14 DAY TRIAL // Patriot may have unveiled its latest Inferno solid state drives (SSDs) not overly long ago, two weeks to be exact, but the company has only now managed to make them available for shipment in Europe, where they are now ready to prove the benefits of the SandForce controller and MLC NAND Flash memory.
The SandForce controller chips have become quite popular among the developers of such flash-based storage solutions, particularly because they enable very high read and write speeds and a very small difference between the two figures.
In the case of the new Inferno SSDs (the 60GB, 120GB and 240GB models that is), the SandForce SF-1222 chip is used, and this component allows them to read at 285 MB/s and write at 275 MB/s.
As far as design goes, the products utilize the 2.5-inch form factor, which makes them quite suited for mobile computers and also capable of integrating in practically any other type of PC, desktop or otherwise.
What's more, the drives are constructed out of MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips and operate n the SATA 3.0 Gbps interface, essentially making them compatible with most any type of contemporary motherboard.
In terms of reliability, the SSDs have a MTBF of over 1.5 million hours and, naturally, support for the Windows 7 TRIM command, which cleans up the drive periodically and erases 'deleted' data, thus preserving the overall performance over time.
The Patriot inferno SSDs were officially introduced about two weeks ago, and though their exact pricing and availability details were not disclosed, they are now selling in Europe with EU recommended price tags of 165 Euro for the 60GB drive, 289 Euro for the 120GB unit and 589 Euro for the 240 GB SSD.
Patriot is selling each of the newcomers in a bundle with a 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch adapter, so that it may be safely placed inside even casings without 2.5-inch drive bays.