Kingston KC1000 NVMe PCIe SSD 960GB Review

Rating: 8.5.

The number of NVMe SSD drives continues to grow with devices being launched to cover many aspects of the storage sector. One of the latest drives to enter the fray is the Kingston's KC1000, which also has the distinction of being the company's first NVMe drive.

Somewhat surprisingly Kingston's first high performance NVMe drive hasn't been launched under their HyperX performance line but as part of the companies standard drive lineup. You can't miss it as it appears under Consumer, Business and System Builder banners.

The KC1000 has a PCIe Gen 3.0 x 4 interface with a Phison PS5007-E7 controller looking after Toshiba 15nm 2D Planer MLC NAND.

The KC1000 is available as a M.2 2280 drive or as a drive installed in a HHHL (Half-Height, Half-Length) adapter. The drive is available in three capacities; 240GB (M.2 – SKC1000/240, HHHL – SKC1000H/240G), 480GB (M.2 SKC1000/480G, HHHL – SKC1000H/480G) and the flagship 950GB unit (M.2 SKC1000/960G, HHHL – SKC1000H/960G).

Official performance figures quoted for the 960GB drive are up to 2,700MB/s and 1,600MB/s for Sequential read/writes respectively and up to 190,000 IOPS for 4K random reads and to 165,000 IOPS for 4K random writes.

Endurance for the 960GB drive is quoted as 1PB or 0.58 DWPD for the length of the 5 year warranty.

Physical Specifications:
Usable Capacities: 240GB, 480GB, 960GB
NAND Components: 15nm MLC
Interface: PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 (NVMe)
Form Factor: HHHL (Half-Height, Half-Length) adapter
NAND Controller: Phison PS5007-E7
Dimensions: 180.98 x 120.96 x 21.59mm
Drive Weight: 76g

Firmware Version: E7FT04.6

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