Review: Kingston's HyperX 3K SSD

Solid state drives are the natural replacement for hard drives (HDDs) current. Also known as SSDs, they have higher write and read rates and are more resistant to drops and sudden movements (understand the main differences in this post). Therefore, many companies are choosing SSDs to be incorporated into the new Notebooks, Ultrabooks e Desktops.

An excellent model of this new crop is the HyperX 3K SSD da Kingston. The company, a traditional maker of memory and flash drives, is also known for making fast and reliable solid-state drives.

Powered by second generation controller SF-2281 da SandForce and with interface SATA Rev. 3.0 (6Gb / s), HyperX 3K is a good option for those who want to speed up the desktop or notebook for use in games and heavy graphics programs. On a machine configured with a SDD it is possible, for example, to start the system Windows 8 in just 8 seconds. Quick, no?

O HyperX 3K SSD also increases the equipment's ability to process images (FPS – Frame Per Second, in English), improving the performance of programs that use multimedia resources. Your fees reach 555 MB / s (reading) and 510 MB / s (recording), and input/output per second (IOPS) of 85k/74k, respectively. One HDD standard, for example, has about 300 IOPS for read and write, performance 280 times lower than HyperX 3K.

The model is covered by an aluminum body and has the technologies SandForce DuraClass e Dura Wright, responsible for ensuring advanced data protection and maximum resistance throughout the life of the unit. See below the main features:

Key features:

• Available in four capacities: 90, 120, 240 and 480 GB;
• SandForce controller with interface SATA Rev. 3.0 (6GB/s);
• Read/write rates of 555 MB/s and 510 MB/s, respectively;
• Input / output per second (IOPS) of 85mil / 74mil, respectively;
• DuraClass technology for increased durability;
• It is sold with an accessory kit or separately;
• Three-year manufacturer's warranty, with free technical support.

Upgrade Kit:

The accessory kit HyperX 3K will leave any enthusiast drooling over the surprises the company has prepared. In addition to the gray aluminum SSD, a case for external use (as a USB 3.0 disk), adapter holder for traditional cases, blue SATA cable, USB cable, installation CD and an aluminum multi-tool shaped of “pen” that works as a tool to fix the screws or keep them inside. Professional thing.

For those who value details, the colors of the SSD, bracket and cable matched perfectly with the motherboard design. Intel Desktop Board DX79TO.

Installation:

The installation process of HyperX 3K SDD It's relatively simple: just plug in the power and SATA cables into the corresponding sockets on the SDD and the motherboard. Depending on the chassis model, it is possible to install the bracket adapter (blue plate) provided in the kit.

In our tests, however, we had difficulties in doing this SSD be recognized with full capacity by the system of the desktop with e notebook used (it only freed up 120MB for use). We found that a BIOS update recent release in July (2013) for motherboards from Intel, was necessary for the problem to be solved. Once that was done, it was possible to format the SSD in its fullness.

In the test with the notebook, the SSD was connected to the USB 3.0 port with the help of the cable and CASE​ provided in the kit.

SSD lifespan:

The SSD's lifespan varies according to the care that is taken with the equipment. Even so, there is a rough calculation for the life of the drive, which varies according to the amount of bytes written. Look:

This means that the model HyperX 3K SSD de 120 GB, for example, you can save up to 96 terabytes (98.304 gigabytes) of information. From then on it starts to show a loss in recording performance.

Price and availability:

O HyperX 3K is available in versions of 90 GB (BRL 539,90), 120 GB (R$ 664,90, the model tested by showmetech), 240 GB (R$ 1.389,90) and 480 GB (R$ 2.809,90), and can be purchased separately or with a complete upgrade kit.

Readers Questions:

Below are some questions asked by readers, with answers from Kingston technical support:

1) I don't think an SSD changes the FPS, at least certainly not in games or video encoding where the bottlenecks are CPU and Graphics Card. Can you be more clear about this advantage?

In a system with a shortage of RAM, the system will use the virtual memory recorded in its storage unit, in these cases, by feeding the processor through virtual memory, the SSD will improve the in-game experience.

In rendering, in situations where we have graphics card, memory and processor undersized for the workload, SSDs will not change the rendering speed, however in a scenario where the machine is properly configured and sized for this work, SSDs bring an impact giant, as mentioned by some case studies done in Hollywood studios, where, for example, the last Spider-Man movie was rendered in a much shorter time than what was observed before using SSDs in the render clusters.

2) What is the lifespan of HyperX 3K? Do you have an estimated lifetime as well as an approximate number of writes and reads that can be done? Saved as backup, unused, how long?

If we consider an extreme daily use (more than 15GB of daily writing) we will have the duration time for the 120GB drive, something close to 100 to 200 years, but this varies with the type of file recorded and logically, it's every day of these 100 years of writing at least 15GB of data to disk. For 240GB it's double and for 480GB it's four times more (ie up to 800 years depending on the file type). A HyperX 3K 120GB SSD can be written up to 96TB of data, a 240GB up to 192TB and a 480GB up to 384TB. Read operations do not affect SSD lifespan.

Saved as a backup it, unlike a magnetic disk, is not subject to data loss, so its useful life is infinite.

When purchasing a Kingston SSD you can download the Kingston SSD Toolbox and follow the lifespan of your SSD in the SMART submenu The next versions of Toolbox will already include a lifetime bar, like a power bar in a fighting game, very simple to consult .

With Toolbox you will be able to calculate the amplification factor of each unit due to the resistance features of the SSD controller, and you will be able to verify that the TBW (from 96GB to the 120GB SSD) is very conservative in relation to reality, as well as the MTBF.

3) I have a Dell XPS 8300 Desktop with two HD's in Raid 0 and the speed increase is practically double. Is it possible to use SSD's also in Raid 0? Would the speed theoretically also double? Could I use my same Raid controller for SSD's?

Yes to all questions it is possible yes and if your processor/chipset/RAID controller is not bottleneck for speeds you will scale perfectly with 2, 3, 4, 5 etc.

4) How does HyperX 3K work on PCs with SATA II bus without ACHI support? I tested some Kingston models that when stuck in SATA II without ACHI, it kept giving a few brakes.

The SSD works normally in IDE mode, the locks can come from another component. The SSD does not behave otherwise internally due to the SATA connection mode, The SATA driver and the connection type can interfere with the system as a whole, such as not performing the TRIM command, among other things, but the SSD itself does not have the operation altered to the point that locks occur. In this case, one should better analyze at which moments this occurs and what the system is doing at these moments.

5) Does HyperX 3K work with motherboards that support UEFI? I was also wondering if it works with GPT partitions?

Yes, it works with UEFI and also with GPT, the only caveat is that cloning software doesn't always suit UEFI and GPT well. Installing from scratch or using compatible software for cloning, the SSD will run smoothly.

For more information, visit the page of Kingston's HyperX 3K.

Full Specifications (provided by the manufacturer):

• Form factor: 2,5 "
• Controller: SandForce® SF-2281
• Components: MLC NAND (P/E 3k P/E Cycles)
• Interface: SATA Rev 3.0 (6GB / s), SATA Rev 2.0 (3GB / s)
• Capabilities: 90GB, 120GB, 240GB, 480GB
• Sequential readings: SATA Rev. 3.0: 90GB/120GB/240GB – 555MB/s; 480GB – 540MB/s
• Sequential readings: SATA Rev. 3.0: 90GB / 120GB / 240GB – 510MB/s; 480GB – 450MB/s
• 4K Sustained Random Read/Write:
  • 90GB – 20.000/50.000 IOPS
  • 120GB – 20.000/60.000 IOPS
  • 240GB – 40.000/57.000 IOPS
  • 480GB – 60.000/45.000 IOPS
• 4K Max Random Read/Write:
  • 90GB – 85.000/74.000 IOPS
  • 120GB – 85.000/73.000 IOPS
  • 240GB – 86.000/60.000 IOPS
  • 480GB – 75.000/48.000 IOPS
• PCMARK® Vantage HDD Suite Score: 90GB/120GB/240GB/480GB: 60,000
• Supports S.M.A.R.T., TRIM e GarbageCollection;
• Energy consumption: 0,455W (TYP) Idle /1,58W (TYP) Read/2,11W (TYP) Write
• Dimensions: 69,85 x 100 x 9,5mm;
• Weight: 97g
• Operating temperatures: 0 ° C ~ 70 ° C
• Storage temperatures: -40 ° C ~ 85 ° C
• Impact resistance: 1500G
• Vibration in operation: 2,17G
• Vibration when not in operation: 20G
• MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures): 1.000.000 am
• Total Bytes Recorded (TBW): 90GB:57.6TB; 120GB:76.8TB; 240GB:153.6TBe 480GB:307.2TB
• Supported OS: Windows 7, Windows Vista (SP2), Windows XP (SP3), Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro.

Test System: Intel Desktop Board DX79TO Motherboard, Intel Core i7 2600k 3,4GHz CPU, 64GB System Memory, ATI Radeon 2GB Graphics Card and the HyperX 3K 120GB SSD.

*Part of the mentioned capacity of a Flash memory storage device is used for formatting and other functions, therefore it is not available for data storage. This means that the actual data storage capacity is less than what is listed in the products.