Kingston on Monday announced it has developed the fastest Intel-certified memory in the world. The company's referring to its HyperX dual-channel DDR3 memory kit rated at 2400MHz, and a quick glance at Newegg shows that it trumps anything else available, just barely edging out G.Skill's fastest offering.

Kingston's newest kit boats 9-11-9-27-2N timings at 1.65V, a smidgen tighter than G.Skill's PIS Series DDR3-2400 kit, which checks in at 9-11-9-28-2N. Unlike the G.Skill kit, however, Kingston's DIMMs join select company on Intel's list of certified RAM for Core i7 processors, having been certified for use on Gigabyte's GA-P55A-UD4P. If a certification list is the sort of thing that matters to you, then it's probably worth noting that the next fastest kit on the list is Corsair's DDR3-2333 memory.

"As will all Kingston memory, the 2400MHz kit was created with the highest design-engineering principles and subjected to OEM-quality production and testing standards to gain Intel XMP certification," Kingston said.

Look for this kit to be available sometime in Q2. No word yet on price.

Image Credit: Kingston

Everyone wants security and reliability in their flash drive, until that security and reliability become a problem. Stuck with a flash drive in his possession, possibly containing incriminating evidence, Florin Necula resorted to his only viable option: he swallowed it.

According to a U.S. District Court filing, Necula, who was suspected of ATM skimming, and in the custody of the Secret Service, “grabbed Subject Flash Drive 2, which had been on his person at the time of his arrest, and swallowed.” Apparently the drive didn’t agree with Necula who, after four days, still hadn’t passed the device. (No port incompatibility comments, if you please.) Doctors recommended removal, which Necula agreed to.

But did the drive survive? No word on that from the Secret Service. And the flash drive maker, Kingston, reports that they don’t know if stomach acid could damage the device, as they have no experience with people swallowing their flash drives.

Necula’s reward for his quick thinking? A charge of obstruction of justice, to go along with the other three felony indictments he faces for ATM skimming.

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You can probably stop trying to cram that external hard drive into your pocket. Kingston may have just solved your portable storage woes with the DataTraveler 310. The 310 is a standard USB flash drive, except it has 256GB of storage. The DataTraveler 300 is a nearly identical unit sold only overseas. The 310 finally lets American buyers get in on the fun. It will be plug and play on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

This is the first flash drive of its size to ship in the US. As such, the DataTraveler 310 commands a premium. The MSRP is going to be $1,108 at launch, but you might be able to find a deal. Well, “deal” is relative here. You’re still looking at paying around a grand for portable storage; granted it is a lot of storage. The DataTraveler 310 could hold 54 uncompressed DVDs or more mp3s than you can shake a stick at.

Can you think of a reason you’d need this much storage on your keychain? Note, “because it’s cool,” is not an acceptable reason. Is there a price at which you’d run out and pick one of these up?

Kingston this week introduced its second generation SSDNow V Series the company says is targeted towards mainstream users. Kingston also claims these second-gen drives offer higher performance than their predecessors, while also boasting TRIM support.

"Kingston has really increased the performance on the new second generation SSDNow V Series drive without raising the price. A first-generation SSDNow V Series 64GB bundle upgrade kit can be found for about $150 (U.S.) at retailers and e-tailers so maintaining pricing will be huge for our customers," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston. "By bundling together all of the software, hardware and step-by-step instructions with the drive, we make it easy for everyday users to upgrade with an SSD. The addition of TRIM support is a key benefit because it enables the SSD to maintain optimal performance throughout its lifespan."

The new drives will ship in 30GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities with varying degrees of performance. On the lower end, the 30GB model read speeds up to 180MB/s and writes up to 50MB/s. Both the 64GB and 128GB more than double the write speeds at 110MB/s and 160MB/s respectively, while upping the read speed to 200MB/s.

All drives come with Acronis True Image, while those in the desktop bundle also include a 3.5-inch mounting bracket and SATA data and power cable extenders. The netbook bundle tosses in a 2.5-inch USB SATA external enclosure.

Most of these drives and bundles will start shipping next week with pricing ranging from $110 to $377.

Image Credit: Kingston

Now waist-deep in the SSD game, Kingston has a lot of know-how and industry insight on all things memory-related. We sat down with two of the company’s insiders for a different perspective on some of today’s biggest SSD questions.

See more here: 
Q&A: Tom’s Hardware And Kingston On SSD Technology

Kingston is refreshing their line of solid state drives with the SSDNow V+. The big advantage users will see in this generation of Kingston drives is support for TRIM. This should keep these pricey drives humming along smoothly throughout their life. The new drives also come in larger sizes, all the way from 64GB up to 512GB. The SSDNow V+ will be capable of 230MB/s read and 180MB/s write.

Kingston is offering a few options for interested customers. The bare OEM drive can be purchased, or for a few extra bucks there will be a bundle that comes with cloning software, a USB enclosure, cabling, and 2.5” to 3.5” mounting brackets. Pricing starts at $268 for the 64GB bare drive, and goes up to a dream shattering $1,969 for the 512GB. Tack on an extra $16 if you want the bundle, and really… at that point why be cheap?

No matter how many companies try, we're not sure USB flash drives preloaded with music or movies will ever generate the kind of sales marketing gurus envision, but Kingston and Sony, along with the help of the late king of pop, are nevertheless going to try.

Timed to the DVD and Blu-ray release of Michael Jackson's "This Is It," Kingston plans to release a limited edition 2GB drive with the flick preloaded on the memory stick. According to Kingston, the film can be backed up on up to three PCs and works with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

"Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is dedicated to exploring new distribution channels, and we are pleased to work together with Kingston on a program that introduces consumers to Flash memory as a vehicle for enjoying their favorite movies on devices like netbooks and PCs," said Sony Pictures Home Entertainment senior vice president digital distribution Joe Arancio.

The drive will be available on January 26 for $20.

Image Credit: Kingston

There's overkill, and then there's Kingston just-announced 24GB HyperX memory kit, which is like swatting a fly with a cinder block laced with grenades.

"We are pleased to make available the largest HyperX memory kits ever for the prosumers, multimedia pro, or super enthusiast who wants everything," said Mark Tekunoff, senior technology manager, Kingston. "Users working with the latest operating systems like Windows 7 can keep multiple programs open, run memory intensive video or photo applications, or run numerous virtual machines using 24GB or 16GB of DDR3 HyperX memory and create more efficiency and performance gains than ever before."

The massive 24GB kit comes rated at 1600MHz with timings set at 9-9-9-27. It consists of six DIMMs, each running at 1.65V.

For the more modest enthusiast, there's also the dual-channel 16GB kit with the same settings, but you'll save yourself a little over $500.

The 24GB kit is available now for $1,598, while the 16GB kit sells for $1,065.

Image Credit: Kingston

The memory market has been one of the hardest hit sectors in the tech industry, so it came as somewhat of a surprise when rumors started swirling that Kingston would go on a spending spree acquiring outsourcing partners Panram International and Orient Semiconductor Electronics (OSE). And with good reason, because as it turns out, the rumors aren't true, or at least that's what Kingston's saying.

Kingston, who expects to see revenues generated from Asia reach the $1 billion milestone when all the numbers are tallied for 2009, said it will continue to work closely with contract partners, but has no plans to buy or merge with any of them.

The memory chip maker also indicated plans to increase its outsourcing to Panram and OSE instead of ramping up its in-house assembly capacity.

Image Credit: Kingston

Kingston Technology is recalling certain models of its DataTraveler Secure flash drives. It was forced to take the step after a German company named SySS exposed a security flaw in few of its drives. “It has recently been brought to our attention that a skilled person with the proper tools and physical access to the drives may be able to gain unauthorized access to data contained on the following Kingston Secure USB drives,” reads a statement on the company's website.

The DataTraveler BlackBox, DataTraveler Secure — Privacy Edition, and DataTraveler Elite — Privacy Edition are the only flash drives being recalled. Kingston has advised those affected to contact tech support before returning their flash drives. Its site contains a country-wise list of all its tech support phone numbers.

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