Kingston a400 review in Spanish (full analysis)

Today we review what is perhaps the cheapest 2.5-inch SATA SSD series on the market, the Kingston A400. If you want an SSD to breathe new life into an old computer with just enough to install Windows and some programs, then this is your drive. You only have to pay about 23 euros, and you will have a unit with read rates at 500 MB / s and write at 320 MB / s, which is not bad.

We'll see how the most basic Kingston model behaves on the test bench. As on other occasions we have bought this SSD to analyze it on the web. We think it is a very interesting product.

Kingston A400 technical features

Unboxing

Kingston is a manufacturer that for its storage units in 2.5-inch format and some SSDs usually use what we see in the photo. A small package of hard cardboard and moderately rigid plastic where the storage unit is stored plain and simple, without instructions or anything like that.

But let's not despair, because just below where the SSD is located, we have the information we were looking for, although not in Spanish and not useful either. Something more useful is the back, which gives us information about the model and compatibility.

Well, nothing, we equip ourselves with some cutting element to open the package and extract our Kingston A400, although with a little skill and strength it will be quite simple.

Design and performance

Now it's time to admire the architecture of this Kingston A400 unit, which in our case is 120 GB, although it is available up to 960 GB. Let us remember that it is the most basic series of the manufacturer, the most economical, and intended for small applications where what we need is an update without great pretensions to storage, and especially the speed of our equipment.

And we must break a lance in favor of Kingston, since in this economical unit it has used a beautiful encapsulation completely made of good quality aluminum. This makes the set have a good rigidity and great resistance to shocks, even crushing. Although we do not recommend doing the test just in case.

This package is painted in a bright gray color and has a huge brand logo and the respective name in relief and painted in black, the result of an extrusion process of this metal. We indicate that the rest of the larger size units have the same configuration, and we consider it as one of the advantages of the product compared to the competition, because you already use quality elements in its basic family.

The format is the normal 2.5-inch and standard format used for SATA III 6 Gbps drives, with their respective data and power connectors separately. Measurements are then 100mm long, 70mm wide, and 7mm thick for this, and all units in the series. We will keep an eye on the temperatures of the unit, but a metallic encapsulation always helps heat dissipation.

To get a closer look at the PCB that integrates the memory and controller of this Kingston A400, we have proceeded to disassemble its aluminum packaging by removing the four screws that join the two parts. It is a very simple process if we have the right screwdriver head, although obviously we will lose the warranty if we do.

As always, inside we will find a huge empty space and a small PCB that only brings the controller and two 3D TLC NAND memory chips built by Kingston herself. There are only two, because we are facing the version with less storage capacity. Although we clearly see that the PCB supports two other chips on the front, we imagine that for the 240 GB version and so on, swapping the chips.

After these memories, we must talk about the most important element, which is the controller, the element in charge of the I / O interface and the information management of the memories. In this case we have a Kingston CP33238B model, which is a variant of the well-known Phison PS3111-S11T. A chip that has been used in SATA drives of different formats such as 2.5 ", M.2 2282, 2242, mSATA, etc. It is compatible with NAND Flash 2D SLC, 2D MLC and 3D TLC memories, which Kingston has adapted to your needs.

It supports a total of up to 1TB of storage space with four memory channels at speeds of up to 500MB / s in sequential read, and up to 320MB / s in sequential write for the model we reviewed, the 120GB model. If we are increasing capacity, we also increase performance, up to a maximum of 500 MB / s and 450 MB / s for the 960 GB unit. In this way we will be able to reach operation rates per second of 82K IOPS in random reading and 86K IOPS in random writing. Supports TRIM and SMART technologies, Smart ECC for error correction, and data loss and erasure protection (ETEDPP).

The guarantee that Kingston A400 offers us is 3 years limited depending on the amount of data written to the unit. In which case it will be 40 TBW for the 120 GB drive, up to 300 TBW for the 960 GB drive, more or less what we have in other manufacturers. In any case, the estimated useful life is 1 million MTBF hours, which are quite a few years, much longer than our unit will last installed on the PC.

And we end with the consumer characteristics, since the manufacturer provides them, it will be worth showing them here. They are really small registers, much more than other units, due to the small memories that we have in this case. 0.195W at rest, 0.642W in reading and finally 1.535W in writing, practically negligible registers.

Test equipment and benchmarks

In this case we are not going to need a large test bench to test the maximum performance of this Kingston A400 unit, since all the boards have SATA at 6 Gbps. In any case, here we leave you the test bench used:

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel Core i9-9900K
Base plate:	MSI MEG Z390 ACE
Memory:	16 GB DDR4 G.Skill
Heatsink	Corsair H100i Platinum SE
HDD	Kingston A400
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti
Power supply	Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1000W

KIngston specifies a performance of 500 and 320 MB / s in sequential reading and writing, acceptable in the first case, but quite low in writing, far from the maximum available in the SATA 6 Gbps interface. We also remember that the speeds have been measured by the manufacturer with ATTO, so we will check it with its benchmark, and the following programs:

Crystal Disk MarkAS SSD BenchmarkATTO Disk BenchmarkAnvil´s Storage

All these programs are in their latest available version. Remember not to abuse these tests in your units, since the life time is reduced.

We start by analyzing the information that CristalDiskMark gives us, which always rates as high as we can see, or is that simply the Kingston boys' test bench leaves a little to be desired. And is that we find figures that far exceed those offered by this, with more than 550 MB / s and 430 MB / s in sequential reading and writing, much more for example in writing.

Let's see then what ATTO says, which in our case, also causes the data collected by the manufacturer to be exceeded, with figures very close to 400 MB / s in writing and in case all cases exceed 530 in reading. The truth is that this unit provides more than what we could initially expect, but if we read the specifications of the controller from which the one that has been installed derives, it has a capacity of more than 500 MB / s in both modes.

In the case of operations per second measured by Anvil's, it has deflated a bit, with a maximum of 55.5K IOPS in reading (82K of the controller) and 50.8K IOPS in writing (86K of the controller). Finally, AS SSD does show rates very similar to what Kingston A400 120 GB promises, slightly exceeding 500 MB / s in reading and not even 300 MB / in writing.

As far as temperature is concerned, with this metallic encapsulation everything is under control, since the unit has not moved from 38 degrees during stress processes.

Final words and conclusion about Kingston A400

In view of the results that we have collected in this Kingston A400, we must say that they are better than those that, at first, the manufacturer shows for the 120 GB drive (we do not know if the same happens in the others). But we have exceeded the 500 MB / s average in sequential reading and brushed the 450 MB / s average in writing, which is not bad at all for the prices we handle.

Kingston uses its own memories and even its own controller, although it is a derivation of the Phison PS3111-S11T, well known and used by many manufacturers, although a bit outdated already.

We recommend our guide to the best SSDs of the moment.

Something that we do see as positive is the fact of using an encapsulation of such good quality as this one, built in aluminum with good resistance to shocks and with a nice exterior finish.

We have this specific model of Kingston A400 with 120 GB of storage on the market for prices ranging from 21 to 26 euros, depending on which store we look at. In any case, it is a very affordable price and available to everyone, although if we want to increase the size a little, we have the 240 GB version for 30 euros and the 480 GB version for 40 euros, which are not bad at all.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ METALLIC ENCAPSULATION	- DISCREET PERFORMANCE
+ EXCELLENT PRICE
+ UP TO 960 GB
+ SATA INTERFACE COMPATIBLE WITH ANY PC