INTRODUCTION

   3 things always matter most in the electronics industry/market, price, performance and looks (and usually in that order). When it comes to SSDs (solid state drives) it may have taken them almost a decade to become mainstream but right now they do tick the first two boxes, meaning price and performance. Looks is honestly not something many people did care about but after the introduction of some 2.5" models (like the HyperX Fury RGB - review here and the Teamgroup Delta R model - review here) it became somewhat clear that many more than expected at first were open to the idea and so since then we've seen quite a few models featuring RGB lighting appear in the market, even M.2 ones. The latest Viper VPR100 PCIe Gen 3x4 M.2 NVME model by Patriot is one such model and today we'll be taking a thorough look at the 512GB variant.

   Viper Gaming is a brand of Patriot Memory, a global leader in performance memory, Solid State Drives (SSD's), and flash storage solutions. Viper Gaming was established in 2007 with the unveiling of the well-known, top-tier line of computer memory. Since then, the Viper Gaming brand has become synonymous with elite performance and reliability among gamers worldwide. In 2015, Viper Gaming decided to expand its product categories to include gaming keyboards, headsets, and mice. Offering entry, mid-level and high-end solutions with rich feature sets. Viper Gaming's award-winning peripherals provide gamers everywhere the best price-for-performance and reliability that enables every Viper Gamer to dominate in their sport.

   For their brand new VPR100 line of M.2 PCIe NVME SSDs (available in 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB capacities) Patriot has once again (same as the VPN100 model - review here) paired the E12 high-performance 8-channel NAND flash controller by Phison (PS5012-E12 / Gen3x4 NVMe 1.3 interface / dual Cortex-R5 processors / CoXProcessor 2.0 technology) with Toshiba 64-layer 3D TLC NAND Flash memory and 512MB DDR4 SDRAM. This hardware combo allows the 512GB variant which we have here with us today to reach speeds of up to 3300MB/s in read and 2100MB/s in write so even though this is not the fastest model of this specific line (the 1TB variant with speeds of up to 3300-2900MB/s holds that title) it does offer very good overall performance. As with other models featuring the E12 controller by Phison the VPR100 line supports various technologies likes StrongECC, SmartRefresh, SmartFlush, end-to-end data protection, thermal monitoring, AES-256 encryption and TCG Pyrite/OPAL support. What makes the VPR100 line however stand out compared to the previous VPN100 line are the 13 RGB LEDs located on the PCB which are fully adjustable by using Patriot's RGB app (7 effects - 8 including with the off/DARK one). Patriot however indicates that RGB sync may decrease up to 20-30% Read/Write speeds so this too is something i decided to check myself. Finally, the entire VPR100 line is covered by a 3-year limited warranty and in terms of durability/endurance Patriot/Viper Gaming report numbers of up to 380TBW for the 256GB model, 800TBW for the 512GB model, 1600TBW for the 1TB model and 3115TBW for the 2TB model.