 MB/s.
Add to that the natural shock protection (no moving parts) and high energy efficiency, and only the price can dissuade people from a purchase. Kingston didn’t say what it is, exactly, but it is bound to be very high, probably around $500 / €500.
All in all, it is a true HDD replacement in every sense of the word, since that basically makes it ten times faster than the best of them. Even if you use it as a cache drive to store the OS, you'll probably want to store your most often played games on it as well, even if you buy an HDD to act as bulk storage drive.