Value Award
Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD
RRP: $249.99 | Website: www.kingston.com
Test Machine
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Intel Core i7 3770K
GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H
SEAGATE 7200.12 500GB
ANTEC HCP 1200
Windows 7 64-bit SPI
T
here’s but no reason today
that any gamer, enthusiast
or overclocker should not be
using an SSD of some sort.
These were expensive many
moons ago circa 2008 when
INTEL introduced the X-25M but
things have changed drastically
since then. NAND prices have
plummeted and there are many
more players in the market.
Even MSI is joining in on the
SSD market.
All the advances, competition
and wide spread use of SSDs
have accelerated the price
reduction of SSDs and now you
can have 240GB (unformatted)
for a mere $249.99. That’s a
little over $1.04 a gigabyte.
Amazing considering that this
24 The OverClocker Issue 20 | 2012
time last year, some drives
commanded twice the price per
gigabyte.
What we have here then
is an evolution of Kingston’s
original HyperX drives. At the
time of their initial outing were
impressed with the drives.
Especially when put up against
their SSD V100 line of drives
which were cost effective but
ultimately poor in performance.
As it stands right now, there’s
no reason why you should not
skip over that line and focus
squarely on the 3K series.
The differences in
performance as you can see
in the numbers between the
original HyperX and the 3K
series isn’t pronounced. You’re
basically looking at a tweaked
HyperX drive, but one where
the gains are sizeable enough
for you to take notice of. Had,
it not been for the Plextor
drives, the HyperX 3K would
have easily been amongst the
fastest drives ever tested here
at TheOverclocker magazine.
However given the keen pricing
of the HyperX 3K we are justified
in regarding this as one of the
most attractive drives on the
market right now. In comparison
to the Intel 520 drive, it’s more
direct competitor, it has a shorter
warranty and it just isn’t as fast
in some situations, but that drive
is $20 more and it does not come
with all the nifty little extras this
drive is packaged with, namely
the magnetic screwdriver kit,
the USB2.0 enclosure and our
favourite when it comes to drive
cloning software. So you may be
making some small sacrifices
when it comes to the warranty
but overall you’re actually getting
much better value with this drive
hence the Value award.
For sheer speed we’d look
to the Plextor drives, but those
cost even more and once again
just do not have the bundle that
the Kingston drive comes with.
You’d actually be hard pressed
to find a better bundle than this