Custom PC - UK (2020-01)

K

ingston’snewM.2SSDis thelatestdrivetopush

thecostofentryintoultra-fastNVMeSSDsever

lower.The1TBdrivewe’rereviewingherecosts

just£108incVAT,makingit justaboutthecheapest1TB

NVMedriveyoucanbuy,costingnearly£100lessthanthe

priciestoptions.

So,whatdoyougiveupintermsofspeedandfeaturesfor

thatlowprice?Well,surprisinglylittle.Sure,thepeakrated

speedofthisdrivetopsoutat2,200MB/sec,comparedto

over4,000MB/secfortheverylatestPCI-E4 drives.

However,theKingston’sperformanceis stillinthesame

ballparkasmanyothercheaperNVMedrives.Forinstance,

theWDBluetopsoutatjust1700MB/sec,althoughtheWD

Blue’scapacityis limitedto500GB,soyoumightexpectit to

bea littleslower.

What’smore,theKingston’s2,000MB/secratedwrite

speedis quickerthanthatofseveralotheroptions,including

Intel’s760p,andit matchestheexcellentCorsairMP510inthis

respect.Asyou’dexpect,there’sverylittleintermsofphysical

featureshere,withnoextrasincludedinthebox.

Thereareslightlysmarter-lookingdrives,intermsofPCB

colourandstickerstyle,butthat’sa minorconsiderationfor

sucha smalldevice,andyoucanalwaysputa

heatsinkonit anyway.

Asforinternalfeatures,thedriveis basedonthe

SiliconMotionSMISM2263ENG,whichis a quad-

channelcontrollerthatoffersXTS-AES256-bit

driveencryption.Meanwhile,theflashmemory

is Micron’slatest96-layer3DNAND,whichis

configuredtooperateina TLCmode.That’swhere

threebitsofinformationarestoredineachcell,

makingfora higherdatadensity.Asever,this

meansyou’redealingwitha drivethathaslower

writeendurancethanmorepremiumoptions,but

Kingstonstillratesthis1TBmodelaslastingforup

to600TBW,whichwillbeplentyformosthome

users.Youalsogeta five-yearwarranty.

ThedriveusesanSLCcachetoachieveits

peakwritespeedperformance,andwhile

Kingstonhasn’tspecifiedthesizeofthecache,

wesawthewritespeeddropto500MB/sec after 150GB

hadbeenwrittencontinuouslytothedrive.Again, though, we

consideredthatperformancetobemorethan ample for

homeuse.

Inourownpeakspeedtests,theA2000put in a solid

performance,delivering2,282MB/secread and 2,190MB/

secwriteinthesequentialspeedtestofCrystalDiskMark.

Likewise,AS-SSDshowedfiguresof2,041MB/sec and

1,969MB/secforitssimilartests. Thisputsthe drive behind

thefastestdrivesintermsofreadspeeds,but its write

speedsarestillverystrong.

Thisdrivecontinuedtoimpresswhenwe tested random

speeds.InCrystalDiskMark’s4KQ32test,it delivered

290,036IOPsreadand289,429IOPswrite.Meanwhile, in

AS-SSD’ssimilartest,it delivered281,676IOPs read and

285,059IOPswrite.Theseareallfiguresthat compare very

favourablywithotherdrivesinthispricerange.

If you’vealreadytakentheplungeonanNVMe M.2 drive

thentheKingstonA2000doesn’t bringanything particularly

newtothetable.However,it’sa greatoption if you want an

affordableupgradetoanoldSATASSD,orif you’re building a

newPCfromscratch.

Conclusion

TheKingstonS2000isn’tthefastestor

mostcapaciousSSDever,butit offers

solidperformancethat’sa goodstep

upfromSATASSDs,whilealso

providingenoughcapacityfora data-

packedmodernPC.Thekey,though,is

theprice,whichundercutsjustaboutall

thesimilarcontendersbya

comfortablemargin.

EDWARDCHESTER

REVIEWS / SSD

VERDICT

With solid performance for a generous

price, the A2000 is the new budget

M.2 NVMe SSD champion.

OVERALLSCORE

83

PERFORMANCE

37 / 50

£/GB

19 / 20

BANG/BUCK

27 / 30

SPEC

Capacity

250GB, 500GB, 1TB

Interface

M.2 PCI-E 3

Protocol

NVMe

NAND

Micron 96-layer, 3D TLC

Controller

SMI SM2263ENG

Endurance

150TBW, 350TBW, 600TBW

Warranty

Five years

Extras

XTS-AES 256-bit encryption

M.2

• 
  

  Consistently
  decent
  performance

  
  


• 
  

  Wide range
  of capacities

  
  


• 
  

  Excellent value

  
  

M25

• Mediocre
  maximum read
  speed


• Dull design

SUPPLIER scan.co.uk

KINGSTON A2000 1TB

/£108 inc VAT

M.2 NVME SOLID STATE DRIVE

cc

uuss

tommPP

CC

A

P

PROVE

D