Patriot is another firm that's spread its
wings into the relatively new area of SSDs, and its Pyro SE drive follows the
blueprint set by several others this month: a SandForce 2281 controller, a
variety of MLC NAND modules used to construct the drive itself, and a SATA
6Gbps controller that indicates the high speeds this drive could potentially
offer.
It's also one of the cheapest SSDs here, at
$259.2, but that amount of cash doesn't net you 256GB or even 240GB of space;
instead, that's the amount of money you'll have to fork out for a 120GB drive.
That's enough for a Windows installation and a comprehensive selection of apps
or games, but it also makes the Pyro SE relatively poor value; its $2.32 price
per gigabyte can't compare to the $1.84 of the Corsair Performance Series Pro.
Despite the high price, the Pyro SE can't
quite compete when it comes to our benchmarks. Its large file write speed of
497.7MB/s is one of the slowest of all the drives tested here, with the month's
fastest SSDs scoring 507.4MB/S in the same test. The Pyro SE was a little
better in our small file read test, scoring 326.8MB/S, but that quick speed is
also achieved by the better Kingston HyperX.
The Patriot didn't regain any of that lost
ground in the AS SSD benchmarks. The Pyro SE's sequential write speed of
128.05MB/S is the worst in this month's group, and far behind the 413.85MB/s
scored by the Corsair Performance Series Pro. The Pyro SE's 4K write result of
57.28MB/s was also the worst here, and several other SSDs outpaced the Patriot
in the sequential read benchmark: its 493.49MB/S result was the wrong side of
500MB/S for our liking.
Other AS SSD results highlighted the gulf
between the Pyro SE and some of this month's most impressive drives: the Pyro
SE ran through the 4K-64 read test at 112.72MB/s; the Corsair Performance
Series Pro, for instance, rattled through at 237.77MB/S.
There was little joy to be found in the PC
Mark 7 tests either. The Pyro SE scored 19.14MB/S in the picture importing
test, which fell behind the 19.89MB/S scored by the Kingston, and the Patriot
returned a 40.51 MB/s result in the application launching test - a fair
distance behind the 41.51 MB/s of the PNY drive.
The Patriot doesn't cover itself in glory
when it comes to accessories either. While most of this month's drives include
a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter at the very least - and Kingston's SSD serves
up this alongside a screwdriver, external enclosure and cables - the Pyro SE
includes nothing in the box. That means you'll likely have to invest in your
own adapter before installing the Pyro SE in your PC.
That's a disappointing state of affairs,
especially considering the expensive involved - at $2.32 per gigabyte and
$259.2 for this 120GB SSD, it's one of the worst value SSDs on test. We'd be
more forgiving if performance was up to scratch but, as our benchmarks
demonstrate, the Pyro SE isn't particularly quick either. If you're searching
for an SSD, keep looking.
|
Details
|
|
Capacity
|
120GB (111GB formatted)
|
|
Price
|
120GB (111GB formatted)
|
|
Manufacturer
|
Patriot
|
|
Website
|
patriotmemory.com
|
