Best Kingston SSD for 2011 MBP?

[Tamasi]

Ok, I finally made the decision to get a Kingston SSD. However, I'm really lost as to what model to get. They offer so many models (V, +, 100)..

Could anyone advice me as to what the good choice would be? (Possibly speaking out of personal experience?) Relevant factors in order of importance: reliability, speed, price.

Thanks a lot for any insights

 

[random47]

Are you open to other brands? I just got a intel 320 120 GB ssd. I have only had it for a few days, so I can't really give you a review, but im loving it so far.

 

[k43l]

Just got a Intel 320 80gb yesterday... awesome SSD. And I think the price is about the same as the Kingston V100+...

I'd definitely consider getting an Intel, much more bang for the buck

 

[Tamasi]

The reason I 'made the decision' to get a Kingston, is that apparently the 'used performance' of Kingston SSDs beats that of the used performance of Intel SSDs; Intels' performance are said to degrade over time, while Kingston SSDs don't really degrade.

At the same time Kingston SSDs (just like Intel SSDs) don't use the sandforce controller, which make them more reliable than most other brands. At least this is what I have been told..

Summary; since Kingston SSDs are considerably faster (after using them a while), yet only marginally less reliable, they seem a better choice.

 

[Tamasi]

PS. k43l, would you mind elaborating on your statement? In what sense do you consider Intel better bang for the buck? (I'm pretty much an SSD-newbie and really confused hearing all these different opinions..)

I'd definitely consider getting an Intel, much more bang for the buck

 

[dusk007]

I doubt Intel offers more Bang for the Buck. It is quite expensive for the performance and only offers better reliability but is hard to make out how much this should be worth as the difference is quite small in stats for consumers.
The Kingston with Toshiba controllers hardly degrade at all but all the other SSDs still return to good performance if you give them some time. It is not like it is getting worse and worse it is just that they don't clean everything up imidiately, which is probably smart because otherwise the SSD ends up writing loads of unnecessary stuff that shorten total lifespan and consume more power.
The only really decent thing about the Toshiba Controllers is their really low idle power consumption. 0,21W
Yet the 0,5 or 0,6 or Intel and Sandforce are not too far away. I think from a technological standpoint the Sandforce outwit the rest by far. Intel's praised X25-M sucks in power consumtion and write performance compared to the Sandforce offerings.

 

[Tamasi]

@ Dusk;

what would you have to say to those that claim that sandforce based SSDs chose speed over reliability. Isn't reliability especially important for SSDs, since you can't recover data once one crashes?

 

[k43l]

what I meant is... if you look at this chart on anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/show/4244/intel-ssd-320-review/8 you can see that the Intel SSD beats the kingston in almost every benchmark.


but well... in the end you probably won't notice the difference that much. Maybe the Intel would boot like 5 seconds faster...

I considered buying a Kingston, but I chose the Intel because Intel SSDs have the lowest failure rate (only like 0.6%). And Also, Intel claims that the 320 Series SSDs are twice as reliable as all the other Intel SSDs...

But maybe you should read some SSD-reviews to kinda get a feeling what's good and what's bad.

 

[wingsabr]

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I have the V+ 100 128gb and it works great. Has built in garbage collection uses the same controller as the Apple SSD.

 

[DarwinOSX]

I have the V+ 100 128gb and it works great. Has built in garbage collection uses the same controller as the Apple SSD.

Which also means you are much less likely to face the compatibility issues so many others have with SSD's.

 

[kdoug]

Ok, I finally made the decision to get a Kingston SSD. However, I'm really lost as to what model to get. They offer so many models (V, +, 100)..

Could anyone advice me as to what the good choice would be? (Possibly speaking out of personal experience?) Relevant factors in order of importance: reliability, speed, price.

Thanks a lot for any insights

THe V+100 is the newest, the V+ is one year old and the V has been discontinued. The V+ and V+100 use the Toshiba controller like the Apple SSD's. THe only exception we're some early V+'s that used the Samsung controller. If you happen to buy the older V+, make sure it starts with 325 and not 225. These are great SSD's that are very compatible with Macbooks because of the Toshiba controller.

 

[Tamasi]

Thanks a lot for all your replies

@ kdoug, you seem to know a lot about the Kingston SSDs, one more question;
do the newer V+100 models offer a performance boost over the V+ models if one puts the SSD on a SATAII connection? Or does one need a SATAIII connection to notice the performance improvement?
(I'm aiming to put the SSD in my 2011 MBP optibay which is SATAII you see)

ps. any suggestion for an optibay enclosure that fits the Kingston SSDs?

 

[Fhame Rashid]

The V+100 has tweaked Firmware; more aggressive OS-independent garbage collection and higher overall performance. Kingston claims its almost 25% more improvement than the V+.

Most importantly, it uses Toshiba T6UG1XBG controller, exactly the same one used in the Apple SSD line up, meaning No beachballs, freeze, sleep or hibernation issues.

I have the 128GB V+100 model, and I can confirm I have ZERO compatibility problem. I was torn between the Vertex 3 and the Kingston V+100, later pulled the trigger on the V+100. Reason being:

At the end of the day, for daily usage you won't see any speed difference and in some cases RELIABILITY and PEACE OF MIND is more important than anything else.

 

[kdoug]

The V+100 has tweaked Firmware; more aggressive OS-independent garbage collection and higher overall performance. Kingston claims its almost 25% more improvement than the V+.

Most importantly, it uses Toshiba T6UG1XBG controller, exactly the same one used in the Apple SSD line up, meaning No beachballs, freeze, sleep or hibernation issues.

I have the 128GB V+100 model, and I can confirm I have ZERO compatibility problem. I was torn between the Vertex 3 and the Kingston V+100, later pulled the trigger on the V+100. Reason being:

At the end of the day, for daily usage you won't see any speed difference and in some cases RELIABILITY and PEACE OF MIND is more important than anything else.

What he said. You can't go wrong with either V+ or V+100 it all depends on your budget.

 

[SeniorGato1]

+1 on the V+ on my 2011 macbook pro. I started with the intel SSD 510 however ran into the infamous beachball problem.

The V+ was on sale at buy.com for $160 after rebate. 128 GB. I've seen it back on sale a few times.

In comparing the V+ to the Intel 510, it's a tad slower. 24 second bootup vs 19 which is really no big deal. Apps seem to open at about the same rate; 1-1.5 icon bounces for most.

I also have the V on a Windows PC. Works great as well.

 

[dmk1974]

I recently bought a 64 and 128 from Costco. At the time, mine were $70 and $160 after rebate (plus tax of course). Both are running great!

http://www.costco.com/Common/Search...e=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US

 

[DarwinOSX]

I like the idea of greater compatibility even if it means giving up some speed. But NewEgg reviewers are complaining of short drive life on the V100.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139416

Kingston is replying saying to update the firmware.

 

[proboscisjoe]

I like the idea of greater compatibility even if it means giving up some speed. But NewEgg reviewers are complaining of short drive life on the V100.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139416

Kingston is replying saying to update the firmware.

Given the fact that the V100 doesn't use the Toshiba controller that so many hail as a hallmark of compatibility, I wouldn't even consider it an option in this discussion. Let it die young! (...in a PC.)

 

[Fubar1977]

My V100 died spontaneously after just 1 month of light use.
Avoid like the plague. (your mileage may vary )

 

[FOX160]

Cant you buy what SSD Apple put in theres?

 

[DarwinOSX]

My V100 died spontaneously after just 1 month of light use.
Avoid like the plague. (your mileage may vary )

There is a known issue with these that requires a firmware update to prevent premature death.

 

[iCBF]

Cant you buy what SSD Apple put in theres?

it seems you either buy a second hand one (no thanks)

or you buy an entire macbook pro with one in (no thanks)

I don't know why apple don't just sell them separately?

They sell them seperately for mac pros - why not macbook pro? there's obviously people who want them...

 

[Fubar1977]

There is a known issue with these that requires a firmware update to prevent premature death.

I think I`ll be waiting another 12 months at least before I chance another SSD from any manufacturer and certainly not until we start getting single cell memory in commercial grade drives.

Multi cell memory/cheap drives and poorly implemented controllers are still the norm at the moment and I don`t feel like being an unpaid tester.

I thought I wasn`t being an early adopter this time, but apparently I am as this still does not feel like a commercially ready product, when I buy a platter HDD I don`t have to second-guess whether it`s been designed and built properly and whether the firmware is garbage or not it just works.

Little wonder the enterprise market still largely avoids SSD`s at the moment.
Wondering if my MBP is going to wake up or not this time is not the experience I was hoping for. Fast while it worked tho...

Not hating on SSD`s, just saying that as a product where reliability is one of the main selling points and in nearly 20 years I have never had an HDD die on me like that and had I not kept full backups I`d have a hard and expensive time recovering my data.

It`ll be an Intel drive next but, as I said, not for at least a year and not with multi-cell memory.

 

[Philflow]

V+ 100 is the best Kingston drive for MBP.

It performs on par with Intel and Sandforce. See Anandtech and Techspot.com for reviews.

Without TRIM, the Kingston keeps it's performance better than the Intel. This is explained by Anand.

The controller used by the Kingston V+ 100 (Toshiba) is the same controller Apple uses in MBA and MBP.

 

[DustinT]

The sandforce drives are a in class of their own. I would highly recommend them over a competing brand.