Kingston NV2 1 TB M.2 NVMe SSD

[TheUn4seen]

(snip)

Replace "five times more expensive" with just "more expensive" and my point stays the same - I did try to compare the NV1 to the most expensive, "obsessive enthusiast" level of devices in practical applications. In the shop I usually buy from, NV2 is, at the moment, the least expensive m.2 NVME drive or very close to being one, about five times cheaper than the most expensive drives of similar capacity. So what would I get for more money, no matter if just a tiny bit or a lot more? No practical improvement in any of the use cases the drive is intended for - it being a consumer device. I did not count SATA drives, a choice I should have mentioned, since I have no use for anything other than m.2 NVME. The car analogy you mentioned holds true for me - I don't care for "fun", whatever it would mean for a mass storage device. I want it to work for the intended purpose, a hybrid Toyota is an infinitely better car than a Maserati if you live in a city.

Don't take it as me trying to be snarky, I'm genuinely trying to understand the rationale behind buying unnecessarily expensive products. Does a typical consumer spend his days transferring large files or installing software all day long? This is a simple drive for people with simple, limited needs. If a person needs unparalleled performance for an income generating machine, there is a whole world of extremely fast and reliable storage. As for QLC not being cheaper than TLC - there's a lot going on with pricing a product. Manufacturing and sales volumes come to mind, TLC is probably being phased out of manufacturing because QLC has more density and therefore allows for bigger margins. Corporations never ever, in any market segment, pass their savings to consumers, "whatever the market will bear" pricing strategy is alive and well. Your problem therefore seems to be with corporate pricing practices, not with products.

Again and honestly not being sarcastic: What do you do with consumer hardware to be limited by it's capabilities? "Objectively better" doesn't mean anything if there's no need for it being better, it just becomes a waste of money a person spends on underutilized capacity.

 

[Wirko]

For one, I tend to buy a bit better (faster, more capable, larger, etc.) than I currently need. It has worked very well for me in the long term.

 

[Chrispy_]

Replace "five times more expensive" with just "more expensive" and my point stays the same

More expensive? I cannot take you seriously. Are you being intentionally blind and ignorant?

It's the same price (or actually cheaper); Not more expensive. Where are you getting that dumb shit into your head from? QLC is just worse for no cost savings whatsoever. You're getting a weaker, slower, shorter-lifespan drive for no reason.

If you're talking about QLC budget drives vs high-end PCIe 4.0 flagship drives, then yes, but that's not the discussion we're having, at least that's not the discussion I started. You quoted me on QLC vs TLC, and since QLC only exists at the rock-bottom/entry-level of the market, I have no idea why you're bringing premium flagship PCIe 4.0 storage into the discussion at all. That stuff is aimed at rich people with money to burn, and pro users who need fast local storage for writing to huge datasets like pointcloud analysis, high-res video editing, realtime market analysis etc. Those people can spend $25K on a PC and don't even consider dirt-cheap entry-level storage like the NV1, 660p, or RocketQ - so it's completely irrelevant to the discussion.

To put it simply, QLC is bad - but its weaknesses can be hidden well enough that it won't significantly underperform a TLC drive in the right combination of lightweight consumer workloads. A QLC drive will die in around one-third the lifespan of a TLC drive, and if you use a QLC drive for content creation it will absolutely suck the whole time you're using it and possibly die within the warranty period.

If QLC and TLC are the same price, there is absolutely no reason for QLC to exist. It's simply worse, weaker, slower, more fragile NAND that offers absolutely zero benefits. The one benefit it was supposed to offer, was reduced costs - but that simply hasn't materialised, so we're getting all of the downsides of QLC for no benefit at all.

 

[to001]

Any chance to review cn600 warhalberd ?

 

[W1zzard]

Any chance to review cn600 warhalberd ?

I've had it here for a while, haven't had time for it yet

 

[Aizou]

I am considering the 2 TB version of this drive and I have a question(its under 150 euro). The 2TB has 3.500/2.800 MB/s reads which are borderline gen3 speeds.

So my question is, does this drive require a gen 4 slot to fully work at its advertised speed? Or a gen3 slot is enough to saturate the drive since it does not even hit full gen3 potential.

 

[lexluthermiester]

So my question is, does this drive require a gen 4 slot to fully work at its advertised speed? Or a gen3 slot is enough to saturate the drive since it does not even hit full gen3 potential.

Gen3 will work fine. You'll either get right on or very close to those numbers.

 

[Wirko]

I am considering the 2 TB version of this drive and I have a question(its under 150 euro). The 2TB has 3.500/2.800 MB/s reads which are borderline gen3 speeds.

So my question is, does this drive require a gen 4 slot to fully work at its advertised speed? Or a gen3 slot is enough to saturate the drive since it does not even hit full gen3 potential.

I don't know what magic Wizz does but even the 1 TB model does sequential reads at up to 7000 MB/s in this review. Not that it matters much, or at all. 7000 is achieved on sequential reading of large blocks and it needs to be queued (QD > 1). In the real world, that's useful if you copy large files to another storage device (capable of writing at the same speed) or send them over the network (at no less than 56 gigabits per second). Not much else.

 

[TP555]

Hi

Anyone have the 2TB Version ?
How to Perform the 2TB with Sustained Writes ?

The 2 TB Version is very affordable now for 144€ !

Cheers !

 

[cooldavy]

Thank you for this awesome review.

I am looking for a low thermal choice for my 14 liter ITX case (NZXT H1 v2), which has a vacant m.2 slot on the back side of the mobo(ROG Strix B660-I) and less than half inch away from an ROG Strix 3080/12. My 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus installed under mobo heatsink can hit 82C during gaming that leaves me with fear of adding the second SSD drive without any thermal issue. DRAM-less and "lower-end" performance seems to be a good SSD for my need and I have just ordered a 2TB NV2.

I will update the post once I receive the drive.

 

[ShurikN]

Just got the 500GB version today, and these are the first bench result at 40% full
I'm satisfied TBH, especially since I got it for less than 50eur, and it was by far the cheapest nvme drive that actually performs ok

 

[cooldavy]

I finally got the 2TB version from Amazon. The performance is, like it's price ($129.99) you shouldn't expect too much. I put it in between the Mobo and an RTX3080 it can hit 81C during gaming.

Half full test results are laughable, now I am really on the fence whether to return it or not:

 

[Chrispy_]

I finally got the 2TB version from Amazon. The performance is, like it's price ($129.99) you shouldn't expect too much. I put it in between the Mobo and an RTX3080 it can hit 81C during gaming.

Half full test results are laughable, now I am really on the fence whether to return it or not:

Your results are very different from the review sample.

CDM 8.0 isn't a like-for-like test that matches what @W1zzard tests but I wouldn't expect read speeds to deteriorate as the drive fills up! Even on garbage-tier QLC drives, the read speed rarely suffers.

Could be symptom of something else entirely - heat, controller issues, firmware bugs - or it wouldn't be the first time Kingston had pulled the old bait-and-switch tactic. I note on page 1 of the review that when asked, Kingston declined to comment on what the components used were. That's potentially because the person being asked didn't know, but also gives them wiggle room to change components in a classic bait-and-switch by not nailing down the NV2 to any particular spec.

 

[cts]

For those who are looking to buy this disk - not all Kingston NV2 are based on Phison PS5021 controller as shown in this review. Some have SM2267XT. Nvme itself is also visually a little bit different.

 

[W1zzard]

For those who are looking to buy this disk - not all Kingston NV2 are based on Phison PS5021 controller as shown in this review. Some have SM2267XT. Nvme itself is also visually a little bit different.

Any tips on how to identify them visually? i.e. do you have a photo of the SM2267 XT version?

 

[cts]

Controller itself is soldered in different location and some smd elements around it (and nand flash chips) are different. Probably based on reference SM design pcb.

 

[lexluthermiester]

For those who are looking to buy this disk - not all Kingston NV2 are based on Phison PS5021 controller as shown in this review. Some have SM2267XT. Nvme itself is also visually a little bit different.

Are the actual performance numbers similar or the same?

 

[cts]

Didn't have time to check performance yet. Will run some tests later.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Didn't have time to check performance yet. Will run some tests later.

I think the changes would be ok if the performance is on par with the original design. If not they should have changed the model number to indicate the change.

 

[W1zzard]

I think the changes would be ok if the performance is on par with the original design. If not they should have changed the model number to indicate the change.

Kingston confirmed to me that they are the official specs, but nothing else. that's also why some numbers are more conservative than what I found in my review.

 

[uwotm9]

Purchased my 1TB NV2 a few days ago and installed it into MSI GF76 laptop yesterday. Test speeds are from laughable to acceptable as mentioned above (varies from run to run). However, temperatures are not. Idle (!) temp is 55-70 degrees (Celsius not Fahrenheit lol), typically 60-65. What's even more strange, under load, say, writing some 50-100 GB stuff, it goes... colder. Not sure is it throttling or broken firmware or something. I checked disk usage - maybe idle is not idle right? - but it's 0.000%. GF 76 comes with 500 GB WD SSD and that one runs withing 25-40 deg C and hits 48 under full load. Seems normal SSD appearance to me. Both (WD and NV2) have no heatsinks etc.

I've even opened a laptop again to check it and touch: yes, NV2 goes painfully hot.
What else? TRIM is enabled and overall there's nothing special to make it perform like that.
Even its location in laptop is a bit aside from hot parts and it doesn't go any hotter at gaming sessions.

Any thoughts? Should I return it?
Installing heatsink seems an option but I'm not sure if it will fit the laptop.
There's no firmware updates for now.

 

[cts]

Some benhmarks.
System - Msi B450 Tomahawk Max, R3600 stock, 2X8GB 3200 ram.
Nvme disk is working in Pcie 3.0 x4 mode and has some airflow blowing on to it.

At least Nand is the same Toshiba 112-layer 3D TLC BiCS5 as in review.

 

[ROGU]

I bought NV2 1TB in Canada. Package says made in Taiwan. It's most definitely one with SM2267XT, not Phison E21.
It seems these two versions are easily distinguishable by placement of parts that you can see sticking out of sticker.
A couple of reviews of 2TB version I saw on web also says it has SM2267XT.
I don't know which controller is better in performance but supposedly SM2267XT is 28nm while E21 is 12nm, so I guess SM2267XT will run hotter.
Only reason I got NV2 is because it was cheaper than other PCIE 4.0 nvme, so it doesn't really matter. I rather keep $$$ than buying high-end model.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Kingston confirmed to me that they are the official specs, but nothing else. that's also why some numbers are more conservative than what I found in my review.

Ok, cool. Looks like the drive performs on par to the advertised specs, as shown...

Some benhmarks.
System - Msi B450 Tomahawk Max, R3600 stock, 2X8GB 3200 ram.
Nvme disk is working in Pcie 3.0 x4 mode and has some airflow blowing on to it.
View attachment 269674
View attachment 269675 View attachment 269676
View attachment 269677 View attachment 269678
View attachment 269679
View attachment 269680

At least Nand is the same Toshiba 112-layer 3D TLC BiCS5 as in review.

...here.

So your review sample might not have been final specs, but as long as the final product performs as required, that's not a terrible problem. Given that the NAND does seem to be the same, I think the change in controller can be forgiven.

 

[W1zzard]

So your review sample

I didn't test a review sample, I purchased the drive myself from a German retailer