A Special Edition version of Pyro Solid State Drive is in our hands. Boasting 500MB/s transfer speeds, using SandForce SF-2281 and being affordable.
Product on Review: Pyro SE SATA 3 SSD
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Patriot
Street Price: £158 (At time of review)
Patriot Memory are well known for their RAM and USB flash products and awareness of their SSD products is also growing. Their SATA 2 SSDs Inferno and Torqx, may not be that well known but their SATA 3 SSDs – Wildfire and Pyro have a strong reputation in the industry. Today we will be looking to the next step in their SATA 3 endevours as we consider the Pyro SE. An SSD that slots right in between the Wildfire and Pyro. Using the SandForce SF-2281 Controller some will be wondering just what the differences are – you will have to read on further to discover this!
The SandForce SF-2200 family is very popular amongst SATA 3 SSDs currently available and we have already reviewed many drives using this controller – so it will be interesting to see how the Pyro SE compares against other rivals that essentially have the same makeup.
Patriot Memory’s take on Pyro SE
The Patriot Memory Pyro SE is the perfect choice for those looking to upgrade to get blazingly fast start up times and near instantaneous access to their data. Powered by the latest SandForce® SF-2281 processor and utilizing the ultra-fast SATA III 6 Gb/s interface, The Pyro SE brings the improved performance of synchronous NAND to the brand offering Performance Users and Gamers the speed advantage they demand. To ensure the Patriot Memory Pyro SE provides rock-solid performance, technologies like TRIM, DuraClass, and DuraWrite have been included. Offering read/write speeds of 500+ MB/s, the Pyro SE will chew through large file transfers and make even the most demanding applications a smooth experience. With the Pyro SE, Patriot memory has continued pricing very aggressively to offer one of the best price-per-performance ratios on the market. Backed by Patriot Memory’s award winning build quality and 3-year warranty; the Patriot Memory Pyro SE will deliver one of the most reliable choices in performance class SSDs.
Technical Specifications
• SandForce SF-2200 series SSD processor paired with qualified MLC NAND flash for best performance, value and reliability
• SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s
• TRIM support (O/S dependent)
• DuraClass™ technology
• DuraWrite™ extends the endurance of SSDs
• Intelligent Block Management and Wear Leveling
• Intelligent Read Disturb Management
• Intelligent “Recycling” for advance free space management (Garbage Collection)
• RAISE™ (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements)
• Intelligent Data Retention optimization
• Best-in-class ECC protection for longest data retention and drive life.
• Power/Performance Balancing
• Thermal Threshold Management
• Native Command Queuing (NCQ) – Up to 32 commands
• ECC Recovery: Up to 55 bits correctable per 512-byte sector (BCH)
• Sequential Read & Write Transfer:
• 60GB model; Up to 550MB/s read | 500MB/s Write
• 240GB & 120GB models; Up to 550MB/s read | 520MB/s Write
• Max Random Write IOPS:
• 60GB model; Up to 80K
• 240GB & 120GB models; Up to 85,000 (4K aligned)
• O/S Support: Windows® XP / Vista / 7 / Mac® OS / Linux
Packaging & Bundle
Pyro SE is packaged in a similar box to that of the original Pyro and other Patriot SSDs. A small cardboard box with technical details on the reverse and main features on the front. As far as SSD packaging is concerned this is what we come to expect.
Inside, Pyro SE is contained within folding transparent casing. Other than the SSD there is a sticker and instructions manual.
Pyro SE packaging
Pyro SE bundle – including SSD, sticker and manual
On the next page we will take a closer look at the SSD itself.
Closer Look
The exterior design of Pyro SE is pretty much the same as Pyro. The drive has a rough surface texture with a label on the front specifying the capacity, size and speed.
Pyro SE SSD
Spinning the SSD over – the back has a label too. This contains the serial number and technical details regarding the standards adhered to.
The reverse of Pyro SE
The next step is to show the internal PCB. Opening an SSD or any drive should be done at the user’s risk. Opening up an SSD voids the warranty.
Pyro SE series is powered by the 2nd Generation SandForce SF-2281 controller – the same found in the standard Pyro. Pyro SE makes use of 16x 25nm MLC NAND synchronous flash memory and is SATA 3 – 6GB/s, giving read/write speeds over 500MB/s.
So what is the difference with Pyro and Pyro SE? Well the SE uses premium synchronous NAND flash whilst the original Pyro features asynchronous memory modules. Pyro SE should deliver better performance overall but with that comes a higher price-tag so there is still a place for Pyro – especially if you are on a tighter budget.
SF-2281 delivers native TRIM support for garbage collection and Native Command Queuing (NCQ) with 32 commands with DuraClass.
Pyro SE 120GB PCB
Test Setup & Methodology
For the purpose of testing, we will be observing performance whilst comparing the Pyro SE against previously reviewed drives using SATA 2, SATA 3 and PCI-E interface.
The system is formatted and a fresh version of Windows is installed with just drives in place – no additional applications. Windows is then updated to the latest release. Included in the list of benchmarks are the following applications:
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
AIDA64
CrystalDiskMark 3.0
Iometer
SiSoftware SANDRA
Windows 7 Boot Time Test
Test system
CPU Intel Core i5 2500K
Motherboard ASUS P8P67
Graphics ZOTAC GTX 480 AMP!
Memory 4GB Kingston HyperX Genesis CL9 1600MHz
HDD
– Patriot Pyro SE 120GB
– OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 240GB
– OCZ Agility 3 240GB
– OCZ RevoDrive X2 240GB
– Patriot Pyro 120GB
– Kingston V+ 128GB
– Corsair F40 40GB
– Samsung Spinpoint 250GB SATA-II
PSU OCZ 750W Fatal1ty
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
Synthetic Benchmarks: ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.
Synthetic Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning AIDA64 Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems.
Synthetic Benchmarks: CrystalDiskMark 3.0
CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software that analyses different types of hard drive. Giving sequential benchmark write and read statistics in MB/s. A simple program that is very useful.
Synthetic Benchmarks: Iometer
Iometer is based on a client–server model, where one instance of the Iometer graphical user interface is managing multiple ‘workers’ (each one representing a separate Dynamo.exe process) which are doing the I/O. Iometer performs Asynchronous I/O – accessing files or block devices (later one allowing to bypass the file system buffers).
Iometer allows the configuration of disk parameters such as the ‘Maximum Disk Size’, ‘Starting Disk Sector’ and ‘# of Outstanding I/Os’. This allows a user to configure a test file upon which the ‘Access Specifications’ configure the I/O types to the file.
Iometer allows the configuration of disk parameters such as the ‘Maximum Disk Size’, ‘Starting Disk Sector’ and ‘# of Outstanding I/Os’. This allows a user to configure a test file upon which the ‘Access Specifications’ configure the I/O types to the file.
For the purpose of this test. The 4K 50%/50% read/write file will be under the examination – reporting back on MBs per Second and Average Response Time.
Synthetic Benchmarks: Si Software SANDRA 2011
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Real World Performance: Windows 7 Boot Time
Synthetic testing is valuable in the examination of Solid State Drives. But some of the tests may not mean all that much to some readers so the final test in this review is a real world test showing the Windows 7 boot time.
In order to perform this test (and indeed all other benchmarks), a fresh install of Windows 7 Professional was installed on the Pyro SE – the image of this install with no additional applications or drivers was exported for importing onto each drive at the time of testing. This will provide a clean and fair environment for comparing the boot times on each of the drives. The times were monitored using a stopwatch.
In order to perform this test (and indeed all other benchmarks), a fresh install of Windows 7 Professional was installed on the Pyro SE – the image of this install with no additional applications or drivers was exported for importing onto each drive at the time of testing. This will provide a clean and fair environment for comparing the boot times on each of the drives. The times were monitored using a stopwatch.
Conclusion
Patriot impressed us with their original Pyro SSD and once again the feedback is only positive for the SE. The Pyro SE slots right in between the high-end Wildfire SSD and Pyro SSD – delivering the performance of Wildfire but costing much less.
In most of the benchmarks we saw significant improvement from the original Pyro. Patriot have chosen to use synchronous NAND in the SE and it really does have its benefits.
Thanks to SandForce SF-2281 there is native TRIM support for garbage collection and Native Command Queuing (NCQ) with 32 commands as well as DuraClass. Out of the box, this SSD is ready for action and backed by a 3-year warranty.
Priced at £158 inc. VAT – we aren’t quite at £1 per GB but Patriot’s Pyro SE is certainly an affordable solution in the SATA 3 – 6GB/s arena.
Pros
+ Good overall performance
+ Some improvements over original
+ Affordable
+ Good warranty period
Cons
– There are none!
+ Good overall performance
+ Some improvements over original
+ Affordable
+ Good warranty period
Cons
– There are none!
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