Kingston A400 960GB SSD

Ive brought 3 or 4 of these A400 SSDs now. I'm yet to be let down by them. Reviving old PCs and Laptops to being handy little external storage drives. For the price they really are fantastic. I believe the oldest one I have is only about 6 months old, Cant remember as I have brought too many haha. Its being used in a machine which gets daily use as an OS drive (Mini Windows 10 gaming machine) and from what I see I have barely noticed a slow down of the flash. So I would like to say the flash chips used are good decent ones too.You may not be getting any fancy features or premiums, Or even insanely stupid high speeds. But compared to even a high spec HDD this will out pace it easily in reads and writes. Only downside being the lower amount of storage compared to a ... MoreIve brought 3 or 4 of these A400 SSDs now. I'm yet to be let down by them. Reviving old PCs and Laptops to being handy little external storage drives. For the price they really are fantastic. I believe the oldest one I have is only about 6 months old, Cant remember as I have brought too many haha. Its being used in a machine which gets daily use as an OS drive (Mini Windows 10 gaming machine) and from what I see I have barely noticed a slow down of the flash. So I would like to say the flash chips used are good decent ones too.You may not be getting any fancy features or premiums, Or even insanely stupid high speeds. But compared to even a high spec HDD this will out pace it easily in reads and writes. Only downside being the lower amount of storage compared to a premium HDD (Comparing Gigabytes per Dollar). The packaging they come in is pretty basic. However when you hold one in your hands you can get a good feeling that you haven't cheaped out. They have a nice weight and touch to them that really tells you that you got something good quality.If your entering the SSD world, Going to upgrade your old laptop or desktop and wanting something fast but not something thats going to hit the bank too hard. Go for this, You wont regret it once you see your PC boot in 20 seconds and your browser opens near instantly.

A good OS drive, but...

I'm sure Kingston is trying to keep up with competitors, and bless them for trying, but this drive just isn't much more than run-of-the-mill. While it will fit a laptop nicely (exceptions apply), it needs an adapter for a desktop computer, which being sold separately already makes it a step behind. The lack of cables isn't really a setback when talking personally, but I can see for others that it would be annoying. Already, unpacking, things aren't looking good.Slapping it in to a system, that kind of storage space isn't really going to be good for a whole lot these days other than an OS drive. As such, that's what I did with mine and got "fair to positive" results. While read times were acceptable, there wasn't really any sort of mind-blowing user experience when ... MoreI'm sure Kingston is trying to keep up with competitors, and bless them for trying, but this drive just isn't much more than run-of-the-mill. While it will fit a laptop nicely (exceptions apply), it needs an adapter for a desktop computer, which being sold separately already makes it a step behind. The lack of cables isn't really a setback when talking personally, but I can see for others that it would be annoying. Already, unpacking, things aren't looking good.Slapping it in to a system, that kind of storage space isn't really going to be good for a whole lot these days other than an OS drive. As such, that's what I did with mine and got "fair to positive" results. While read times were acceptable, there wasn't really any sort of mind-blowing user experience when it came to navigating the usual tasks (opening programs, utilizing tools and widgets, etc.). It's still nice to have a clean drive and partition to run an OS off of, but...well...it's really just another drive to manage.Worth it if you're making the switch up to SSD for your operating system. Otherwise, just kind of a stocking stuffer that may or may not collect dust.

Device didn't work, Kingston determined it to be a counterfeit

Wanted to update from an IDE to SSD (finally), so jumped at this offer. Dropped the drive in, had problems trying to get the system to find it. Once it did, the space didn't match the label (960 gb dropped to 920 GB then to under 900 gb after getting it initalized) and managed to clone my IDE over. After it finished, I shut the system off and disconnected the IDE and tried to boot from the SSD and the computer repeatedly froze in the BIOS startup. So I disconnected the SSD and ran it off the IDE and contacted Kingston for an RMA. Sent them a picture of the label on the drive for verification and they determined it is counterfeit and voided the warranty. So please be careful that a good deal might be TOO good!

Exactly what you expect

Kingston is a very good brand, so you get a good deal here. I bought this SSD and used it for replacing my HDD and upgrading my desktop. Currently performing as expected in my PC - just over 4 times faster than an HDD. Gotta love it. Here's a friendly reminder to initialise your drive before you use it for cloning or prepare it for booting. Easy to forget. It will save you some head scratches

Great deal for the price!

I have a 7 year old desktop that recently stopped booting because of some corruption on the original hard drive. With the pandemic and all of our family needing to be online this was frustrating. And computers are flying off the shelves so after looking for a new computer I decided it would be easier to save the one I had. So, I ordered this A400 120 GB ssd from Kingston. It's not the biggest flashiest thing on the market but I just needed to resurrect a 7 year old machine so it can handle school work and video calls. The ssd package was easy to open with scissors. The power and sata connectors fit tight but were still easy to snap in. The ssd came with mounting screws already in it. Windows 10 installed to the ssd in less than 5 minutes, including going online to ... MoreI have a 7 year old desktop that recently stopped booting because of some corruption on the original hard drive. With the pandemic and all of our family needing to be online this was frustrating. And computers are flying off the shelves so after looking for a new computer I decided it would be easier to save the one I had. So, I ordered this A400 120 GB ssd from Kingston. It's not the biggest flashiest thing on the market but I just needed to resurrect a 7 year old machine so it can handle school work and video calls. The ssd package was easy to open with scissors. The power and sata connectors fit tight but were still easy to snap in. The ssd came with mounting screws already in it. Windows 10 installed to the ssd in less than 5 minutes, including going online to get updates. And best of all the machine went from taking over 2 minutes to boot up to the Windows login screen to now taking just 21.75 seconds (yes, I timed it after I was shocked at how fast it was). I’ve had the ssd for about a month and have no issues with its performance so far. The available capacity for mine is 112 GB once installed. My only complaint with the ssd is the screws, it uses those security hex screws. I haven’t worked on a computer in years so I had forgotten about that. But the screw driver bits were only $2.99 so it wasn’t a huge deal to wait two days for the correct bits to arrive for mounting the ssd. And really, I would have had that problem with any ssd I ordered. Overall, I think this ssd is a great value if you're looking to save an old machine or build on a budget. Great performance for the money.

Great reliability for the price

I own a IT company and I have installe at least 100 of these A400 series into customers PC's and MAC's, the value is there because these last longer than other budget brands. I also find these A400's are one of the slowest SSDs in this segment, other brands drives are faster and they fail more. so when looking for a cheap SSD you need to pick your battles: do you want reliable? then pick the Kingston A400. do you want same price but faster and not as reliable? pick up a Adata SU655. do you want faster and still not too expensive and fairly reliable? pick the WD SN550 do you want the fastest PCIe 4.0 drive and don't mind if it's not as reliable as Samsung? get a WD SN850 do you want the most reliable drive on the planet? pick Samsung.

Success

My wife’s favorite Windows-based laptop had its hard drive crash and I knew I had to get it fixed ASAP or I’d never hear the end of it. I’ve been building and rebuilding computers and laptops for years so this was a no-brainer for me. If you know what you’re doing then all installation should go as easy as it was for me. Thankfully, her usage of said laptop is not as heavy so this Kingston 120 GB SSD Drive was a perfect choice and a noticeable better performance despite that it doesn’t affect the good dollar value of this product. I installed this with only minor hiccups along with installation of the back-up of previous higher end branded SSD drive files, it took me about 2 days to have it back to her and now she’s happy and content. She’s noticed a foster boot-up ... MoreMy wife’s favorite Windows-based laptop had its hard drive crash and I knew I had to get it fixed ASAP or I’d never hear the end of it. I’ve been building and rebuilding computers and laptops for years so this was a no-brainer for me. If you know what you’re doing then all installation should go as easy as it was for me. Thankfully, her usage of said laptop is not as heavy so this Kingston 120 GB SSD Drive was a perfect choice and a noticeable better performance despite that it doesn’t affect the good dollar value of this product. I installed this with only minor hiccups along with installation of the back-up of previous higher end branded SSD drive files, it took me about 2 days to have it back to her and now she’s happy and content. She’s noticed a foster boot-up and load time, and better all performance of her system. So overall, if you want to a good and stable replacement for a value price then consider trying this one if your usage needs aren’t as heavy as let’s say a heavy gamer’s usage like I am.

Top spec upgrade

Kingston quality, fast as can be, small and perfectly formed. It's hard to know just what to say because, those who know, know. This really is the business and I do appreciate the honest listing for the true capacity of this SSD. Perfect for my purposes and should be enough for other upgraders and power users. Dropped it in as my System Drive [C:} in an MSI GP62 7RD Leopard to keep it going at up to date speeds and I'll be adding a 2TB for my Data Drive {D:} before too long. Truly peerless quality and performance so, if you need the best then this is the way to go.

You get what you pay for

The SSD is cheap, but write performance is bad (even for sequential writes).This makes the SSD good for backup purposes, where one would write large files to them infrequently but read from them regularly. But I wouldn't recommend them for anything else.Regarding write speed:For a movie-sized file (2-3 GB), the performance is initially good (~400MB/s, for the first 200-300 MB). It then drops to ~100MB/s for the next 200-300MB. And then drops to ~30MB/s for the rest of the file, which is slower than a traditional HDD. Writing a 10GB file takes ~10 minutes.

awesome SSD

So far, I have enjoyed using this solid state drive. My computer actually needed an upgrade in storage space, and I am very glad I got this one to use. The first thing I noticed about this SSD, is how well built it is. It is not flimsy at all, and doesn't feel like it's going to snap. It seems really durable. Installing it is really simple too, as long as you know what you are doing! There are instructions too, so if you need help, it is there to guide you.What I love about this SSD, is how fast it is. It responds fast, and it loads things fast too. When transferring files, it takes no time at all. It just doesn't have any issues with loading and transferring anything. That is a must because I save/load/transfer files and have had no issues with it at all.I ... MoreSo far, I have enjoyed using this solid state drive. My computer actually needed an upgrade in storage space, and I am very glad I got this one to use. The first thing I noticed about this SSD, is how well built it is. It is not flimsy at all, and doesn't feel like it's going to snap. It seems really durable. Installing it is really simple too, as long as you know what you are doing! There are instructions too, so if you need help, it is there to guide you.What I love about this SSD, is how fast it is. It responds fast, and it loads things fast too. When transferring files, it takes no time at all. It just doesn't have any issues with loading and transferring anything. That is a must because I save/load/transfer files and have had no issues with it at all.I highly recommend this SSD to anyone looking for a high quality, FAST and reliable SSD. Give it a shot, you will not regret trying it.Pros: Quality, Durable, Easy installation, FastCons: None so far