Kingston Digital KC310 960GB 'business-class' SSD now shipping

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Not all solid state drives are created equal. Sadly, I have learned this lesson the hard way. In an attempt to save money, I have in the past purchased budget drives. The result? Early failures, causing data loss and headaches.

Nowadays, I only buy quality brands, such as Samsung and Kingston. While the former makes some of the best drives on the market, the latter is no slouch either. Quite frankly, I rather love Kingston for SSDs and flash drives due to their reasonable cost and high reliability. Today, the company announces that it is shipping a 960GB "business-class" SSD.

"KC310 is a true HDD replacement as its large capacity allows users to store more data and applications. Powered by a Phison S10 quad-core, eight-channel controller, KC310 provides unsurpassed SATA Rev. 3.0 (6Gb/s) performance delivering high read/write speeds and IOPS", says Kingston Digital.

The company further explains, "KC310 is an ideal SSD for entry-level servers and datacenter hosting companies looking for more storage. The drive provides end-to-end data protection through Advanced SmartECC and Flash error code correction. Data can be rebuilt in the event of an error allowing for extended NAND durability and reliability. The addition of firmware-based power loss protection helps maintain data integrity as data is constantly moved to NAND to minimize the amount of time it stays in the cache".

Kingston Digital shares the following specifications and features.

  • High Capacity: more room to store applications and data
  • High Performance: allows user to fully exploit the potential of their systems while enhancing productivity
  • End-to-end data protection: provides intelligent data error correction for advanced data reliability
  • Firmware-based power loss protection: enables drive to recover from unsafe power shutdown
  • Supports S.M.A.R.T.: monitors the status of your drive
  • Supports TRIM: maintains maximum performance on compatible operating systems
  • Guaranteed: three-year warranty and free technical support
  • Form factor: 2.5 inch
  • Interface SATA Rev. 3.0 (6Gb/s): with backwards compatibility to SATA Rev. 2.0 (3Gb/s)
  • Capacities: 960GB
  • Controller: Phison PS3110-S10
  • Sequential Read/Write: SATA Rev. 3.0 - up to: 550/520MB/s
  • Maximum 4k Read/Write: Up to 99,000/89,000 IOPS
  • Random 4k Read/Write: Up to 96,000/88,000 IOPS
  • PCMARK Vantage HDD Suite Score: 80,700
  • Enterprise S.M.A.R.T. Tools: reliability tracking, usage statistics, life remaining, wear leveling, temperature
  • Total Bytes Written (TBW): 681TB 0.66 DWPD
  • Power Consumption: 0.54 W Idle / 0.67 W Avg / 1.66 W (MAX) Read / 3.26 W (MAX) Write
  • Storage temperature: -40°C~85°C
  • Operating temperature: 0°C~70°C
  • Dimensions: 69.9mm x 100.1mm x 7.0mm
  • Weight: 84g
  • Vibration operating: 2.17G Peak (7–800Hz)
  • Vibration non-operating: 20G Peak (10–2000Hz)
  • MTBF: 1 million hours
  • Warranty/support: 3-year warranty with free technical support

Ultimately, SATA SSDs have hit their ceiling, as 550/520MB/s is rather commonplace, so speed is not really a differentiator here. The selling point to businesses would be the large capacity coupled with the firmware-based power loss protection.

Is this worth the cost, however? The MSRP is a shocking $910 according to Kingston's website. By comparison, the 1TB Samsung 840 EVO is less than half the price on Amazon! While Samsung's offering is not certified as "business class", Kingston will have its work cut out for it to convince businesses to spend the premium.

If you are interested in buying it for your business (or home machine), you can do so here.

Do you think Kingston has priced this too high? Tell me in the comments.

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