The SATA variant of Kingston's UV500 240GB is one of the most economical solid state drives in the market today, but its performance leaves a bit to be desired even for the price.

A few months ago, my colleague Gina sent me a text message out of the blue. "Do you know how to change batteries?" she asked. "Of course I do," I wrote. "I am an expert in alarm clocks and graphing calculators." I could imagine her rolling her eyes as she sent a semi-sarcastic reply back. "How about locomotives?" More often than not, we have preconceived notions about the form and context of the things that we assume other people already know what we are trying to say. In this particular case, I knew she was asking whether I could help her change the battery in her car, but that did not stop me from having a little fun in the beginning. It is technically correct to say I have experience in changing alarm clock and graphing calculator batteries no matter how trivial the task is; and no, I have never worked on a locomotive before. In another example, what is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say "SSD"? A 2.5" Serial ATA drive? An M.2 expansion card? What about mSATA? For me, it would be a traditional 2.5" SATA drive, even though I have rocked a very nontraditional OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB PCI Express unit for years. But whether you are thinking 2.5", M.2, or mSATA when I mention "SSD", you cannot be wrong with the Kingston UV500. The company offers their latest budget offering in all three form factors, and we here at APH Networks has all of them sitting in our labs. To start off the first review of our series, let us take a look at the most traditional of the bunch: Serial ATA.