Kingston HyperX SSD and 3K version, whats the difference???

[Fuzz]

I've been looking at the 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD and I was wondering if anybody knew what the difference is between the HyperX 3K version (which is all black) and the standard HyperX (which is blue and black).

Apart from the colours (and price) is there any other difference?

Thanks all!

[Agent]

The 3K bit is telling you the NAND is rated for 3K program / erase cycles. I don't know what the other HyperX is rated for, check it's datasheet and you'll know the difference.

[Fuzz]

Ok now that makes sense.
Looking closely at the data sheets it seems that the 3K models use cheaper NANDs as the standard HyperX use intel 25nm NANDs rated at 5K w/r cycles.

Question is this, is 3K r/w any good? And how does that compare to other banded SSDs such as Samsung, Crucial, sandisk etc.

[teppic]

I shouldn't worry about the number of writes, as on a typical desktop you're going to get several years from the drive, and there's no doubt that in 5 years we'll all be using something a lot better anyway.

[Agent]

Question is this, is 3K r/w any good? And how does that compare to other banded SSDs such as Samsung, Crucial, sandisk etc.

It's fine for home users. You'll probably want to replace it before it even gets close to it's death.

As for comparing - pull up the datasheets for those and check You've done it once

[Fuzz]

Tried that but some brands don't list all the gory details. Some list some details and some list over details.
I think at the moment it's a toss up between getting the Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB for £65 or the Samsung 830 128GB for £78

[Greecean]

normal - 5K
3k - 3K

the price difference, i went for the 3k's

[Agent]

The 830 is a solid drive. Samsung are known for being reliable in the SSD field.
It's rated at 5K using toggle NAND.

You also never have any worry about it being a Sandforce (Compression issues, BSOD chance - covered in many threads on here)

I'd go with the Sammy (or a Crucial M4) without a second thought.

[teppic]

The Sandforce BSOD thing is fixed now. I've got a Kingston HyperX (the original one), and got random BSODs like everybody else until a firmware update a few months back.

Still, I'd recommend a Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 mostly myself.

[Agent]

The Sandforce BSOD thing is fixed now.

They have been vastly reduced, but they have not been fixed.

http://forums.hexus.net/storage/2447...fixed-yet.html

There exists a bug that Sandforce either don't know about, or are unable to fix for whatever reason. AnAnd have mentioned this in a few articles like the one I linked in that thread.

The only way to know for certain if a SF based drive will be fine in your system is to use one and test it. You then have to consider any issues that might happen if you move systems.

There are still people posting on forums around the web with the BSOD issues, although granted, as above, it has been reduced significantly.

[teppic]

Hmm, ok. I'd noticed no new posts in browsing forums, while reports used to be everywhere - and my own problems disappeared too. I don't think it's much of an issue any more, anyway.

[DratUK]

I think most issues according to tech websites are saying issues are cleared up, but as Agent quite rightly points out there is a problem not resolved. Ordered the Sammie as for the price its good value with a healthy performance with no worries regarding Sandforce controllers. I would rather have reliability than save a few seconds on opening a prog.