Patriot Pyro 120GB Solid State Drive Review

Solid State Drives are a funny thing as they look pretty much the same no matter what brand or model you decide to go for and underneath offer the same type of components in a very similar design so what makes one better than another? The simple answer is, the whole package. If you can create a product that is better than the competitor’s model and is also cheaper, then you have the market sown up so to speak.

The Pyro is a good example of this, and you can even compare it to it’s slightly more expensive partner product; the Wildfire which whilst it offers better incompressible data results than the Pyro, it’s also a little bit more expensive and when purchasing an SSD, things can get a bit pricey, depending on the type of drive and brand that you go for.

What Patriot have done with the Pyro is to market a drive that does exactly what it says on the tin, but for less, yet still featuring the latest technologies including a SandForce controller and SATA III interface which allows for a stable, great performing drive, especially for consumers on a budget, which frankly put; is everyone. There are very few people who don’t care about money, but for the bulk of us, finding the best product with the best deal is a vital part of our purchasing decisions and we believe the Pyro can make that certain aspect of buying an SSD a seamless and simple task.

We kept on about price throughout this review, as we try to look at products from a consumers point of view and try to see who the product is aimed at and at £168.84 from Amazon, it does offer a no frills option for a reasonable price point.

The downside to this drive is that, in benchmarks, the user may feel a bit let down in terms of the performance, but we are keen to challenge you when it comes to real-world performance as we’re adamant that the majority of users won’t see any difference between this and more expensive drives that offer better performance when it comes to incompressible data, which for the most part isn’t the most vital aspect for the average user.

What we liked about this drive from the start was that we didn’t see any bogus figures plastered over the drive or its packaging so we went in blind whereas other brands will give quoted 500MB/s speeds on the product, which as you can see from our benchmark tests, can lead to some problems as they don’t explain about incompressible data and the varying speed that comes with it.

The bottom line is that the Pyro is a great budget drive and will be the perfect upgrade to anyone wanting a quick boost in performance as it is still a SSD at the end of the day, and that has its merit in gold anyway, but by offering 500MB/s speeds when needed most, the Pyro really is a great drive and Patriot have done a good job in marketing it by being truthful, upfront and brutally honest. It really is a simple, no-frills SSD.