Page 2 - A Closer Look, Test System
This is not Patriot's first solid-state drive, but the last one we have seen from them in this form factor dates back to 2015. To nobody's surprise then, Patriot has changed the look of their label on the front, though it does keep some familiar aspects too. Keeping a blue theme for this drive, we can see the Patriot logo in the background of the label. The model name and capacity can be seen at the top. Interestingly, they have placed a "standard performance" designation on the drive, showing Patriot knows exactly where this drive is supposed to sit in their product lineup. Even so, I am not exactly sure if many companies would label their products as "standard", even if it is true. I guess we can applaud them for their honesty, haha. Otherwise, the enclosure is made up of a black painted metal shell. With dimensions of 100mm in length, 69.85mm in height, and 7mm in thickness, you can definitely say these dimensions are standard. At a mass of 46g, this drive is also quite light.
On the flip side of the Patriot P200 512GB, we have the other side of the shell. As with most SSDs, there are no exposed circuit boards you might be accustomed to with traditional hard disks. The P200 512GB sits between two metal shells. The flip side also reveals the Patriot P200 512GB SATA 6Gb/s and power connectors. On the white sticker, you will see a lot of certification logos in addition to the brand, capacity, and serial number. As you should know by now, this is the 512GB version, but the P200 also comes in 256GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations at press time. This drive is made in China.
Interestingly, the Patriot P200 does not exactly use friction clips, but the case does hold together with friction and a single screw on one of the edges. As I have mentioned in previous reviews, please do not try to open a solid-state drive enclosure, as this can void the warranty. If you are curious, you can continue reading as we venture into the SSD itself. However, if you do feel inclined to open it up, you have been warned. Unlike a traditional HDD where you would find an actual spinning platter, all you will see is a small printed circuit board, littered with chips and embedded onto a blue piece of glass fiber laminate. Here you will also notice the board is one-thirds the size you would normally see in other solid-state drives. Instead, you have a tightly knit configuration with a Silicon Motion SM2258XT controller at the center of it all.
The Silicon Motion SM2258XT controller is popular for its low-cost performance. Sharing the same specifications as its brother, the SM2258, the XT actually refers to the fact this is a DRAMless variant. We have seen this controller in previous drives, such as the Crucial BX500 480GB. This controller is designed to work with 3D TLC NAND, with support for StaticDataRefersh, DevSleep, TRIM, and SMART compatibility. Otherwise, Patriot has mentioned this drive should operate in 0 to 70 degrees Celsius temperature, which should be a wide enough range for most general consumers. Rated at 530MB/s read and 460MB/s write over SATA 6Gb/s, these figures are pretty standard with nothing really attention grabbing. Similarly, its 90K IOPS read and 80K IOPS write are average. To see how it translates to numbers in our benchmarks, we will pit them against all the drives we have tested in the past to see how this drive compares against budget and mainstream drives in the next eight pages or so.
Paired with the mentioned controller are four NAND flash chips. These chips are made by the Intel and Micron, and are the 29F01T2ANCTH2 64-bit 3D TLC NAND flash memory. Each chip carries a 128GB capacity to make for a total of 512GB. In the Windows OS, you will find 476.9GB of accessible space. Write endurance information is listed at 320TB, which is actually pretty good for a budget drive like this. This equates to approximately 175GB per day for five years. Overall, the whole package has a rated mean time between failure of over two million hours. Even with these long endurance numbers, the Patriot P200 is backed by a three-year warranty. This is lower than other budget drives that offer a five-year warranty and I think this should be matched by Patriot.
Our test configuration is as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K
CPU Cooling: CRYORIG C7
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5
RAM: Patriot Viper Elite PC4-24000 2x8GB
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB
Chassis: SilverStone Lucid LD03
Storage: Gigabyte UD PRO 256GB
Power: FSP Dagger Pro 650W
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Compared Hardware:
- Patriot P200 512GB
- Crucial BX100 500GB
- Crucial BX300 240GB
- Crucial BX500 480GB
- Crucial BX500 960GB
- Crucial MX100 256GB
- Crucial MX200 500GB
- Crucial MX300 750GB
- Crucial MX500 500GB (M.2)
- Crucial MX500 500GB (SATA)
- Gigabyte UD PRO 256GB
- Kingston SSDNow UV400 480GB
- Kingston UV500 240GB (M.2)
- Kingston UV500 240GB (SATA)
- OCZ Trion 100 480GB
- OCZ Trion 150 480GB
- Toshiba OCZ TL100 240GB
- Toshiba OCZ TR200 480GB
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 6.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 5.70
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 9.0
9. Benchmark: PCMark 7
10. Benchmark: PCMark 8
11. Conclusion
