Kingston has introduced a bootable 40GB SSD drive. According to company spokesperson David Leong, the SSDNow V drive is “aimed primarily” at desktop users as a “performance upgrade” for existing systems.
“The idea obviously is to load the OS and applications onto the SSD while keeping all data, such as music and photos, on the HDD,” Leong told TG Daily. “The Kingston message with SSDs has always been that these are performance upgrades, not storage upgrades. We believe this solution will be a very nice kick to the system for desktop users.”
Leong explained that the 40GB SSD had achieved a PCMark benchmark score of 13,883, while a standard 7200RPM hard-disk only managed to rack up a score of 3,708.
The test system comprised an Intel DG45ID desktop motherboard, Core 2 Duo E6550 desktop process @ 2.33 GHz, 4GB of system memory, on-board SATA 3Gbps (ACHI enabled) and Windows Vista SP2.
“PCMark runs a series of tests such as Windows Vista startup, importing photos, adding music to Windows Media Center and application loading. The score is an indicator of how many bytes were moved per second,” said Leong.
The SSDNow will begin shipping on November 9. Although the drive has an initial MSRP of $115, an expected Newegg rebate will lower the price tag to $85.
