With revenue in the multi-billion-dollars range, Kingston is the largest DRAM and flash memory products vendor in the world. While their strongest suit is in memory modules and USB/flash card storage, they are also a major player in the SSD market.

The Kingston A1000 SSD uses the M.2 form factor with a PCI-Express x2 3.0 interface (which is half that of high-end M.2 SSDs). As the controller, a Phison PS5008 four-channel controller is used, which is paired with BiCS 3D TLC flash from Toshiba.

Positioned as an entry-level/value NVMe drive, the A1000 promises to offer higher speed than 2.5" or M.2 SATA drives without breaking the bank. For users demanding higher performance and MLC, the KC1000 is part of Kingston's product stack.

The A1000 SSD is available in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB. This review covers the 480 GB version. Endurance is rated at 150 TB for the 240 GB model, 300 TB for 480 GB, and 600 TB for the 960 GB variant.

Customers like the speed, durability, quality and ease of installation of the computer drive. They mention that it's really fast, reliable and a solid performer. That said, some say that the installation process is very easy.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

39 customers mention35 positive4 negative

Customers like the speed of the computer drive or storage. They mention it's really fast, fast start up, and holding up well for their operating system. They also mention that the NVMe storage is faster than SATA. Overall, customers are happy with the performance and quality of the drive.

"...as a SATA based Samsung SSD, but since it is PCIe based, it runs about twice as fast. You can't beat the form factor as well...." Read more

"The Quickest and Best cost for a brand name NVMe SSD. Did I tell you it's quick?..." Read more

"...Windows installation on this drive was fast and painless. Pro tip: Make sure your machine can support this kind of drive before you buy!..." Read more

"...That alone sped the thing up exponentially. He can use his old one for storage. This is easy to install and works perfectly...." Read more

31 customers mention25 positive6 negative

Customers like the performance of the computer drive or storage. They mention that it works very well, has been running flawlessly for over a year, and has a great price point.

"...Perfect every time. Some don't like Acronis but I've never had a problem. Love the NVMe SSD...." Read more

"...He can use his old one for storage. This is easy to install and works perfectly...." Read more

"System builder here: I've bought *lots* of these, they've all worked perfectly. NVMe storage is faster than SATA...." Read more

"...It works just fine and is a great budget boot/OS drive." Read more

23 customers mention23 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the value of the computer drive. They mention it's a great price/performance ratio and works flawlessly.

"The Quickest and Best cost for a brand name NVMe SSD. Did I tell you it's quick?..." Read more

"...This NVME drive took care of that, and for a very good price. Cold boot time went from 25 seconds to about 8 seconds...." Read more

"...It works just fine and is a great budget boot/OS drive." Read more

"...The price to performance value on this is incredible...." Read more

19 customers mention19 positive0 negative

Customers find the installation process of the computer drive to be easy. They mention that it helps to use a magnetic screwdriver and that it is not any harder than any other drive.

"...Installation was a breeze, and I was able to throw Windows on it without any issues whatsoever...." Read more

"...He can use his old one for storage. This is easy to install and works perfectly...." Read more

"...The installation was very easy. Slide it in, adjust the screw position and boot. Not any harder and possibly easier than any other drive...." Read more

"...It is blisteringly fast. Install was a breeze and the SSD works like a champ." Read more

11 customers mention8 positive3 negative

Customers like the durability of the computer drive. They say it's reliable, a solid performer, and holds up well so far.

"...Still faster than any ssd and has held up well so far and my games load lightning quick...." Read more

"...and will continue acquiring this product for its low price, good quality and performance.

eltecnologoem" Read more

"...It lasted less than a year. It's showing a bunch of S.M.A.R.T errors and cannot be recovered...." Read more

"...So far fast start up and holding up well for my operating system" Read more

7 customers mention7 positive0 negative

Customers are satisfied with the quality of the computer drive. They mention that it's a great little drive, and is better than traditional SSDs. Some say that it is great for boot drive and OS main drive.

"Cheap, easy to install and ridiculously better than traditional SSD..." Read more

5 customers mention0 positive5 negative

Customers are not satisfied with the screws provided with the computer drive. They mention that the screws are minuscule and difficult to use.

"...Something to note is this did not come with a screw...." Read more

"...VERY tiny screw needs to be used. very hard to get in around all the other crap in the case...." Read more

"...easy, but it does help to use a magnetic screwdriver as the screws are minuscule...." Read more

"...great if the screw was included too, but unfortunately the M.2 screw is not there" Read more

Reviews with images

Inexpensive, super easy to install, much faster than mechanical drives

This was my first foray into SSD based hardware, and it has been really great so far. Installation was a breeze, and I was able to throw Windows on it without any issues whatsoever. Something to note is this did not come with a screw. Thankfully, my motherboard provided both the standoff and the screw, so I lucked out with that. It runs around the same price as a SATA based Samsung SSD, but since it is PCIe based, it runs about twice as fast. You can't beat the form factor as well. It really is about the size of a stick of gum. It also plugs directly into the motherboard, so no cables necessary. Boot time has significantly been reduced since installing. I clocked windows at around 4 seconds, and Photoshop at 5, which is so much faster than my 3 year old i7 laptop. Best $50 I've ever spent.One negative - I knew this ahead of time, but by plugging this into my motherboard, two of my SATA ports were disabled. This is a limitation of my motherboard, not the SSD. I see a lot of people complaining about this and giving poor reviews to Kingston, which is really unfair. Be sure to check your particular model of motherboard to see if any of yours will be disabled before you buy an M.2 SSD.

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Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2018

This was my first foray into SSD based hardware, and it has been really great so far. Installation was a breeze, and I was able to throw Windows on it without any issues whatsoever. Something to note is this did not come with a screw. Thankfully, my motherboard provided both the standoff and the screw, so I lucked out with that. It runs around the same price as a SATA based Samsung SSD, but since it is PCIe based, it runs about twice as fast. You can't beat the form factor as well. It really is about the size of a stick of gum. It also plugs directly into the motherboard, so no cables necessary. Boot time has significantly been reduced since installing. I clocked windows at around 4 seconds, and Photoshop at 5, which is so much faster than my 3 year old i7 laptop. Best $50 I've ever spent.

One negative - I knew this ahead of time, but by plugging this into my motherboard, two of my SATA ports were disabled. This is a limitation of my motherboard, not the SSD. I see a lot of people complaining about this and giving poor reviews to Kingston, which is really unfair. Be sure to check your particular model of motherboard to see if any of yours will be disabled before you buy an M.2 SSD.

5.0 out of 5 stars Inexpensive, super easy to install, much faster than mechanical drives Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2018

This was my first foray into SSD based hardware, and it has been really great so far. Installation was a breeze, and I was able to throw Windows on it without any issues whatsoever. Something to note is this did not come with a screw. Thankfully, my motherboard provided both the standoff and the screw, so I lucked out with that. It runs around the same price as a SATA based Samsung SSD, but since it is PCIe based, it runs about twice as fast. You can't beat the form factor as well. It really is about the size of a stick of gum. It also plugs directly into the motherboard, so no cables necessary. Boot time has significantly been reduced since installing. I clocked windows at around 4 seconds, and Photoshop at 5, which is so much faster than my 3 year old i7 laptop. Best $50 I've ever spent.

One negative - I knew this ahead of time, but by plugging this into my motherboard, two of my SATA ports were disabled. This is a limitation of my motherboard, not the SSD. I see a lot of people complaining about this and giving poor reviews to Kingston, which is really unfair. Be sure to check your particular model of motherboard to see if any of yours will be disabled before you buy an M.2 SSD.

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Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2019

The Quickest and Best cost for a brand name NVMe SSD. Did I tell you it's quick? 36 seconds from desktop thru restart to desktop and opening an browser in 36 seconds. Not worried about it being the fastest, but this was the best I could find for less than $50. I'm impressed. The cloning software that Kingston provides is only for specific models or if you're a member so I used Acronis. Perfect every time. Some don't like Acronis but I've never had a problem. Love the NVMe SSD. Put all the Docs, Music, Video, Pictures, Download on the 1 TB SSHD.

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Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2018

I bought a cheap laptop at a warehouse store and everything was great except for the speed of the included SSD. This NVME drive took care of that, and for a very good price. Cold boot time went from 25 seconds to about 8 seconds. Within Windows, lag virtually disappeared. Drive-to-drive file transfer speeds more than doubled. Windows installation on this drive was fast and painless. Pro tip: Make sure your machine can support this kind of drive before you buy! They are NOT universal!

This drive made my mediocre laptop into a great laptop. It's only been a few months, but so far I have zero complaints.

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Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2019

I recently upgraded my son's computer (and by upgrade, I mean I effectively rebuilt it). Rather than use his old mechanical hard drive as the primary drive, I used this one instead. That alone sped the thing up exponentially. He can use his old one for storage. This is easy to install and works perfectly. It doesn't come formatted, so in windows, you'll have to run disk manager to add a partition(s) and then you can format and use.

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2019

System builder here: I've bought *lots* of these, they've all worked perfectly. NVMe storage is faster than SATA. If your motherboard has an M.2 slot (that supports NVMe) then this is the way to go. 240 GB class storage, like this one, is generally enough unless the user plans to store a lot of media, video especially.

Name-brand is important for SSDs -- you don't want a crappy no-name SSD that uses substandard or out-of-spec NANDs. Not worth the risk. Kingston is a good brand (there other others, too).

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2020

I bought this on sale a long time ago and have been using it for 2 years without any issues. It works just fine and is a great budget boot/OS drive.

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2018

I'm not the most tech savvy person on the planet, though I am a novice PC builder as this was installed on my second build. The installation was very easy. Slide it in, adjust the screw position and boot. Not any harder and possibly easier than any other drive. I got the 240GB version because I only wanted to install the OS and essential programs onto it and I am not disappointed. The price to performance value on this is incredible. Windows boots after the Bios Screen in about 5 seconds and every program I open immediately pops on the screen with virtually no wait at all; even the more demanding applications like Davinci Resolve open in a matter of seconds. And that's even with the dual-core chip I bought just to update my BIOS for the Ryzen 2700x! I highly recommend this even if you're new to upgrading your system or building. I will definitely be purchasing an SSD from Kingston for my game library.

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Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2019

UPDATE: 2020-12-17: One of the two drives I installed into that Synology NAS failed a few days ago. It lasted less than a year. It's showing a bunch of S.M.A.R.T errors and cannot be recovered. I'm so disappointed with this brand that I won't ever buy Kingston SSDs again. Also note that this particular model is no longer sold on Amazon. That might say something.

In fairness, the drive just might not be designed for NAS use. Consider that when looking into this product. It might, MIGHT be ok for desktop use - even though the read/write performance is pretty awful compared to other SSD vendors.

Original Review: I installed this into a Synology ds918+ NAS as a read cache. It is blisteringly fast. Install was a breeze and the SSD works like a champ.

1.0 out of 5 stars Update: drive failed after less than a year Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2019

UPDATE: 2020-12-17: One of the two drives I installed into that Synology NAS failed a few days ago. It lasted less than a year. It's showing a bunch of S.M.A.R.T errors and cannot be recovered. I'm so disappointed with this brand that I won't ever buy Kingston SSDs again. Also note that this particular model is no longer sold on Amazon. That might say something.

In fairness, the drive just might not be designed for NAS use. Consider that when looking into this product. It might, MIGHT be ok for desktop use - even though the read/write performance is pretty awful compared to other SSD vendors.

Original Review: I installed this into a Synology ds918+ NAS as a read cache. It is blisteringly fast. Install was a breeze and the SSD works like a champ.

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente produto

Reviewed in Brazil on July 19, 2020

Após a instalação, meu notebook DELL Inspiron 15 3583, a performance aumentou consideravelmente, é outro computador. Passou de uma carroça para uma Ferrari.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Value, Fast and runs cool

Reviewed in Canada on September 29, 2018

You can't argue with the price to performance of this drive. It's not as fast as a Samsung Evo 960, but it's half the price - in fact It's just slightly more expensive than a regular old SSD, and as you can see from the photo on the left (Kingston NVME) vs photo on the right (Crucial SSD) it is MUCH faster. It also stays quite cool in my PC (as opposed to some horror stories I've heard about ADATA NVME drives overheating - over course if you've proper cooling it won't matter too much one way or the other.

In real world scenarios you can expect your PC to boot up near instantaneously, and the size allows you to save space in your desktop vs a SSD, however for gaming it doesn't load up that much faster than an SSD as they're already quite fast.

For space savings, speed and cost though - this is an excellent value!

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Value, Fast and runs cool Reviewed in Canada on September 29, 2018

You can't argue with the price to performance of this drive. It's not as fast as a Samsung Evo 960, but it's half the price - in fact It's just slightly more expensive than a regular old SSD, and as you can see from the photo on the left (Kingston NVME) vs photo on the right (Crucial SSD) it is MUCH faster. It also stays quite cool in my PC (as opposed to some horror stories I've heard about ADATA NVME drives overheating - over course if you've proper cooling it won't matter too much one way or the other.

In real world scenarios you can expect your PC to boot up near instantaneously, and the size allows you to save space in your desktop vs a SSD, however for gaming it doesn't load up that much faster than an SSD as they're already quite fast.

For space savings, speed and cost though - this is an excellent value!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Ne sono rimasto sbalordito! (Vedere valori foto allegata)

Reviewed in Italy on March 25, 2019

I dischi SSD (Solid State Disc = Dischi a Stoto Solido) stanno spopolando per svariati motivi, uno tra tutti è l’eliminazione, o meglio la riduzione, del collo di bottiglia che dagli anni ‘80 ha reso le macchine (PC in genere) praticamente frenate sul lato dell’accesso alla memoria secondaria, mentre le velocità di interconnessione dei componenti (BUS) è sempre cresciuta con un andamento più marcato. Infatti con la loro evoluzione abbiamo assistito alla possibilità di incrementare in pochi anni le già notevoli performance dei dischi attraverso un “piccolo” escamotage. Lo sfruttamento del BUS seriale. Concettualmente molto simile alla interfaccia per dischi SATA (considerabile, semplificando, un BUS secondario collegato a quello principale), il bus seriale PCI-Express invia e riceve segnali (quindi dati) in maniera alternata nel tempo: questo però lo fa a velocità (frequenze) maggiori nell’unità di tempo (solitamente il secondo). Il disco NVMe in pratica funziona in questo modo. L'installazione è abbastanza semplice, anche per chi possiede meno esperienza. Bisogna inserire, prima in obliquo e poi parallelamente alla scheda madre, i pin nell'apposito alloggio e fermare il tutto con la vite in dotazione (della motherboard). Attenzione alla misura del disco: questo è il 2280 (80mm). Se nel caso la vite non è in corrispondenza bisogna svitarla e metterla alla distanza esatta per l'aggancio. Kingston ha fatto un buon lavoro perchè in meno di 15 secondi avremo avviato la macchina con Sistema Operativo. La mia configurazione è formata da scheda madre con chipset B450m e CPU Ryzen seconda serie. I tempi di spegnimento sono simili a quelli di avvio della macchina, mentre la reattività del sistema è notevole in tutte le attività e applicativi. Sequenzialmente tocchiamo valori di lettura/scrittura rispettivamente di 1500/cirica1000 (MB/s). Anche sui valori random abbiamo, a seconda delle code e dei thread, un bel salto prestazionale rispetto ai dischi SATA, fino a valori del 300%. Mediamente costano leggermente di più della loro controparte. Io consiglio i dischi NVMe, questo in particolare non mi dispiace affatto, a chi ha la possibilità di possedere uno slot apposito (M.2 = derivazione di una delle corsie del Bus PCI-Express). In questo modo le nostre macchine sfrutteranno le potenzialità delle capacità computazionali delle CPU abbattendo, per quanto possibile, il collo di bottiglia del transfer rate e dei tempi di accesso alle memorie secondarie.

5.0 out of 5 stars Ne sono rimasto sbalordito! (Vedere valori foto allegata) Reviewed in Italy on March 25, 2019

I dischi SSD (Solid State Disc = Dischi a Stoto Solido) stanno spopolando per svariati motivi, uno tra tutti è l’eliminazione, o meglio la riduzione, del collo di bottiglia che dagli anni ‘80 ha reso le macchine (PC in genere) praticamente frenate sul lato dell’accesso alla memoria secondaria, mentre le velocità di interconnessione dei componenti (BUS) è sempre cresciuta con un andamento più marcato. Infatti con la loro evoluzione abbiamo assistito alla possibilità di incrementare in pochi anni le già notevoli performance dei dischi attraverso un “piccolo” escamotage. Lo sfruttamento del BUS seriale. Concettualmente molto simile alla interfaccia per dischi SATA (considerabile, semplificando, un BUS secondario collegato a quello principale), il bus seriale PCI-Express invia e riceve segnali (quindi dati) in maniera alternata nel tempo: questo però lo fa a velocità (frequenze) maggiori nell’unità di tempo (solitamente il secondo). Il disco NVMe in pratica funziona in questo modo. L'installazione è abbastanza semplice, anche per chi possiede meno esperienza. Bisogna inserire, prima in obliquo e poi parallelamente alla scheda madre, i pin nell'apposito alloggio e fermare il tutto con la vite in dotazione (della motherboard). Attenzione alla misura del disco: questo è il 2280 (80mm). Se nel caso la vite non è in corrispondenza bisogna svitarla e metterla alla distanza esatta per l'aggancio. Kingston ha fatto un buon lavoro perchè in meno di 15 secondi avremo avviato la macchina con Sistema Operativo. La mia configurazione è formata da scheda madre con chipset B450m e CPU Ryzen seconda serie. I tempi di spegnimento sono simili a quelli di avvio della macchina, mentre la reattività del sistema è notevole in tutte le attività e applicativi. Sequenzialmente tocchiamo valori di lettura/scrittura rispettivamente di 1500/cirica1000 (MB/s). Anche sui valori random abbiamo, a seconda delle code e dei thread, un bel salto prestazionale rispetto ai dischi SATA, fino a valori del 300%. Mediamente costano leggermente di più della loro controparte. Io consiglio i dischi NVMe, questo in particolare non mi dispiace affatto, a chi ha la possibilità di possedere uno slot apposito (M.2 = derivazione di una delle corsie del Bus PCI-Express). In questo modo le nostre macchine sfrutteranno le potenzialità delle capacità computazionali delle CPU abbattendo, per quanto possibile, il collo di bottiglia del transfer rate e dei tempi di accesso alle memorie secondarie.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Rapport qualité/prix imbattable !

Reviewed in France on April 25, 2019

Franchement le TOP pour le prix, 2x moins cher que la concurrence direct tous en ayant une grande marque entre les mains. Je voulais remplacer mon hdd classique par un ssd m2 car je possédais un emplacement pour sur mon pc portable, et bien le gain en rapidité d'ouverture d'applications et lancement de Windows et fulgurant !.... Le ssd est aujourd'hui incontournable pour Windows 10 car l'OS est devenu plutôt lourd. Attention tous de même pour ceux qui souhaite cloner leur système sur ce nouveau ssd, le logiciel fournis avec ce dernier n'a pas l'air de fonctionner sur les dernières versions de W10, en tous cas ce fut mon cas, j'ai donc dû essayer au moins 5 logiciels(gratuit) de transfert avant d'en trouver un qui fonctionne.......Macrium reflect.... Malheureusement il est en anglais. Sinon pour en revenir au disque, il possède un excellent rapport qualité/prix !... Foncez !

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfekt

Reviewed in Germany on March 14, 2019

Hab mir die m.2 gekauft ,eingebaut und hab mein Windows 10 neu installiert ,da ja jede Platte ein anderen selbstverbauten Controller hat ,konnte ich mein Acronis Backup nicht aufspielen das funktionierte nicht , aber nicht schlimm ,wollte das Windows eh neu aufsetzen , jetzt funktioniert die Platte einwandfrei ,ist rasend schnell , die Lieferung war echt sehr schnell , kann nichts negatives über diese M.2 sagen, alles läuft Problemlos und Fix , dafür gibt es von mir 5 Sterne .

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfekt Reviewed in Germany on March 14, 2019

Hab mir die m.2 gekauft ,eingebaut und hab mein Windows 10 neu installiert ,da ja jede Platte ein anderen selbstverbauten Controller hat ,konnte ich mein Acronis Backup nicht aufspielen das funktionierte nicht , aber nicht schlimm ,wollte das Windows eh neu aufsetzen , jetzt funktioniert die Platte einwandfrei ,ist rasend schnell , die Lieferung war echt sehr schnell , kann nichts negatives über diese M.2 sagen, alles läuft Problemlos und Fix , dafür gibt es von mir 5 Sterne .