Kingston KC1000 240 GB

[W1zzard]

Kingston's KC1000 is the company's premier NVMe M.2 SSD solution. It it built using a Phison controller, paired with Toshiba MLC flash, which is great for all those TLC haters out there. We take the 240 GB version for a spin through synthetic and real-life benchmarks.

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[bug]

Any chance this is 3D MLC? Cause if it's not, we don't get the improved lifetime. We get "just" the improved performance.

 

[vega22]

wait, what now?

thumbs up

• No thermal throttling

thumbs down

• Thermal throttling with heavy writes

a little bit confusing that part tbh.

other than that a great write up, as usual, dude.

 

[W1zzard]

wait, what now?

thumbs up

• No thermal throttling

thumbs down

• Thermal throttling with heavy writes

a little bit confusing that part tbh.

other than that a great write up, as usual, dude.

Whoops, leftover from copy and paste. fixed now

 

[Glaring_Mistake]

Any chance this is 3D MLC?

Pretty much zero.
The E7 has AFAIK not been used with 3D NAND and Toshiba/WD think that 3D TLC NAND is good enough to pretty much eliminate the need for 3D MLC NAND.

Cause if it's not, we don't get the improved lifetime. We get "just" the improved performance.

Don't know if endurance is much of a concern for consumers.
Even if endurance is an important factor then I think the fact that Kingston might prioritize price of the NAND instead of its quality may be more worrisome than any difference in endurance between 2D and 3D MLC NAND.

 

[bug]

Pretty much zero.
The E7 has AFAIK not been used with 3D NAND and Toshiba/WD think that 3D TLC NAND is good enough to pretty much eliminate the need for 3D MLC NAND.



Don't know if endurance is much of a concern for consumers.
Even if endurance is an important factor then I think the fact that Kingston might prioritize price of the NAND instead of its quality may be more worrisome than any difference in endurance between 2D and 3D MLC NAND.

Yeah, I'm not too freaked out about endurance either (even poor SSDs today have better MTBF than HDDs). But I think it's important to look at it for those that may be using SSDs in a more write-intensive manner. Video and photo editing will eat endurance for lunch. Even compiling code leads to a lot of writing, but that's not a big concern unless you're working on more sizeable projects.
For surfing the web and updating your resume once in a blue moon, that SSDs will last you a lifetime.

 

[Glaring_Mistake]

Yeah, I'm not too freaked out about endurance either (even poor SSDs today have better MTBF than HDDs). But I think it's important to look at it for those that may be using SSDs in a more write-intensive manner. Video and photo editing will eat endurance for lunch. Even compiling code leads to a lot of writing, but that's not a big concern unless you're working on more sizeable projects.
For surfing the web and updating your resume once in a blue moon, that SSDs will last you a lifetime.

Yes, then endurance can be more of a concern.
And it's not just the amount of data written either but also how much you write at a time.
So if someone writes 1TB over a month then the drive is in better condition than if you wrote the same amount in just one day.
This is why eMLC/eTLC NAND doesn't write quite as fast as normal MLC/TLC NAND.

 

[coonbro]

in the thumbs down part

''Thermal throttling with heavy writes and no cooling
No heatsink

I wonder if you can mount a chipset cooler on this type of part ? then would it work out or help any ? use / get a active cooler for the small fan

http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g40/c16/list/p1/Air_Cooling-Chipset_HeatsinksCoolers.html

also it said cost . ya, MLC got high over TLC. in the 2.5 sata drives to the point of silly and now pretty not even offered anymore .

 

[bug]

in the thumbs down part

''Thermal throttling with heavy writes and no cooling
No heatsink

I wonder if you can mount a chipset cooler on this type of part ? then would it work out or help any ? use / get a active cooler for the small fan

http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g40/c16/list/p1/Air_Cooling-Chipset_HeatsinksCoolers.html

also it said cost . ya, MLC got high over TLC. in the 2.5 sata drives to the point of silly and now pretty not even offered anymore .

It's less of a concern than you'd think. Normally you don't do that intensive writes outside of benchmarks. Only if you're doing video editing, restoring from a backup or otherwise copying TB of data at once.

 

[coonbro]

well I seen passive coolers for these but I just thought if it was a issue [ seeing it was a con in the review must of been at issue ] one of them + the chipset type micro fan blowing on it would help a tad better then just a passive cooler alone , thats all .

for me I yet to see where my old platter drives are failing to serve . but I do figure when I get short handed on a hard drive I will go ssd to give it a go . just aint got there for the need yet .

 

[W1zzard]

if it was a issue

it's somewhere in between. it's not a complete non-issue, as it can happen, for example when restoring a few hundred gb of backup in one go.

it's a minor issue because there's no way it can happen during normal workloads.

not mentioning it in cons = people accusing me of conspiracy

Not sure if I have worded it good enough in the review to make it clear for all readers, any suggestions?

 

[coonbro]

its good . I just made a suggestion if it was a issue for your needs look into mounting the heatsink and maybe a little micro fan to combat [I would , heck I'd even try a small case or gpu fan to put some wind on it ]

even with these platter drives [wd blacks] my case has fans for there bays . like anything more work more power more heat . just how it is

no your reviews are nice I like to look in to them on parts of interest . any info you provide is good info pro or con . keep up the good work

 

[bug]

its good . I just made a suggestion if it was a issue for your needs look into mounting the heatsink and maybe a little micro fan to combat [I would , heck I'd even try a small case or gpu fan to put some wind on it ]

even with these platter drives [wd blacks] my case has fans for there bays . like anything more work more power more heat . just how it is

no your reviews are nice I like to look in to them on parts of interest . any info you provide is good info pro or con . keep up the good work

I think this could vary from setup to setup. Good airflow and a mobo that puts the M2 slot in its path may negate the problem altogether. Meanwhile poor airflow may exacerbate the problem to the point even an attached heatsink wouldn't have where to dump the heat.
That said, if you own a NVMe drive and manage to throttle it frequently, a few bucks spent on a heatsink would a no brainer.

 

[Keullo-e]

Weird how bad results that 950 Pro gets in Office installation. Thermal throttling?

I have a 600p 256GB and I have an Alphacool heatsink on it. Easy to install and won't void the warranty since it just uses thermal pads and is fastened with simple clips.

 

[W1zzard]

The 950 pro has an issue with how the office installer loads the files during installation. I have narrowed this down to a single step in the install process, it's not a thermal issue, and since office is one of the most installed applications on the planet, it's not enough reason for me to stop benching office in ssd reviews