Kingston HyperX Predator The latest high-performance SSD from a well-known name.

Rather than being an all-in-one PCIe card unit, the Predator is simply a standard 2280 PCIe M.2 SSD plugged into a halfheight adaptor card. You can get it in both 240GB and 480GB options, and the actual M.2 SSD itself can be simply unscrewed and removed if desired. It’s also possible to buy the M.2 drive itself without the adaptor, but prices are about the same, so there’s not much point. The SSD uses the 2820 M.2 form factor, measuring in at 80mm long and 22mm wide. The HyperX uses the second-generation Marvell 88SS9293 controller, 1GB of DDR3 cache and Toshiba A19 NAND feeding back through a PCIe 2.0 x4 interface. Performance is excellent, with fast 1,287/ 1,011MB/s read and write speeds. Compared to older PCIe SSDs that only just outpaced SATA 6Gbps, this is a very noticeable step up in performance. 4K random read and write speeds are also excellent, at 31/ 109MB/s, respectively. The 480GB model is rated at 882TB over the threeyear warranty, or a massive 800GB per day. The Predator SSD is bootable too, but is quite a power-hungry drive, so it’s best suited to desktop rather than laptop use. The 240GB model costs $339, while the 480GB will set you back $649. While it’s not the cheapest PCIe M.2 SSD on the market, the fast speeds mean the HyperX still offers strong bang for buck.