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.

ESSENCORE today unveiled the KLEVV CRAS C920 and KLEVV CRAS C720 SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. The CRAS C920 takes advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface, and uses the Phison E18-series controller, paired with 3D TLC NAND flash memory. It comes in capacities of 1 TB and 2 TB. Both variants offer sequential reads of up to 7,000 MB/s, differing in write speeds—up to 6,850 MB/s for the 2 TB variant, and up to 5,500 MB/s for the 1 TB variant.

The KLEVV CRAS C720 meanwhile, is a slightly value ended product. It combines the latest revision of Phison E12S controller with 3D TLC NAND flash, and takes advantage of the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface. This drive comes in capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. Barring the 256 GB variant that offers sequential speeds of up to 3,200 MB/s with up to 1,300 MB/s writes; all the other variants offer up to 3,400 MB/s sequential reads; writing at up to 2,400 MB/s, 3,100 MB/s, and 3,100 MB/s, respectively. Endurance of these drives are rated at 170 TBW, 280 TBW, 565 TBW, and 1,550 TBW, respectively. The company didn't reveal pricing.Update Jun 16th: The press-release follows.

Patriot Memory, under its Viper Gaming brand announced the VPR100 RGB line of M.2 NVMe SSDs. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive features a wide heatspreader with RGB LED embellishments. You can play with the lighting not just with the Viper RGB app, but also popular lighting software such as ASUS Aura Sync RGB, MSI MysticLight, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, etc. The drive takes advantage of the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface with NVMe 1.3 protocol. Patriot is kind and brave enough to disclose that enabling RGB LED sync lighting can decrease read/write speeds by up to 20-30 percent. Leaving them unsynchronized (following a preset) leaves drive performance untouched.

Available in 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities, the VPR100 RGB combines a Phison E12-series controller with 3D TLC NAND flash memory, cushioned by a DRAM cache. All four capacity variants offer sequential read speeds of up to 3,300 MB/s, but write speeds vary. The 256 GB model offers up to 1,000 MB/s, the 512 GB model up to 2,100 MB/s, and the 1 TB and 2 TB models up to 2,900 MB/s. Endurance figures (TBW) for the four models are 380 TB, 800 TB, 1,600 TB, and 3,115 TB, respectively. Backed by 5-year warranties, the 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB variants of the VPR100 RGB are priced at 74.90€, 119.90€, 189.90€, and 379.90€, respectively (including VAT), in the EU. Across the big pond, they're priced at USD $94.99, $134.99, $229.99, and $399.99, respectively.

Patriot showed off many new M.2 NVMe SSDs at its Computex 2019 booth, led by two Viper series models that caught our eyes, the VPR100 and VPN100. While technically an M.2-2280 drive, the Viper VPR100 features a chunky heatsink that makes the drive wider than 22 mm. This could be a problem if you're trying to install it in an M.2 slot positioned between two PCIe slots. The heatsink is studded with RGB LEDs. The drive is based on the Phison E12 controller and offers sequential transfer rates of up to 3450 MB/s reads, and up to 3000 MB/s writes. The Viper VPN100 is practically the same drive, but with a heatsink that sticks to the 22 mm width limit. You can run both drives without their heatsinks.

VIPER GAMING, a trademarked brand of PATRIOT and a global leader in performance memory, solid state drives and flash storage solutions, today announced the release of its ultra-performance Viper VPN100 PCIe m.2 SSD (Solid State Drive) and has available capacities up to 2TB . The VPN100 is built using the latest Phison E12 PCIe Gen 3 x 4 NVMe controller to generate super-fast sequential Read and Write speeds. The VPN100 has been developed with a built-in aluminum heatshield with 6 single thermal fins to provide splendid heat dissipation under fierce PC workload.

The quality build GPU and CPU are needed to get the most from a modern gaming PC. While the latest games are putting a significant demand on storage, a faster SSD indeed ensures smooth gameplay and faster data transfer. Read and Write speeds are critical metrics for computer performances, especially when directly booting up to a 4k video editing workload. The VPN100 delivers the perfect combination across ultimate performances, ultra-fast speeds, and enhanced multi-tasking capabilities. Blasting transfer speeds allow gamers to access their games and get back into the game much faster while accelerating the overall responsiveness of your system. 5 times faster than traditional SATA SSDs speeds, the VPN100 is a top-of-the-line reliability SSD for hardcore gamers, PC enthusiasts, content creators, and video rendering professionals who are looking into blazingly fast startup times and instantaneous access for better productivity.

A quick trip to see Patriot at CES 2019 netted us a chance to look over a massive number of products from SSDs and DDR4 memory, to flash drives and Micro SD cards. In general, when it comes to anything memory or storage related they had everything but the kitchen sink on hand. That said, let's start with system memory. To begin with, they had their Signature Line on hand which uses a simple black aluminum heatshield and comes in capacities up to 16 GB per module with speeds up to 2666 MHz. For a single 16 GB stick at 2666 MHz the listed the timings at 19-19-19-43. Next was the new Viper Steel DDR4 SODIMMs with capacity that ranged from 8 GB to 32 GB and feature XMP 2.0 support for automatic overclocking. As for speeds they top out at 3000 MHz for these kits. Next up was the Viper RGB memory which comes in speeds of up to 4133 MHz and with timings listed at 19-21-21-41. They are also compatible with motherboard RGB sync applications and have been tested on the latest Intel and AMD platforms. Last but not least were the Viper Steel kits which top out at 4400 MHz with 19-19-19-39 timings.

MyDigital has finally launched their BPX (Bullet Proof eXpress) Pro NVMe SSDs, which leverage the PCIe 3.1 x4 complex in the M.2 SSD form-factor to deliver staggering (up to) sequential read and write speeds of 3,400MB/s and 3,100MB/s, respectively - with not too shabby 4K random performance. These speeds are achieved using Phison's new E12 controller paired with Toshib-made BiCS3 TLC NAND flash, one of the industry's strongest NAND options.

The BPX Pro M.2 NVMe SSDs are available in your choice of 240 GB ($99.99), 480 GB ($149.99), 960 GB ($279.99) and 1920 GB ($599.99) capacities. All are each backed by a five-year, 3,115 TBW (terabytes written) warranty. The drives are available via online retailers and will start shipping by the middle of September.

Patriot is aiming to join the high-end, M.2, NVMe SSD playing field with its upcoming Viper SSD family. The company has already shed most details (but not all) on the specs of these upcoming SSDs, which will carry Phison's latest E12 controller, the cream of the crop when it comes to Phison-manufactured solutions. The E12 is controller by Phison is NVMe 1.3 compliant, supports 8 NAND channels, and delivers a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface with strong ECC algorithms. These features are being paired with Toshiba's 64-layer BICS 3D NAND flash memory. The company wants these to succeed to the company's previous Hellfire flagships, with more appealing and modern design, performance, and features.

The Viper SSDs will be available from 240 GB to 2 TB capacities, and Patriot is quoting Phison's own performance estimates for the Phison E12 controller as the performance speeds of its Viper SSDs: 3200 MB/s sequential read, 3000 MB/s sequential write, and 600K random read and random write IOPS. Due to how the showcased Viper SSDs already carry product stickers and retail packaging design seems to be finished, these are expected to be out sooner, rather than later, and will be another options for users looking to bring their storage to some measure of Warp speeds.

Phison isn't just a budget controller brand, as you well know, so in addition to their interesting, 2-channel NVMe NAND controller in the Phison E8, which should see products hitting retail in the following months, the company is also catering to the high performance crowds with the impressive E12 and S12 controllers. The E12 is definitely the star of Phison's new controller line-up - just look at those ratings of 3200 MB/s sequential read, 3000 MB/s sequential write, and 600K random read and random write IOPS. Naturally, those rated speeds should be taken with a measure of salt, as NAND type, its implementation and firmware tweaks all matter tremendously in extracting the best possible performance from high speed storage.

Contrary to the E8 budget Phison controller, the E12 will feature a full NVMe PCIe x4 interface, which allows for those speed ratings. The S12, on the other hand, is a more common SATA III controller, which means that its speeds of 550 MB/s sequential read and 530 MB/s sequential write are already hitting the interface's limits. Other than the interface and the rated speeds and IOPS, though, the specs are the same on these controllers: support for 3D NAND on MLC/TLC/QLC arrangements, 8-channel, LDPC, SmartECC, and End-to-End DPP support.