Kingston has been active with the release of new and improved solid state drive products, and we've had the opportunity to take a look at a bunch of them in recent reviews at Bigbruin.com. The most recent delivery included a 128GB drive from their SSDNow V Series, which came bundled as a part of a notebook upgrade kit.



Those paying close attention to our reviews may recall that we reviewed another 128GB Kingson SSDNow V Series drive in August of 2009, but this is far from the same product. This new drive offers refinements such as double the sequential read and write speeds of the first drive, as well as support for TRIM. Despite these enhancements, this is still a "value" product designed to make a system upgrade to an SSD more appealing thanks to the blend of price, performance, and capacity.

Before taking a closer look at the sample provided for review, lets take a look at some of the published information available on the V Series product page.

Features:

» Performance â€" Enhances productivity; makes users more efficient
» Innovative â€" 2.5" form factor; uses NAND flash memory components
» Silent â€" Runs silent and cool with no moving mechanical parts
» Reliable â€" Less likely to fail than a standard hard drive
» Shock Resistant â€" No moving mechanical parts so the SSD handles rougher conditions
» Supports TRIM â€" Enhances device wear leveling
» Supports S.M.A.R.T.
» Guaranteed â€" 3-year legendary Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support

Specifications:

» Capacity: 128GB
» Cache: 64MB onboard cache
» Storage Temperatures: -40°C to 85°C
» Operating temperatures: 0°C to 70°C
» Vibration Operating: 2.17G (7â€"800Hz)
» Vibration Non-Operation: 20G (20â€"2000Hz)
» Sequential Speed: Up to 200MB/sec. read; 160MB/sec. write
» Power Specs:
   Â» Read: Active: 5.2W (TYP)
   Â» Sleep: 0.7W (TYP)
» Life expectancy: 1,000,000 hours mean time before failure
» Part Number:
   Â» SNV425-S2BN/128GB (notebook bundle)
   Â» SNV425-S2BD/128GB (desktop bundle)
   Â» SNV425-S2/128GB (stand-alone drive)