1. Introduction2. Patriot Viper VPN-100 1TB3. Testing Methodology4. CrystalDiskMark5. ATTO Disk Benchmark6. AS SSD7. IOMETER8. 128KB Sustained Sequential Performance9. 4K Random Read v QD Performance10. 4K Random Write v QD Performance11. 4K 70/30 Mixed Performance12. Throughput13. PCMark 8 - Storage Consistency Test14. PCMark8 - Individual Test Suites15. PCMark8 Storage Test - Individual Test Suites16. Performance Stability17. Real Life File Testing18. Closing Thoughts19. View All Pages

Patriot's Viper VPN100 drives were first seen being demonstrated at CES 2018 so they have taken a while to get to market. The drive is, at the time of writing this review, the only SSD in Patriot's Viper Gaming brand product portfolio, which contains an extensive range of memory modules plus keyboards, mice, headsets and other accessories.

The one thing you can't ignore about the drive is the big old heatsink it uses which gives the drive a height of 10.5mm, which may not sound much but it pretty much rules out installation in a notebook. You may even need to check the clearance around the PCIe x16 slots just to make sure it won't obstruct any graphics card when it's in place.

The heatsink is well constructed from aluminium, however, with six vertical fins inside it to help dissipate the heat generated when the card is being pushed hard. In addition to the standard internal heat sensor, Patriot has fitted an external sensor as well, to allow the drive to perform at its best.

It's also a very quick drive, Patriot quotes Sequential performance figures for the 1TB model as up to 3,450MB/s for reads and up to 3,000MB/s for writes. We could confirm these figures with the ATTO benchmark and our own Sequential tests. Testing the drive with ATTO produced read score of 3,414MB/s and 3,064MB/s for writes, while our other tests produced figures of 3,477.71MB/s and 3,084.92 MB/s for reads and writes respectively.

Random performance is quoted as up to 700,000 IOPS for both reads and writes. We couldn't match those figures with our standard tests, the best read score we got was 363,188 IOPS and 183,738 IOPS for writes using 4-threads. We did, however, do a quick test with 8-threads and got a read score of 644,176 IOPS and 584,831 IOPS for writes.

The VPN100 1TB is available from Amazon UK for £149.99 HERE.

Pros

• Overall performance.
• Endurance rating.
• Well engineered heatsink.

Cons

• Heatsink size may limit some installations.

KitGuru says: We haven't seen a Patriot drive for quite some time, but the new Viper VPN100 puts the company back in the thick of things as it's a drive with a very good all-round performance.

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