REVIEWS / INTERNAL DRIVES / KINGSTON

Kingston HyperX 120GB (SH100S3-120G) Review

21 Mar, 2012, 9:13 am IST | by Roydon Cerejo | Internal drives

Internal drives

Good build

Good build
3.5-inch bracket included
Pretty good performance

PRICE IN INDIA

13,999

TECH2 RATING

7.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

8.5

How we test

CONTACT

Kingston

 sales_india@kingston.com

 +91 22 4223 0300

 www.kingston.com/en

Earlier, we had a look at Kingston’s V+ 200 SSD which offered decent performance but for that price, you were better off with their HyperX series. Today, we have that very SSD with us and we’re about to find out how much better it actually is. We have the standard desktop version of the HyperX drive that comes with just a 3.5-inch bracket. More importantly, the SSD features the 25nm Synchronous flash memory, which should be a lot fast than their SSDNow series. Let’s find out.

3.5-inch bracket included

3.5-inch bracket included

 


Design and Features
Two flavours are available - a standard desktop edition and an upgrade kit - out of which, we received the former. The SSD is packed nicely in a layer of foam and even looks a bit better as compared to their standard offerings. The HyperX SSD features the same SandForce SF-2281 controller along with SATA III (6Gb/s) support that’s also backwards compatible with SATA II. You also get some of Kingston’s very own Advanced Wear-Levelling technology that helps the drive to last longer.

Good build

Good build

 


This being an SSD, there aren’t any moving parts so it does consume a lot less power and you won’t lose your data even if you drop it. The drive also supports TRIM, a command that allows the OS to wipe data blocks internally once the data is no longer needed. The HyperX drives are available in two capacities in India - 120GB and 240GB. Next, let’s see how this drive performs and if it can match the speeds of Intel’s 520 series SSDs but for a lot less.

Performance
For testing the drive, we connected the SSD to our Testbench, which consisted of an Intel 2600K, Gigabyte P67A-UD3R, 8GB G.Skill RAM, 64-bit Windows 7, WD Velociraptor and an AMD HD 7950 graphics card. All the settings were completely identical to the previous SSDs we tested, including the SATA port and cable. We start off with HD Tach, which returned quite a decent score of 410MB/s as the average read speed of the drive. SiSoft Sandra too gave us a very good speed of 455MB/s, which even surpassed the Intel SSD 520.

Pretty good performance

Pretty good performance

 


Coming to the real world scores however, the picture is quite different.  The real world write speeds are certainly a lot faster compared to the SSDNow V+200 drive, which is good, but is nowhere close to what the Intel SSD 520 manages to deliver. Same goes for the internal transfer between two partitions as well. The HyperX drive offers speeds that are close to double of the SSDNow, which is really good as you don’t pay a very big premium for this anyways.

Verdict
Kingston has priced the HyperX SSD 120GB at Rs.13,999 but you can find it in stores for as low as Rs.12,900. This makes it about Rs.3,000 more expensive than the SSDNow V+ 200 90GB but for this, you get more storage capacity and a much, much faster drive. This makes it good value for anyone looking for a relatively cheap, synchronous NAND-based SSD that uses the SD-2281 controller, then the Kingston HyperX SSD fits the bill perfectly. 


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Would you buy it?




 


How We Test

The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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