Raevenlord
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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.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
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.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
