# Kingston HyperX 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Rev 3.0 (SH100S3120G) SSD Review



## The Sorcerer (Sep 21, 2011)

Kingston Taiwan sent a HyperX 120gig SSD for review.

*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/af2a3c52.jpg

*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1965.jpg*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1967.jpg​
As the packaging says: More! Lets see how this Desktop upgrade kit does.



*Packaging and Specifications*

*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1953.jpg​
The  Kingston drives comes in a standard carton with the usual literature  (advertised performance numbers, warranty period, packaging contents).  The packaging feels more "premium" compared to the V series from  Kingston that I've evaluated a very long time ago.

*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1954.jpg*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1958.jpg


*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1960.jpg*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1961.jpg
​There are some changes over the usual desktop upgrade kit:  aluminium finish plastic USB 2.0 case, 3.5" SSD tray, a SATA and a USB  2.0 cable, an acronis clone disk and a 3 bit screwdriver pen alongwith  the usual drive.

*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1962.jpg*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1964.jpg​The front is a plastic with a aluminium plate finish sheet. Rear is the gunmetal gray.



> I  have a drive from a rival manufacturer with the same controller but  with a J Micron  NAND who has made a major recall and also  announced they have implemented a fix. I'll name the drive when they  send me a replacement but for now lets call Mr. X!
> 
> Unfortunately,  for a lot of people still have the issue even with the newer firmware  as I encountered series of hangups and random locks, alongwith improper  temperature readout. I ended up being one of them when I got the drive.  According to their rep, "I didn't flash it properly".
> 
> ...


Kingston  HyperX SSD uses Intel 25nm NAND instead of J Micron's counterpart with  Sandforce SF-2281 controller. My thanks for using the Intel's NAND. 

*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/IMG_1965.jpg​The  screwdriver is a pretty nice touch. It comes with 3 screw bits but You  can use it to store your own screw bits there is adequate space inside  the screwdriver pen. There's really not much to say about the USB 2.0  casing.

*Features*

 SandForce controller technology
 High-speed SATA Rev. 3.0 (6 Gb/s) transfer speeds
 Performance — incredible speeds for advanced gaming, multitasking, and multimedia computing power
 Reliable — much less likely to fail than a standard hard drive
 Shock-Resistant — dropping your notebook no longer means losing your data
 Cool & Quiet — runs silent and with no moving mechanical parts to generate heat
 Innovative — uses NAND Flash memory components
 Supports S.M.A.R.T., TRIM and Garbage Collection
 Guaranteed — three-year Kingston® warranty, 24/7 tech support
*Specifications*

 Form factor — 2.5”
 Controller — 2nd Generation SandForce® Controller SF-2281
 Components — Intel® 25nm Compute-Quality MLC NAND *(5k P/E Cycles)*
 Interface — SATA Rev. 3.0 (6Gb/s), SATA Rev. 2.0 (3Gb/s)
 Capacities 2 — 120 GB, 240 GB
 Sequential reads 6Gb/s 3 — 555MB/s for all capacities
 Sequential writes 6Gb/s — 510MB/s for all capacities
 Sustained Random 4k Read/Write —
 120GB – 20,000/60,000 IOPS
 240GB – 40,000/60,000 IOPS 
 Max Random 4K R/W —
 120GB – 95,000/70,000 IOPS
 240GB – 95,000/60,000 IOPS 
 PCMARK® Vantage HDD Suite Score 4 —
 120GB – 81,196
 240GB – 81,394 
 Supports S.M.A.R.T. TRIM and Garbage Collection
 Warranty/support — Three-year warranty with free 24/7 support
 Power Consumption —
 120GB: 0.455 W (TYP) Idle / 1.6 W (TYP) Read / 2.0 W (TYP) Write
 240GB: 0.455 W (TYP) Idle / 1.5 W (TYP) Read / 2.05 W (TYP) Write 
 Dimensions — 69.85 x 100 x 9.5mm
 Weight — 81g
 Operating Temperatures — 0°C ~ 70°C
 Storage Temperatures — -40°C ~ 85°C
 Shock Resistance — 1500G
 Vibration Operating — 2.17G
 Vibration Non-Operating — 20G
 MTBF — 1,000,000 Hrs
Do note the life cycle that is underlined and highlighted. Usually SSDs are known to come with 3K lifecycle, this seem to be different in HyperX's SSD case.

*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/85d34a64.jpg​
I've added Anvil Benchmark utilities to test storage drives. I would be running Anvil's endurance testing to stress test every storage drive. Taking the words from the creator and Xtremesystems member "Anvil":


> _It creates files at a random size, every second file is between 1KB and  128KB in size, the other files can be from 1KB up to the size of a  typical digital photograph. ( 10MB+). The point is that it creates a files at a random size just like we do in real life._
> 
> _By clicking Start you will by default fill the drive until there is  12GiB free space left, you can change this by modifying the value found  top left "Min GiB Free".
> Max # of files to create regulates how many files as a maximum to create per loop.
> ...



*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/b2921870.jpg​
The stress test that I've be doing will be with 50 loops, so that takes around 12 hours to complete. This should give a good idea about the lifespan of the storage drive.


*Test Setup and Benchmarks*

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> I'd like to thank Gigabyte, Kingston and Western Digital Providing the  resources for test bench setup that is used to evaluate other hardware. Just to add further, I'll be replacing the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H Rev 1.0 with Asus 990FX Sabertooth that was given to be by Asus India during the power user meet.


The system is on AHCI mode with a Clean OS install.



*Boot Load Test*
*docs.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=215&zx=19g34s77i0pb
From Pass 1-5 the drive maintains all time low.
---
*AS SSD Benchmark*
*docs.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=216&zx=hotg4fq7197k

*docs.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=213&zx=9koa10bxwtyu
---
*CrystalDisk Mark*
*docs.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=214&zx=3ukhmfkyqlja

*docs.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=212&zx=m5v9swtvkuok

Judging based on AS-SSD and CrystalDisk benchmarks, the drive performs well with deeper queue depth writes.

Do note that the drives I've compared are all SATAII drives, with Momentus XT being a mechanical drive.
---
*ATTO Benchmarks*
*docs.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=217&zx=cma50u3hhmr9

*docs.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=218&zx=6rli984d7myi
I would like to compare this drive with the current offerings from others but this is where she stands.
---
*Anvil Benchmark*
*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/f8099c1c.jpg*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/92b5d1dc.jpg*i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k560/HWBBQ2/Kingston%20HyperX%20SSD/92b5d1dc.jpg​

*Conclusion*
The drive does what it should do and she is fast. Comparing my experience with this drive, and another SATA 6Gb/s SSD drive with 25nm Micron NAND (and the issues with it), she does the job. 5K P/E Cycle is very long...for a non-toggle NAND. 

Sandforce is a very popular controller and reliability of the 25nm Intel Flash NAND. Kingston did have a Intel relabelled SSD drive- Kingston SSDNow E. 

Kingston has 2 kits for this drive: Standalone and Desktop Upgrade Kit. Standalone comes with the 3.5" to 2.5" SSD mounting bracket whereas the upgrade kit comes with Acronis True Image HD migration software, mounting bracket, USB 2.0 case and a blue HyperX SATA cable.

India:  N.A.     U.K.: £181.10    U.S.:$259.99          

I need to find out the pricing for India. The difference between standalone and Desktop Upgrade Kit is about $10. You're getting a USB 2.0 case and a screwdriver for that $10.


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