Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD Review

Patriot recently launched another SSD to join their SATA 3 – 6Gbps family. Boasting 500MB/s transfer speeds, using SandForce SF-2281 and being more affordable – will the Pyro set our world on fire?

Product on Review: Pyro SATA 3 SSD
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Patriot
Street Price: £167 (At time of review)

Patriot are well known for their memory and USB flash products but perhaps lack awareness in the SSD department. Under the SATA 2 interface they have provided the market with the Inferno and Torqx but now they are tackling the SATA 3 interface with some more flame filled models such as the Wildfire and our review subject – Pyro. Like the Pyro the Wildfire takes advantage of a SandForce SF-2281 Controller the difference between these two models is that the Wildfire caters for the performance market whilst the Pyro hopes to offer a better value for money alternative whilst still endorsing good transfer rates from SATA 3 – 6Gbs.

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 compares against other rivals that essentially have the same makeup.

Patriot’s take on Pyro

Powerered by the latest SandForce® SF-2281 processor, the Patriot Memory Pyro line will continue to expand on what’s expected out of performance level SSDs. To meet the demanding needs of the power users and prosumer markets, the Patriot Memory Pyro will deliver blazing fast 500MB+ read and write speeds for the best in class performance

About Patriot Memory

Established in 1985, Patriot Memory builds a full range of memory module and flash memory products, offering a perfect blend of quality and value. Patriot products include Extreme Performance (EP), Signature Lines (SL) and Flash Memory solutions (FM).

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: 240GB & 120GB models; 550MB/s read | 515MB/s Write 60GB model; 520MB/s read | 490MB/s Write.
• Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 85,000 (4K aligned)/240GB & 120GB models; up to 80,000 (4K aligned)/60GB model.
• O/S Support: Windows® XP / Vista / 7 / Mac® OS / Linux

Packaging & Closer Look

The Pyro is presented in a similar type of box as Patriot package their memory solutions. In the very centre we have a sneak preview of the Pyro drive and key features are printed on the front of the packaging. With Pyro being associated with flames and fire, Patriot have gone with this orange design to capture the eye and I have to agree it does look good.

Inside the packaging, aside from the actual drive there is only an instructions leaflet including in the ‘bundle’.

The packaging for Pyro

The bundle is scarce of any added extras

With the drive now out of its packaging we can take a closer look at its build quality and exterior design. Unlike many of the SSDs we have taken a look at recently the Pyro has a matt finish to the front plate. Carrying on with the flame type design, the front also has the orange wisps, the capacity, size of drive and interface speed. The outer edge has a glossy metallic finish to glistens when the light catches it.

The front of the Pyro SSD

Spinning the SSD over we can see the reverse has a plethora of detail containing serial numbers, model name, firmware revision, disclaimer and included standards. Being SATA 3 we have the SATA port and SATA power port for interfacing with the drive. There are also 4 mounting holes for securing the drive within your computer case.

The back of the Pyro SSD

Testing Methodologies

At the moment our SSD database is only small but over the coming months it will expand. So to analyse the Pyro’s performance I will be comparing it against 1 x RevoDrive X2, 2 x SATA 3 SSD – Kingston HyperX and OCZ Agility 3, 3 x SATA 2 SSDs (Samsung 470, Kingston V+ and Corsair F40) and a traditional 3.5″ Samsung Spinpoint 250GB HDD.

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 120GB
– Samsung 470 256GB
– Kingston HyperX 240GB
– OCZ Agility 3 240GB
– OCZ RevoDrive X2 240GB
– 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.

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: SiSoftware 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.

Real-world Benchmark – Win7 Boot

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 – 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

Since its inception the SATA 3 SSD has had enthusiasts drooling over faster transfer rates and enticing them to get their wallets out. Never has there been a better time to invest with prices being reasonably affordable and a vast spectrum of motherboards catering for SATA 3 – 6Gbps.

The Pyro is there as an example of what great performance you can take advantage of with a SATA 3 SSD at an affordable cost. In the performance benchmarks over the previous pages they revealed that this drive has great potential for being a good all round performer. It did struggle with CrystalDiskMark but sometimes we do pick up anomalies like this when a drive struggles in a particular benchmark. The OCZ Agility 3 had similar performance results in this benchmark also but not quite as bad

In terms of cost, compared to other SATA 3 drives endorsing the SandForce 228 Controller the Patriot Pyro is quite a good value for money offering. There are three capacities to choose from – 60GB (£100) 120GB (£155-170) and 240GB (£360).

The bottom line is:: Patriot Pyro offers a good blend of performance to cost, coming with 3 years warranty it looks like a good choice for hardware enthusiasts wanting to jump on the SATA 3 bandwagon.

Pros
+ Great performance – hits speeds of up to 500MB/s
+ Reasonable pricing
+ Looks great

Cons
– Suffered with sequential transfer rates