Packaging and Contents:
 |
 |
The SSDNow V+200 comes in an attractive blue and black box. Along with a picture of the drive, the front advertises many of its key features including its 90GB capacity, SATA Rev 3.0 (6Gb/s) interface, SandForce controller and three year warranty. The back of the box provides a bit more information as well as pictures of the box's contents.
The upgrade bundle kit that Kingston sent us for this review includes a number of accessories. Along with the V+200 SSD you'll find a 2.5" SATA enclosure with a USB-to-mini-USB cable, Serial ATA data cable, 3.5" adapter bracket with screws and a CD containing hard drive cloning software.
Physical Features:
While a bit heavier than other SSDs, the SSDNow V+200 is very well constructed. The outer casing is made entirely out of metal and is covered by a rough, matte black finish. The top of the drive also has a large, red and black sticker advertising its capacity as well as the fact that it is part of Kingston's SSDNow V+200 series.
Like Kingston's KC100 and HyperX series SSDs, the V+200 uses SandForce's SF-2281 controller chip. The SF-2281 can be found in a number of other SSDs including the ADATA S511, Corsair Force Series 3, OWC Mercury 6G, OCZ Vertex 3 and Patriot Pyro SE.
For the 90GB V+200, Kingston opted to use Intel's 8GB 25nm 29F64G08ACME3 asynchronous NAND flash chips. Looking at the pictures above, you can see that there are six of these chips on either side of the PCB. If you do the math, you'll see that this equals 96GB and not the 90GB of storage the drive advertises. The SandForce controller uses this extra 7% (6GB) to maximize read and write performance and extend the endurance and overall reliability of the drive.
