Introduction

When it comes to high performance SSDs, Kingston has been lingering in the shadows for quite a while. You really have to go all the way back to Kingston's variant of the Intel X25-M to find a true performance leader coming from their stable. Instead of focusing on expensive, bleeding edge, ultra performance drives, Kingston targeted the high volume market where good enough at a great price is the winning combination. This strategy has served Kingston well in many of their endeavors, but just like their other product lines, sometimes the lion just doesn't want to be tamed.

HyperX is Kingston Technology's enthusiast product line. This is where you'll find the cutting edge products that are used to break benchmark performance records. The HyperX brand is also an oddity in the enthusiast market for two reasons. The first is that Kingston does a lot of validation and because of this they are rarely the first to market with a new technology, often months behind the typical curve. Those waiting for Kingston to roll out their HyperX enthusiast products are able to take advantage of the next oddity, pricing. Kingston does a really good job delivering their HyperX products at prices that undercut the competition.

There have been rumors of Kingston joining Team SandForce for some time and those were confirmed at CES back in January when Kingston reps released the news. Kingston's entry into this market should be a real game changer with lower cost products entering the market and a higher reliability.