Kingston NV1 NVMe PCIe SSD
SATA killer?
It seems like just yesterday we were talking about how SSDs have replaced hard drives in all but the most affordable systems and laptops. Is it time for a new conversation? Is SATA now useful for secondary storage only? NVMe drives continue to reduce in price, especially now that PCIe 4.0 drives are widely available leaving PCIe 3.0 drives as affordable options. And there are very few NVMe drives that are more affordable than the Kingston NV1.
The Kingston NV1 1TB is an NVMe M.2 2280 (80mm length) drive that makes use of a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. This is the part of the review that we’d go over the flash or controller, however, unlike most manufacturers that disclose fairly detailed specifications, Kingston doesn’t for the NV1. We believe this is so that Kingston is free to switch out the controller and flash in the future. In a cut-throat market where every cent matters, this gives Kingston the freedom to switch to cheaper and/or more plentiful components as the market dictates. These midlife changes have caught out other manufacturers in the past. What you really need to know is the sequential speed rating, which is 2,100/1,700 MB/s sequential read and write. The 1TB model we have for review has a 240 TBW endurance rating. Combine this low endurance rating with a three-year warranty, and it’s clear we’re looking at a budget drive.
Sequential read and write performance is always the headline on the packaging, but it’s important to remember that it’s the random performance and IOPS that make an SSD feel fast. Where a good SATA drive returns a result of around 130 seconds, the NV1 does it in 47.
As SSDs become more or less commodity items, pricing is absolutely critical. At the time of writing the 1TB Kingston NV1 can be found for as little as $130. That’s on par with the cheapest 1TB SATA drives! That alone would lead us to rate the NV1 very highly, however the Crucial P1 is available for similar prices, and it comes with a five-year warranty vs the three of the NV1.
It’s getting hard to recommend SATA drives for any purpose other than as secondary storage. The Kingston NV1 is a solid upgrade for a user with a low-capacity NVMe drive, like you’d find on a budget laptop. It won’t break any speed records but at these prices we don’t expect it to. Having said that, Kingston needs to be a little cheaper if we are to unequivocally recommend it. 10 or 20 bucks more gets a you a faster drive with a longer warranty and better endurance. But, if you’re looking for some extra capacity on the cheap and care about little else, the Kingston will do the job.
The Kingston NV1 will add welcome capacity to a budget system or laptop but otherwise it doesn’t stand out.