Patriot Zephyr 128GB JMicron Solid-State Drive Review

Patriot Zephyr 128GB Introduction

Patriot is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year and since their 1985 inception, the California based company has grown to become a global company with a solid reputation for providing quality memory and storage products. They didn’t jump into the SSD market full force as some others have, but they have taken a more conservative approach instead. They are adding to their SSD lineup this month, releasing a value line of SSD’s carrying the moniker of Zephyr – a name with roots to Greek mythology.

The Zephyr line offers capacities of 64GB and 128GB at $184 & $358, respectively, and can only be found at Amazon.com for the first few weeks of availability. There is also a 256GB version but we have not received word on pricing yet. They all carry the newer JMicron controller which we’ve seen before on other SSD’s and it has shown to be an adequate performer. It will be interesting to see if Patriot’s firmware ekes out better performance in the 128GB drive Patriot was kind enough to send us for testing. The performance specification Patriot has published is up to 240MB/s read and 145MB/s write which is decent and leaves headroom for those wanting to gain performance by utilizing a RAID 0 configuration.

The 2.5″ SSD is matte black with a reflective surfaced backplate and an iridescent sticker carrying the name, capacity and the Patriot brand. Patriot backs the drive with a 3 year warranty with available assistance through their free technical support, and there is also a support forum for those that seek community advice.

Also included in the box is a reference pamphlet providing the layout and performance specifications as well as installation instructions for desktops and notebooks. No 2.5″ to 3.5″ adapter plates or Molex to SATA power connectors are included, but that’s not that unusual for a value series drive.

• Interface: SSD SATA 2.5″ Serial ATA I/II
• Raid Support: 0, 1, 0+1
• 128GB Performance

• Sequential Read: up to 240MB/s
• Sequential Write: up to 145MB/s

64MB DRAM Cache

JMicron 612 controller paired with qualified MLC NAND flash for best performance reliability

TRIM support (Operating System support required)

Power Consumption: DC 5V Operating 6.6W

MTBF: >1,500,000 Hours

Data Retention: 5+ years at 25C

Data Reliability: Built in BCH 16, 24-bit ECC

Operating Temperature: 0C~70C

Storage Temperature: -40C~ 85C

Operating Shock: 1,500G (@ 0.5msec half sine wave)

Vibration Resistant: 15G/10~2000Hz w/ 3 axis

O/S Support: Microsoft Windows Series, Linux, and MAC OS

3 Year Warranty

The Zephyr operates on a SATA II interface and if you are user of an operating system that supports it (Windows 7, for instance) the firmware does support TRIM to help keep the drive running at optimum speeds over time. Garbage collection is also supported but runs independently of the operating system. There are available pins for jumper placement but no word on whether a jumper will be required for firmware updates.

Let’s open her up and see where the magic happens.