Patriot Scorch 512GB NVMe SSD Review

TweakTown's Rating: 86%

The Bottom Line

Given its solid price point, the Scorch proves to be an ample solution for those working with a budget.

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Patriot has been a big player in the consumer SSD industry from the beginning years ago. Their latest solution adds to their lineup and caters to the value segment of the market, lets dive into the Scorch.

The value end of the market focuses more on low cost of entry and performance, not in sequential read or write, but 4KQ1 read, where it matters for most users.

The Scorch perfectly targets this segment with its Phison E8 controller design. From the bottom up, the E8 is a true value, and over the years, we have seen some fantastic drives come through using this same design, most notably the original SBX from MyDigitalSSD and MP300 from Corsair.

Adding to this drive, Patriot has paired the E8 with Toshiba BiCS TLC NAND along with 512MB of DRAM cache. The interface for this drive is PCIe 3.0 x2 and NVMe 1.2, with additional features like end-to-end protection and Smart Refresh. Capacity options for this drive include 128, 256, and 512GB, with marketing performance offering 1700 MB/s read and 950 MB/s write.

Drive endurance is rated at the industry standard 300 TBW for 512GB class drives. MSRP of the Patriot Scorch in the 512GB capacity comes in at $65.99 with a three-year warranty.

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Packaging for the Scorch offers a look at the drive with capacity listed at the top right.

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The back goes into more detail with features in several languages.

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Unboxing, we have the drive in its 2280 form factor. The sticker offers specifications for the drive, including interface and capacity. This solution is keyed m.2 B+M.

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Removing the sticker, we get a look at the components. To the right, we have the DRAM cache from Nanya and E8 controller from Phison with the Toshiba TLC NAND in four 128G packages to the left, taking full advantage of the channels on the E8.

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To start testing, we once again visit CDM. The drive is at 50% fill standard for all of our testing. We reached 1682 MB/s read and 1068 MB/s write in sequentials and 47.6 MB/s read and 132 Mb/s write for 4KQ1.

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Anvils turned in a nice score of 8277 for the Scorch with 3767 on read and 4510 on write.

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PCMark8 passed the 5K mark with the Scorch ending with 5063 and bandwidth of 503.8 MB/s.

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Stormblood game load showed solid results for the Scorch with a total time of 13.7.

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Price/Performance sets the Scorch just a sliver behind the Intel 760p with a score of 95.1%.

The Patriot Scorch proves in a nutshell that you don't need an extreme-performance drive to excel at being a fantastic solution for OS loading or even game loading scenarios. The fact is most situations for users that build gaming, or everyday PCs will never need the amazing performance that a Gen4 NVMe can provide in sequential workloads.

That said, the Scorch does do quite well for a value-based solution and even outperforms some older E8 platforms we have tested. Read performance came in at 1682 MB/s, just under the prescribed 1700 MB/s, while write results came in above the 950 MB/s marketing number at 1068 MB/s.

Pricing has dropped considerably since the initial launch with the new MSRP sitting at $65.99 down from $154.99 a little over a year ago.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair VIII Formula X570 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H60 (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Carbide 275R (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Corsair MP600 1TB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)