Kingston NV2 SSD Review: Cheap But Risky
Kingston NV2 is one of the best SSDs too. The price is a bargain, especially at 2TB, and it’s marketed as a PCIe 4.0 drive. Still, there’s no definitive hardware under the hood, and the performance of both samples is clearly the bottom of the barrel.
behind the miles Best SSDS, the NV2 can be a great secondary or backup drive even if your budget is absolutely tight, but I wouldn’t recommend it for primary or laptop use. All in all, buyer beware.
The NV2 follows Kingston’s previous NV1 and is very much in line with Kingston’s philosophy of offering affordable drives at scale. His SATA-based A400 is a perfect example of this, as it was a popular drive in cheap builds. NV1 followed suit and was probably more popular than it deserved. NV2 is similar in that it uses a hodgepodge of hardware (a different controller for each drive and his NAND flash), but comes at a very low price. Especially he should become common in regions where SSD options are limited. But if you really have a solid alternative, look elsewhere.
specification
product | 250GB | 500GB | 1TB | 2TB |
---|---|---|---|---|
price | $22.99 | $34.99 | $54.00 | $124.99 |
form factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
interface/protocol | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe |
controller | Indefinite | Indefinite | Indefinite | Indefinite |
DRAM | No (HMB) | No (HMB) | No (HMB) | No (HMB) |
memory | Indefinite | Indefinite | Indefinite | Indefinite |
Sequential read | 3,000MBps | 3,500MBps | 3,500MBps | 3,500MBps |
Sequential write | 1,300MBps | 2,100MBps | 2,100MBps | 2,800MBps |
random read | none | none | none | none |
random write | none | none | none | none |
safety | none | none | none | none |
Endurance (TBW) | 80TB | 160TB | 320TB | 640TB |
part number | SNV2S/250G | SNV2S/500G | SNV2S/1000G | SNV2S/2000G |
guarantee | 3 years | 3 years | 3 years | 3 years |
Kingston NV2 is available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB. At the time of review, these capacities were priced at $22.99, $34.99, $54.00, and $124.99 respectively. This drive is often available in 1 TB and 2 TB SKUs at even better prices. This drive is his NVMe drive A400, a decent replacement for the NV1, which can be better or worse depending on how you look at it. Essentially a cheap NVMe SSD that meets the minimum requirements to get the job done.
The drive can manage up to 3,500 / 2,800 MBps for sequential reads and writes respectively, but there are no random performance specifications. This makes sense since it comes with multiple controllers and multiple types of flash. However, the sequential write specification is that you can only have 1TB and 2TB QLC. PCIe 4.0 drives have low sequential values for good reason.
NV2 has a 3-year warranty and can manage 320 TB writes per TB capacity. This is exactly what you would expect for a budget drive.
Software and accessories
The Kingston NV2 is a barebones drive, but Kingston offers an SSD Manager on their site. It has typical SSD toolbox features, allowing you to view disk information and health, update drive firmware, and securely erase drives. Works only on Microsoft Windows.
look carefully
I’m looking at 2TB in the picture here, but since the Kingston NV2’s flash and controller vary from drive to drive, I’ll also mention 1TB. The 2TB drive is a single-sided drive with a DRAM-less controller and four NAND packages. There isn’t much to this drive, but if it matters it should always be single sided.
The 2TB model we sampled uses the SMI SM2267XT controller. It’s one of the entry-level PCIe 4.0 SSD controllers, barely qualifying for the 4.0 moniker. Similar to the Phison E19T controller used in drives like the WD Black SN750 SE Or inland TN436. This technology has a 1200 MT/s bus and 4 channels, so it can saturate a x4 PCIe 3.0 link. SK Hynix Gold P31 When WD Blue SN570.
For all intents and purposes, this makes the controller a jacked-up SM2263XT with higher bandwidth and IOPS, but not new technology like the SM2269XT. This performance requires a much higher core clock rate. This means that the budget drives are significantly less power efficient when compared to other newer PCIe 4.0 DRAM-less options. HP FX900 When silicon power UD90.
The 1 TB sample also uses the SM2267XT, but this drive is also detected in the newer SM2269XT. Given its limited performance specs, this drive may also come with an equivalent E19T. Other faster controllers close to the SM2267XT are technically possible, such as the InnoGrit IG5220 and Phison E21T.
Four 512GB NAND modules with four 128GB dies provide a total of 2TB. This is Intel’s 144-layer QLC. This flash intel 670p When Solidigm P41 PlusIt remains arguably the best QLC on the market, but it’s still a QLC.
Our 1 TB sample instead arrived with a Kioxia 112-layer BiCS5 TLC, but QLC is likely for its capacity.
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