We have in our labs Kingston's latest solid-state drives (SSDs) for PCs and laptops, the SSDNow V300 Series. Designed to replace the existing SSDNow V200 models, the V300 should offer sequential read and write speeds of around 450MB/s - somewhere between five and 10 times faster than a traditional...

Solid State Drives are becoming the more cost effective upgrade to the traditional home computer.  Adding a solid state drive will speed up Windows boot up time, will allow your applications to load faster and make data transfers much easier.

Great performance; Accessories bundle; Price

Would have liked to see a 5 year warranty

The Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB solid state drive covered in this review has a respectable capacity of 120GB. Although marketed as a "notebook bundle kit," this SSD will perform just the same in either a desktop or notebook environment.

» With compressible data this drive exceeded its rated read and write transfer speeds by 50MB/s; » Win7 loading time of 23 seconds with an overclocked i5 2500k; » Fair pricing; at less than $1/GB; » Included Acronis disk cloning software is very effective and simple to use

» Poor; but expected sequential read/write performance with incompressible data

Can Kingston's latest drive give the SandForce controller a new lease of life?

Good performance; Competitively priced; Good accessories

Incompressible data performance could be better; SandForce showing signs of age

As the world's largest independent manufacturer of memory products, Kingston Technology doesn't need much of an introduction. The company got its start in 1987, when the computer industry was suffering from a severe shortage of surface-mount memory chips.

Available in 60GB; 120GB and 240GB capacities; SandForce SF-2281 processor; Toggle Mode NAND flash; Excellent sequential read and write speeds; SATA 6Gb/s interface; Supports SMART; TRIM and Garbage Collection; Available as stand-alone drive or as part of an upgrade kit; Well constructed design,...

Not as fast when writing incompressible data

As with any value-oriented product, the largest issue comes down to price. At the time of this writing, the bare 120GB drive can be had for $101 from a of couple retailers, with the various kits adding another $10-15 onto that.

Last November Kingston announced a new series of budget SSDs called SSDNow V300. Hardware.Info tested the 120GB model which is one of the most affordable SSDs currently on the market. The V300 may have a budget price, but it's certainly doesn't contain budget hardware.

The 120GB Kingston SSDNow V300 Series internal solid-state drive (SSD) is priced to appeal to ordinary consumers at £75, but it boasts a level of performance that sat at the top of the enthusiast's market not so long ago.

Impressive performance; Great price; Upgrade bundle is also cheap; Three year warranty

Write speeds not as strong

The 120GB Kingston SSDNow V300 Series SV300S3D7 internal solid-state drive (SSD) is priced to appeal to ordinary consumers but with performance that sat at the top of the enthusiasts market not so long ago.

Great price/performance ratio; Priced well below $1 per GB

Older SF-2181 loses speed in random read/writes; or when working with uncompressed data

We have seem over the past year or so that the SSDNow series is aimed that the budget consumer. The one that wants the core essentials of a solid state drive without having to pay out the nose for it, this series from Kingston has been just that.