With the XS1000, Kingston offers a new mid-range external SSD. This relies on the typical USB C 3.2 Gen 2×1 interface, through which it should achieve up to 1050 MB/s.
This uses the SMI 2320 controller. Many common external SSDs use normal NVME SSDs internally, which are then made USB-capable with an adapter chip.
The XS1000, on the other hand, uses a controller that brings the USB interface directly with it. Above all, this allows for a super compact design. The XS1000 is even smaller than even a Samsung T7.
But how good is the Kingston XS1000 in practice and how does it compare to other external SSDs?
Let’s find out in the test. Many thanks to Kingston for providing the SSD for this test.
Die Kingston XS1000 im Test
Certainly one of the highlights of the XS1000 are the dimensions. At 69 x 32 x 13.5 mm, the XS1000 is a bit thicker than the Samsung T7, for example, but a lot smaller in all other dimensions.
The XS1000 is also very light at 28 g!
I would describe the design as quite simple. So the SSD doesn’t look overly “valuable” or noble. Interestingly, the top and bottom of the XS1000 are made of metal, even if they look more like plastic.
On the connection side, we have exactly one USB C port on the side. This is a USB C 3.2 Gen 2×1 port. Interestingly, Kingston only includes a USB A to USB C cable, which is a bit unusual.
Otherwise, the SSD only has a small status LED next to the USB C port.
test system
I am testing the Kingston XS1000 on the following system:
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E
16GB DDR5 RAM
Windows 11 Pro 22H2
To give the readings a little more context, I compare the XS1000 to the following other external SSDs:
Crucial X8 1TB
Samsung T5 1TB
Samsung T7 Shield 1TB
Lexar SL200 1TB
CrystalDiskMark, the first test
First, let’s look at the peak performance of the XS1000.
The first values of the XS1000 look very good! So we get a whopping 1089 MB/s reading and 1033 MB/s writing.
The Kingston XS1000 is pretty much at the limit of the USB 10Gbit connection. When reading, the Crucial X8 and the Samsung T7 Shield +- reach the same speed.
The Crucial X8 can marginally beat the XS1000 in reading, but the T7 Shield, for example, can no longer quite keep up.
PC Mark
Although PC Mark is an “artificial” test, it is made to simulate practical situations.
Here we do two tests, the “Data Drive” test, which as the name suggests are data drives and primarily consist of copy tests, but also the “Full” test.
The latter is actually intended for internal drives, but it might be quite exciting.
PC Mark certifies the SSD a good if not very good result! Although it can be beaten by the Crucial X8, it is ahead of the Samsung T7 Shield and the Samsung T5.
3D Mark SSD Test
Let’s also take a look at the new 3D Mark SSD test. This is actually also made for internal SSDs, but with a few comparative values it provides exciting information about the response time and loading rates of the external SSDs.
The 3D Mark SSD test tests the following:
Loading Battlefield™ V from launch to the main menu.
Loading Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
Loading Overwatch® from launch to the main menu.
Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch®.
Installing The Outer Worlds® from the Epic Games Launcher.
Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds®.
Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike®: Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.
3D Mark gives the +- same picture. Again, the XS1000 sits between the Crucial X8 and the Samsung T7 Shield.
Practical tests
Of course, we also need to do some practical tests. Here I copy 3 data packages to and from the SSD.
Test 1 – 1x file of 49 GB Test 2 – 1x file of 215 GB Test 3 – 378x files with a total size of 49 GB (game installation)
In the practical test, things are now getting exciting! Because this is where the Samsung T7 Shield suddenly passes!
When reading, it places itself just ahead of the Kingston XS1000 with 921 MB/s to 915 MB/s (on average).
It gets a little wilder when writing. With the Kingston XS1000 and the Crucial X8, we see an extreme drop in data rates in test package 2. This is due to a very aggressive write cache on these SSDs, more on that later.
However, the XS1000 does very well with the smaller file packages, only with the extra large file package it looks a bit sadder.
SSD Caching
Almost all modern SSDs have a cache. Even modern NAND can’t do more than 1000-2000 MB/s at peak and this is already the best of the best NAND.
Simple TLC NAND or QLC NAND can also have its limit at +- 100-500 MB/s.
But how do we get to these super high data rates with internal SSDs? TLC NAND as in the XS1000 can store 3 bits per cell. QLC NAND creates 4 bits per cell.
However, the more bits we store per cell, the more complex the writing process becomes for the controller, resulting in lower data rates. Especially QLC memory is extremely slow here.
In order to achieve high data rates, the SSD manufacturers used a so-called SLC cache. Here, for example, the TLC memory is not written directly with 3 bits, but only with one bit, which is why the saving process is a lot faster. However, the cache cannot cover the entire SSD, at some point more bits per cell have to be written or the data has to be summarized in the background before a slightly faster cache is available again.
What about the Kingston XS1000 here? I filled it completely with H2TestW and logged the data rate.
And here, unfortunately, there is a negative surprise. The XS1000 also relies on a cache. This is about 60-70GB in the 1TB version.
After the cache, the SSD only achieves +- 150 MB/s! That sounds pretty weak at first, it’s not optimal at all, but it’s not completely abnormal either.
Here are a few other SSDs in comparison:
For example, the Crucial X8 drops to 80MB/s after the cache! The Samsung SSDs tend to stay a bit more constant, but they are more the exception than the rule here.
You can also see this in the average write rate in H2TestW when the SSD is fully written.
Conclusion
The Kingston XS1000 is an interesting external SSD. How much I can recommend these ultimately depends on the price and your use.
In principle, the Kingston XS1000 is a very fast external SSD. With 1089 MB/s reading and 1033 MB/s, it achieved absolute top values for a USB C 3.2 10Gbit SSD!
It even surpasses the Samsung T7 series. Class!
However, in practice it is not that easy. Like most SSDs, the XS1000 uses a write cache. After the write cache, the SSD is quite slow at around 150 MB/s. Not as slow as the Crucial X8, which only manages +- 80 MB/s, but clearly slower than the Samsung T7 series (especially the Shield), which deliver lower peak performance but consistent performance.
So if you’re copying large amounts of data from A to B at once, then there are better SSDs than the Kingston XS1000. However, if the SSD is not too expensive and you are looking for a simple, small data storage device with high “top speed”, then this is an absolutely recommendable SSD.