Kingston SSDNow V100 SV100S2/128GZ 2.5" 128GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Pros: Fast

Cons: Not as cheap as some other SSDs.

Other Thoughts: Honestly when things work, we all seem to me less likely to write a review than if we had a bad experience. After my SanDisk SSD just failed, I decided to come back here and write a review.

I also had the issue with the older firmware. Sometimes the BIOS would not detect the drive and most of the time it would. The firmware update utility was easy to use and the documentation was straight forward. The firmware image did not detect the drive on a HP laptop but did detect the drive on a Dell laptop and was able to upgrade the firmware. I have not had any issues since.

Pros: Read my earlier review for any positives.

Cons: The first drive started blue screening, freezing on the desktop, and having trouble being recognized on post, and after only three months! I sent it in for a replacement, and now the new one the sent me has lasted only two and a half months! Oddly enough, when it gets so bad that it won't even start, and I jiggle the power and SATA cables around, it will work good for about a day. After a week or two of it crashes completely, which means I at least have plenty of time to get my files copied off of it.

Other Thoughts: I am going to try getting a SATA III cable. Maybe it will help the next drive from Kingston replacement last a little longer. Worth a try.

These drives had the latest firmware.

Pros: With the rebate, it comes in at essentially 50% off. Simple set up and installation. Any SSD will speed up your computer and this one is no exception.

Cons: Nope!

Other Thoughts: As we know, there have been some issues with this drive. It looks like a recent firmware update has corrected the situation.

Pros: Exceptional capacity per $ (with hefty rebate)

Cons: Died after 4 months.
Symptoms:
* BIOS would not recognize the drive
* Long delay in BIOS drive search (timeout) before BIOS gave up and moved on to detecting other drives.

Came shipped with current firmware which was supposed to address reliability problems

Other Thoughts: Kingston was quick to pay the rebate
Kingston was quick to replace the drive when it failed
Kingston insists on signature for delivery, so I had to go pick up the replacement at a FedEx facility

Pros: Firmware is current so no hardware problems;
Good price per GB for an SSD (after rebate);
FAST even though it's last gen SATA II.

Cons: I haven't had it long, but none so far.

Other Thoughts: This is my third Kingston SSD over the past several months, all with the current firmware. I haven't had any problems with them. I always buy when there's a rebate, and the rebate has always come through.

Pros: Fast reads & writes, simple to install.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: Installed without any problems in my HP 6360b ProBook notebook. I replaced a 7,200 rpm drive and it improved my boot time from 1 minute, 45 seconds to 33 seconds! This is with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

It is listed as a 128GB drive but has 118GB available after formatting. It also increased the battery life in my notebook by over two hours. With the 7,200 rpm drive I was getting 4 hours, 15 minutes on a full charge. After installing this SSD drive I'm getting 6 hours, 20 minutes. I love it!

Pros: I really like this drive. I boot to windows in less than 10 seconds. I recently got this drive running so I decided to post about it. It loads all my programs with a blink of an eye and seems 10 times better than my old HDD. You will notice a huge difference between this SSD and any other HDD. It cost about 130 bucks which is almost 1 dollar a gig for an SSD, thats pretty cheap!

Cons: Took a little messing around to get it figured out (this is my first SSD)

I'm still waiting for my rebate.

Other Thoughts: Took a little bit to configure to make it work on my system.
I had little knowlege of SSD configuration because I had my bios set to IDE when I installed windows, which led to many BSOD. Then I reformatted the drive with my sata controller being AHCI and no problems at all. I installed windows in less than 15 min.

Pros: Relatively cheap compared to other SSDs of the same size. Also, extremely stable so far. Not a single crash on my system, unlike some other SSDs that I have used.

Cons: Not the fastest SSD, but definitely noticeably faster than conventional hard drives. Great upgrade for laptops.

Other Thoughts: I purchased a slightly more expensive OCZ Vertex 3 SSD along with this one. The OCZ causes my other system to crash once a day. This drive hasn't caused any problems and came with the latest firmware. I wish I had purchased two of these instead of the OCZ. Kudos to Kingston.

Pros: Relatively inexpensive these days, if you have SATA II only support, this is as good as it gets while a lot cheaper than SATA III.

Cons: Not current standard, so if you ever put this on current generation hardware, you'll be stuck on SATA II transfer speeds.

Other Thoughts: They do not state on specs, but it supports NCQ.

Pros: Cost, speed, ease of use!

Cons: Have to wait for rebate

Other Thoughts: After rebate you can get this drive for $1/GB. You will not find a better buy on a SSD drive!
I have benchmarked mine with CrystalDiskMark and it checks out! Everyone who is complaining about it not benchmarking well, the rated speeds are for SEQUENTIAL read and write, NOT RANDOM!
CrystalDiskMark gives me scores of 250.3 SEQUENTIAL READ and 192.8 SEQUENTIAL WRITE!
Random scores are about 175/110.
This drive rocks and is the best SSD buy for the money!
After formatting you will see about 119GB. After Win7 OS install, about 100GB free.