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Its been a while in the making but The SSD Review has finally got its hands on eight (8) new generation SATA 3 SSDs in the name of Patriot Wildfire 120GB SATA 3 SSDs for RAID testing.
With a host of companies offering the latest SandForce controllers on their SSDs, Patriot is setting out to leap above the pack with the Wildfire series.
The latest offering from Patriot is sporting the new SF-2281 controller and paired with higher performing Toshiba Toggle Nand in a 16 chip configuration. Buckle up as these drives are tweaked for performance and going to take you for a wild ride!
INTRODUCTION
We have to start by giving accolades to Patriot for making this possible as getting any company to give up eight of their new ‘SandForce Driven’ drives has been next to impossible. Todays testing is going to result in PURE RAID PERFORMANCE using the fastest commercially available RAID card today, the LSI 9265-8i MegaRAID Card with FastPath enabled.
Lets start with a bit of a refresher and take a look at the physical make up of the Wildfire. You might remember our review of the Patriot Wildfire a short time ago where we introduced the Wildfire to the world and Patriot was so eager to get us one of the first drives that it was mislabeled as a 240GB rather than the 120GB that it was.
It was a human error and a rather unique one because that little flaw was probably the only thing we could find that showed these drives as anything less than perfect.
A quick look on the inside shows the SandForce SF-2281 processor at the heart of this SSD with 16 32nm Toshiba Toggle-Mode NAND flash memory modules which total 128GB (16 x 8). One chip is dedicated to SandForces firmware and over provisioning needs which reduces the SSD to its advertised 120GB capacity and final formatting leaves the end user with 112GB total available capacity for their storage needs.
Lets not forget the magic ingredient to this potion though which is the absolute fastest RAID card on the market today. The LSI 9265-8i 6Gbps MegaRAID card was originally reviewed by us back in March and then a follow up review conducted in RAID 5 in April. LSI’s MegaRAID is no less than amazing and has become a regular staple in all RAID testing benchmarks here at The SSD Review. How about a group shot?
SPECIFICATIONS
The main performance factor that will get you thinking these are going to be amazing tests are the incredible read and write speeds of 555 MB/s and 520 MB/s. With the maximum rated 4k aligned IOPS standing at 85,000 for read, and 40,000 IOPS for 4k write speed, there is no need whatsoever to state that this drive is one of the best. The 6Gb/s interface is going to allow the device to reach advertised speeds, however, when you combine 8 of these plugged into LSI MegaRAID which connects to the PCIe slot, you just may not believe what can be accomplished.
FEATURES
– SandForce SF-2200 series SSD processor paired with qualified MLC NAND flash for best performance, value and reliability, SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s
– TRIM support (O/S dependent)
– DuraClass technology
– DuraWrite technology extends the endurance of SSDs
– Intelligent Block Management and Wear Leveling
– Intelligent Read Disturb Management
– Intelligent “Recycling” for advance free space management (Garbage Collection)
– RAISE. (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements)
– Intelligent Data Retention optimization
– Best-in-class ECC protection for longest data retention and drive life.
– Power/Performance Balancing
– Thermal Threshold Management
– Native Command Queuing (NCQ) – Up to 32 commands
– ECC Recovery: Up to 55 bits correctable per 512-byte sector (BCH)
– Sequential Read & Write Transfer (120GB/240GB): 555MB/s read | 520MB/s Write
– Sequential Read & Write Transfer (480: 540MB/s read | 450MB/s Write
– Max Random Write IOPS (120GB/240GB): Up to 85,000 (4K aligned)
– Max Random Write IOPS (480GB): Up to 40,000 (4K aligned)
– O/S Support: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / Mac OS / Linux
NEXT: Test Bench And Protocol
~ Introduction ~ Test Bench And Protocol ~
~ Anvil Storage Utilities and ATTO ~ HDTune Pro and AIDA ~
~ WEI and AS SSD ~ PCMark Vantage, A New Champ! ~
~ Conclusion ~