INTRODUCTION

   When the very first M.2 NVMe solid state drives were released into the market roughly 4 years ago they introduced superior read & write performance, compact size and increased temperatures. Regular M.2 SATA drives also always had a slight problem with increased temperature levels (as expected due to the lack of an external aluminum enclosure, something that we've always seen with regular 2.5" models) but because of their performance levels NVMe models took that to a whole new level resulting in noticeable thermal throttling under heavy workloads. The solution came shortly after in the form of small heatspreaders not only from third party manufacturers like EK Waterblocks and Alphacool but also mainboard manufacturers which started to place such heatspreaders in their bundles (primarily with their high-end mainboard models). Strangely enough we've yet to see the release of many M.2 NVMe models with factory mounted heatspreaders but PATRIOT did exactly that with their latest Viper VPN100 model and today we're checking it out.

   Viper Gaming is a brand of Patriot Memory LLC, a global leader in performance memory, 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 that won't break the bank, 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.

   Just like the P34A80 by Silicon Power which we reviewed a couple of days ago and the MP510 by CORSAIR the VPN100 by Patriot/Viper (available in 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB capacities) is also based on the E12 high performance controller by Phison (PS5012-E12 / Gen3x4 NVMe 1.3 interface) paired with Toshiba 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND flash and 512MB DDR4 SDRAM by SKhynix. In terms of performance this combination allows the 256GB model which we have here to hit speeds of up to 3000MB/s in read and 1000MB/s in write so it quite a bit far from the performance of the other 3 models (3300-2200MB/s for the 512GB model, 3450-3000MB/s for the 1TB model and 3400-3200MB/s for the 2TB model). The firmware of the Phison PS5012-E12 controller used here is also updated to version ECFM12.1 (just like the one used in the P34A80) and features a total of eight NAND channels with 32 CE targets, supports up to 8TB of NAND and packs several interesting technologies aimed at both high performance and reliability including as StrongECC, SmartRefresh, SmartFlush, end-to-end data protection, thermal monitoring, AES-256 encryption and TCG Pyrite/OPAL support. The entire VPN100 line also features external thermal sensors and large aluminum heatspreaders/heatshields, 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, 1665TBW for the 1TB model and 3115TBW for the 2TB model.