The 120GB Evo, like its 250GB sibling, features a second level Turbowrite cache (TWC). This 3GB block of high speed SLC memory allows the Evo to write data at 370 MB/s, nearly double its normal rate. When the TWC is full write speeds drop by around 50% but since consumers generally write less than 3GB in a typical write operation, the performance drop will rarely be noticed. On the other hand, in a server environment this sort of performance degradation would be unacceptable. Comparing the 120GB and 250GB Evos shows that they have similar performance profiles. The performance equivalence between the different capacities, coupled with the fact that their prices are almost linear, implies that both capacities represent roughly the same value for money. Within its TWC, the 120GB Evo is capable of chart topping burst IO rates and it sits squarely amongst the best performing 120GB drives. [Aug '14SSDrivePro]
The 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K is nearly two years old, several generations of SSD have passed since its original release. Better 120GB SSDs have more NAND modules than the old HyperX and are able to write faster than the peak 234 Mb/s achieved by the HyperX 3K. The HyperX 3K also has a Sandforce 2281 controller which is unable to write compressed data as well as its more recent competition. All that said the HyperX still has an effective speed of 367 MBps which is respectable and far faster than even the best mechanical drive. With peak 4K read/write speeds of 33/110 MB/s the HyperX 3K also has competent small file performance. To summarize as a current value proposition the HyperX 3K struggles, simply because the likes of Samsung and OCZ have innovated and moved forward in the two years since the HyperX 3K was released. [Feb '14SSDrivePro]
Welcome to our consumer SSD comparison. We calculate effective speed which measures performance for typical consumers. Effective speed is adjusted by cost per GB to yield a value for money rating. Calculated values don't always tell the whole picture so we check them against thousands of individual user ratings. Vote to share your opinion. [SSDrivePro]
Welcome to our free PC speed test tool. UserBenchMark will compare the strengths and weaknesses of each component in your PC to the ten most popular components in its class.