Memory and storage provider Kingston has announced its SSDNow M Series Bundle, offering a quick way for folks to upgrade from a standard 2.5- or 3.5-inch hard drive to SSD technology. The SSDNOw M Series drives are available in either 80 GB or 160 GB capacities, and Kingston is throwing in all the accessories and software needed to get data from their current hard drive onto an SSD, including software to clone over the existing hard drives, along with installation hardware to mount the SSD in either a 2.5- or 3.5-inch drive bay.
“This all-in-one kit is the perfect solution for enterprise companies, corporate end users and consumers to incorporate SSD technology into existing systems,” said Kingston’s SSD business manager Ariel Perez, in a statement. “The Kingston SSDNow M Series Bundle makes moving the operating system, applications, and all other data from a hard-disk drive to a solid-state drive quick and easy whether for a notebook, desktop, or workstation.”
The SSDNow M Series drives are Intel X-25M SATA SSD drives, featuring 250MB/sec read speeds and 70 MB/sec write speeds. The Kingston bundle kit includes the SSD drive (again, 80 or 160 GB), a 2.5-inch USB enclosure with cable to accept a traditional drive removed from a notebook computer, and (for desktop PCs) 2.5- and 3.5-inch mounting brackets, power, and SATA cable extenders. The bundle also includes Acronis True Image software for cloning the existing hard drive, which works on Windows XP/Vista.
The 80 GB SSDNow bundle will carry a suggested price of $427.50; the 160 GB version will run $843.00. SSDs might be cool, but they sure aren’t cheap—not yet, anyway.