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Kingston SH103S3/120G

HyperX 3K 120GB

▲ 532,614 ▼

Controller: LSI SandForce SF2281VB1-SDC. NAND Memory: Intel Synchronous 25nm MLC. Release date: Q2 2012.

Average Bench: 74.1% (591st of 1071)

Based on 46,066 user benchmarks.  Models: KINGSTON SH103S3120G, KINGSTON KINGSTON SH103S3, KINGSTON SH103S3120G, KINGSTON SH103S3

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 '14 SSDrivePro]

Poor: 57%Average: 74.1% Great: 87%

Popular builds with this SSD

Good average bench

The Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB averaged 25.9% lower than the peak scores attained by the group leaders. This isn't a great result which indicates that there are much faster alternatives on the comparison list.

Strengths

Avg. 4K-64Thread Mixed IO Speed 161MB/s
Avg. 4K Random Mixed IO Speed 38.1MB/s

Above average consistency

The range of scores (95th - 5th percentile) for the Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB is 30.6%. This is a relatively narrow range which indicates that the Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB performs reasonably consistently under varying real world conditions.

Weaknesses

Avg. Sustained Write Speed 142MB/s
Avg. Sequential Write Speed 192MB/s
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Average Bench

(Based on 46,066 samples)
Rank 59174.1%
Min Avg Max
302 Read 366 438
138 Write 192 225
185 Mixed 229 262
106 SusWrite 142 170
51.5% 232 MB/s
Min Avg Max
20.2 4K Read 30.2 37.4
36 4K Write 80.4 111
23.7 4K Mixed 38.1 48.1
137% 49.6 MB/s
Min Avg Max
141 DQ Read 203 248
116 DQ Write 175 216
101 DQ Mixed 161 202
128% 180 MB/s
User Benchmarks Bench Sequential Random 4k Deep queue 4k
The fastest SSD (mainstream) averages a speed of 100%
50GB free
Firmware: 521ABBF0
SusWrite @10s intervals: 160 167 172 175 176 173 MB/s
86.7% Excellent
Read 383
Write 182
Mixed 245
SusWrite 170
54% 245 MB/s
4K Read 36.5
4K Write 100
4K Mixed 45.8
167% 60.9 MB/s
DQ Read 216
DQ Write 206
DQ Mixed 182
145% 201 MB/s
50GB free
Firmware: 521ABBF0
SusWrite @10s intervals: 166 166 175 170 177 168 MB/s
86.6% Excellent
Read 385
Write 203
Mixed 250
SusWrite 170
56% 252 MB/s
4K Read 36.3
4K Write 100
4K Mixed 45.7
167% 60.8 MB/s
DQ Read 217
DQ Write 205
DQ Mixed 184
146% 202 MB/s
99GB free
Firmware: 521ABBF0
SusWrite @10s intervals: 172 155 150 170 151 156 MB/s
73.2% Very good
Read 360
Write 228
Mixed 234
SusWrite 159
55% 245 MB/s
4K Read 31.4
4K Write 68.3
4K Mixed 34.9
128% 44.9 MB/s
DQ Read 216
DQ Write 212
DQ Mixed 178
144% 202 MB/s
13GB free (System drive)
Firmware: 506ABBF0
SusWrite @10s intervals: 111 109 105 98 101 95 MB/s
65.1% Good
Read 319
Write 192
Mixed 197
SusWrite 103
45% 203 MB/s
4K Read 25
4K Write 82.6
4K Mixed 30.8
121% 46.1 MB/s
DQ Read 211
DQ Write 198
DQ Mixed 143
124% 184 MB/s
46,066 MORE »

 Market Share (See Leaders)

The number of benchmark samples for this model as a percentage of all 63,629,349 SSDs tested.

 Prices

MSRP ≈ $101 @ launch in Apr '12
EbayUS $13010 mins
AmazonUS $1401 month
Send price feedback
Custom PC Builder (Start a new build) Build your perfect PC: compare component prices, popularity, speed and value for money.

CHOOSE A COMPONENT:

CPU GPU SSD HDD RAM MBD
Typical HyperX 3K 120GB Builds (Compare 2,761 builds) See popular component choices, score breakdowns and rankings.
Gaming
Gaming 42%
Speed boat
Desktop
Desktop 77%
Battleship
Workstation
Workstation 33%
Sail boat

Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 GAMING (MS-7821) - $242

CPU
Core i5-4670KIntel  $153Bench 68%, 128,482 samples928x
Core i7-4770KIntel  $199Bench 74%, 172,887 samples843x
Core i7-4790KIntel  $348Bench 79%, 455,746 samples273x
GPU
GTX 1060-6GBNvidia  $130Bench 56%, 1,368,019 samples222x
GTX 970Nvidia  $340Bench 49%, 834,238 samples214x
GTX 1070Nvidia  $200Bench 80%, 1,459,281 samples210x
SSD
HyperX 3K 120GBKingston  $130Bench 74%, 46,066 samples1x
RAM
Fury DDR3 1866 C10 2x8GBHyperXBench 59%, 122,541 samples56x
HyperX DDR3 1600 C10 2x8GBKingstonBench 50%, 19,207 samples55x
BLS8G3D1609DS1S00. 2x8GBCrucialBench 55%, 48,796 samples54x
EDIT WITH CUSTOM PC BUILDER Value: 63% - Good Total price: $656

Popular HyperX 3K 120GB compatible motherboards:

How Fast Is Your SSD? (Bench your build) Size up your PC in less than a minute.

Welcome to our freeware PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best upgrades.

UserBenchmark of the month

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How it works

  • - Download and run UserBenchmark.
  • - CPU tests include: integer, floating and string.
  • - GPU tests include: six 3D game simulations.
  • - Drive tests include: read, write, sustained write and mixed IO.
  • - RAM tests include: single/multi core bandwidth and latency.
  • - SkillBench (space shooter) tests user input accuracy.
  • - Reports are generated and presented on userbenchmark.com.
  • - Identify the strongest components in your PC.
  • - See speed test results from other users.
  • - Compare your components to the current market leaders.
  • - Explore your best upgrade options with a virtual PC build.
  • - Compare your in-game FPS to other users with your hardware.
Solid State Drive Rankings (Price vs Performance) February 2023 SSD Rankings.

Welcome to our 2.5" and M.2 SSD comparison. We calculate effective speed for both SATA and NVMe drives based on real world performance then adjust by current prices per GB to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top SSDs. [SSDrivePro]

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Group Test Results

  • Best user rated - User sentiment trumps benchmarks for this comparison.
  • Best value for money - Value for money is based on real world performance.
  • Fastest real world speed - Real World Speed measures performance for typical consumers.

 Comments

SSDrivePro
Avatar level
1,857

Official site www.kingston.com/...

Controller: LSI SandForce SF2281VB1-SDC. NAND Memory: Intel Synchronous 25nm MLC

3K loads games and applications faster...

Added 8 years ago.
USA-User
Avatar level
9,176

Excellent (edit your comment) Add link

5 years ago.

TUR-User
Avatar level
5,216

Terrible

18 months ago.

2012 i bought hyperx 120 gb and only 1 gb free space left. it was full with application then looked results and tough 860 pro better then kingston. kingston hyber x 120 gb read speed 555 Mb (2012 model) and 860 pro (2019 model) 560 mb read speed honestly i replaced only ssd drive and kingston definetly faster then samsung even it has 1 gb free space, when i click applications it load faster then samsung.. windows starts, opening firefox, photoshop or intellij vs 7 years old kingston ssd definetly faster then samsung 860 pro ssd disc.

HRV-User
Avatar level
2,160

Good

6 years ago.

After 23k hours on power still OK SSD.

SSDrivePro
Avatar level
1,857

Poor

8 years ago.

Cantell
Avatar level
6

Poor

7 years ago.

18 months in it's still running, and seq read speeds remain decent (mid 400's) but seq write speeds have dropped to around 175 avge. It's got 9K power on hours, so fairly heavy use. It's an underwhelming drive that'll get you a year and a half of OKish speeds, then it's relegated to your girlfriends friends laptop for $20 :)

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1071 Drives (Compared) Thousands of user benchmarks compiled into one comparison list.

See how consistently different SSDs perform with varying real world conditions. The charts also illustrate overall performance, popularity and rank.

 Frequently Asked Questions

Storage Devices FAQ
What is sustained sequential write speed?
What’s the difference between SLC, MLC and TLC?
What is 3D XPoint and how fast is it?
What’s the difference between SATA, PCIe and NVMe?
What’s the difference between NAND and V-NAND?
What is sequential write speed?
What is sequential read speed?
What is incompressible data?
What is queue depth?
Solid State Drives
What is the SSD value for money rating?
What is 4K 64 thread write speed?
Can CPU power saving states (C1,C2,C3) impact SSD speed?
What is the effective SSD speed index?
How is the AS SSD write score calculated?
How is the AS SSD read score calculated?
How is the AS SSD total score calculated?
ALL FAQs »

 Best User Rated
The Best.
CPUGPUSSD
Intel Core i5-13600K $300Nvidia RTX 3060 $359Crucial MX500 250GB $37
Intel Core i5-12400F $160Nvidia RTX 3060-Ti $457Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $106
Intel Core i5-12600K $223Nvidia RTX 4070-Ti $850Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $52
HDDRAMUSB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $40Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $47SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $30Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $49SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $80G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $417SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16
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