Easy Upgrades: Hard Drive to Solid State Drive

Kingston UV500G/960G Overview

As we mentioned earlier, Kingston was gracious enough to send over their 960GB UV500 SSD Upgrade Kit that works for both laptops and desktops. This kit offers a simple setup for migrating from an existing drive to the included SSD.

Kingston’s retail packaging shows the UV500 on the front of the box, as well as a bit of marketing material. Nothing too flashy here, but a label in the top right corner helps you know that this is not just a drive, but an upgrade kit for both desktops and laptops. The back of the retail box shows the kit’s contents, and gives a little bit of information about the product, in multiple languages.

Kingston UV500 Kingston UV500

Outside of the packaging, we have the UV500 itself, with a large Kingston “Rex” logo and branding on the front of the drive.

Kingston UV500

The backside of the UV500 has your standard infomation sticker, indicating the drive size and multiple regulatory symbols.

Kingston UV500

As this is an upgrade kit, Kingston also includes an external 2.5″ USB drive enclosure. This plastic shell is intended to hold the UV500 during the cloning process, as well as providing a conversion from SATA to USB. The top of the enclosure is plain other than some Kingston branding in the lower right.

Kingston UV500

The backside of the enclosure is quite plain as well, other than the three raised lines that are used to remove the back cover to gain access to the inside.

Kingston UV500

One end of the enclosure features a sliding lock mechanism to keep the removable cover in place, while the other end is home to the USB 3.0 Micro Type B connector and LED indicator.

Kingston UV500 Kingston UV500

With the back side of the enclosure removed, we see a very plain interior, with just the SATA data and power ports available for the UV500.

Kingston UV500

Also included with the kit is a 2.5″ to 3.5″ drive adapter and screws, which allows this drive to be installed in a standard 3.5″ drive bay, a 4-pin to SATA power cable, SATA data cable, and a 7mm to 9.5mm adapter to assist with filling space in larger 2.5″ drive locations. Additionally, an Acronis True Image HD Software Activation Key is also included, which provides access to Acronis software that enables drive cloning.

Kingston UV500