Kingston Caught Switching to Cheaper Component after Good Reviews with SSDNow V300

scotty on 15/06/2014 - 21:06

Saw this article today at ExtremeTech.com (SSD shadiness: Kingston and PNY caught bait-and-switching cheaper components after good reviews):

Kingston’s V300 debuted well over a year ago to generally strong reviews … further analysis from websites like Anandtech and Nordichardware demonstrated that at some point, Kingston made the switch from synchronous to asynchronous NAND.

In layman's term, this is what Kingston did:

  1. Create a high performing budget product.
  2. Get good reviews from tech sites.
  3. Switch over to cheaper & slower component.
  4. Profit!

There have been quite a few Kingston SSDNow V300 deals recently (from ShoppingSquare, Centrecom, MSY and even Amazon). I'll be more than annoyed if I make a purchase due to glowing review on tech sites, and it turned out while the model number is the same, the underlying components are actually different.

How would you react? Anything similar happened to other products?

Computing Computer Component Kingston SSD

Comments

  • tightarse on 15/06/2014 - 21:11

    Nice find scotty. And looks like PNY is guilty as well.

    I've stayed clear of Kingston, and recommended to friends they do the same, mainly because of EC's comments about Kingston using slower NANDs than the rest. Had no idea they were pulling the wool over us.

    This is the icing on the cake. Staying well clear for sure.

  • [Deactivated] on 15/06/2014 - 21:36
    +1

    Any opinions on Kingston RAM? My MBP's running 16GB of it

    • [Deactivated] on 16/06/2014 - 23:44

      The question to ask is, are you seeing or having any problems?

      • [Deactivated] on 17/06/2014 - 07:30

        It gets a bit slow when the system gets down to about 3 or 4 GB of free memory, no where near as slow as if there's no free memory. Otherwise I don't think there's a problem with it.

  • Baghern on 15/06/2014 - 21:55
    +2

    Or those 128gb Pny flash drives that are constantly on sale

  • Utopian on 16/06/2014 - 06:29

    Kingston always seemed to be the big name in the game. You paid, but you GOT. Rock Solid, in every sense.

    HOW WRONG.

    Stuff like this makes me filthy on a company. There's plenty of competition out there, so I can truly say: For as long as I can remember this, I'll advise/remind others, and never buy anything Kingston.

    • Baghern on 16/06/2014 - 09:01
      +1

      yep, I've paid a premium for Kingston gear, and they're amazing.

      It concerns me that if I pay for their items now… especially any discounted items I'm being tricked

      • [Deactivated] on 16/06/2014 - 12:50
        +1

        Hopefully its exposure like this that will change Kingston's polciies.

  • [Deactivated] on 16/06/2014 - 23:45

    Interesting post. I would be highly annoyed if this ended up being the case with a product I purchased. However, if I couldn't see the difference through general use, then I would never know and not likely care lol.

    • Baghern on 17/06/2014 - 10:15

      Which is what they hope.

      I'm all paranoid about my 128gb pny usb now.

      General use people will just notice its "fast" compared to a usb2.0

      But most people like myself wouldn't have gone and tested it against its benchmark or have the experience to know what a fast USB 3.0 is

    • scrimshaw on 17/06/2014 - 12:59
      +1

      What if I told you the cheaper components have a higher failure % and a shorter MTBF?

  • altomic on 17/06/2014 - 14:18

    those b4stards!

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