SSD by stefan @ 2020-12-22
The 2TB version of the VPN100 does match the performance of the 1TB SKU and in some cases, it succeeds to even surpass it! While the integrated heatsink can become quite warm during intense use, it prevents the drive throttling but it is also recommended to maintain a decent airflow inside the computer case. The drive presents itself with an impressive 3115TB TBW rating but also warranty for a period of three years.
At first we would like to thank Patriot Memory for offering a sample of their Viper VPN100 PCIe 2TB M.2 SSD for testing and reviewing.
“Mission Statement
To be the vendor of choice for the computer and consumer electronic industries with a commitment to service and quality
Vision
Commitment, focus on innovation in technology, product quality, and customer satisfaction are the key enablers of our future success
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)”
Phison E12 Controller
External Thermal sensor
Heatshield design
Extreme high performance
Operating Temperature - 0° ~ 70°C
TBW:3115TB
Brand: Patriot
Series: VPN100
Model: VPN100-2TBM28H
Device Type: Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Used For: Consumer
Form Factor: M.2 2280
Capacity: 2TB
Interface: PCIe Gen3 x4, NVMe 1.3
Controller: Phison E12
Cache: 2GB
4K Aligned Random Read: up to 700K IOPs
4K Aligned Random Write: up to 700K IOPs
Sequential Read (ATTO): up to 3,300MB/s
Sequential Write (ATTO): up to 3,100MB/S
Sequential Read (CDM): up to 3,400MB/s
Sequential Write (CDM): up to 3,200MB/s
O/S Supported: Windows® 7*/8.0*/8.1/10
HeatSink: Yes
We have recently got the chance to try out the 2TB version of the Viper VPN100 PCIe M.2 SSD from Patriot Gaming as well! This series is known to deliver quite a bit of performance by running on the PCIe 3.0 bus, having rated speeds of up to 3450MB/s for reads and up to 3000MB/s for writes and also includes a hefty heatsink in order to avoid throttling during high usage periods.
The product is shipped inside a compact cardboard enclosure, which opens up like a book and the top cover is held secure by magnetic force:
Some of the product highlights are available on the back, in multiple languages; here we will also read of the Patriot Memory office locations and the manufacturer has already made available some online resources on the well-known platforms:
After opening the cover, we will note the VPN100 product description but also a small window through which we can see how the drive does really look like:
The drive is held secure inside a transparent plastic mold:
VPN100 is renowned for its large aluminum heatsink with fins, which gives the drive a total height of 105mm; this particular feature has one advance and one disadvantage: proper heat dissipation but cannot be installed on motherboards with integrated/non-removable M.2 heatsinks or in laptops:
Under the heatsink we will notice two NAND ICs (512GB each) which are Toshiba 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND, 1GB of DDR buffer but also the Phison PS5012-E12 controller:
The back side is covered by a large sticker highlighting the product internal code name, the total storage space but also a smaller sticker which holds an additional SN; this area comes with the rest of the two Toshiba 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND packages, and also another 1GB of DDR buffer:
The Viper VPN100 drive is compatible fully with the Patriot PCIe ToolBox software; here we will be able to monitor drive parameters but also perform some other actions; the Summary screen will display the serial number of the product, the currently running firmware, the power on time but also the endurance rating:
The internal drive parameters are available from the Identify tab:
The SMART status can be also checked further below:
A Secure Erase procedure can be performed right from this utility:
Firmware updates can be also updated from the same software:
CPU: Intel I5 9700K Retail
CPU Cooler: Deepcool Captain 240 EX RGB AIO
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming
RAM: Patriot Memory Viper RGB Series DDR4
Video: KFA2 GeForce GTX 1060 OC 6GB
Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W
SSD: OCZ Vector 150
Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
The drive has arrived unformatted:
For testing purposes, we have formatted it NTFS; here is the total remaining free space afterwards:
With the help of AIDA64, we could extract more information regarding the drive:
Blank SSD
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Filled SSD
Filled SSD
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Filled SSD
The 2TB version of the VPN100 does match the performance of the 1TB SKU and in some cases, it succeeds to even surpass it! While the integrated heatsink can become quite warm during intense use, it prevents the drive throttling but it is also recommended to maintain a decent airflow inside the computer case. The drive presents itself with an impressive 3115TB TBW rating but also warranty for a period of three years.
After performing the HD Tune Pro drive write test, we are quite pleased seeing a minimum of about 568MB/s, a better value when compared to other mainstream PCIe 3.0 drives:
It is no long till 2TB drives will become mainstream and this is quite a necessity considering how big the AAA gaming titles are nowadays, but also how much space a video edition project can occupy overall. Also, on more compact systems which do not have multiple M.2 PCIe storage slots, we can use the VPN100 2TB as a boot drive as well, without the need of installing a separate SATA speed-limited drive for additional storage space.
At the moment of the review the VPN100 2TB drive from Patriot Gaming could be found online for about 251 Euros.
We would like to thank again to Patriot Memory for making this review possible!