Samsung 990 PRO
Samsung
89 Overall Score
vs
Kingston KC3000
Kingston
97 Overall Score
What Buyers Say
Samsung 990 PRO
No customer feedback yet
Kingston KC3000
92 out of 100 medium confidence 11 reviews
Users are overwhelmingly positive about this Kingston KC3000 SSD, praising its blazing-fast speeds, especially for gaming and as a boot drive. Many note it outperforms or matches competitors like the Samsung 990 Pro and WD SN850X, often at a better price. A few mention minor setup quirks, like needing to download drivers on new Windows builds or dealing with sector size differences, but these are easily resolved and don't detract from overall satisfaction.
Pros
- Blazing fast speeds
- Great value for money
- Outperforms competitors
- Excellent for gaming
- Reliable performance
Cons
- Driver download needed on new Windows
- Sector size mismatch for cloning
- 4TB version pricey
Speed 8
Value for money 5
Gaming performance 4
Ease of setup 3
Reliability 3
Competitor comparison 4
Scores
Budget
Workstation
Gaming
Console
Laptop
Portable
Specifications
| Samsung 990 PRO | Kingston KC3000 | |
|---|---|---|
| Drive | ||
| Capacity | ||
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 |
| Protocol | NVMe | NVMe |
| PCIe Generation | 4 | 4 |
| External | ✗ | ✗ |
| Performance | ||
| Sequential Read (MB/s) | ||
| Sequential Write (MB/s) | ||
| Random Read (IOPS) | ||
| Random Write (IOPS) | ||
| Hardware | ||
| NAND | TLC | TLC |
| DRAM Cache | ✓ | ✓ |
| Controller | Samsung in-house Controller | Phison E18 |
| Reliability | ||
| Endurance (TBW) | ||
| MTBF (hours) | ||
| Warranty (years) | 5 | 5 |
| Features | ||
| Heatsink | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hardware Encryption | ✓★ | — |
Pros & Cons
Samsung 990 PRO
- Strong social proof (100th percentile)100th %ile
- Strong feature (99th percentile)99th %ile
- Strong random (97th percentile)97th %ile
- Strong speed (93rd percentile)93rd %ile
Kingston KC3000
- Strong user sentiment (95th percentile)95th %ile
- Strong feature (94th percentile)94th %ile
- Strong random (94th percentile)94th %ile
- Strong endurance (93rd percentile)93rd %ile
Pricing
Samsung 990 PRO0.404score per dollar
vs
Kingston KC30000.247score per dollar
Samsung 990 PRO offers 1.6x better value for money
Verdict
Winner: Kingston KC3000
Scores 97 overall, wins 4 of 6 usage categories and 4 of 18 specs.
