Patriot 128Gig Torqx

When it comes to our computers, the actual slowest device we use constantly in it is the HDD itself. IS there any way we can relive ourselves of this type of constraint?

INTRODUCTION

Our computers are only as fast as our weakest link. For years we as computer users always tried to get more and more performance out of our computers, but more specifically the HDD’s themselves. When RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) was introduced to us mainstream users we all started setting up RAID 0, RAID 1, including RAID 0+1 configurations to help speed our loading times when it came to our programs. While the standard HDD has not changed much since there conception, besides getting smaller in size, capable of handling more space, larger on board cache sizes, and lets not forget the spin rate of these types of drives either. These types of HDD’s still revolve around moving parts.

SSD (Solid State Drives), on the other hand, do not have motors, platters, or arms to get information too and from the drive. Instead they use memory based chips to store and extract information from. When SSD’s were first introduced in the “Wild” (us computer users), we were absolutely flabber gasted at the speeds of which these types of drives had, compared to the standard (and ancient device) the HDD. These earlier types of drives had an Aquilles heal (per say), the write speed was poor in performance.

Patriot Memory has come up with a newer type of controller that increases the write speed of their SSD. Lets take a peak at the Torqx 128 Gig SSD. And find out exactly how fast is these drives are.

About Patriot Memory

Company Profile

Established in 1985, Patriot Memory builds a full range of memory module and flash memory products, offering a perfect blend of quality and value. Patriot products include Extreme Performance (EP), Signature Lines (SL) and Flash Memory solutions (FM)

Product Design

We understand the value of designing and responding quickly and intelligently to the rapid changes inherent in the memory module industry. This commitment to R&D enables us to deliver the best quality memory modules powered by the latest innovative technology.

QA/QC Testing

Patriot Memory ensures that every module meets or exceeds industry standards. The manufacturing process begins with high-quality components and ends with rigorous functional testing to ensure each module’s reliability and compatibility.

Patriot Memory modules are approved by leading motherboard and system manufacturers such Intel, Tyan, Supermicro and Iwill.

SPECIFICATIONS

Available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities
Interface: SATA I/II
Raid Support: 0, 1, 0+1
256GB and 128GB: Sequential Read: up to 260MB/s Sequential Write: up to 180MB/s
64GB: Sequential Read: up to 220MB/s Sequential Write: up to 135MB/s
Shock Resistant: 1500G/0.5ms
Vibration Resistant: 20G/10~2000Hz with 3 Axis
Operating Consumption & Power: DC 5V <550mA 2.75W
Operating Temperature: 0ºC~70ºC
Storage Temperature: -40ºC~ 85ºC
MTBF: >2,500,000 Hours
Data Retention: 5 years at 25ºC
Data Reliability: Built in BCH 8, 12 and 16-bit ECC
O/S Support: Windows®XP and Vista® Linux, and Mac OS X®
Dimensions: 99.88 x 69.63x 9.3 mm
Weight: 91g
Certification: FCC/CE/RoHS
2 Year Warranty

Looking at the specifications of this drive, I could not stop and notice 1 specific detail, the MTBF of 2,500,00 Hours. Upon seeing this I just had to figure out how many years the life span of this drive would be. First we need to know how many hours are in a day, there are 24 hours in 1 day, so mathematics state to figure days you simply divide the set amount of hours by the amount of hours per day so 2,500,000 / 24 = 104,166.67 days. Now we have how many days this drive will last, lets divide that number by the amount of days in 1 year (i am going to use 365.25 days) 104,166.67 / 365.25 = 285 years. (the decimal point gets way out there) Well it is good to know I will not be around when this drive decideds to fail. LOL. Now, I know that this information has no bearing on the actual review but I felt it would be neat to figure it out anyways.

On with the review.

PACKAGING

Starting off on the packaging, Patriot memory does a good job on presenting their SSD. The box itself is not that thick and its over all size is fairly small. Patriot Memory also gives us just enough information about this product, and at the same time it leaves us hanging on what this SSD can do.

I removed the SSD from the box prior to this picture, I wanted to show you how Patriot Memory packaged the 128 Gig SSD, Patriot Memory used a dual chambered box that held the SSD and the adapter. Using this design of a box should keep the SSD from moving to much inside the box during shipping.

The SSD and Adapater that Patriot Memory included with the packaging. Notice that these 2 components are in a split plastic blister packaging. Patriot Memory was also kind enough to include some extra screws with the adapter. Notice that the SSD drive has a holographic shimmer to it? This would be so cool having this drive exposed in our computers.

An up close picture of the SSD in its packaging.

Yep, like all 2.5 inch drives, the 128 Gig Torqx is fairly thin.

The adpater is also as thin as the SSD itself.

This concludes the packaging. Next up is the Up Close and Personal look of the SSD Torqx.

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

This portion is a comparison of the Patriot Memory Torqx in conjunction with a 2.5 inch Seagate Momentus 320Gig HDD, and the Western Digital 160 Caviar standard 3.5 inch HDD.

Before we begin, lets look at the Torqx a little closer. It is even better looking out side of the blister packaging.

Looking at the side of the Torqx SSD.

Like all SATA drives this is no expection, we have both the SATA interfacing (SATA 1.5Gbs, and SATA 3.0Gbs), and the SATA power connector. Darn plugs take up half of the width of the SSD it self.

Yep, them are the SATA connectors.

The adapter, this adapter is for those who do not have the capabilities of housing a 2.5inch HDD in there chassis. This will use the standard 3.5inch HDD carrier and allows us to mount this drive into that type of carrier.

The Torqx SSD had a plastic protective film on the back side of it. I removed this film prior to using this SSD.

Comparing the Torqx to the Seagate Momentus HDD. Both are really small drives. So if you have a laptop that may need that extra bit of boost from the HDD you could use this SSD for that purpose.

Both drives have the same thickness as well.

Letting you know that one of them drives is in fact a Seagate Momentus 320gig HDD.

Now lets bring in the “Goliath” drive. The Western Digital Caviar 160 HDD. Well when comparing this drive to the 2 2.5inch drives it looks huge.

The Torqx is only a third of the standard 3.5 inch drive in hieght.

Roughly half of the width/length of a standard 3.5 inch HDD.

The other test victim.

All three test victims together. Being, my chassis does not have a standard 3.5 inch mounting carrier, and that it does not have any 2.5 inch mounting holes, I had to make my own adapter.

TESTING METHODOLOGY

Test Setup &Testing Methodology
CPU	Lapped Core i7 920 @ 3.990GHz
Motherboard	MSI X58 Eclipse
Case	Coolermaster Cosmos
Memory	Gskill Trident 2000MHz/Corsair 1600MHz Domintaors 12 gigs of memory total
Video Card’s	MSI 285GTX
Hard Drives	2 x Seagate 2.5″ HDD’s Raid-0, 1 160 gig WD HDD Backup, 1 Patriot 128 Gg Torqx SSD
CDRom Drive	Lite On Sata1 DVD Burner
Power Supply	SilverStone 1200 watt PSU
Type Of Coolers Used	Koolance 340 CPU, standard air for the @85GTX
CPU Speeds Used	200 x 19
Operating System Used	Microsoft Windows Seven 7100
Type of Software Used During Testing	SiSoft, ATTO, Crystal Disk, HDTune
Any attempt to copy these system specifications will result in assimilation by your computer

I again tested the SSD Torqx drive, under Windows 7 OS. I did not install Windows 7 to this drive, I left it as a backup drive during testing. Windows 7 was installed onto my 320Gig Seagate Momentus’s drives in a RAID-0 configuration. I will compare the Torqx up against my Seagate Momentus’s drives and my ever trusting die hard back up Western Digital 160 Gig Caviar HDD. I ran each HDD testing program a minimum of 3 times to verify my results were accurate and consistent with one another (I also compared my results to other SSD reviews here at Bjorn3d to make sure my results were accurate as well). Your results may very greatly from my own.

ATTO

Higher=Better

The first program I used to test the Patriot Torqx SSD was ATTO. Right off the bat we see the Torqx SSD take a commanding lead over the RAID-0 Seagates and the Western Digital 160 single drive. The Torqx SSD nearly quadruples the speed of the Western Digital 160 single drive, and almost 15 times the speed of the RAID-0 Seagates Momentus’s during the 128KB Read test. The one big thing these drives had problems with was during the write portion of testing, It seems Patriot fixed this problem by using a newer controller on the SSD itself. During the 128KB, 512KB, & the 1024KB write testing the Torqx SSD never dropped below 190,000 MB sec.

CRYSTAL DISK

Higher=Better

The Patriot Torqx reduced the competition to a small sliver of performance in both the 4K Write and Read testing of Crystal Disk. During the sequential writing testing the Torqx SSD did struggle a bit against the RAID-0 Seagate Momentus HDD’s. But quickly bounces back during the 512K testing.

Here is a screen shot of the Patirot Torqx performance during Crystal Disk.

HDTUNE

Higher=Better

Once agian the Torqx SSD just pummels the opposition with HDTune testing. For some odd reason tho during the first part of HDTune testing the Torqx SSD, in a nut shell, tanks. It quickly recovers from this “tanking” and manages to pull off an average transfer rate of 220.5 MBs.

Lower=Better

This is how fast the Torqx access time is to the other HDD’s. I can barely make out a red sliver on the access time with the Torqx, with an access time of 0.1ms. The only HDD that even was remotely fast enough to go up against the Torqx SSD was the Western Digital 160 single drive and even then it was 130 times slower. (it takes 10 0.1’s to make 1 multiplied by 13 = 130)

SISOFT

 

 SiSoft is just reconfirming what we all ready been seeing with the last 3 HDD tests. The Torqx SSD is absolutly relentless.

Lower=Better

During the physical disks benchmarking of SiSoft it gives us an access time each drive has. SiSoft reported normal times in ms (milli seconds) for the standard type HDD’s, but when it came to the Torqx SSD, it gave me a 50us (the symbol used was not a u but a inverted y thingy), I had to look this symbol of measurement up on Google. Which is 0.05 of a ms. (from what I could gather, from my searching.)

CONCLUSIONS

The best way to describe the performance of the Patriot Torqx SSD. It is like taking 600 CC’s of Epinephrine and directly injecting that into our standard HDD’s. This drive is absolutely insanely fast, Even though I did not test an OS on this drive I did however put a couple of games on this drive to see exactly how fast this drive really is. The biggest problem I faced was blinking, on a couple of the games that loaded up. As soon as I hit the Executable of the game and blinked the game was loaded. During my gaming time when that game would auto save itself, even on my RAID-0 Seagate HDD’s I would get a small quick shudder, while on the Torqx SSD, what shudder, did it save my place? If it did I sure in the heck did not notice it.

Having a price point of around the 440 USD mark for this drive, the 128Gig Torqx puts this drive out of reach for the average everyday person.

• Performance 10
• Value 3
• Quality 9.5
• Warranty 9
• Features 9.5
• Innovation 9.5

Pros:

+Insane speeds of 200+ Mbs

+Small size

+Not requiring special motherboards to use this Drive

+Looks good enough to show it off to your buddies.

Cons:

–Slightly high price

Final Score: 9 out of 10 and the Bjorn3D Golden Bear Award.