June 14, 2019 at 14:51Now in the new packaging - Kingston A400 in M.2 format hurries to the market
There are more M.2 format connectors with each generation of motherboards - some manufacturers sell up to four of these slots for installing SSD drives. Moreover, each of them can support any type of SSD - both SATA and NVMe PCIe. You must admit that M.2 drives are very convenient to use - you do not need to lead any cables to them, and they do not take up space in the case. As they say - set and forget. Kingston A400 - a series of drives that has become extremely popular all over the world due to the ratio of good features and price, finally appeared in the M.2 format! Proven solution or something new? Now we will find out!
First, we’ll quickly figure out what a terrible combination of letters and numbers are - SATA, NVMe, PCIe and 2.5 ”. Solid state drives come in several form factors and are characterized by a specific type of connection. The most common drives are made in 2.5 ”form factor (“ like laptop hard drives ”) and have only a SATA interface. But M.2 drives are available with SATA and PCIe x4 interfaces. Most often, the form factor M.2 of drives is 2280. The first digit is unchanged and means the width of the drive, and the second - the length. There are drives with a length of 80 mm (as we already said - the most common), and less popular drives with a length of 110 mm, 42 mm and even 30 mm. Regardless of the form factor M.2, PCIe drives (they are also called NVMe) are the fastest, while M.2 with a SATA interface demonstrate identical performance to analogs in 2.5 ”version.of our material published earlier .
It should be noted that the 2.5 ”A400 drives gained immense popularity in the world - they were recommended by many media resources and stores, and they are still in different ratings at some of the best positions - all this was achieved by consistently high speeds and, perhaps , the most attractive price. We will not pull - the novelty in the M.2 format from the point of view of memory and the controller is an exact copy of the 2.5 ”version. For example, for a 240 GB model (do not forget that the 256 GB option is the A400R), we have four Toshiba TLC memory chips and a Phison PS3111-S11 controller. Budget? Yes, there is such a thing. But in such configurations, firmware is important. Kingston paid special attention to this, so the drives have absolutely stable performance. And some manufacturers, so to speak, they are lazy - they use the supplied firmware from the controller manufacturer, which leads to unstable speeds and uneven wear of memory cells, the drive disappears from the system or other malfunctions. In other words, you need to not only glue your sticker, but also work on the product before it is launched on the market.
The only thing - at the moment there are only two versions of new products - with 120 GB and 240 GB volumes. In total, we have such an A400 family:
For those who understand, the numbers may not seem the highest. But we must remember that we have an entry-level solution that will perfectly fit in PCs, laptops or all-in-ones for home or office use. You can also use it in workstations, but only for the operating system, and for data processing with the active use of the disk, install, for example, A1000 or KC2000, which have noticeably high speeds and an incomparably large resource. In any case, they brought us a three-year warranty, so there is no reason to worry.
Yes, just like in that same joke. Most of the ordinary users do not even suspect that for everyday use of office programs or games, the Kingston A400 SSD is quite enough.
We’ll give a minute to proprietary software. Kingston SSD Manager version 1.1.2.0 (currently the current version) fully supports the new M.2 drives. The functionality is fully available, except with the exception of the Secure Erase function, but this is a topic for completely different material . But the software performs its main task - it talks about the state of the drive and allows you to update the firmware if it is available and if necessary.
The amount available to the user after formatting in NTFS is shown in the screenshot - about 223 GB.
And now about the speed of work. Let's start with the fact that many people pay attention in the first place, but that in fact does not play a very important role - it is unlikely that you will drive large amounts of data back and forth in the office or home system. For an example we will copy a file with a volume of 23 GB. The high-speed buffer ends at around 6 GB. Further, the speed decreases to the actual values of the memory itself - about 110-115 MB / s.
And what about the numbers? Yes, everything is in order!
Well, persuaded, we will go through the benchmarks that are more familiar to many. To begin with - AS SSD Benchmark:
IOPS indicators were as follows:
Another well-known and advanced benchmark is Anvil's Storage Utilities.
Ok, add CrystalDiskMark as well. First testing with 100 MB files:
And add the results with files that are 2 times the capacity of the fast cache, that is - 16 GB. Here already the final result is affected by the drop in speed, which is quite normal.
In general, the situation is quite clear and does not raise questions. But, again, we do not forget that it’s one thing to surf the Internet, work with documents or play toys (even the newest ones, occupying 50 GB or more), and another thing is to work with professional applications that constantly have something write to disk.
So, what about the temperatures? Reasonable question. Some users may think simply - the more compact the device from the same components, the more it heats up. This is partly true. But it is worth looking at this situation differently. The 2.5 ”drive A400 is enclosed in a metal case, to which heat is transferred only along the perimeter of the printed circuit board. In the case of M.2, there is no case, but it is only for the better. There are at least two reasons. The first is that drive components are cooled by air flows organized inside the case (yes, even in a laptop). The second - radiators for M.2 SSD are implemented on a huge number of motherboards. This is true when using the drive in a classic modern PC. In the case, for example, with the ASUS Prime Z390-A motherboard there is no radiator for the upper slot, and the bottom one does not support SATA SSDs. So all hope for purging the case and the potential air flow from the processor cooler fan. It would be ideal to have such a Top-Flow design, but this does not always happen.
But even with a tower cooler, the air flow from the fan which practically does not affect the area of our experimental subject, the temperatures at full load are very good. In the picture below we can see that the temperature of the controller did not exceed 60 degrees. And this, sorry, after a 45-minute 100% download to read and write at intervals of 30 seconds.
Work on the play, which received this name, was completed over 150 years ago - back in the Russian Empire. But the above phrase is relevant to this day. Of course, progress without new developments is not progress, but stomping on the spot. But in the segment of ultra-budget drives, you should not reinvent the wheel at this point in time - if we already have a proven product and users want to get it in a different form factor, then why not? All consumer properties remained at the same level, but the product itself became compact - in a modern form factor, which expands the number of its potential owners. In order for the new SSD to see the light, which can also conquer the world, like the A400, we need a revolution in the field of memory chips of the lowest price category, which so far is visible only on paper and promises. Will everything conceived be implemented in the next generation of TLC memory and will it be so successful? So far, none of us knows about this. And you can wait indefinitely. So the new Kingston A400 in M.2 format is currently the most attractive SSD on the market in terms of price and performance!
The Kingston A400 SSD in M.2 is available at the DNS partner store .
For more information on Kingston Technology products, visit the company's website.
There are many species - one essence? Not really!
First, we’ll quickly figure out what a terrible combination of letters and numbers are - SATA, NVMe, PCIe and 2.5 ”. Solid state drives come in several form factors and are characterized by a specific type of connection. The most common drives are made in 2.5 ”form factor (“ like laptop hard drives ”) and have only a SATA interface. But M.2 drives are available with SATA and PCIe x4 interfaces. Most often, the form factor M.2 of drives is 2280. The first digit is unchanged and means the width of the drive, and the second - the length. There are drives with a length of 80 mm (as we already said - the most common), and less popular drives with a length of 110 mm, 42 mm and even 30 mm. Regardless of the form factor M.2, PCIe drives (they are also called NVMe) are the fastest, while M.2 with a SATA interface demonstrate identical performance to analogs in 2.5 ”version.of our material published earlier .
Success formula
It should be noted that the 2.5 ”A400 drives gained immense popularity in the world - they were recommended by many media resources and stores, and they are still in different ratings at some of the best positions - all this was achieved by consistently high speeds and, perhaps , the most attractive price. We will not pull - the novelty in the M.2 format from the point of view of memory and the controller is an exact copy of the 2.5 ”version. For example, for a 240 GB model (do not forget that the 256 GB option is the A400R), we have four Toshiba TLC memory chips and a Phison PS3111-S11 controller. Budget? Yes, there is such a thing. But in such configurations, firmware is important. Kingston paid special attention to this, so the drives have absolutely stable performance. And some manufacturers, so to speak, they are lazy - they use the supplied firmware from the controller manufacturer, which leads to unstable speeds and uneven wear of memory cells, the drive disappears from the system or other malfunctions. In other words, you need to not only glue your sticker, but also work on the product before it is launched on the market.
The only thing - at the moment there are only two versions of new products - with 120 GB and 240 GB volumes. In total, we have such an A400 family:
For those who understand, the numbers may not seem the highest. But we must remember that we have an entry-level solution that will perfectly fit in PCs, laptops or all-in-ones for home or office use. You can also use it in workstations, but only for the operating system, and for data processing with the active use of the disk, install, for example, A1000 or KC2000, which have noticeably high speeds and an incomparably large resource. In any case, they brought us a three-year warranty, so there is no reason to worry.
Do you have checkers or go?
Yes, just like in that same joke. Most of the ordinary users do not even suspect that for everyday use of office programs or games, the Kingston A400 SSD is quite enough.
We’ll give a minute to proprietary software. Kingston SSD Manager version 1.1.2.0 (currently the current version) fully supports the new M.2 drives. The functionality is fully available, except with the exception of the Secure Erase function, but this is a topic for completely different material . But the software performs its main task - it talks about the state of the drive and allows you to update the firmware if it is available and if necessary.
The amount available to the user after formatting in NTFS is shown in the screenshot - about 223 GB.
And now about the speed of work. Let's start with the fact that many people pay attention in the first place, but that in fact does not play a very important role - it is unlikely that you will drive large amounts of data back and forth in the office or home system. For an example we will copy a file with a volume of 23 GB. The high-speed buffer ends at around 6 GB. Further, the speed decreases to the actual values of the memory itself - about 110-115 MB / s.
And what about the numbers? Yes, everything is in order!
Well, persuaded, we will go through the benchmarks that are more familiar to many. To begin with - AS SSD Benchmark:
IOPS indicators were as follows:
Another well-known and advanced benchmark is Anvil's Storage Utilities.
Ok, add CrystalDiskMark as well. First testing with 100 MB files:
And add the results with files that are 2 times the capacity of the fast cache, that is - 16 GB. Here already the final result is affected by the drop in speed, which is quite normal.
In general, the situation is quite clear and does not raise questions. But, again, we do not forget that it’s one thing to surf the Internet, work with documents or play toys (even the newest ones, occupying 50 GB or more), and another thing is to work with professional applications that constantly have something write to disk.
So, what about the temperatures? Reasonable question. Some users may think simply - the more compact the device from the same components, the more it heats up. This is partly true. But it is worth looking at this situation differently. The 2.5 ”drive A400 is enclosed in a metal case, to which heat is transferred only along the perimeter of the printed circuit board. In the case of M.2, there is no case, but it is only for the better. There are at least two reasons. The first is that drive components are cooled by air flows organized inside the case (yes, even in a laptop). The second - radiators for M.2 SSD are implemented on a huge number of motherboards. This is true when using the drive in a classic modern PC. In the case, for example, with the ASUS Prime Z390-A motherboard there is no radiator for the upper slot, and the bottom one does not support SATA SSDs. So all hope for purging the case and the potential air flow from the processor cooler fan. It would be ideal to have such a Top-Flow design, but this does not always happen.
But even with a tower cooler, the air flow from the fan which practically does not affect the area of our experimental subject, the temperatures at full load are very good. In the picture below we can see that the temperature of the controller did not exceed 60 degrees. And this, sorry, after a 45-minute 100% download to read and write at intervals of 30 seconds.
an old friend is better than two new ones
Work on the play, which received this name, was completed over 150 years ago - back in the Russian Empire. But the above phrase is relevant to this day. Of course, progress without new developments is not progress, but stomping on the spot. But in the segment of ultra-budget drives, you should not reinvent the wheel at this point in time - if we already have a proven product and users want to get it in a different form factor, then why not? All consumer properties remained at the same level, but the product itself became compact - in a modern form factor, which expands the number of its potential owners. In order for the new SSD to see the light, which can also conquer the world, like the A400, we need a revolution in the field of memory chips of the lowest price category, which so far is visible only on paper and promises. Will everything conceived be implemented in the next generation of TLC memory and will it be so successful? So far, none of us knows about this. And you can wait indefinitely. So the new Kingston A400 in M.2 format is currently the most attractive SSD on the market in terms of price and performance!
The Kingston A400 SSD in M.2 is available at the DNS partner store .
For more information on Kingston Technology products, visit the company's website.