Update December 22, 2021: We’ve updated this article with new tests for the 1TB Kingston KC3000 M.2 NVMe SSD on page 2.
Original review published on November 8, 2021:
Designed to compete with the performance leaders on our best SSDs list, Kingston’s KC3000 features the fastest hardware combination we’ve seen yet from a Phison-based drive. Utilizing Phison’s PS5018-E18 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe controller and Micron’s 176L TLC NAND flash operating at full power at 1,600 MTps, the KC3000 is a powerful SSD for creative professionals and hardcore gamers alike. Available in capacities up to 4TB, Kingston’s flagship drive looks sleek and stays cool thanks to an unobtrusive graphene-aluminum heat spreader, but it’ll cost you a pretty penny compared to your average NVMe SSD.
Specifications:
| Product | 512GB | 1TB | 2TB | 4TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prices | $106.99 | $174.99 | $399.99 | $999.99 |
| Capacity (User / Raw) | 512GB / 512GB | 1024GB / 1024GB | 2048GB / 2048GB | 4096GB / 4096GB |
| form factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| Interface / Protocol | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4 |
| controller | Phison PS5018-E18 | Phison PS5018-E18 | Phison PS5018-E18 | Phison PS5018-E18 |
| drama | DDR4 | DDR4 | DDR4 | DDR4 |
| Memory | Micron 176L TLC | Micron 176L TLC | Micron 176L TLC | Micron 176L TLC |
| Sequential Read | 7,000MBps | 7,000MBps | 7,000MBps | 7,000MBps |
| Consecutive writing | 3,900MBps | 6,000 MBps | 7,000MBps | 7,000MBps |
| Random reading | 450,000 IOPS | 900,000 IOPS | 1,000,000 IOPS | 1,000,000 IOPS |
| Random write | 900,000 IOPS | 1,000,000 IOPS | 1,000,000 IOPS | 1,000,000 IOPS |
| Security | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Endurance (TBW) | 400TB | 800TB | 1600 TB | 3,200TB |
| part number | SKC3000S/512G | SKC3000S/1024G | SKC3000D/2048G | SKC3000D/4096G |
| Guarantee | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years |
The Kingston KC3000 is available in capacities ranging from 512 GB to 4 TB. While most capacities are on the pricey side, including our 2TB copy, the 1TB model is priced particularly aggressively at the time of writing, priced at $174.99. The other capacities range from $0.20 to $0.24 per gigabyte.
Kingston rates the performance of the KC3000 for sequential read and write operations up to 7 GBps with a random read and write speed of 1 million IOPS. It features a large dynamic write cache that takes up a third of the available capacity, meaning it can outperform the Seagate FireCuda 530 and Corsair MP600 Pro XT with moderate file transfers.
| Endurance (TBW) | 500 GB | 1TB | 2TB | 4TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingston KC3000 | 400TB | 800TB | 1600 TB | 3,200TB |
| WD_Black SN850 | 300TB | 600TB | 1200 TB | I |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 | 640TB | 1,275 TB | 2550 TB | 5.100TB |
| Corsair MP600 Pro XT | 700 TB | 1,400TB | 3,000TB | |
| Samsung 980 Pro | 300TB | 600TB | 1200 TB | I |
| Patriot Viper VP4300 | 1,000TB | 2,000 TB | I | |
| Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus | 700 TB | 1,400TB | 2,800 TB | |
| Adata XPG Gammix S50 Lite | 740 TB | 1,480TB | I | |
| Crucial P5 Plus | 300TB | 600TB | 1200 TB | I |
Kingston backs the KC3000 with a five-year warranty and limits it to some solid endurance figures. Each capacity is rated higher than the Samsung 980 Pro and WD_Black SN850† With a capacity of 2 TB, our sample can handle up to 1.6 petabytes of writes within the warranty period. While impressive, this pales in comparison to the Seagate FireCuda 530’s durability figures.
The KC3000 supports Trim, SMART data reporting, end-to-end data path protection and can be securely wiped, but does not support AES 256-bit hardware encryption for fast, secure password protection. Kingston provides a key to Acronis True Image HD for cloning your old data, and the company’s website has an SSD toolbox for download, Kingston SSD Manager, which allows you to check the status of the drive and update the firmware .
A Closer Look at Kingston KC3000
The Kingston KC3000 comes in an M.2 2280 single or double-sided form factor, depending on the capacity you get. The 512 GB and 1 TB come single-sided, while the larger capacities come with components on both sides of the circuit board.
The KC3000’s design is one of the best we’ve seen. We appreciate the well thought out and executed use of labels on both sides of the SSD. The top remains black with only the essential information listed, while the rear hides the distracting QR code and compliance.
equal to the Team group T-Force Cardea A440, the KC3000 comes with a graphene label. The difference between the two is that the Kingston’s is mixed with aluminum while the Team Group’s is mixed with copper.
Phison’s powerful 8-channel PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.4 NVMe SSD controller, the PS5018-E18, is at the heart of the Kingston KC3000. It uses a three-CPU primary architecture based on Arm Cortex R5 cores and moves regular, repetitive firmware code to a dual-CPU coprocessor, speeding up writes and queuing.
The controller is built on a 12nm process to control heat dissipation while operating at 1GHz. It features ASPM, ASPT and supports low-power L1.2 idle state to keep cool. Based on its SMART data, it is also thermally throttled if it must exceed a temperature of 84 degrees Celsius.
To achieve its high durability ratings, the KC3000 uses Phison’s fourth-generation Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) ECC and the company’s 7.4% factory overprovisioning. Not only does this help with sustained write performance, but it’s also implemented to help with poor block management and other background NAND management routines.
The controller is paired with a DDR4 DRAM cache provided by a Kingston chip operating at 1,600MHz. There are also thirty-two dies of Micron’s 512Gb 176L TLC flash, operating at full speed, 1600 MTps.
Because the flash works so fast, the Kingston KC3000 comes to us as the most responsive retail Phison E18-based NVMe SSD we’ve reviewed to date. At this speed, and coupled with its larger SLC cache, the KC3000 should have the upper hand over the Seagate and Corsair if they take it up in battle.
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