Kingston DC500M 960GB Data Centre SSD Review

Pricing and Final Thoughts

The Kingston DC500M is widely available at the time of this review, from 480GB and all the way up to 4TB. The 960GB version which I tested today can be yours for just £212.78 or $217.99 at this time. While it’s more than what you’d pay for consumer drives, it also offers more.

Final Thoughts

Kingston has been in the storage business for a lot of years and they’ve learned a lot in those years. That knowledge has been compacted into the DC500 series which includes the DC500M which I put through the paces for today’s review. The DC500M is built for mixed workload whereas the DC500R I tested a while ago is built for read-intensive operations.

A data centre drive needs other features than consumer drives, starting with a 24/7 usage rating as well as strong reliability. On top of that, it also needs to be reliable in the sense of consistency which includes the performance. Kingston delivers all that and more with the DC500M. It delivers consistent I/O as well as response times. Data centres which host databases and various web-based applications need such predictable I/O and latency performance in order to deliver what the end-user expects.

Everything holds up for the DC500M. That also includes the feature set which is right for a drive of this type. That doesn’t just include end-to-end data protection and strong ECC, but also onboard power-loss protection. After all, you wouldn’t want corrupted data whether you unplug a drive on purpose or the system loses power in general.

Pros

• Consistent performance and latency
• Rated for 24/7 usage
• Available with up to 4TB in standard 2.5″ form factor
• Strong feature set

Cons

• None

“Kingston delivers a drive that’s more than the average with the DC500M. Reliability and consistency to the point.”

Thank you, Kingston, for providing us with this sample.