INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Solid state drives (SSDs) may not be as interesting as they were upon their launch and until a couple of years ago but they are still amongst the hottest hardware components in the market something which you can easily tell just by looking at the number of models manufacturers have released just in the last year. Now as many of you know performance levels haven't really increased that much in the consumer oriented SSD market (SATA III models especially) during the past 2-3 years but we have seen a pretty significant price drop so as we speak consumers can get their hands on 480GB SATA III models for the same price one would need to get a 240GB SATA III model back in 2013. One such model is the latest Ignite 480GB SATA III SSD by Patriot Memory and today we're going to see how it compares against similar models in the market.

   Patriot Memory designs, manufactures and markets high performance, enthusiast memory modules, flash products, and computing technologies. Patriot products have become world renown for their extreme performance, reliability and innovation. Patriot Memory sells its products through original equipment manufacturers, retailers, e-tailers and distributors throughout the world with operations in North America, Asia and Europe. Patriot Memory LLC was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Fremont, California, USA.

   Much like the SSDNow KC310 SSD line by Kingston the Ignite line by Patriot Memory also features Phison’s PS3110-S10 quad-core 8-channel NAND flash controller (featuring TRIM, NCQ, ETEP, Smart ECC, AES 256Bit encryption and TCG support) with DRAM cache by Nanya (512MB at 1333MHz for the 480GB model) but whereas Kingston has used 19nm Toshiba toggle MLC NAND flash memory modules for their line Patriot Memory chose to go with 16nm Micron asynchronous MLC NAND flash to keep costs low something which will most likely affect performance levels and not in a good way. Performance specifications by Patriot Memory however for the Ignite 480GB model state that it can offer sequential read/write of up to 560-545MB/s and 4K random read/write IOPS of up to 80-75K so if these are correct then we may have a nicely balanced price/performance model in our hands.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patriot Memory uses a very small box to ship the Ignite 480GB SSD which allows consumers to take a look at the drive from the front.

 

 

A few words about the drive are placed at the rear alongside a product picture, some of the available features and the 3 years product warranty.

 

 

Inside the box Patriot Memory has placed the drive and a user manual.

 

 

THE IGNITE 480GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again we see a 7mm thick 2.5" aluminum enclosure with a sticker that has the product name, company logo and capacity printed on it.

 

 

The part number, serial number and model capacity are placed on a second sticker at the bottom.

 

 

Moving at the rear we see the usual SATA III data and power connectors.

 

 

The drive has 4 NAND flash modules by Micron placed on one side of the PCB (each 64GB in capacity).

 

 

On the opposite side we see another 4 NAND flash modules by Micron and a 512MB DRAM cache IC by Nanya.

 

 

The PS3110-S10 controller by PHISON sits at the center of the PCB.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   After over 7 years of testing sold state drives i have concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts. Also as of February 25th 2015 our results will also include the Storage Networking Industry Association’s (SNIA) IOMeter tests. These tests include a 12 Hour write test used to “simulate” performance degradation over time and a mixed workload test which basically shows what you can expect when using an SSD continuously for roughly two hours. Unfortunately due to the time required for these tests we repeat them a total of 3 times and not 6 as the above.

   Many people have made inquiries about our charts in the past so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation with every update installed up to May 27th 2015.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – AS SSD / IOMETER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – IOMETER SNIA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   It's been a while since we last had an SSD by Patriot Memory so we were quite interested to see how their latest Ignite 480GB model would perform and compare against other similar solutions by other manufacturers. Well as you can see in our normal test suite the Ignite 480GB does very well and delivers on most numbers given by Patriot Memory but when we reach our heavier IOMeter SNIA tests things just don't look as good. The reason behind that is most likely the asynchronous 16nm NAND flash modules by Micron something which we were actually expecting from the moment we heard Patriot Memory chose that specific model. To be completely fair with Patriot Memory the 960GB model could perform better compared to the 480GB one thus the difference from let’s say the SSDNow KC310 model in our charts could be even smaller but we can't really be certain about that.

   Patriot Memory decided to use a Phison NAND flash controller with 16nm asynchronous NAND flash modules by Micron to keep the costs low and with a current price tag set at USD189.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 230Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) we think that they've achieved that at least for the larger part. Overall the Ignite 480GB may not be the fastest model in the market and it certainly isn't one we'd highly recommend to professionals who need the best constant/sustained performance through large periods of time. Still it's ideal for consumer use since not only does it score high in most tests but it's also priced just right so because of that it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Very Good Overall Performance
- 2.000.000 Hours MTBF
- Feature Set
- 3 Year Warranty
- Current Price (For Some)

 

CONS

- IOmeter SNIA Tests Performance