Kingston KC3000 SKC3000S/512G 512 GB

The Kingston KC3000 is a relatively inexpensive and compact M.2 SSD that has taken the SSD market by storm by becoming one of the most affordable SSDs with support for the fourth generation PCI-E system interface. With the release of this model, Kingston found a promising formula for success that combines an affordable price, high operating speeds and modest dimensions. The Kingston engineers used the well-received Phison E18 chip as the master controller, while the main memory array was recruited from Micron's high-end 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory.

In order to increase stability and reduce overheating during prolonged operation, the memory chips and the controller were covered with a neat low-profile heatsink. The test sample KC3000 SKC3000S/512G has an optimal memory capacity of 512 GB for most users, its maximum write speed is 3900 MB/s, and the read speed flies up to 7000 MB/s. This is almost twice as fast as M.2 drives with PCI-E 3.0 interface and more than 10 times faster than classic SSD drives connected via SATA 3 bus.

At the same time, the IOPS rating of this model almost reaches 1 million operations per second . And this is more than a serious result. The guaranteed write resource is 800 TB. The manufacturer's warranty is 5 years. All of this makes Kingston KC3000 the best option for gaming PCs and consoles that support the installation of additional SSDs. But for working with 3D graphics and high-resolution video sources, this is not the best option due to the lack of a dedicated buffer.