Kingston KC2500 vs. Intel 665P: which is the best NVMe SSD for you?

The quickest and easiest way to make your computer faster and better isn't RAM or a new CPU, but by swapping in an SSD, especially if you currently have a spinning hard drive in there. We've tested a lot of different models to find the best SSDs and are directly comparing the Kingston KC2500 and Intel 665P today.

Each of these NVMe SSDs have been on the market for a bit now, but that just means you get their great performance for much less money than at launch. If you're bargain hunting for SSD storage in 2022 then taking a look at these two drives is a smart idea.

Solid state drives (SSDs) are an absolutely marvellous invention that consists of a piece of flash memory – like you'd find in an iPhone or iPad – that uses microscopic electronic switches to store data, rather than a spinning disk and needle of older hard drives. Given how important your hard drive is, it's an instant upgrade. 

Getting a new SSD is worth it even if you currently have an older SSD inside your computer as the latest tech, like NVMe connectivity, really makes a big difference to read and write speeds, which makes everything else a lot faster. 

Kingston's KC2500 is one of the best SSDs on the market in our testing and we're comparing it to Intel's 665P SSD, a strong contender. Let's jump in. 

• Read our five star Kingston KC2500 SSD review

Kingston KC2500 vs. Intel 665P: which is faster?

It's kinda obvious but the most important factor when choosing which SSD to buy is performance, measured in how fast the SSD can read and write data. Because there are no moving parts, performance is incredibly fast, especially compared to older spinning hard drives and even older SSDs. 

Kingston's 1TB KC2500 is one of the fastest SSDs on the market, offering up to 3,500 MB/s read and 2,900 MB/s write. Intel's 1TB 665P is slower, delivering up to 2,000 MB/s read and 1,925 MB/s write. 

If you're looking for hyper performance, Kingston KC2500 wins.

Kingston KC2500 vs. Intel 665P: which will last longer?

While SSDs have no moving parts, they still experience ware and the average life of an SSD is measured by Terabytes Written (TBW), which is essentially how many times the SSD can be totally rewritten during its life. 

Kingston's KC2500 is rated as 600TBW for its 1TB model and 1,200TBW for its 2TB model while Intel's 665P is rated as 300TBW for its 1TB model and 600TBW for its 2TB model. So you can expect around double the lifespan for Kingston's SSDs. 

Kingston KC2500 vs. Intel 665P: The winner is...

There's a lot to like about both of these SSDs. Intel is an incredibly well-known and respected brand and the 665P is a high performance, reliable SSD that definitely won't let you down, especially if you can grab one for a lower price. 

But Kingston's KC2500 is the clear winner, offering better read/write performance and roughly 2x as much durability. There's a reason the KC2500 is rated as our best SSD: It's the best choice for most people. 

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