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Kingston KC600 SSD Benchmarked: More Reason to Ditch that Old HDD

The basics. Kingston is still invested in traditional 2.5-inch SATA III SSDs for users who have yet to upgrade to M.2 or NVMe. The new KC600 promises XTS-AES 256-bit encryption and 3D TLC NAND modules not unlike most M.2 drives.

Introduced earlier this month, the Kingston KC600 series of 2.5-inch SATA III SSDs succeeds the older KC400 series aimed at users on tighter budgets. It brings both an updated SM2259 controller and XTS-AES 256-bit encryption at capacities ranging from 256 GB up to 2 TB. The unit we'll be benchmarking here is the 1 TB SKU.

The 256 GB and 512 GB capacities are now available for $44 and $73 USD, respectively, with the higher capacities coming at a later date. A five-year warranty comes standard no matter the option.

See the official product page for the KC600 series here for more information.

Storage Capacity Max Sequential Read (MB/s) Max Sequential Write (MB/s) Read IOPS Write IOPS Life Expectancy (MTBF) TBW 
256 GB 550500  90K80K  1 million hours 150 TB
512 GB550520 90K80K  1 million hours 300 TB
1024 GB550 520 90K80K  1 million hours 600 TB
2048 GB550520 90K80K  1 million hours 1200 TB

Test System

Intel NUC8i7BEH Mini PC
Intel NUC8i7BEH Mini PC

We use the same Intel NUC8i7BEH mini PC that we used for the Kingston A2000 since it supports both M.2 and 2.5-inch SATA III drives simultaneously. Installation is as straightforward as one would expect, but keep in mind that the packaging includes no screws or cloning software unless if purchased as an upgrade kit.

See our review on the Intel NUC8i7BEH to learn more about the mini PC.

AS SSD & CrystalDiskMark

The official specifications sheet advertises sequential read and write rates of up to 550 MB/s and 520 MB/s, respectively. CrystalDiskMark 5.5 and AS SSD show we can expect sequential write rates to be closer to the 420 to 460 MB/s range instead. Write and read rates of smaller 4K blocks are faster than what we recorded on the competing SK Hynix Gold S31.

AS SSD
AS SSD
AS SSD
AS SSD
CDM 5.5
CDM 5.5
CDM 6
CDM 6
Kingston KC600
 
SK Hynix Gold S31 SSD
SK hynix Gold S31 1TB
Lenovo Ideapad C340-15IWL-81N5004QGE
SK hynix BC501 HFM128GDJTNG-831
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 15 Ryzen 5 3580U
SK hynix BC501 HFM256GDGTNG
Dell G7 7590
Toshiba BG3 KBG30ZMS256G
Corsair One i160
Samsung PM961 NVMe MZVLW512HMJP
AS SSD
-22%
-17%
-10%
-96%
128%
Seq Read
447.3
481.9
8%
1399
213%
1122
151%
1013
126%
2117
373%
Seq Write
452.1
458.9
2%
369.8
-18%
514
14%
203.8
-55%
1469
225%
4K Read
41.69
23.23
-44%
40
-4%
34.98
-16%
29.57
-29%
40.04
-4%
4K Write
96.5
73.2
-24%
109.2
13%
96.8
0%
71.4
-26%
145.7
51%
4K-64 Read
358.1
314.3
-12%
264.3
-26%
492
37%
332.1
-7%
1248
249%
4K-64 Write
315.1
285.1
-10%
181.9
-42%
339.9
8%
152.9
-51%
1104
250%
Access Time Read *
0.037
0.064
-73%
0.07
-89%
0.056
-51%
0.183
-395%
0.1
-170%
Access Time Write *
0.034
0.049
-44%
0.041
-21%
0.11
-224%
0.248
-629%
0.025
26%
Score Read
444
386
-13%
444
0%
639
44%
463
4%
1499
238%
Score Write
457
404
-12%
328
-28%
488
7%
245
-46%
1397
206%
Score Total
1144
993
-13%
963
-16%
1434
25%
913
-20%
3633
218%
Copy ISO MB/s
1062
691
-35%
265.8
-75%
828
-22%
263.6
-75%
1984
87%
Copy Program MB/s
621
582
-6%
158.7
-74%
200.5
-68%
213.8
-66%
488.5
-21%
Copy Game MB/s
717
517
-28%
216.8
-70%
387.4
-46%
188
-74%
1168
63%
CrystalDiskMark 5.2 / 6
-14%
16%
50%
-6%
101%
Write 4K
132.8
72.2
-46%
105
-21%
99
-25%
77
-42%
174.7
32%
Read 4K
49.62
27.66
-44%
39.72
-20%
35.63
-28%
31.39
-37%
47.08
-5%
Write Seq
416.1
472.9
14%
326.9
-21%
706
70%
230.1
-45%
701
68%
Read Seq
550
538
-2%
1033
88%
1044
90%
848
54%
599
9%
Write 4K Q32T1
339.2
291.6
-14%
269.1
-21%
326.6
-4%
152.1
-55%
399.8
18%
Read 4K Q32T1
378.1
299.9
-21%
284.8
-25%
270
-29%
316.6
-16%
474.3
25%
Write Seq Q32T1
483.9
512
6%
321
-34%
820
69%
226.8
-53%
1520
214%
Read Seq Q32T1
563
557
-1%
1606
185%
2028
260%
1395
148%
2680
376%
Write 4K Q8T8
343.4
1115
225%
Read 4K Q8T8
372.1
560
50%
Total Average (Program / Settings)
-18% / -19%
-1% / -5%
20% / 12%
-51% / -63%
115% / 117%

* ... smaller is better

ATTO

ATTO is useful as it tests a wide range of block sizes to paint a bigger picture of the performance of the SSD. Read and write rates top out at about 530 MB/s and 450 MB/s, respectively, with transfer rates remaining relatively steady until I/O sizes become 8 KB or smaller.

ATTO (Kingston KC600)
ATTO (Kingston KC600)
ATTO (Kingston M2000 NVMe)
ATTO (Kingston M2000 NVMe)
Kingston KC600Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD (500 GB)Intel NUC8i7BEH Asura NVMe SSDDell Latitude 7285SK Hynix Gold S31 SSD
ATTO Disk Benchmark
462%
353%
61%
-0%
8192KB write
463350
3322220
617%
1960000
323%
554109
20%
474070
2%
4096KB write
461260
3322220
620%
1960000
325%
564467
22%
474070
3%
2048KB write
456120
3297730
623%
1970000
332%
557948
22%
474070
4%
1024KB write
453100
3205200
607%
1960000
333%
586388
29%
475170
5%
16KB write
405410
1153140
184%
1160000
186%
524483
29%
387910
-4%
8192KB read
533330
2975270
458%
2970000
457%
1099620
106%
528440
-1%
4096KB read
529660
2975270
462%
2960000
459%
1187170
124%
528440
0%
2048KB read
524830
2960680
464%
2920000
456%
1351830
158%
529660
1%
1024KB read
526030
2811540
434%
2860000
444%
1231950
134%
532100
1%
16KB read
463630
1173620
153%
1440000
211%
306332
-34%
409030
-12%

Data Compression

While read rates are steady, write rates are slightly more variable with momentary dips to as low as 314 MB/s. These same dips would occur again after repeat runs.

Data Compression (Kingston KC600)
Data Compression (Kingston KC600)
Data Compression (Samsung SSD 970)
Data Compression (Samsung SSD 970)

Temperature

Drive temperature peaks at about 47 C after two runs of CrystalDiskMark 6. Results are not unlike what we discovered on the Kingston A2000 NVMe SSD.

System idle
System idle
CDM 6 stress
CDM 6 stress

Verdict

Kingston KC600 1 TB. Test unit provided by Kingston
Kingston KC600 1 TB. Test unit provided by Kingston

At over a decade old, the SATA III interface holds no more surprises. SATA III SSDs nowadays are targeting users still stuck on mechanical HDDs where the performance boost can be over an order of magnitude faster.

If we are to nitpick, however, the sequential write rates of the Kingston KC600 are slightly slower than expected at around 460 MB/s at best. Sequential read and rate rates would ideally be nearly the same at over 500 MB/s each to fully exploit the SATA III interface, but the target audience for these inexpensive SSDs will likely not notice or even care. If you're still sporting a primary mechanical drive, then there's almost no excuse to not upgrade at this point.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Kingston KC600 SSD Benchmarked: More Reason to Ditch that Old HDD
Allen Ngo, 2019-10-29 (Update: 2019-10-29)