Shane McGlaun18 August 2009, 3:00 PM
Kingston SSDs are available in up to 256GB capacities and are cheaper than you might expect.
Computer enthusiasts know that Kingston makes some great RAM products for gaming machines and other computers. The company also has a full line of USB flash drives like the
humongous 256GB USB flash drive I talked about last month.
Kingston has announced a new series of SSDs for computers called the
SSDNow V+ line that is available in up to 256GB capacities. The SSDs can also be had in 64GB and 128GB capacities as well. The 256GB capacity SSD sells for $US992 ($AUD1205), the 128GB SSD sells for $US500 ($AUD607), and the 64GB sells for $US254 ($AUD308).
All three capacities are built on a 2.5-inch form factor and use the SATA interface. The 64GB drive offers sequential write throughput of 140MB/sec, the 128GB SSD has 170MB/sec or throughput and the 256GB has 180MB/sec of throughput.
The drive also has high rates of input and output operations per second (IOPS). Random 4K read performance is 6,300 IOPS for all capacities, random 4K write for the 64GB drive is 84 IOPS, the 128GB SSD has 158 IOPS, and the 256GB SSD has 291 IOPS.
At a price of $1205, the 256GB drive is still very costly compared to the roughly $69 you'd be paying for a 250GB 5400RPM Seagate 2.5" hard drive. But in real dollar terms, $1205 is not bad for 256GB, considering that just 18 months ago, a
64GB SSD cost about $1400.