Kingston KC3000
PCIe M.2 · PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 · Phison PS5018-E18
Specifications
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 |
|---|---|
| Controller | Phison PS5018-E18 |
| NAND Type | Micron 176-layer 3D TLC |
| DRAM Cache | LPDDR4 |
| Warranty | 5 years |
| Seq Read | 7,000 MB/s |
|---|---|
| Seq Write | 3,900 MB/s |
| Endurance | 400 TBW |
| Part Number | SKC3000S/512G |
| Seq Read | 7,000 MB/s |
|---|---|
| Seq Write | 6,000 MB/s |
| Endurance | 800 TBW |
| Part Number | SKC3000D/1024G |
| Seq Read | 7,000 MB/s |
|---|---|
| Seq Write | 7,000 MB/s |
| Endurance | 1600 TBW |
| Part Number | SKC3000D/2048G |
| Seq Read | 7,000 MB/s |
|---|---|
| Seq Write | 7,000 MB/s |
| Endurance | 3200 TBW |
| Part Number | SKC3000D/4096G |
Overview
The Kingston KC3000, released in early 2022, is Kingston's high-performance PCIe 4.0 drive built on a Phison E18 controller with Micron 176-layer 3D TLC NAND and LPDDR4 DRAM cache. Sequential speeds top out at 7,000 MB/s read across all capacities; write reaches 6,000 MB/s at 1TB and 7,000 MB/s on the 2TB and 4TB models. The 512GB SKU is limited to 3,900 MB/s write, substantially below the larger SKUs; this capacity gap is common on the E18 platform at lower die counts.
The KC3000 is one of few consumer drives offered at 4TB, rated at 3,200 TBW. TBW scales from 400 at 512GB to 3,200 at 4TB. The drive supports AES-256 hardware encryption and NVMe 1.4, with a 5-year warranty across all capacities. It was followed by the Kingston Fury Renegade, which uses the same E18 controller with Kioxia BiCS5 NAND.
Reviews
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“The Kingston KC3000 wants to be in the conversation with Gen4 SSD leaders like the Samsung 980 Pro, WD SN850, and FireCuda 530. The KC3000 certainly showed that it can compete at that level, as it outpaced the popular Samsung drive in virtually all of our tests ...”