Specifications, Pricing and Availability

Patriot is offering the Pyro SE products in three capacity sizes to give users a wider range of options. Those are 60GB, 120GB and the model we are looking at today the 240GB. The 240GB is the highest performance model in the cluster since SSDs perform better with more parallel reads and writes. The stated performance is on par with other SF-2281 controlled drives we've seen in the past - 550MB/s read and 520MB/s write speed. All of the common SandForce controller goodies are also included, RAISE, 55-bit ECC per 512 Sector, DuraClass and DuraWrite are all proprietary technologies unique to SandForce based drives and help give these controllers the tools needed to achieve yours tasks at class leading speeds.

I glued together two pages from Patriot's webpage. The second portion shows many of the firmware fixes from the latest SandForce / Patriot firmware release. Patriot is one of the few companies that discloses changes made in firmware releases. They are also one of the few companies that offer new firmware on day one of release. We've found this to be a very important step in the customer service process and one that brings about a better user experience, especially when a release is as important as version 3.3.2.

When first released, the Patriot Pyro SE had a difficult time on the market due to pricing issues. These came from retailers and e-tailers keeping the new kid on the block priced higher than other similar products on the market. Those issues have now been taken care of and the Pyro SE is now fighting for market share on both performance ability and price. The 60GB is available today from Newegg for just 109.99, the 120GB model is listed at 164.99 and the 240GB model we are looking at today is at 404.99. All prices are after modest mail in rebates but are now some of the better deals available for high performing SF-2281 / synchronous flash based drive, i.e. the ones you want to purchase for your system.

The entire Pyro product line does suffer from one flaw for desktop users. Neither the Pyro nor the Pyro SE ship with a desktop adapter bracket, something we like to see with all SSD products. A standard three year warranty is included with both products, though.