Kingston SSDNow M Series 80GB SATA 2.5 Bundle Kit

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

The Acronis True Image HD software that Kingston Technology selected for inclusion in their SSDNow M Series SATA 2.5 Bundle Kits was a great move as the software worked flawlessly in our testing. Acronis True Image HD software allows consumers to quickly and easily migrate all of their data, applications and operating system to their new SSD, which can then be used as the main system drive. Kingston provides all the needed materials to make this happen in both notebook and desktop applications, so no matter which you own Kingston has you covered.

In under twenty minutes we were able to clone our original 2006 Seagate Momentus 5400.2 120GB hard drive in our ASUS S62J notebook to a brand spanking new Kingston SSDNow M Series 80GB drive. As a result we were left with a notebook drive that was silent, faster, and had greater durability and shock resistance than a traditional hard drive. There really is no down side to an upgrade like this other than the fact that all operating systems in production now don’t support TRIM functionality. If you really want to get the full potential from an SSD you’ll need a firmware revision that supports TRIM as well as an operating system like Windows 7. With Windows 7 NTFS will send down the delete notification to the device supporting ‘TRIM’, which should significantly improve write performance on all supporting SSDs.

When it comes to pricing the bundle kit is more than fairly price considering the Acronis True Image software is valued at $46.99 on its own.

Kingston SSDNow M Series 80 GB MLC Drive Pricing:

• Kingston SSDNow M Series SNM125-S2/80GB – $336.00
• Kingston SSDNow M Series SNM125-S2B/80GB (Bundle Kit) – $345.00

The Kingston SSDNow M Series SNM125-S2B/80GB Bundle Kit costs an extra $9. Considering the price of the software and what you get, this bundle seems like the obvious way to purchase a Kingston SSD if you plan on upgrading a system and don’t want to re-load the operating system. After the cloning is finished you are left with an external SATA drive enclosure that can be used as a secondary storage device if you are updating a notebook for example. An external SATA enclosure easily runs more than $9, so the extra cost of the bundle kit can be justified no matter how you look at it. With SSDs becoming an increasingly popular choice in the market place be sure to keep an eye out for the bundle kits!

Legit Bottom Line: The Kingston SSDNow M Series Bundle Kits make moving to a Solid State Drive from a mechanical hard drive quick and easy to do at a minimal cost to you.