Kingston Ships High-Speed HyperX SSDs

Kingston has officially launched its HyperX SSD line featuring the SandForce SF-2281 controller and a SATA 3.0 6 Gb/s connection.

On Monday Kingston revealed the shipment of its first-ever SATA 3.0 6 Gb/s solid-state drive, the HyperX SSD. It features a SandForce SF-2281 controller cranking out sequential read/write throughput of 555 / 510 MB/s and premium Intel 25-nm Compute NAND (P/E 5K).

The 2.5-inch drive hits the market in two capacities, 120 GB and 240 GB, and as a stand-alone device with an included HyperX-branded 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch desktop mounting plate, or bundled with a HyperX Upgrade Kit for easy installation. This kit includes Acronis True Image HD migration software, a desktop mounting plate, an external drive bay, a multi-head screwdriver and a SATA data cable.

Based on "out-of-box" performance with IOMeter08, the 120 GB model offers a max 4KB random read/write of 95,000 / 70,000 IOPS. Kingston did not provide numbers for the 240 GB model, but its Amazon listing states that it has 525 MB/sec read and 480 MB/sec write speeds (as does the 120 GB listing despite what Kingston reports).

Pricing for the HyperX SSD doesn't come cheap: $269.99 for the stand-alone 120 GB drive and $284.99 for the bundled version. The 240 GB model costs $519.99 by itself and $539.99 for the bundled version. All four are now available on Amazon.com, Buy.com, Newegg.com, and Tigerdirect.com.