Kingston has unveiled a new wallet-friendly solid state drive for desktop users looking boost system performance without picking up a second mortgage. The company's SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive has an MSRP of $115, and according to the press release, rebates could push the price as low as $84.99 at Newegg when it launches on November 9.
Kingston says its 40GB Boot Drive is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to accelerate any desktop's boot, shutdown and application load times. The drive has top sequential speeds of 170MB/s read and 40MB/s write. It's reported that the 40GB Boot Drive received a score of 13,883 in PCMark Vantage Advanced HDD Suite, which the company compares to a 7200RPM HDD's score of 3,708.
Like most SSDs on the market, the SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive connects via SATA and is built around a 2.5" form factor. Realizing the latter won't fly for most desktop systems, Kingston will ship a bundle for $130 (MSRP) that includes 2.5" to 3.5" brackets – plus cloning software and SATA data/power cable extenders.
While the offering is reasonable, a meager 40GB is surely a tight squeeze for some folks. Windows 7 x64 has a minimum storage space requirement of 20GB – not to mention the bulkiness of modern games and productivity suites. Those are the systems that need a performance boost, and Kingston's 40GB solution only seems capacious enough for basic use.