Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive

Intro

While many readers already know the benefits of SSDs, companies are now trying to fit the relatively small storage size of SSDs (compared to traditional magnetic storage) into a new category. There are a few brands of SSDs that have sizes that many readers will balk at, but these should not be thought of as a primary storage drive to be used singly; Rather, you should think of these new breed of small SSDs as a boot/OS/application drive. You keep your spindle based drive for massive storage and gain the speed benefits of faster loading times with the boot SSD. This is how Kingston is targeting the 40GB SSDNow V Series drive.

The Press Release

Rarely do we post a release in an article, but it is important to see how this product is being positioned for the market. After all, 40GB of storage isn't that much. This is why the purposing of using the SSD as a boot drive is important.

Said By Kingston PR

Fountain Valley, CA -- October 26, 2009 -- Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the release of the SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive, the latest addition to its V (Value) family of solid-state drives (SSD). The Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to accelerate any desktop's boot, shutdown and application load times. It is available for as low as $84.99 after rebates (U.S. only) at e-tailer Newegg.com at launch.

"The SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive offers instant performance enhancement coupled with reliability and lower power consumption at a fraction of the cost of a new system," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston. "The 40GB Boot Drive is the latest offering in our V Series SSD line. It provides a low-cost upgrade solution that complements the installed hard-disk drive to extend the life cycle of existing desktop computers and workstations in homes and offices." ...

Kingston's SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive is designed for novice SSD users looking to increase their current desktop performance. As part of Kingston's goal to provide an easy upgrade path for first-time SSD users as well as do-it-yourself system builders, the drive is also available with a bundle that includes cloning software, 2.5" to 3.5" brackets and SATA data and power cable extenders. The SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive is designed for a desktop system to be used in conjunction with an existing hard-disk drive (HDD). A PC operating system and key applications reside on the SSD while all data such as documents, music, files and photos remain on the HDD.

The last paragraph is the important bit. Notice that this drive is to be used with a spindle based drive to store all your large media files while the SSD takes care of speeding the system up with its very fast random access times.

Box



At ASE Labs, we pride ourselves on taking this chance to showcase the retail packaging. We're always glad to see companies market their products on store shelves. The Kingston "dude" is an important branding agent for the company.

Parts



Along with the SSD, Kingston includes a Serial ATA cable, a Serial ATA power adapter (4-pin Molex), a CD with transfer software (Acronis), and a mounting kit for 3.5" bays. The drive itself is a standard 2.5" drive which will fit into most laptops.

Specs

Features:

• Fast -- up to 170MB/sec. read; 40MB/sec. write
• Performance -- enhances productivity; makes users more efficient
• Innovative -- 2.5" form factor; uses NAND flash memory components.
• Silent -- Runs silent and cool with no moving mechanical parts
• Reliable -- less likely to fail than a standard hard drive
• Shock Resistant -- No moving mechanical parts so the SSD handles rougher conditions.
• Supports S.M.A.R.T. -- Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology tells the user when a drive is about to fail
• Guaranteed -- 3 year legendary Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support

Specification:

• Capacity* -- 40GB
• Storage Temperatures -- -40° C to 85° C
• Operating temperatures -- 0° C to 70° C
• Vibration Operating -- 2.17 G (7--800Hz)
• Vibration Non-Operation -- 20 G (20--2000Hz)
• Power Specs --40GB Active: .15W (TYP) Sleep: 0.6W (TYP)
• Life expectancy -- 1 million hours mean time before failure
• Model -- SNV125-S2BD/40GB
• Newegg Link

As opposed to the »128GB SSDNow V Series drive, this 40GB model offers vastly different performance. It's write speed has dropped while the read speed has improved (both by a large amount). Also interesting to note is that the active power draw is .15W (that's 150mW).