Patriot Inferno 120GB SandForce-Based SSD

Name: Patriot Inferno 120GB SandForce-Based SSD
Brand: Patriot

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, October 05, 2010, 01:00 PM EDT

For a time, Intel’s X25 series of solid state drives stood head and shoulders above the rest of the SSD pack. But with the influx of new players along with the rapid pace of innovation in the SSD space, Intel’s aging offerings—while still very good—are no longer a cut above. In fact, in enthusiast circles, it’s drives based on upstart SandForce’s controllers that currently garner the lion’s share of interest. And you don’t have to take our word for it. Just take a look at SandForce’s current list of partners; it reads like a list of” who’s who” in the memory market with names like OCZ, Corsair, Mushkin, G.SKILL, and Patriot, among others.

It’s a Patriot drive that we have on tap for you today. Patriot has employed SSD controllers from a number of manufactures including JMicron and Indilinx in a few of their product lines, but in the newest Inferno series of SSDs, Patriot went with SandForce’s SF-1200 series controller. The specifications for the Patriot Inferno 120GB drive we’ll be testing here are listed in the table below. If you’re familiar with other enthusiast-class SandForce based offerings, many of the features and specifications should come as no surprise. Check them out below and then read-on for the full scoop.

Patriot Inferno 120GB SATA II SSD

Specifications & Features

Maximum sequential read speed up to 285MB/s

Maximum sequential write speed up to 275MB/s

SandForce SF-1222 SSD processor paired with qualified MLC NAND flash for best performance, value and reliability

Includes 3.5" bracket

TRIM support (O/S dependent)

DuraClass technology

DuraWrite extends the life of your SSD

Intelligent Block Management and Wear Leveling

Intelligent Read Disturb Management

Intelligent Recycling improves management of free space

RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements)

Intelligent Data Retention optimization

Power/Performance balancing

Best-in-class ECC protection for longest data retention and drive life

SATA I/II interface

Native Command Queuing (NCQ)

MTBF: > 1,500,000 Hours

Data Retention: 5+ years at 25 C

Data Reliability: Built in BCH 16-bit ECC & 24-bit ECC

Operating Temperature: 0C ~ 70C

Storage Temperature: -40C ~ 85C

Shock Resistance: 1,500G (@ 0.5msec half sine wave)

Vibration Resistance: 15G / 10 ~ 2000Hz w/ 3 axis

4K Random Write IOPS up to 14K

4K Random Read IOPS up to 5K

O/S Support: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / Mac OS / Linux

Patriot's Inferno 120GB Drive Includes A 2.5" to 3.5" Adapter Plate...

Unless you’re buying an upgrade kit with the cables and software included to facilitate the migration of an existing installation to a new solid state drive, most standalone SSDs don’t ship with many accessories. The Patriot Inferno 120GB drive we’ll be testing here is a standalone offering, and as such, the only things included with the drive are a basic user’s manual, a 2.5” to 3.5” adapter plate, and the screws necessary to mount the drive to the plate.

Tags: SSD, Flash, Storage, NAND, SATA, SandForce, Patriot, solid state

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com