Kingston NV3 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2TB SSD Review

There are a lot of really good M.2 NVME SSDs on the market today, with some drives able to hit around 14000 MB/s, though while loading times are faster than ever, there is of course a downside; the cost. It's also generally classed as overkill for the majority of users, especially those who aren't able to utilise that raw unadulterated speed, with the main use cases that can harness the potential coming back way of more workstation related tasks such as calculations, rendering and video editing. These flagship drives can cost quite a lot, especially so when you want to pair that speed with larger capacities and powerful cooling solutions to maintain their speed. Plus, while we all want such speeds, we don't all need such speeds, and that's where the new Kingston NV3 SSD comes into play. Kingston NV3 This is a PCIe 4.0 drive, so while not the fastest Gen5 hardware, Gen4 is certainly no slouch, so with that in mind, the NV3 is built for fast speeds but on a more reserved budget, so it maxes out at around 6000MB/s read and 5000MB/s write, which is around half of what we see from today's flagship SSDs. However, that's still more than 10 times the performance of traditional 2.5" SSDs and around 50 times the speed of mechanical 3.5" HDDs, so for those upgrading older systems, the performance uplift is still going to be rather significant and something that we've always tried to educate those on older hardware as being one of the best upgrades you can do for your system, at least in terms of noticeable speed increases. It really can be the difference between running a slow and bogged down laptop or desktop PC, and having that system feel fresh again by breathing a new lease of life into it, through what can be classed as a pretty simple and cost-effective upgrade. PCIe Gen 4.0 The Kingston NV3 has something really strong going for it, because even though we have a 2TB capacity here, this is actually a single-sided drive, which utilises the common M.2 2280 form factor, so compatibility will be incredibly high, with broad support for most motherboards, slim form factor notebooks/laptops, consoles, and even handhealds, which is something that's definitely seen a huge uptake in popularity as of late, thanks to devices like the Antec Core HS, among others. While some PCIe Gen 4 drives on the market are faster, they generally come with large heatsinks and cooling solutions to keep temperature levels under control because as a drive increases in heat output, that generally leads to thermal throttling, which is likely the reason why Kingston have been quite reserved with keeping speeds under that, because again, that keeps temperatures down, without the need for a heatsink, and that also means that costs are kept down too. The drive itself comes in a few variants, with 500GB, 1TB and 2TB currently available, and the promise of a 4TB in the near future though from what we can see, that's not available in the retail channel just yet. For context, Kingston did produce a 4TB version of the older NV2 drive, so hopefully, it won't be too long for the NV3 to get the same treatment, though I'm unsure if the 4TB will retain the same single-sided design or switch to a dual-sided design instead, though if the marketing message is anything to go by, then it makes sense for the larger capacity to maintain the same mantra. Prices (direct from Kingston's website) are promising too, with the 500GB as low as $42.99, the 1TB at $64.99 and the 2TB coming in at $124.99. Features & Specifications Form Factor: M.2 2280 Interface: PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe Capacities: 500GB 1TB 2TB 4TB Data Transfer: 500GB: 5,000/3,000 MB/s 1TB: 6,000/4,000 MB/s 2TB - 4TB: 6,000/5,000 MB/s NAND: 3D Storage Temperature: -40°C to 85°C Operating Temperature: 0°C to 70°C Dimensions: 22mm x 80mm x 2.2mm Weight: 7g Vibration Operating: 2.17G Peak (7-800Hz) Vibration Non-operating: 10G (10-1000Hz) Total Bytes Written (TBW): 500GB: 160TB 1TB: 320TB 2TB: 640TB 4TB: 1280TB MTBF: 2,000,000 hours Packaging & Accessories In terms of the packaging, things are kept pretty simple. This is a low-cost product, so a cardboard back with a small piece of plastic helps to protect the drive in a simple and effective manner, and is easy enough to rip open and throw the waste in your recycle bin when you're done. Around the back, it's just a bunch of text and a barcode, so let's not linger on that one any longer. A Closer Look Unboxing didn't take long, there's a bit at the back of the box that rips open and you can simply pop the drive out. It doesn't come with anything extra, so it's just ready to plug and play in your motherboard, laptop, or handheld device. The drive is a single-sided PCB, which means there are no memory chips on the back, so it's compatible with slimmer systems, and largely this will be for things like slimmer laptops, and some handheld devices. It's a 2280 M.2 drive, which is the most common size (80mm), and will largely be compatible with most motherboards, as there are few devices out there that don't support this size; the only one that springs to mind is the SteamDeck which does use much smaller form factor M.2 drives instead. Overall, it's a very clean and simple design. I won't dive into the controller and other components though, as they're likely to change. They're using a multi-BOM strategy (Bill of Materials) process, which means that they can vary components for the NV3 in a bid to meet the performance target and keep a low price point, so the controller, memory maker, PCB, or even the sticker paper for the label could change. Normally, I'm not a fan of this, but if the main goal is making a drive cheaper for people to get a bargain, I'm OK with it, so long as quality doesn't suffer; and if it does, the internet will most certainly call them out on it anyway. Preparation The drive will be formatted as NTFS with default settings, as most users will do. The quick format option isn’t used as that might affect the performance the first time data is written. Modern operating systems all take care of the TRIM command in the background and it isn’t something to worry about for regular users. However, for these reviews, I will add a waiting period between each benchmark to make sure that the TRIM command has been fully executed and finished. After all, we want a clear picture of the drive’s performance with minimal interference from the operating system. Data We will start with a typical benchmark analysis of the formatted drive with various fillage scenarios. However, depending on how a drive is built, the performance may differ depending on how much data it is already storing. The drive will be tested empty and at 25%, 50%, and 75% space usage for this area. We’re using Anvil’s Storage Utilities and CrystalDiskMark for this part of the review. Hardware Processor: Intel Core i9 12900K Graphics Card: XFX Speedster RX 6800 XT MERC Motherboard: ROG MAXIMUS X690 EXTREME RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5200Mhz 32GB(2x16GB) Storage: Seagate FireCuda 530 PCIe Gen 4 2TB M.2 (Primary Drive) Power Supply: NZXT C1000 Gold Case: NZXT H7 Flow Cooling: NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Software CrystalDiskMark Anvil’s Storage Utilities ATTO Benchmark Windows 11 64-bit The drive pormises to deliver up to 6000 MB/s read and 5000 MB/s write, so obviously, it's exceeding that level of performance here, with 6271.70MB/s and 5716.32MB/s respectively. At least, this is the case with the controller our particular version has, with the BOM design, though I suspect there will be some variance throughout the range but would also expect it to still be hitting the claimed numbers as a minimum. We saw this reflected in the IOPs too, with consistant performance, and RND4K hitting around the 260K mark, which we would have expected for a drive of this specification. We run two DiskBench tests, one for 64MB of smaller files, which gave us 213.520 MB/s which is about right for such a small set of files. However, on our 50GB test, which is less files but much bigger in size, we saw the copy speed coming in over 3000 MB/s. I would have liked this a bit higher, but honestly, it's about right for this price range and specification of drive. We see this reflected in the ATTO test too, with the drive not getting up to full speed on the read speeds until we get to 512KB blocks, and write speeds from around 4MB blocks, so depending on compression and file types, the drive will take a little while to get up to speed. ANVIL's results always come in lower than what we see in CrystalDiskMark, but still we're seeing around 4700 MB/s for the Sequential 4MB test on both read and write speeds, which is very good, and again coming in higher than 250K IOPS on the 4K QD16 read test and just under for the 4K QD4 write test. AS SSD scored strongly, with again similar speeds to ANVIL's, and an overall score of 8730 which is on-par for a mid-range Gen4 drive on this price and nature. AS SSD's copy benchmark test shows very fast times for IOS, Program and Game, with fast speeds in each test too. Read speeds are pretty consistent in our compression benchmark, and while the write speeds see a slight wobble here and there, they're largely in the ballpark of 5000 MB/s, so nothing to complain about there when looking at a sustain test like this. If you're using this drive for content creation, you'll be glad to see it can read and write 5K RED 10bit YUV uncompressed video files with no issues giving speeds around 5000MB/s in both the read and the write performance. When it comes to gaming, the drive is plenty fast to handle the latest games, and it crushed our Endwalker Benchmark scoring "extremely high" overall with some really fast load times for each scene so loading up games in a real world scenario should reflect similar results. In 3DMark it scored well again, with a score of 3734, but most importantly, we saw good average access times for all games and scenarios, which is going to help alleviate stuttering when loading assets mid-game. As I said before, cooling wouldn't be an issue, and doesn't require a hefty heatsink bolted onto it. Most motherboards now have an included M.2 shield, which is how we tested the drive and with the NV3 nestled comfortably beneath it, we never managed to see temperatures over 42c, which means that thermal throttling is unlikely to ever be an issue. How Much Does it Cost? The Kingston NV3 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2TB SSD is available now from Scan.co.uk, with prices looking very reasonable, costing just £109.99 for the 2TB version that we reviewed today. This is replacing the 2TB Kingston NV2 SSD, which is currently priced at £94.99. By comparison, the old model came with read and write speeds of 3500MB/s and 2800MB/s respectively, so this is a tasty upgrade for these more budget-friendly Gen4 drives. You can check for up to date stock and prices here in the UK, or find them on Amazon US here. as prices on storage can change daily. In terms of the value, the price is extremely competitive with Kingston drives as they generally come in costing around £5-20 less than similarly fast drives from the likes of Western Digital, Kioxia, and Crucial. Conclusion I'm a big fan of these cost saving products, as not everyone wants or needs the absolute bleeding edge of storage technology, and I'm sure not everyone wants to pay for such things either, as it can get pretty expensive, especially when looking at the high-end, and for most consumers, and especially at home PCs and gaming PCs, it can all feel like wasted money, because you're not going to see the benifits. Now, I'll admit that the multi-BOM strategy does put a bit of a wild card into this product, but so long as they maintain the quality and performance when making any changes, then I see no issue with it, and if changes are more significant, they're clearly advertised and reflected in the price. This is a great way to keep costs down, to keep production flowing, and Kingston are too big of a brand to really try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. They are clear, up front and honest about what they have on offer and I think consumers will respect them for that too so that's a win win for everyone because it's truthful, honest and for the consumer, it cuts down on costs. When it comes to performance this is a solid Gen 4 drive, and it either met or exceeded its rated specifications when it came to our benchmark suite. Whether it was to come in a little faster, or a little slower; for the types of user that it's aimed at, you'll never going to notice it too much in real world usage. What you do notice is that your PC boots nice and quick, your programs and games load faster, and your file transfers go at a good pace for a sustained and steady period. For those looking to replace a failed drive on a budget, or looking to build a new computer on a tighter budget, it's hard to ignore these cheaper drives. That being said, the most impactful purchase will likely be for those upgrading aging 2.5" SSD storage or those on older spinning rust. These drives are more than 10 times faster than SATA SSDs, so you'll get a lot of bang for your buck with one of these 2TB drives along with the nice balance of speed and capacity. For those on older hard drive technology, this is going to be a huge uplift, whether that be in a desktop PC or a laptop. It's always one of the best upgrades you can do that will give you a boost in speed, more so than a CPU, RAM or graphics card upgrade. Should I Buy One? This drive is a versatile solution for a mid-budget storage solution, and it's great to see that there are a fair few 2TB M.2 drives for little over £100 these days, making super fast storage accessible to a lot more people. For a little more money than the old NV2 its replacing, these drives give a big performance upgrade. Of course, the one-sided design is a big benefit too, making them highly compatible with various system types, like laptops and handhelds. While it's only slightly cheaper than some rivals, and a little bit faster than many similarly priced products, it's enough to make it one of the cheapest and quickest drives in its class and is definitely one that we'll be recommending.