Tuesday, July 6th 2021
Patriot Joins ADATA in Changing SSD Components Without Advertising, Documentation, or Spec Changes
Patriot has seemingly gone the ADATA way in changing components for at least one of its SSD products without updating the relevant documentation. The move in question affects Patriot's VPN100 SSD in its 2 TB capacity - it is currently unclear if there have been any more changes to that particular SSD stack or others in Patriot's portfolio. According to reddit user Hexagonian, he was surprised to open up his brand new Patriot VPN100 2 TB SSD to find that the components listed in Patriot's documentation don't fit at all with what's actually packaged in the SSD solution. Namely, Patriot's documentation clearly lists a Phison E12 controller paired with 2 GB of DRAM cache. However, the Patriot VPN100 user Hexagonian received featured the Phison E12S controller alongside just 1/4 of the announced DRAM cache, at 512 MB.
The SSD market in particular has been shaken by some companies silently changing their component choice for particular products. These changes are not that uncommon, mind you; especially due to the logistics and supply constraints that we are still getting out of on account of the pandemic, it's understandable that manufacturers replace some of the originally selected components with others that have either reduced pricing, higher availability, and so on. However, these decisions are particularly egregious when these changes have relevant impact on a product's performance. ADATA was one of the first SSD manufacturers caught red-handed in this game of component replacement. It's interesting how these component changes have never served to improve characteristics of these hardware pieces, however; changes have always seemingly pointed towards lower manufacturing costs whilst the end-user pricing remains the same.
After the user contacted Patriot customer support, a few interesting elements surfaced: Patriot's RMA account isn't being actively explored by the company, meaning that all RMA requests are going through general customer support. Patriot also responded to inquiries from the affected customer by claiming that they can't update their product spec sheets every time there is a component change. However, considering the product spec sheets are little more than self-contained, glorified PR announcements with a high-level component and performance listing, this just doesn't (or shouldn't) add up. Does it take that long to change the listed 2 GB of DRAM to 512 MB? Or to add an S to the Phison E12 controller that's listed? It seems obvious that it takes much longer for Patriot to actually change the components on their products (and validate, test, and update the manufacturing lines with the new components) than it takes to update a single PDF file on their website and issue a PR statement informing the general public of the changes. As for RMA, Patriot's representatives directed the customer directly to the retailer, instead of handling the issue themselves.
The issue here is more one of transparency, for now, than it is on ill-intentions from Patriot; for all we know, the E12 and 2 GB DRAM performs the same as the E12S controller paired with just 512 MB of it. We've recently seen how companies can do some magic on their DRAMless designs; and we don't have samples available for testing of the two Patriot drives in their different configurations. However, even if there isn't an issue with performance per se, there is the issue of transparency. Patriot wouldn't make changes that increased the bill of materials; those usually always come down, not up. As such, silently changing components from those advertised ones will of course generate these kinds of reactions from customers. The fact that Patriot did this change on an SSD that ships with an integrated heatspreader - which obfuscates access to the components themselves for verification - only serves to add insult to injury.
Perhaps the redesigned VPN100 is as good as the original. However, this is not the way to go about it. Spec-sheet comparison is one of the ways customers have of making an informed choice on their hardware parts; Patriot is seemingly looking to avoid that these spec comparisons make their VPN100 less desirable than another competing SSDs with higher DRAM counts. There's a thin line between advertising and false advertising, and one might argue Patriot crossed it fully with these silent changes.
Sources:
Reddit user @Hexagonian, Phison E12S Spec Sheets, Patriot VPN100 Spec Sheets
The SSD market in particular has been shaken by some companies silently changing their component choice for particular products. These changes are not that uncommon, mind you; especially due to the logistics and supply constraints that we are still getting out of on account of the pandemic, it's understandable that manufacturers replace some of the originally selected components with others that have either reduced pricing, higher availability, and so on. However, these decisions are particularly egregious when these changes have relevant impact on a product's performance. ADATA was one of the first SSD manufacturers caught red-handed in this game of component replacement. It's interesting how these component changes have never served to improve characteristics of these hardware pieces, however; changes have always seemingly pointed towards lower manufacturing costs whilst the end-user pricing remains the same.
The issue here is more one of transparency, for now, than it is on ill-intentions from Patriot; for all we know, the E12 and 2 GB DRAM performs the same as the E12S controller paired with just 512 MB of it. We've recently seen how companies can do some magic on their DRAMless designs; and we don't have samples available for testing of the two Patriot drives in their different configurations. However, even if there isn't an issue with performance per se, there is the issue of transparency. Patriot wouldn't make changes that increased the bill of materials; those usually always come down, not up. As such, silently changing components from those advertised ones will of course generate these kinds of reactions from customers. The fact that Patriot did this change on an SSD that ships with an integrated heatspreader - which obfuscates access to the components themselves for verification - only serves to add insult to injury.
Perhaps the redesigned VPN100 is as good as the original. However, this is not the way to go about it. Spec-sheet comparison is one of the ways customers have of making an informed choice on their hardware parts; Patriot is seemingly looking to avoid that these spec comparisons make their VPN100 less desirable than another competing SSDs with higher DRAM counts. There's a thin line between advertising and false advertising, and one might argue Patriot crossed it fully with these silent changes.
22 Comments on Patriot Joins ADATA in Changing SSD Components Without Advertising, Documentation, or Spec Changes
Another company off the buy list.
The replacement drive had a different heatsink and a thicker thermal pad, but knock on wood, nearly two years later and it's still working without any problems.
That said, the RMA experience was flawless, so no complaints there. I guess their US office just doesn't care by the looks of it.
1: If they announce it up front, be honest and explain their reasoning, citing possible issues, such as supply chain problems, reliability, performance etc. then it will still be most people on the Internet who go up in arms, being unhappy about one or more of the reasoning behind and drafting rapidly controversial points and conspiracy theories. The company is judged as a result by both their current and prospect customers.
2: If they don't announce it up front, try to hide all of this under the rug; it still gets discovered, tested detailedly, and everything they could have cited as their reasoning is this time discussed as controversial points and conspiracy theories, whereas this time round us consumers have got sources with transparancy attending to the subject. The company is judged as a result by only their current customers.
Eh, whatever the company does; neither they nor the consumers can win. Because no change the result of which the company tries to sweep under the rug will be consumer oriented. And if it is even neutral for the consumer, you can be sure they'll market the hell out of it anyway. So the company simply chooses to go against the enthusiasts. That is why they always choose the first option and by losing maybe 5% of their market as a result, and already some of whom - let's be honest - would've gone and bought Sabrent/Samsung/HP or the likes anyway.
There is enough BS already with the stickers they put on them claiming you are not allowed to open the device.It's a new product, updating the page of the original should not happen more so when they are nerfing the product.
Would you be happy if you bought a car thinking it is going to run at a certain advertised spec, only to realised that the manufacturer have switched out the engine with a lower specced one? I am sure this is going to cause an uproar and it is also illegal. Even the likes of Nvidia is sensible enough to indicate LHR on the product to avoid getting sued.Yeah, I think people should call out such practice to their local regulators. Overall, I think I would recommend if you stick to the likes of Samsung and Crucial where they manufacture their own NAND, controller and DRAM. It is less likely they will silently switch out components since they are in control of the entire SSD. Any company that buys off the shelf components to produce their own branded SSD are susceptible to such practice. So far, Adata, Kingston, PNY and now Patriot are on the black list. I reckon if no regulator calls out such practice or if nobody sues them, more will just continue with this sorts of practice.
I think the B version is the older one. It also hase more IOPs according to the specs in Mindfactory.de and Alternate.de.
I have ordered a B version now, since i already got a H version a few days back.
Any suggestions what tests i should run on them?
The one from reddit looks the same, but has a D on the sticker on the individual NAND chip in the end of the drive.
If there's a performance difference, something like CrystalDiskMark ought to show it pretty fast.
My second VPN100 should arrive today. So i can run some tests :)
But yes, this is the older version for sure, since I got it in 2019.
My second SSD will arrive tomorrow, not today. I will take a picture too. I am very curious about the label now :)
What does it say on your invoice of the SSD?
The one where i posted pictures from:
www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/1000GB-Patriot-NVMe-M-2-PCIe-3-0-x-3D-NAND-TLC--VPN100-1TBM28B-_1411285.html
Retail version:
www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/1000GB-Patriot-Viper-VPN100-M-2-2280-PCIe-3-0-x4-NVMe-1-3-3D-NAND-TLC--_1304473.html