Kingston NV3

[W1zzard]

The Kingston NV3 SSD is built using a new Silicon Motion controller, which provides good improvements in real-life performance over the NV2. Our review confirms that the NV3 is highly efficient in energy use and consumes very little power when idle, too.

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[GabrielLP14]

I'm really impressed by it's efficiency, i was not expecting that at all. Highest power draw at 3.9W.... insane even for a 2TB QLC drive.

 

[azrael]

You lost me at QLC.

I'd only buy a QLC drive if it were *extremely* cheap and only for "trash data" (i.e. stuff I'm okay with losing).

Apart from that, buying a Kingston SSD is like that box of chocolate. You never know what you get.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

You lost me at QLC.

I'd only buy a QLC drive if it were *extremely* cheap and only for "trash data" (i.e. stuff I'm okay with losing).

Apart from that, buying a Kingston SSD is like that box of chocolate. You never know what you get.

Agreed. This is too expensive...you can regularly find TLC drives around $75 for 1TB and even around $120 for 2TB....for me to even consider a QLC drive, it'd have to be at most $100 for a 2TB

 

[b1k3rdude]

Oh dear, once the cache has filled up the perf falls off a cliff and into the abyss -

- https://tpucdn.com/review/kingston-nv3/images/write-over-time.png

 

[Xuper]

I own SN580 , Still better than this Kingston NV3 and Cheaper. 2TB = 120$ , I bought 1TB variant for 55$.

 

[Ruru]

QLC, damn... well, still passable for a game drive.

 

[Chrispy_]

At least the review sample is QLC this time, but the issue remains that there are something like 50 known variants of the NV2 using an absolutely staggering number of different controllers and NAND for a 'single' product model.

It's just a dice-roll and you have to expect rock-bottom performance at a rock-bottom price. If the one you buy isn't as dreadful as you expected, then count that as a win. Whatever you do don't pay as much as superior drives using known controllers and NAND. Regional pricing variance is huge in the SSD market but here in Western Europe the WD SN580 continues to be priced similarly to the NV2 despite being a stellar performer that's guaranteed by WD to have the stated controller and guaranteed to be TLC NAND, even if it's not the exact TLC variant originally sampled.

 

[Ruru]

At least the review sample is QLC this time, but the issue remains that there are something like 50 known variants of the NV2 using an absolutely staggering number of different controllers and NAND for a 'single' product model.

Agree. I don't even know what chips my 2x 1TB NV2s use, though I could look that up. Anyway, doesn't matter that much as I use them purely for game storage.

 

[yfn_ratchet]

I suppose I can still hold on to the meme of the NV series being absolutely nuclear, even if the power efficiency's good. The fact that it throttles even with direct airflow... were this some bleeding-edge gen 5 controller, I could forgive it, but this is gen 4. We've been through this song and dance already.

 

[Heiro78]

My biggest takeaway is how great of a purchase a Kingston KC3000 woulda been back in 2021/ 2022. It still holds up as such a great SSD even compared to Gen5 drives. Albeit, I remember them costing 2.5 times the cost of what these NV3 do.

 

[sLowEnd]

The NV3 will most likely be another hodgepodge of random parts, like the other NV series SSDs before it.

 

[Wirko]

My biggest takeaway is how great of a purchase a Kingston KC3000 woulda been back in 2021/ 2022. It still holds up as such a great SSD even compared to Gen5 drives. Albeit, I remember them costing 2.5 times the cost of what these NV3 do.

Right now, you can buy the 2TB NV3 on amazon.de for 124 € - which is 11 € less than the KC3000. The KC3000 has the controller, IOPS, maximum power consumption and TLC NAND type declared in the specs. The NV3 has none of that (but consumption is impressively low anyway).

But let's wait a bit, it's too early to comment on the prices. They always adapt to the rest of the market, and in many cases, it means a sharp drop. Here's the 2TB NV2:

 

[Shrek]

Oh dear, once the cache has filled up the perf falls off a cliff and into the abyss -

- https://tpucdn.com/review/kingston-nv3/images/write-over-time.png

I think that is when it moves to QLC; I run an optane boot drive to avoid this issue.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

@W1zzard The table need to be corrected.

In any case. I avoid kingston products no matter how good they are because I cant trust them not to tamper with stuff and send out downgraded products to retail compared to the ones they sent out to reviewers. WD SN770 can be picked up for a lot cheaper (currently under £100 for 2tb on UK Amazon) and it has a 5 year warranty and a better drive overall with TLC chips. Why would you buy this kingston?

 

[vinhtq115]

I wonder if this SSD will have the 100% disk activity like the NV2 after few months of usage.

 

[Verpal]

Its probably one of the more performant QLC drive out there with reasonable TBW rating, however, pricing is a little wack for.... well still dramless QLC.

I think Kingston know and is just intentionally putting it at higher mark up first.

 

[Blurpy]

why isnt the hynix p41 platinum in any of the charts

 

[W1zzard]

@W1zzard The table need to be corrected.

Fixed

Its probably one of the more performant QLC drive out there with reasonable TBW rating

Are you aware of any faster QLC drive?

why isnt the hynix p41 platinum in any of the charts

Solidigm P44 Pro is the exact same drive, and I'm assuming they have sold more units than Hynix? I might be wrong though

 

[ymdhis]

This could be more interesting if they removed the QLC and kept it as a 512GB SLC drive. As it is, it's a joke.

 

[webdeveloper]

I won't see as an improvement twice the drop of sustained writes vs NV2

 

[AleXXX666]

I like WD Black SN770. Cheap & strong.

 

[Chrispy_]

Hey @W1zzard, have you come across any other NV2 drives since your original review?

I'd love to see one of the current NV2s with a wildly different spec against both your original NV2 review and this new SM-based NV3. Tenafe+Intel QLC, perhaps? Though I understand trying to source a particular variant is practically impossible....

Websites used to call out shady bait-and-switch and now it's happening seemingly constantly without companies caring about it - it would serve well to remind people that it's happening and in the case of the NV3 Kingston don't even publish any real specs for the drive. They can switch to any old garbage next week and it won't even fail to meet their specs because their spec table is so light on info it may as well be useless: https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/ssd/nv3-nvme-pcie-ssd

 

[b1k3rdude]

I think that is when it moves to QLC; I run an optane boot drive to avoid this issue.

I use a Sabrent Rocket-Plus-G, specifically because whern the cache is exhausted the through-put never drops below 3.5GB/s.

- https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sabrent-rocket-4-plus-g-ssd-review/2

The 980 pro 'would' have been an alternwtive drive, but I was wary of the firmware issue with the 980/990 series drives -

- https://nascompares.com/2023/02/15/...990-ssds-latest-update-offical-response-more/

 

[csendesmark]

You lost me at QLC.

I'd only buy a QLC drive if it were *extremely* cheap and only for "trash data" (i.e. stuff I'm okay with losing).

Apart from that, buying a Kingston SSD is like that box of chocolate. You never know what you get.

This abysmal speed after the SLC, is really takes you back to the HDD feeling, minus the noise