• expired

Kingston A2000 500GB NVMe SSD $92 Delivered @ Centrecom

630

Everyone's favourite budget endurance NVMe SSD with TLC and a DRAM cache is back and cheaper than the June 2020 deal by $5 and CentreCom offer free delivery on orders over $79. Add $1.10 for PayPal/Credit Card. As at today, this seems to be the cheapest delivered price (although I recall reading someone got it for $83? during an eBay sale).

FORM FACTOR M.2 2280
INTERFACE NVMe™ PCIe Gen 3.0 x 4 Lanes
CAPACITIES2 500GB
NAND 3D
ENCRYPTED XTS-AES 256-bit Encryption
SEQUENTIAL READ/WRITE1 500GB – up to 2,200/2,000MB/s
RANDOM 4K READ/WRITE1 500GB – up to 180,000/200,000 IOPS
TOTAL BYTES WRITTEN (TBW)3 500GB – 350TBW
POWER CONSUMPTION .0032W Idle / .08W Avg / 1.7W (MAX) Read / 4.5W (MAX) Write
STORAGE TEMPERATURE -40°C ~ 85°C
OPERATING TEMPERATURE 0°C ~ 70°C
DIMENSIONS 80mm x 22mm x 3.5mm
WEIGHT 500GB – 6.8g
VIBRATION OPERATING 2.17G Peak (7-800Hz)
VIBRATION NON-OPERATING 2.17G Peak (7-800Hz)
MTBF 2,000,000
WARRANTY/SUPPORT4 Limited 5-year warranty with free technical support

Specifications table taken from UMart who also have it for $92 C&C.

For those looking for a larger drive, the 1TB model is also on sale at CentreCom for $165 (free delivery).

Related Stores

Centre Com
Centre Com

closed Comments

  • +5

    Looks like I'm picking one of these up this weekend as the new cod update is getting up there

  • I got a Tech-fast PC which didn't come with the NVME screw/washer.
    Are these included in modern NVME SSD's or no?

    • +3

      They usually come with motherboards, not the drives themselves. Reckon TechFast would send you out one if you asked though. They seem good about customer service stuff, at least based on their OzB presence.

      • I've never had (and I've gone through all the brands) or heard of a motherboard that had a M.2 slot not come with a M.2 standoff and screen.

        Call them (Techfast) and get them to send you one. It's their responsibility to make sure their motherboards have one included, no questions asked, as (1) they can be a **** getting hold of as these are just not your common standoff and screw, and (2) why should you fork out about an extra $10 to get one.

          • +1

            @elli0t: Depends on the board. They are not all the same. I have ordered a standoff/screw set titled to fit specifically MSI boards and it didn't fit an MSI Arctic Mortar board I had.

            It's something to take note of.

            Having said that, if you are buying a brand new system, there is no reason for you to have to source these parts. It should be up to the seller to provide them.

    • +1

      I think mine had a screw in the motherboard box they ship it with. Also if you have a Biostar B45M2, or I'd go as far as saying any Biostar board, I recommend you avoid this drive as the write speeds are crippled on it. I used a different NVMe SSD on my B45M2 and it was just fine, and the A2000 worked fine in my laptop.

      • Yeah I think I read in the other deal posts that this drive doesn’t work well with Gigabyte motherboards with the Fusion RGB software and I have an Aorus laptop with RGB so that rules out this drive for me unfortunately.

    • A few manufacturers have included the screw/screwdriver with their m.2 kits (very rare though; only happened to me with my MyDigitalSSD Boot Drive)… so yes, go back to Techfast if the screw wasn't included in the box. Usually it comes preinstalled on the motherboard I thought.

      Give Luke a PM to get his attention.

    • -1

      they are never already installed on m/b, check the m/b box that came with it

      • +1

        I thought mine came preinstalled on my motherboard (as it had a heatsink on it which used the same screw) but I could be imagining things.

        • +2

          Yeah this was the same on mine too. ASUS Maximus XII Hero has 3x m.2 slots and only included 2x screw sets in the box. Took me a bit to realise that 1x screw was built into the heatsink.

    • I got my TechFast PC last week.
      The screw for the 2nd NVMe slot was in the Mobo Box.

      Maybe check again & if it's definitely not there, Luke should be able to help.

  • +5

    I bought this earlier at $95 and was pretty happy, but the 1TB version is currently only $165, so I'd probably go for that instead now (budget permitting).

    • +2

      Agreed the 1TB is better value if you want the bigger drive.

      For me, I'm using this as an SSD cache in my Synology and it recommended a 450GB cache so the 500GB seemed perfect for my VMs.

      • So you have 2 500GB drive in R/W mode? Any improvement? How about RAM size?

        • Only planning to do RO to avoid a lot of the risks which RW brings. I still have the standard 8gb in my DS1019+ and from looking at VMM, I'm only averaging about 60% usage of my 3gb allocated RAM to my Win7 VM so it didn't seem worthwhile to upgrade one of the 4gb DDR3L sticks to 8gb Crucial (circa $65 on Amazon).

          And I haven't got the SSD yet. I literally ordered it same time I posted the deal, but the A2000's strong enudrance rating is what caught my eye :)

          • @jace88: Cheers, I am still on the fence about the SSD cache as I haven't come across any report suggesting significant improvement.

            Also, where can you get the 8GB RAM for $65? The cheapest local stock for CT8G3S186DM seems to be $90++ delivered.

            NAScompares suggests the cheaper 16G RAM kit (CT2KIT102464BF160B) but many people in Synology & Reddit forums have complained that it doesn't always work with DS918+ (apparently DS1019+ and DS918+ can use the same RAM?).

            • @spasto: I was looking at this CT102464BF160B stick of Crucial 8GB on Amazon last night for $65.48: https://www.amazon.com.au/Crucial-Single-PC3L-12800-SODIMM-2…

              Not sure if it's the exact spec though as I only had a cursory glance at it but it seemed to roughly match up with what I had Googled as compatible with Synology. I didn't want to throw my 2x4GB kit out straight away hence thought maybe 12GB might be a happy middle ground; but so far it doesn't seem like my VMs need it… yet.

              • @jace88: Would be keen to know if yours works correctly when you mix CT102464BF160B (CL11, 1600MHz) with the Synology Stock RAM (CL13, 1866MHz).

                • @spasto: I'm still on the fence on buying the RAM as I don't think I need it… will wait and see. No doubt if I do decide to buy, I'll look around for the best deal and probably post something up here too!

  • with nvm m.2 as the preferred SDD to hold windows and/or data, is it still advisable to have 2 separate hard drives? eg 1 for windows and the 2nd for data (games, docs, vids etc)?

    • The more drives the better, makes sense right?

    • Various schools of thoughts on benefits of splitting application/games/data across different drives.

      For me, I still do. Makes it easier if something gets corrupted or you need to start fresh on something in the future.

  • Is this better than the P1? That's wat I currently have. My ITX mobo has two slots, thinking what should I use as a main

    • +2

      Check out this buying guide on SSDs: https://ssd.borecraft.com/SSD_Buying_Guide_List.pdf

      As well as this flowchart: https://ssd.borecraft.com/SSD_Buying_Guide.pdf

      As you can see, the A2000 is placed as a moderate NVMe drive while the crucial P1 is considered a budget NVMe drive. This is due to the A2000's Triple-Layer cell which in comparison to the P1's Quad-Level cell is better in terms of both endurance (durability when writing data/files) and more importantly speed, loading up windows 10 approximately 32% faster (6.79 seconds vs 10.01 seconds).

      Around a year ago, this SSD was priced about 8-10% higher than the P1 as well (which is why it was considered moderate in terms of price) but for some reason, Centre Com has made it even cheaper than the P1 in both 500GB and 1TB forms and it does not look like a sale price either.

      Ultimately in terms of price to performance SSDs, i don't think the A2000 can be beat. When i build my first pc in November to hopefully take advantage of many Black Friday sales, the 1TB version of this SSD is most likely what i'm going for to not only put on my OS but any video games that i'm deeply invested in at that time that i want loaded up faster while reserving less played games, music, photos, videos and other files for my 2TB Seagate Barracuda.

      • Cheers! I think I'll be pulling the trigger on it. I've never seen that guide before and that'll be added to my useful resources. Thanks!

    • +1

      I initially bought a 1TB P1 for an external SSD in a NVMe enclosure, and ended up returning it. Read speeds were fine, but due to the terrible SLC caching algorithm they used and the slow NAND, you'd get about 10-20GB of writes to the drive at full speed, before the write speed tanked to below 100MB/s for the remainder of the transfer.

      I returned it and purchased the A2000 1TB instead, and oh boy is there a difference. I can write full speed to the A2000 1TB up to the ~150GB mark, before it drops down to 500MB/s for the remainder of the copy.

      I paid $235 for my 1TB A2000, bit sour now that it's $165 😬

      TL;DR: The P1 is a terrible slow SSD for doing anything write intensive (eg. long sequential writes). The A2000, for not much more, is a significantly better option!.

      • +1

        Yes, but if the price gap was large I'd still go for the P1. Most users wouldn't notice this write caching and all the nitty gritty with it as just a boot drive with some games and programs on it.

  • can i install on macbook pro late 2015 13'

  • Anyone know of any tools to seamlessly transfers os + data onto this new drive?

    • +4

      I usually use Macrium Reflect Free - https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

    • +1

      Another vote for Macrium Reflect Free :)

    • I used Clonezilla which is an open source one

    • I believe the drive comes with Acronis True Image as well which achieves the same feat, but I personally have used the free Macrium myself and would probably suggest this first.

      Previously I've used the Samsung software which is only compatible (and included) with Samsung SSDs making it a bit moot, but that was the easiest to use out of everything.

  • Good price

    Also $89 on shopping expres excluding delivery
    https://www.shoppingexpress.com.au/buy/kingston-a2000-500gb-…

    • Who is quicker at packing and handling etc?
      Centrecom or Shopping Express?

    • I looked at that and it was $9 for them to deliver to Sydney CBD hence why I went CentreCom which was $92 delivered (+$1.10 for credit card or PayPal).

      • I just bought a heap of components for a HAckintosh. NewEgg were the cheapest on the Ryzen, at $466, however I saw lots of bad reviews, minimum 2 weeks before they send the components out etc. I was after a specific mainboard that works well with Logic Pro.

        Looking at a Dual boot scenario, MacOS, just for Logic Pro, and Final Cut? Windows for Everything else.

  • Can anyone recommend a cheap enclosure for this SSD?

    • Don't know if anyone else will post any good suggestions but I've bought a couple of NVMe SSD enclosures and they've all had issues with heat dissapation resulting in the USB controller shutting off…. which is particularly useless when you're cloning a drive.

      • +1

        Should've mentioned I bought cheap non branded enclosures… yes I'm aware, serves me right.

    • I have the wavlink enclosure - good but expensive.

      • All the ones I've seen are around that price.

        • +1

          Nah I bought cheap NVMe enclosures ie rubbish off eBay for $15-20ish. They technically work but flake out pretty quickly.

          • @jace88: Thanks for the info, I'll avoid them.

            • +1

              @willy000: To spare you some potential stress, I checked my eBay history and found the item but it's no longer listed. Description was "ITS- NVMe PCIE USB3.1 HDD Enclosure M.2 to USB Type C 3.1 Hard Disk Drive Case C".

              Looks identical to the Black colour one listed in this add: https://www.ebay.com/itm/JT-FA-NVMe-PCIE-USB3-1-HDD-Enclosur…

              (I found the above by Google reverse image search of the picture from my order)

  • Anybody had shipping notification from Centre.Com. Mine still says 'Picking'

    • Mine says due to arrive tomorrow in Aus Post app. Fingers crossed.

      • Arrived today 13/8. Came in a very padded yellow envelope. Not concerned. Came running latest firmware: S5Z42105

        • Still says its in transit. Still in Mebourne VIC yesterday.

          • @BewareOfThe Dog: Arriving today. Finally……………

            Meanwhile I ordered a drive from Shopping Express yesterday, in transit already.

Login or Join to leave a comment