Review of Kingston KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (2TB): A New Breed of Speed

 HIGHLIGHTS

• The Kingston KC3000 is available in sizes ranging from 1TB to 4TB.
• To take use of its performance, you'll need a PCIe 4.0 platform or a PlayStation 5.
• Although the performance is superb, it costs twice as much as standard SSDs.

How fast does your SSD need to be? Is there a point where speed no longer matters, and should you really be pursuing every last drop of performance? We've gone from spinning hard drives to SATA SSDs to the NVMe protocol in a short period of time, and each of these standards has reached a saturation limit beyond which any drive would be bottlenecked. Now, owing to the PCIe 4.0 standard, a relatively new generation of SSDs is double the theoretical speed of NVMe. This has created a completely new segment in the SSD industry, and most firms currently have solutions available that can take advantage of it — assuming you have suitable hardware.

In sharp contrast to its past entry-level solutions, Kingston's new KC3000 SSD aims to provide the fastest data transfer speeds available. If you frequently load large game graphics, or work with large video files or 3D models, this might be the SSD for you. This kind of performance, of course, comes at a cost. I was able to fully evaluate the Kingston KC3000 thanks to Intel's new 12th Gen desktop architecture. Continue reading to find out how big of a difference it may make in your life.

Price of Kingston KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD in India

Following its global introduction last year, Kingston has just lately begun selling the KC3000 SSD in India, and it is available in four storage variants. Prices on the street change, and these values are correct at the time of publication. Performance varies depending on the capacity chosen, as stated below.

The smallest storage available is 512GB, which reveals something about the KC3000's intended demographic. In India, this variant costs Rs. 9,400. The 1TB version will cost Rs. 15,200, while the 2TB version I received for evaluation would cost Rs. 33,900. There's also a flagship 4TB model, but it's priced at Rs. 86,800, which is more than quadruple the price. 4TB NVMe SSDs in the M.2 form factor are uncommon, and costs for such a specialised product are unlikely to fall very soon.

This SSD will compete with the WD Black SN850, Seagate Firecuda 530, and Samsung SSD 980 Pro, among others. Prices are comparable by that metric, but still almost twice as expensive as a common PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD like the WD Blue SN570, which I just tested.

Specifications and characteristics of the Kingston KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

The major attraction of a PCIe 4.0 SSD is speed, and Kingston guarantees 7000MBps sequential reads and writes - almost twice as fast as today's highest performing PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs. However, these rates are only applicable to the 2TB and 4TB models; the claimed sequential read speed stays unchanged, while sequential write objectives decrease to 6000MBps for the 1TB model and 3900MBps for the 512GB model. Because the M.2 slot standard remains consistent from generation to generation, you may use this SSD with older motherboards; it will merely operate at the lower PCIe standard's performance level.

For the KC3000, Kingston has chosen the relatively new Phison PS5018-E18 controller and Micron's 176-layer TLC NAND memory. High-end SSDs contain their own DRAM for caching, ranging from 512MB on the 512GB model to 4GB on the 4TB variant. Kingston's spec sheet also mentions SLC caching. This implies that instead of the normal three bits per cell, only one bit is written to each cell of the TLC NAND to speed up processes, after which the data is combined. Hardware encryption is not mentioned.

Endurance is rated at 400TBW (Terabytes written) for the 512GB version and 3.2PBW (Petabytes written) for 4TB, with capacity scaling proportionally. During the five-year guarantee term, this equates to between 219GB and 876GB of writes per day for various capacities.

The Kingston KC3000 is packaged in a transparent plastic bubble pack that is fixed on a plain sheet of cardboard. There is virtually little security, which is unexpected for such a high-end SSD. The 512GB and 1TB models include a single-sided chip, but the 2TB and 4TB models have chips on both sides of the M.2 module. The pretty elegant label (unlike previous models' labels) is printed on a very thin graphene-aluminum strip that functions as a heat spreader. It will not interfere with the heatsinks found on many of today's high-end desktop motherboards, but keep these considerations in mind if you wish to update a compact laptop.

It should be noted that the Kingston KC3000 is both physically and technically compatible with the Sony PlayStation 5. (and you can add an adhesive heatsink if needed). This is an option if you want to increase the capacity of your internal storage. Even on Windows PCs, the new DirectStorage API allows data such as compressed game assets to be taken straight from an SSD into the memory of a graphics card. This avoids using the CPU and enables more effective decompression, allowing games to load faster. This is an example of when PCIe 4.0 bandwidth can be useful.

You may get a free copy of Kingston's SSD Manager programme, which contains diagnostics and a safe erase capability, as well as a copy of Acronis True Image HD if you wish to clone or backup your old drive. In comparison to what we've seen from WD and Samsung, Kingston's software appears rudimentary. As is customary, the packaging fails to inform purchasers that this software is even accessible.

Performance of the Kingston KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

Such a high-end SSD demands top-tier components, and I was able to take advantage of PCIe 4.0's full potential by using Intel's newest 12th Gen 'Alder Lake' architecture. An Intel Core i9-12900K CPU, an Asus TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 motherboard, 2x16GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3600 RAM, a Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 graphics card, a Corsair RM850 power supply, an Asus Strix LC II 360 AIO cooler, and an Asus PB287Q 4K monitor comprised the test bench. Under Windows 11, tests revealed a formatted capacity of 1.86TB for the 2TB KC3000.

Let's take a look at the test results, keeping in mind that Kingston supplied me the 2TB version for testing, which has higher performance ratings than its smaller-capacity siblings. CrystalDiskMark showed sequential reads and writes of 7091.3MBps and 6773.3MBps, respectively. In comparison, the recently announced WD Blue SN570, which is an excellent alternative for budget-conscious shoppers, achieved 3495.3MBps and 2997.3MBps, respectively. The random read speed was 2,745MBps, while the random write speed was 1170.1MBps.

The read and write scores for the Anvil storage benchmark were 9,132.52 and 11,565.5, for a total of 20,698.02. These results indicate that the Kingston KC3000 efficiently exploits the increased bandwidth of PCIe 4.0 to deliver scores that are about twice as high as those of even the finest PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs we've tested so far.

Verdict

PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs are significantly more expensive than PCIe 3.0 competitors, but the reason is obvious: performance is in a completely other league. The Kingston KC3000 is intended for customers who are constructing new high-end PCs and want cutting-edge performance. Gamers may prefer faster load times between levels, whereas creative professionals may prefer loading and storing their work with less waiting time. If you're going to spend a lot of money on the newest CPU and motherboard, you'll need an SSD of this calibre to fully utilise their capabilities. However, for most users, this is past the threshold of diminishing returns. Most people would be completely content with the performance provided by a PCIe 3.0 SSD, and it wasn't long ago that even SATA SSDs were a luxury.

To take use of PCIe 4.0, you'll need a reasonably current AMD or Intel processor and a matching motherboard (or a PlayStation 5), thus buying such an SSD to replace an older PC makes little sense. If money is not an issue, then go for the best. The Kingston KC3000 is the fastest SSD we've tested so far, but you should also evaluate competitors like WD and Samsung, and compare pricing when making your buying decision.

Prices for Kingston KC3000 (MOP): 

• 512GB: Rs. 9,400
• 1TB costs Rs. 15,200.
• Rs. 33,900 for 2TB
• Rs. 86,800 for 4TB

Pros

• Exceptional performance
• Warranty of five years
• Low-profile heat dissipator

Cons

• There is no hardware encryption.
• The software could be improved.

Scores (Out of 5)

• 5 for performance
• 4 for value for money
• Overall rating: 4.5