Introduction, Specifications, and Packaging

Today we’re going to take a look at a pair of SSD models from Patriot. While they both share the same SandForce controller, that’s where the differences end.

Introduction

Today we’re going to take a look at a pair of SSD models from Patriot. While they both share the same SandForce controller, that’s where the differences end. This won’t be your typical review – because this time we’re pitting an Async IMFT flash unit against a Toshiba Toggle-mode flash unit:

We’re also tossing a few OCZ and Intel models into the mix. The OCZ Vertex 3 and Agility 3 will again share the same SandForce controller, but OCZ has been known to add many performance tweaks to their firmware. This will give us a chance to see the ‘baseline’ SandForce firmware in action.

Specifications

Patriot has their drive specs spread out over several pages. Here’s a consolidated list for these two models. We will be reviewing a 120GB sample from each of the two product lines.

  • Wildfire 120GB:

-Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 555MB/s read | 520MB/s Write
-Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 85,000 (4K aligned)

  • Wildfire 240GB:

-Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 555MB/s read | 520MB/s Write
-Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 85,000 (4K aligned)

  • Wildfire 480GB:

-Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 540MB/S Read | 450MB/S Write*
-Max Random Write IOPS: Max 4K Random IOPS: 40K*

  • Pyro 60GB:

– Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 520MB/s read | 490MB/s Write.
– Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 80,000 (4K aligned).

  • Pyro 120GB:

– Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 550MB/s read | 515MB/s Write.
– Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 85,000 (4K aligned).

  • Pyro 240GB:

– Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 550MB/s read | 515MB/s Write.
– Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 85,000 (4K aligned).

I’ve highlighted a few outlier specs in the above list. While the Pyro sees the now expected dip in performance when transitioning from 120GB down to 60GB – due to a reduction in the communication channels to the (fewer) flash chips, the Wildfire sees a seemingly opposite and more drastic effect. This is not due to a change in the number of data paths – it’s a limit inherent in the SandForce controller itself, and is not limited to Toggle-mode flash. The difference caused by the Toggle-mode flash is the missing 60GB model – caused by the intermix of capacity points and configuration needed for this different type of flash memory.

Read on for our full review!

As it turns out, *any* SandForce 2281 SSD with a capacity greater than 256GB will see a dip in 4K IOPS performance. This is due to the way the SF controller handles the mapping of LBA’s. To double capacity from 240GB to 480GB, the SandForce controller’s finite number of allocations must be reconfigured to utilize 8KB blocks (up from the standard 4KB – intentionally matched to the NTFS 4KB cluster size). This negatively impacts IOPS performance as a 4KB random write translates to the equivalent of an 8KB random write once the added overhead is taken into account.

If this is a truly hard limit, a 1TB SandForce 2281 SSD would have to again redouble its allocation unit to 16KB and would then be theoretically kneecapped to an again-halved ~20,000 4KB random writes.

Packaging

 

The Pyro comes in simple no frills packaging that did not require a sawzall to open.

The Wildfire line comes with a slightly beefier package – with a 3.5" bracket as a bonus.

There’s also this nifty spec page on the inside of the front cover.

 

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