The A2000 is a NVMe PCIe SSD from Kingston’s value segment. It offers 3D NAND technology, fast read/write speeds, built-in hardware encryption and a five-year warranty. It is available in 250GB, 500GB and 1 TB capacities.
The A2000 uses a SM2263ENG 4-channel controller with a 96-layer TLC NAND and a 1 GB DDR3L-1866 DRAM chip, all on a single-sided M.2 x 2280 PCB.
The A2000 is an affordable storage solution with both impressive 2200 MB/s read speed and 2000 MB /s write speed and claims to have a write durability of up to 600TB. The drive also supports end-to-end protection and uses 256-bit XTS-AES hardware encryption. There is a built-in eDrive support, a secure storage specification for use with BitLocker.
Other security features, in addition to 256-bit AES encryption, include a pseudo-SLC write cache, TRIM support, SMART data reporting, and the ability to securely erase data to ensure that there is no information left.
Specifications
| Model | SA2000M8/1000G |
| Capacity | 1000 GB (931 GB usable) |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 |
| Dimensions | 80mm x 22mm x 3.5mm |
| Operating Temperature | 0°C ~ 70°C |
| Encryption | XTS-AES 256-bit Encryption |
| DRAM | 1 GB Kingston DDR3L-1866 |
| Endurance | 600 TBW |
| Interface | NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 x 4 Lanes |
| Device ID | KINGSTON SA2000M81000G |
| Warranty | 5 years |
Packaging & Design
The A2000 comes in a simple cardboard packaging with a plastic blister, to keep the drive safe during transport. The drive comes in the M.2 2280 form factor, 22mm (w) 80mm (l) in size and weighs 6.6 grams. The package also includes a serial to Acronis True Image software for backups, archiving and recovery.
The Kingston A2000 looks similar to other NVMe M.2 SSD drives. The front is completely covered with a black and white Kingston label. The components are on the front side on a blue PCB. There are no components installed on the back.
As this is a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor drive, it’s fairly easy to install on a vast majority of devices: desktops, laptops and ultrabooks, without any clearance issues.
The Kingston A2000 comes in M.2 format and connects over a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface. This format is approximately 3 times faster performance than SATA SSDs which are already very fast. Combined with the NVMe interface (Non-Volatile Memory Express), the A2000 is capable of both increasing read and transfer rates, as well as faster access times.
Software
The Kingston SSD Manager can be downloaded from Kingston’s website, which can help with monitoring temperature, drive health, status, and disk usage and also update firmware as and when they are released.
Real-World Performance
After formatting the drive, we are left with 931 GB of free space. During tests, the Kingston A2000 performed very well in everyday applications. Transferring and reading files, booting the system and loading games is quick with this SSD.
When copying files during everyday use, the speeds are in the range of 450-700 MB/s, depending on the type of files and reached about 1,500MB/s in reading files.
The average bandwidth during PCMark 8 tests were 670 MB/s, a very good result considering Kingston positions this as an entry-level SSD.
In our Final Fantasy XIV StormBlood test, a benchmark that simulates game load time, the Kingston A2000 came out with an impressive load time of 15 seconds.
Conclusion
Kingston A2000 is a entry-level SSD with great performance for its segment. Price-wise it competes in with SATA alternatives while you get a high-end NVMe SSD with it. The Kingston A2000 is one of the best entry-level M.2 NMVe SSDs available today for users who wants the ideal mix between price and performance.
