Kingston DC600M SSD: Capacities, Endurance, DC600ME Encryption and UK Prices

Kingston DC600M SSD specifications

Kingston describes the DC600M Series as 6Gbps SATA 3.0 storage for mixed-use server workloads, and positions it for data centres and system integrators. Every capacity shares one body: 2.5 inches, 69.9 by 100 mm and 7 mm thick. The interface is SATA Rev. 3.0 at 6Gb/s, with backwards compatibility to SATA Rev. 2.0 at 3Gb/s. The NAND is 3D TLC, and the sheet states hardware-based power loss protection.

Read figures are identical at every size, so capacity is not a speed choice for reads. Writes are where the sizes part. The 480GB writes sequentially at 470 MB/s against 530 MB/s for the other four. Steady-state random write peaks at 1.92TB with 78,000 IOPS, then falls to 59,000 IOPS at 3.84TB and 34,000 IOPS at 7.68TB. On these figures the largest drive has under half the random write rate of the 1.92TB, so if small random writes dominate your workload, the 1.92TB is the strongest row on this measure.

Kingston gives typical latency as under 130 us for reads and under 70 us for writes. That is one figure for the series, not a per-capacity row.

Kingston DC600M endurance: 480GB, 960GB, 1.92TB, 3.84TB and 7.68TB

Every DC600M is rated at 1 DWPD over 5 years, so the terabytes-written figure doubles with each step in capacity.

The two columns say the same thing in different units. On our arithmetic, writing 480GB once a day for 5 years of 365 days comes to 876 TB, exactly Kingston's TBW figure for that size, and the same holds at every capacity. So the TBW column is the DWPD rating restated rather than a separate test.

That makes the choice of size a choice of write budget as well as space. A workload that rewrites 960GB a day sits inside the rating of a 960GB DC600M. The same daily volume on a 480GB drive is two drive writes a day, twice its rating, while a 1.92TB drive would take it at half its rating. If you know roughly how much your server writes each day, divide by the capacity and compare the result with 1.

Kingston DC600M vs DC600ME: encryption and part numbers

The two names share one sheet and one specification. The difference Kingston prints is encryption: none on the DC600M, and TCG Opal 2.0 with AES 256-bit encryption on the DC600ME. The sheet lists ten part numbers, and the prefix tells you which you are buying: SEDC600M for the plain drive and SEDC600ME for the encrypted one, followed by the capacity in gigabytes.

The single letter E is easy to miss in a listing title. If your server or software does not use Opal, the plain DC600M carries the same speed, endurance and power figures. Before choosing the E model for its encryption, confirm in your server or software documentation that it can manage a TCG Opal 2.0 drive.

Kingston DC600M power, temperature and warranty

• Idle 1.30 W and average 1.45 W.
• Maximum read 1.6 W and maximum write 3.6 W.
• Operating temperature 0 °C to 70 °C.
• MTBF 2 million hours.
• Limited 5-year warranty with free technical support.

The power figures are given once for the series rather than by capacity, so the sheet does not let you tell whether a 7.68TB draws more than a 480GB. Maximum write, at 3.6 W, is more than double maximum read at 1.6 W, so the write load rather than the read load sets the top of a DC600M's power budget.

The warranty line is the maker's statement about the product. We have not found a Kingston document stating how it applies to a drive bought from a particular seller on Amazon.co.uk, so ask the seller before you buy.

Kingston DC600M price on Amazon.co.uk

The table holds 2 listings right now. Prices are pounds sterling inc VAT, sorted per TB, and each row shows its condition. The table takes listings we identify as DC600M or DC600ME and leaves out the DC500M, a different model.

Some listings give the capacity only in the title, so read the part number before you press Buy on Amazon: SEDC600ME means the encrypted drive and SEDC600M without the E means the plain one. At 7.68TB in particular, SEDC600M/7680G and SEDC600ME/7680G differ by that one letter.

The DC600M is a SATA drive, and the enterprise SSD page sets SATA beside SAS and NVMe. Kingston's sheet stops at 7.68TB; the 15.36TB SSD page covers a larger size, on other makers' drives.

In-stock alternatives

None of these is the product this page covers: they are what is in stock on Amazon.co.uk beside it right now. Each row says why it is listed. Check the interface, form factor and part number against your system before buying.