Kingston HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe SSD Review

Name: Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe SSD Review
Brand: Kingston

by Marco Chiappetta — Friday, April 17, 2015, 11:27 AM EDT

Our Summary and Conclusion

Page 8: Our Summary and Conclusion

Performance Summary: The Kingston HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe SSD performed very well throughout our entire battery of benchmarks. Versus standard SATA drives, the HyperX Predator's bandwidth advantages are readily apparent. In some tests, the Predator offered transfer rates right in-line with its 1.4GB/s read specification, which is higher than what's possible even with a pair of SATA SSDs in RAID 0. And versus other M.2 SSDs we've tested like the Plextor M6e, the Predator shines by comparison. Small files transfers at low queue depths, however, are less exciting and are on par with or below some of the SATA drives we tested. Though we weren't able to bench it on the same test rig, the NVMe-based Intel SSD 750, however, outperformed the Kingston HyperX Predator across the board.

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Kingston HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe solid state drives, in 240GB and 480GB capacities, are currently available both with and without the half height adapter card. The 240GB standalone M.2 model lands at about $250, while the 480GB model with the adapter card we tested here can be had for approximately $490 (the adapter card adds only $10 - $20 to the price, depending on the retailer). At those prices, the HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe SSD is only slightly more than $1 per gigabyte, which is fair considering its performance versus SATA based solid state drives. The Kingston drive also compares favorably to the some other M.2 drives, like Plextor's M6e. In light of Intel's recently released SSD 750 series, however, things aren't so rosy. The Intel drives perform better overall and are available for roughly the same price per GB, though Intel's drives aren't available in M.2 flavors. Even so, they both can plug into a PCIe slot, so we suspect Kingston's pricing may travel a bit south in time. However, it shoudl be noted that the SSD 750 is also only compatible currently with Z97 and X99 platforms and current generation UEFI BIOS setups on those platforms. Other legacy platforms will not support the SSD 750 as a boot drive, so if you're on one of these systems, the HyperX Predator is a great option for speeds north of 1GB/sec.

In the end, the Kingston HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe SSD is a nice drive. If you're looking for storage performance that exceeds a pair of SATA SSDs in RAID 0 in a compact, clean form factor, the Predator may fit the bill nicely.


Strong Sequential Performance >1.3GBs Transfers 3-Year Warranty Includes Acronis	Intel SSD 750 Is Faster For Same Price Per GB Small File Transfer Speeds Are Modest