Budget Sub-$150 Solid State Drive Round-up

Kingston SNV425-S2

Controller = Toshiba TC58NCF618GBT
Cache = Winbond W9751G6IB-3 (64MB)
Memory = Toshiba TH58NVG5D2ETA20 (64GB MLC)
Read/Write = 200MB/s - 110MB/s (64GB model)

The 30GB model can be had for a mere $91, while the 64GB version we are testing currently costs $125 and the largest capacity 128GB model sells for $226. The former is actually a member of the SNV125-S2 family and boasts a read/write throughput of 180MB/s - 50MB/s. The 64GB and 128GB units on the other hand are from the SNV425-S2 line and feature much more impressive read/write figures of 200MB/s - 110MB/s.

Other than the extra performance the main reason we choose to test the 64GB version over the cheaper 30GB version is because it is actually a far better value product. Whereas the 30GB version costs $3.00 per gigabyte, the 64GB model works out to be just $1.95 per gigabyte. This cost per gigabyte figure actually makes the Kingston SNV425-S2 64GB SSD much better value than both the ADATA S596 Turbo 32GB and Intel X25-V 40GB drives as well.

Powering the Kingston SNV425-S2 64GB is the Toshiba TC58NC controller supported by a Winbond W9751G6IB-3 64MB DDR2-800 cache. The drive features sixteen Toshiba TH58NVG5D2ETA20 memory chips. Other than the fact that this is MLC memory and each chip must have a capacity of 4GB we were not able to dig out any more info on them.

The Kingston SNV425-S2 64GB comes with a 3 year warranty along with 24/7 tech support. There is no 2.5 to 3.5-inch mounting bracket included like with our previous offerings. However, for $15 more Kingston does offer a desktop bundle version which does include this mounting bracket along with screws, as well as SATA data and power cables.