Patriot WildFire 120GB SSD review - Introduction

Earlier this year, the first real native SATA3 (6G) controllers popped in that Intel series 6 chipset, after which raving reviews in terms of performance spread like a fire all over the web.

Just over half a year after that SATA3 controller release we can already see a wide adoption rate that is really high. And that makes sense as the latest SATA 3 based storage units, in specifically SSDs, show breathtaking numbers.

We had a peek at OCZ's Vertex 3 series, and the Agility 3 series as they where first to the market. And at this very moment just after Computex, where pretty much any memory manufacturer sells SSDs as well, we spotted lots and lots of SATA3/6G SSDs, predominantly with a SandForce 2200 series controller with cheaper 25nm NAND flash memory, which offers the best value versus performance.

Today we look at an offering from Patriot memory, they added two new SATA 3 (SATA 3 6Gs) SSDs in their WildFire lineup, in 120GB & 240GB capacities (480GB coming as well), all SATA 3 of course.

Both drives come with that already famous SandForce SF-2281 controller to deliver up to 550 MBps read and 510 MBps write speeds (when peaking). After a rough launch with firmware plagued issues with this controller, things have now stabilized, the WildFire comes with the latest Firmware.

Patriot even dares to rate the drive we test today at 85k IOPS (4k aligned), but unfortunately they use a substandard measurement to reach that number, not representative to compare with the numbers of say OCZ, as our tests will show you.

We'll test the 120GB WildFire SSD. Prices will be roughly $139 for 60GB, $219 for 120GB, and once released, $499 for the 240GB version.

Anyway, that's enough info for an introduction, let's move onwards and head into the actual review. Next page please.