INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Solid state drives have become the number one choice for people looking for a storage media with superior performance levels compared to that of regular mechanical drives. Most people obviously use them as primary OS drives while others have their games installed on them to reduce loading times. Still although all consumers want to benefit from the increased read/write performance levels not all have the same needs/demands neither in terms of performance and endurance nor in terms of capacity. With that in mind manufacturers keep releasing different models in the market in order to cover everyone out there and although it's been a long road ever since SSDs were first introduced we really think they're finally getting there. Patriot just released their budget-friendly Blast line of SSDs and once again we're amongst the very first to get the 240GB model in our hands.

   Patriot designs, manufactures and markets high performance, enthusiast memory modules, flash memory, and mobile accessory products. Patriot products have become world renown for their extreme performance, reliability and innovation. Patriot 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. All company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice. All company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.

     The Blast line of SSDs by Patriot is built around the Phison S10 quad-core 8-channel NAND flash controller which features quite a few advanced technologies such as TRIM (depends on the OS however), end-to-end data path protection (ETEP), advanced wear-leveling, advanced garbage collection, smart ECC, native command queuing (NCQ), smart refresh, guaranteed flush technology and smart flush technology. Together with the Phison S10 Patriot has used eight 16nm Asynchronous NAND flash modules (probably by Crucial/Micron) and a 256mb DDR3L @ 1600MHz DRAM package by Nanya. This is actually not the first time Patriot has used a Phison NAND flash controller since they used the same exact one with their Ignite line of SSDs which although not at the top of the charts still it represented a good price/performance solution.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual the drive arrived inside a small box that has a clear section at the front from where you can check it out.

 

 

At the rear of the box you can see the main product features and contact information for Patriot but surprisingly enough there are no numbers regarding the performance of the drive.

 

 

The drive gets shipped just with the user manual (would be nice to include a 7mm to 9.5mm adapter).

 

 

THE BLAST 240GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In terms of appearance this time over Patriot chose a black/yellow color combination (not bad).

 

 

Turning the drive around we find a large sticker printed on which are the model name, part number, capacity, connectivity and some certification logos.

 

 

Moving at the rear of the drive we find the usual SATA data and power connectors.

 

 

Opening the housing was not hard since Patriot used a clip design.

 

 

On the top side we see 4 16nm NAND flash modules.

 

 

Another four 16nm NAND flash modules are placed on the other side right next to the 256MB DDR3L @ 1600MHz package by Nanya.

 

 

The Phison S10 controller is also placed on this side of the PCB (the printed model name is slightly different however compared to that used with the Ignite series).

 

 

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 November 28th 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Judging from our charts/results the Blast line if SSDs is not that different compared to the Ignite line. Unfortunately we can’t be certain since we tested the 240GB model of the Blast line as opposed to the 480GB model of the Ignite line (higher capacity SSDs tend to perform better compared to the lower capacity models) but both seem to use the same Phison S10 NAND flash controller (although it seems to be a revision) and probably the same NAND flash modules. Regardless however the Blast line although nothing new and exciting does offer relatively good performance levels with very good read numbers and slightly above average writes. With an MTBF of 2 million hours the Blast line seems to be doing very well in terms of endurance as well so the only thing left is the price.

   With a current price tag currently set at USD85.19 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 110Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) the Blast 240GB SSD lands inside a very competitive segment of the market. For example although it comes up ontop on most of our tests compared to the 480GB model of the Trion 100 line by OCZ (the 240GB model should be quite slower) it’s roughly 20% more expensive so for people on a very tight budget the Trion 100 could be a better choice. Overall however we’re really satisfied with the performance of the Blast SSD 240GB and that’s why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

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

 

CONS

- Overall Write Performance