Patriot Pyro SE 240GB & Wildfire 240GB SSD Review

1. Introduction2. Patriot Wildfire SSD 240GB3. Patriot Wildfire SSD 240GB (Super High Res Gallery)4. Patriot Pyro SE 240GB5. Patriot Pyro SE 240GB (Super High Res Gallery)6. Testing Methodology7. CrystalDiskMark8. ATTO Disk Benchmark9. AS SSD10. PCMark 711. IOMeter12. Real World Testing13. Closing Thoughts14. View All Pages

Patriot have proven that they can really compete in the solid state market … all the drives we have tested in recent months have been able to hold their own against the market leading OCZ products. Today we have analysed both Wildfire 240GB and Pyro SE 240GB drives, comparing them against each other and leading products from competitors.

The Wildfire SSD is Patriot's Flagship product and I use a 120GB model in my own system at home. It has been flawless for the last 3 months and performance hasn't degraded at all, even under heavy use. It can deal exceptionally well with compressible, or incompressible data … never dragging down system responsiveness.

When it was initially released it was very expensive, retailing in the United Kingdom at around £420 inc vat. Thanks to the competitive market several months later many stores have dropped their prices and one of the finest deals is at Amazon, for only £364.99 inc delivery.

I have had plenty of experience with this drive and feel today that it offers greater value for money, thanks to the aforementioned price reductions. The 240GB model offers similar performance when compared directly to the 120GB unit, which is class leading. If you have a requirement for incompressible data throughput then this is a fine first choice.

Other drives we would consider would be the OCZ Vertex 3 240GB MAX IOPS and the ADATA S511, depending on online prices at time of purchase.

Pros:

• Class leading performance.
• Price has dropped in recent months.
• highest quality Toshiba NAND flash.
• Very good with both incompressible and compressible data.

Cons:

• None.

Kitguru says: Should be right at the top of your shortlist, especially after recent price drops.

The Pyro SE 240GB is an interesting product. Patriot have taken the older Pyro drive and have re-engineered it with Micron 29F128G08CFAAB synchronous NAND flash. This has helped to improve overall performance and to bring it almost right up to the performance level of the flagship Wildfire 240GB drive.

We have tested the new Pyro Special Edition solid state drive in a variety of synthetic applications and under intensive real world situations. Patriot have clearly tweaked the controller for improved IOPS performance as the results are much better than the previous model. With our custom 4k random write test it managed to outperform the Wildfire 240GB model, by a small, but noticeable margin.

It would be difficult to find fault with the drive, especially with a competitive retail price of £350 inc vat. The product has yet to go on sale in the United Kingdom, but after speaking with DABS it should be listed within the next week.

Our only minor concern is that the price of the 240GB Wildfire drive has dropped by £60 in recent months so both Pyro SE 240GB and WildFire 240GB may end up in a head to head battle for sales.

Pros:

• Much improved over the previous model.
• Quality Micron memory.
• Very good with both incompressible and compressible data.

Cons:

• Might end up in a price battle against the WildFire 240GB model.

Become a Patron!