The Kingston A2000 isn’t particularly new, but SSD storage constantly getting cheaper it has reached the point where even the most affordable of builds can use an NVMe drive for the primary disk.
I bought the 500GB Kingston A2000 on Prime Day for a bargain £44.98 (currently £57.70) and at the time the price difference between this and a generic 2.5” SSD was just a few pounds.
With Black Friday approaching, there will inevitably be some amazing deals to be had on storage. Even though the drive has been out for ages, I thought it was still worth review to show off how good it is compared to a standard SSD.
Specification
Sale
Kingston A2000 (SA2000M8/500G) SSD NVMe PCIe M.2 2280, 500…
- NVMe PCIe performance at a fraction of the cost
- Supports a full-security suite (TCG Opal, XTS-AES…
- Ideal for Ultrabooks and small-form-factor PC (SFF…
- Upgrade your PC with up to 1 TB**
- Controller: Silicon Motion SM2263
- NAND: Micron 96-layer 3D TLC
- Encryption: XTS-AES 256-bit
- Sequential Read Speed: 2,200MB/s
- Sequential Write Speed: 2,000MB/s
- Random IOPs (4KB Reads): 180K IOPs
- Random IOPs (4KB Writes) : 200K IOPs
- Endurance: 350 TBW
- Power Consumption (Max Write): 4.5W
- Power Consumption (Average): 0.08W
- Power Consumption (Idle): 0.032W
- Life Expectancy: 2m Hours
- Warranty: 5 years
It is worth noting that the drive endurance is quite low compared to some pricier drives, but it is about average at this price point, and the 5 year warranty should more than cover you.
Performance
Performance is as expected based on the specification. This can’t compete with the premium priced NVMe drives but it will out class any SSD drive.
In Crystal Disk the drive showed sequential read results almost exactly to specification with the write results being a touch higher. Things were a little lower in Anvil with 2048MB/s and 1984MB/s but still impressive.
SSD vs NVMe Pricing
Irrelevant to this specific drive but I looked at pricing on Amazon to see if there is a point at which 2.5” drives become a better buy than NVMe.
At 2TB, the price between the drives does sperate a little, you can get the SanDisk SSD PLUS 2 TB for just £167.99 while the Sabrent Rocket Q 2TB is £219.99.
At 1TB the Crucial BX500 1TB is £88 but the Crucial P2 NVMe is just £85.
However, if you have already filled your M.2 slots and don’t want or can’t use a PCIe card then SATA is the only realistic option.
Price and Alternative Options
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Kingston A2000 (SA2000M8/500G) SSD NVMe PCIe M.2 2280, 500… |
2,739 Reviews |
£57.70 | Buy on Amazon |
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Crucial P2 CT500P2SSD8 500 GB Internal SSD, Up to 2400 MB/s… | £57.06 | Buy on Amazon | |
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WD Blue SN550 500GB High-Performance M.2 Pcie NVMe SSD | £63.65 | Buy on Amazon | |
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Sabrent M.2 NVME SSD QLC (500GB) | £52.48 | Buy on Amazon |
Currently the 500GB model of this is £57.70 and the 1TB model is £100. Pricing on Amazon jumps up and down all the time, and Black Friday is going to be get an NVMe drive from one brand or another at an incredible price.
Alternative options include:
Crucial P2 is £57 for 500GB or £85 for 1TB. Slightly lower rated speeds. There is also the Crucial P1 which is slightly slower again but current pricing is barely any different than the P2 model.
WD Blue SN550 is £57 for 500GB and £90 for 1TB with faster read speeds but slower write. Superior IOPs.
Moving up in price is the Sabrent Rocket Q at £70/£110 but this offers 3200/2000MB/s read/write
The ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro is similar with read/write up to 3500/3000MB/s and pricing of £70/£110
Silicon Power is a lesser know brand but receives favourable reviews. The A80 P34 is £65/£115 offering speeds of 3400/2300 MB/s
Beyond these options you could take a risk on some of the random Chinese brands such as TCSUNBOW or YUCUN. Currently the pricing doesn’t make them that attractive, and I wouldn’t put any important data on there, but they are worth keeping an eye on.
Overall
The Kingston A2000 is a superb budget NVMe drive. Even though the performance is nowhere near what you get from premium drives like the Kingston KC2500, it will outclass a SATA SSD by a considerable margin and for almost the same price.
At this point, for most users, buying an SATA SSD is pointless, with the exception of expanding storage beyond your existing NVMe drive(s).
The Kingston A2000 is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for an affordable drive, while there are certainly other excellent options worth considering, this is one of the best.
Posted by Mighty Gadget Blog: UK Technology News and Reviews
