discussion Patriot Warp v2 128GB SSD Review

[AkG]

ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO Disk Benchmark

The ATTO disk benchmark tests the drives read and write speeds using gradually larger size files. For these tests, the ATTO program was set to run from its smallest to largest value (.5KB to 8192KB) and the total length was set to 256MB. The test program then spits out an extrapolated performance figure in megabytes per second.

Read

The Warp v2 may start out slow but it quickly gains momentum…enough momentum to actually beat every other drive except the X-25. The X-25 is a beast but the Warp is no slouch and Patriot should bloody well be proud of this turn out.


Write

As we saw with the ATTO reads, this drive once again starts out slow, but quickly builds up a head of steam. Heck, it actually beats the more expensive X-25 SSD towards the end. Of course the storm clouds surrounding this silver lining is that no SSD we have tested to date is a match for the top end spindle based drives in this benchmark…but we fully expect the days of platter based drives ruling the roost are coming to an end.

 

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IOMETER / Stutter Testing

IOMETER

IOMeter is heavily weighted towards the server end of things, and since we here at HWC are more End User centric we will be setting and judging the results of IOMeter a little bit differently than most. To test each drive we ran 5 test runs per HDD (1,4,16,64,128 que depth) each test having 8 parts, each part lasting 10 min w/ an additional 20 second ramp up. The 8 subparts were set to run 100% random, 80% read 20% write; testing 512b, 1k, 2k,4k,8k,16k,32k,64k size chunks of data. When each test is finished IOMeter spits out a report, in that reports each of the 8 subtests are given a score in I/Os per second. We then take these 8 numbers add them together and divide by 8. This gives us an average score for that particular que depth that is heavily weighted for single user environments.

The X-25 is a monster when it comes to IOMeter results, and it is a shame as it does tend to flatten differences between the other drives. The Patriot Warp v2 pulls in some awfully impressive numbers, numbers which any company would be proud of to call their own. This is not an easy test and to accomplish nearly 1300 IOs per second across all the que depths is worthy of your respect. Once again we are only seeing a glimpse of what MLC NAND chips are capable of and that JM602 controller is to blame once again.

IOMeter Stutter Test

In our usual IOMeter test we are trying to replicate real world use where reads severly outnumber writes. However, to get a good handle on how well a Solid State Drive will handle a worse case scenario (and thus how likely the dreaded stutter issue will happen) we have also run an additional test. This test is made of 1 section at que depth of 1. In this test we ran 100% random. 100% writes of 4k size chunks of information. In the .csv file we then found the Maximum Write Response Time. This in ms is worst example of how long a given operation took to complete. We consider anything higher than 333ms (one third of a second) to be a good indicator that stuttering may happen, with the higher the number the worse the duration of the stutter will most likely be.

As we suspected, the JM602 controller may be better than its predecessors but that is not saying much. 900+ms is .9 of second….that is bad, real bad. What makes this so terrible is the fact this test is only taking place at leisurely 1que depth pace. What you should walk away with from these numbers is that this drive will usually be very fast (as a 2.21MS average write latency is better than spindle drives…sans V-Raptor) but if you are trying to copy multiple things at once (i.e. multiple writes) you are going to be hit with a big old stutter stick. This is all theoretical as this is still only a synthetic test…so let’s see how well it performs in the real world!

 

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XP Startup / Adobe Load Time

Real World Performance

XP Start Up

When it comes to hard drive performance there is one area that even the most oblivious user notices: how long it takes to load the Operating System. For our tests the clock starts as soon as the system “beeps!” and stops when our Anti-Virus splash screen disappears. While all the other tests were run with a streamlined XP image this particular image is the test bed's “day to day” OS and it has accumulated a lot of crud over the months from installs and removals. We chose the Anti-Virus splash screen as our finish line as it is the last program to be loaded on start up.

There are no ifs, ands or buts about it, this drive is fast when it comes to reads; and a 45 second boot up is the best we have ever had with this particular setup. It’s faster than a X25, a WD 640 or even our beloved VelociRaptor and that right there speaks volumes about the power of this drive. However, just remember that a 1 second difference is well within the margin of error.


Adobe CS3 Load Time

Photoshop is a notoriously slow loading program under the best of circumstances, but when you add in a bunch of extra brushes and the such you get a really great torture test which can bring even the best of the best to their knees. Let’s see how our review unit fared in the Adobe crucible!

As with XP load times, the Patriot Warp v2 simply rules the roost. It consistently pulled in times which left the competition in the dust. Considering the price point of some of the drives it is beating that is awfully, awfully impressive.

 

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Real World Data Transfers

Real World Data Transfers

No matter how good a synthetic benchmark like IOMeter, it can not really tell you how your hard drive will perform in “real world” situations. All of us here at Hardware Canucks strive to give you the best, most complete picture of a review item’s true capabilities and to this end we will be running timed data transfers to give you a general idea of how its performance relates to real life use. To help replicate worse case scenarios we will transfer a 4.00GB contiguous RAR file and a folder containg 49 subfolders with a total 2108 files varying in length from 20mb to 1kb (1.00 GB total).

Testing will include transfer to and transferring from the devices, timing each process individually to provide an approximate Read and Write performance. To then stress the dive even more we will then make a copy of the large file to another portion of the same drive and then repeat the process with the small one. This will test the drive to its limits as it will be reading and writing simultaneously. Here is what we found.

Unfortunately, the Warp v2’s rule came to a screeching halt when write times were involved. Its read speeds are still impressive but the JM602 controller really started to handicap this drive and it not only hurt the read times of this drive it for all intents and purposes caused this drive to tank in the harder “copy to self” test. It really is a pity as we know this drive is capable of so much more yet it relegated to second class status because Patriot gave JMicron a second chance. Let’s hope either JMicron gets its act together or Patriot drops it like a hot potato for their Warp v3 line.

 

[AkG]

Extended Runtime Testing & Stutters / Value

Extended Runtime Testing

Where these units are marketed towards the home environment, it is reasonable to expect them to be able to handle moderate usage, with random reads and writes of various sizes. To test how robust this unit is, and how well it can take handle a marathon stress test, the Warp V2 was subjected to a 20hr torture session. During this time IOMeter was setup to run for 20 hours using various size tests all with completely random read/write scenarios.

This drive did get warm during these tests and at its worst was clocking in at about 9 degrees above ambient. These are still really good numbers and it does show that the all metal construction of the outer shell does help it dump its thermal load quite well.


Real World Stutters

Over a three day period we used the SSD as our main OS drive. During this period we did everything in our power to make the drive stutter. This is what we found out.

It really is not all that hard to make the Warp v2 stutter….of course, it wasn’t all that easy either. Copy a couple of large files to itself (all at the same time), do a virus scan, watch a couple Youtube videos…etc…etc and this drive will get the proverbial hiccups. To reduce these problems we first turned off Indexing, PreFetch / SuperFetch, short file names, disabled timestamp for last access of files, re enabled write caching on the disk, moved the page file to another drive, and couple of other minor tweaks. This certainly made it harder to induce stuttering and unless you really, really want it to it probably will be enough for most users. However, stuttering did occasionally still happen.

In order to really get rid of it we had to get out the big guns and aligned the partition for optimized 4k sector allocation with a 128 sector offset. This was accomplished via Diskpar and if you are interested in doing this major tweak there is a great guide floating around on an certain forum which we can PM you if you so wish. If you are running Vista you can actually use the Recovery Disk to accomplish this (with Diskpar) but we did it the old fashioned way of setting the system up to temporarily use another drive as the OS drive and has this Drive as the Slave; followed by doing an old fashioned fresh install (without destroying the partition!). Doing this resulted in a darn near stutter free environment, which was bloody quick.

Value (Cost per GB)

The term “Value” is such an amorphous term that it truly has different meanings for different people. For some a hard drive is only as good as its performance potential, for others it is how quiet or durable it is; for others still it’s how effective it is for its cost. We here at HWC try to provide as many answers as possible for the term “Value”. Hopefully by this point in the review people looking at performance potential will have a fairly good idea of what its Value is. For the “best bang for the buck” crowd we have included a chart below showing how much a give drive costs per GB . No consideration has been made for performance, “durability” or any other extraneous factors; this is just raw performance vs. monetary cost. All prices are based on the lowest price found in our Price Comparison engine at the time of this review.

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When compared to spindle based storage drives the Warp V2 is not exactly a great value. It’s not terrible as it wasn't all that long ago that $2 to $3 per GB for high performance drives was normal. Where this drive shines is when we compare it against other SSDs. This to us is a fairer comparison and boy does the Patriot Warp v2 kick some major butt here! It is literally less than half the cost per GB of the X-25M, that tells us a lot about who this drive is aimed at which is the enthusiast crowd who just cannot justify the cost of the X-25M but want something that can kick out some great performance numbers.

 

[AkG]

Conclusion

Conclusion

After working, testing and yes even playing with the Patriot v2 we walked away impressed with it. In most of our tests it was always right up there at the top close to the much more expensive, power sucking Intel X25. All in all it was for the most part a very, very good drive and exceed our expectations in nearly every way. This drive really is a perfect drive for netbooks, desktops and notebooks alike.

Another recurring topic in this review has been the price of the Warp v2. Granted, when compared to spindle drives there really isn't much competition on a value front, it remains ahead of many other SSD. You may not get the same blazing performance as with the X-25M but what you do get is a good jump up from the performance of anything but the highest-end of hard drives and enough storage space for most people.

However, with the good comes the bad as well and unfortunately the v2 has a small Mr. Jekyll side to it. As the testing phase started to draw to a close we became more and more frustrated with the Warp's built in controller. Because of it, we know Patriot's drive is not working to its true potential and we know there is not much we can do about it. This model has been hobbled by the JM602; a controller whose only claim to fame is that it is not as bad as it the controller it replaced. Sorry JMicron (and by proxy Samsung and Patriot for choosing it) but this controller is an albatross wrapped around the neck of one great piece of kit.

As it stands, the drive does need some extensive tweaking done to it and the OS to get the most out of it. However, we feel that the extra work is well worth it and once you have done these tweaks and tricks a few times it actually becomes easy to do. When you are talking about a drive which only costs about (at worst) half as much as the gold standard X25; yet provides more than 50% more room…well there is not much else you can call that drive besides Dam Good Value. We here at HWC are proud to give the Patriot Warp v2 this award as it may not be the absolute fastest out there but it will be good enough for most people. Heck, buy 2 of these, stick them on a used Perc 5i (or other RAID controller with built in cache) and you will easily get better performance than you would have if you went the single X-25M route.


Pros:

- Good Price for 128GB SSD
- Very good performance
- Light Weight
- Silent
- Vibration Resistant


Cons:

- While decent 2 year warranty is still 1 year too short
- Not as good as the X-25 (or spindle drives in certain write tests)
- Potentially slow writes
- Stutter problems which need extensive tweaks to alleviate (but when done make for one great SSD experience)

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