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Kingston KC3000 1TB M.2 SSD Review - Blazing fast SSD for modern machines!

OPPO
Infinix
To recap, the Kingston KC3000 M.2 SSD recently became officially available in the Philippines with a starting price of PHP 7,889.
Kingston KC3000 1TB M.2 SSD Review - Blazing fast SSD for modern machines!
Kingston KC3000 is 2x faster than the KC2500!

In case you are looking to upgrade your storage, you might consider this one. Here's our review.

Unboxing/Accessories

The packaging
The packaging

The Kingston KC3000 came in the usual cardboard packaging similar to the one the KC2500 had from a while ago. The SSD stick itself measures 80 x 22 x 2.21 mm and weighs at just 7 grams. In many aspects, the KC3000 is very similar to the K2500 that we previously reviewed in 2020.
The back

It has a black PCB board with gold pins for the PCIe 4.0 connection. Just like before, there's a branding/warranty void sticker covering the length of the SSD as well. A 5-year warranty is also available for every purchase.
The front
The front

For this review, we used an external M.2 NVMe SSD enclosure due to not having a device ready for the KC3000 to be installed. So this serves as a disclaimer, as the speed may be held back due to hardware limitations.

Performance

Benchmarks for 7200RPM HDD, Kingston A2000 M.2 SSD (no enclosure)
Benchmarks for 7200RPM HDD, Kingston A2000 M.2 SSD (no enclosure)

As a reference, we are using the Orico M.2 SSD Enclosure for this review alongside the Kingston KC3000 M.2 SSD. Installation is simple and easy to do so we won't detail that as much here. We connected it both via USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C. I connected the enclosure to my desktop PC and Acer Nitro 5 laptop.
Kingston KC2500 (direct to laptop installation) benchmark
Kingston KC2500 (direct to laptop installation) benchmark

The KC3000 SSD uses the NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 interface. It also uses the 3D NAND TLC technology that allows it to reach up to 7,000/6,000 MB/s read and write speeds. In terms of random 4K read and write, it reaches 900,000 IOPS/1,000,000 IOPS respectively.
Kingston KC3000 (speed limited due to enclosure) benchmark
Kingston KC3000 (speed limited due to enclosure) benchmark

As expected, the KC3000 was able to max out our enclosure's speed. In both machines, it was able to top out at around 460/450 MB/s. Yes, it is a far cry from the promised 7,000/6,000 MB/s but it is not the KC3000's fault. Without experience with Kingston's SSDs, namely the KC2500 and A2000, both were able to provide the promised speeds no problem.

This performance as an external SSD device is very fast. It was able to allow me to transfer my Steam games from my PC to the laptop which is around 150GB quickly. With its size, even in the enclosure, it is really portable as well.

Again, Kingston did not include a dedicated thermal guard for the KC3000. This is also our gripe with the KC2500 and A2000. It got fairly warm to the touch especially since the case is metal. In PCs and laptops, this could be a problem with other components adding to its temps altogether.
Kingston KC3000 via Thunderbolt 4 w/ enclosure
Kingston KC3000 via Thunderbolt 4 w/ enclosure

During our tests, we concluded that it is best installed directly on a desktop PC motherboard or a laptop. You will get the maximum advertised speed in this configuration. It is still very usable and fast with an external SSD enclosure though.

With Thunderbolt 4 you will get around 667MB/s read and around 1055 MB/s write speed. Non-Thunderbolt 4 connection will net you the above-mentioned results which are still fast.
Super fast speeds!
Super fast speeds!

Update: We finally tried it on a laptop, the MSI Creator Z16, and it delivered the promised speeds. It is super fast for file transfers and other tasks.

Pros - Small size, simple installation, extremely fast performance
Cons - Lack of dedicated thermal guard

Kingston KC3000 1TB NVMe SSD specs

Interface: NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 x 4 Lanes
Capacity: 512GB/1024GB/2048GB/4096GB
Sequential Read/Write speed: up to 7,000/7,000MB/s
Security: XTS-AES 256-bit encryption, TCG Opal, IEEE 1667, eDrive
Others: Limited 5-year warranty, FREE technical support
Dimensions: 80 x 22 x 3.5 mm
Weight: 7 g
Price: PHP 7,889 (512GB), PHP 12,869 (1024GB), PHP 28,999 (2048GB), PHP 74,799 (4096GB)

Verdict

Kingston KC3000 1TB NVMe SSD is an improvement from the already fast K2500 from 2020. The extremely fast performance is a great convenience for both work and gaming.

Even for PHP 12,869, having 1TB in the palm of your hand with the speed of this one is worth every cent.

If you have plenty of cash in your pocket, you may also check out the 2TB and 4TB versions of this SSD.

What do you guys think?

Build/Design - 4
Performance - 4.75
Average - 4.375/5

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