This is the second Kingston model in the group and one from the company’s HyperX performance range of products.
As you can also no doubt tell, this is the first of the newer PCIe M.2 SSDs in the group. Naturally, as PCIe slots are faster than SATA, in theory we should see some pretty impressive numbers when it comes to the benchmark.
First off, though, the HyperX Predator comes in a large box and is actually mounted on the front of a PCIe card, screwed in place but removable should your system already have an appropriate M.2 interface. Interestingly, the PCIe card that the HyperX Predator is initially mounted to also comes with a full and half-height backplate, so you can fit to discrete and lowprofile systems.
The actual M.2 drive itself is the standard size, measuring 22 x 80 x 3.5mm and weighing around 10g. Power consumption is rated as 1.38W when idle, 1.4W average, 1.99W maximum read and 8.25W maximum write. Again, Kingston rates the lifespan of the drive to one million hours.
The Marvell controller powered HyperX Predator states some pretty big numbers on the box, boasting transfer speeds of 1400MB/s read and 1000MB/s write.
Our ATTO benchmark did differ, but only ever so slightly. The 8192KB transfer test recorded an eye-watering read speed of 1426MB/s, while the write speed came back with 916MB/s. The smaller transfer size of 4KB was a little less impressive, with a recorded read speed of 305MB/s and 290MB/s write.
The bigger transfer speeds weren’t too far from the claims on the box, but it’s interesting to see that the lower-sized transfer speeds didn’t differ that much from the other M.2 SSDs we’ve so far looked at.
Nevertheless, the HyperX Predator certainly gave our system a much needed kick up the backside. Windows 10 was booted (again, once we got past the initial BIOS) before we could even sit down, and the entire system was as speedy as you'd expect.
The HyperX Predator currently comes in two capacities: the 240GB version that we had to test and a 480GB version. There are rumours that a 980GB+ version is going to be made available in the very near future, but as of yet we don’t know if that’s for certain.
The only downside to owning a HyperX Predator 240GB PCIe M.2 SSD is the fact that you'll have to fork out £180 for one. That’s quite a lot of money for a mere 240GB, regardless of the benchmarks you’ll no doubt see once the thing is installed. Of course, if you can afford it, then you’ll be in for a treat, but for the rest of, we’re not sure the cost at present justifies the extra speed.