Patriot recently introduced the P200 series which represents its latest entry-level solid state drives. Featuring a SATA 6 Gbps interface and capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB, the P200 series sits squarely in budget territory in terms of both pricing and performance.
Patriot is pairing unspecified 3D NAND flash with a Silicon Motion SM2258XT four channel controller for the 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB models and a Maxiotek MAS0902A controller for the largest 2TB capacity. Both controllers are DRAM-less, but do support SLC caching. All of the Patriot P200 series SSDs are 2.5” form factor drives measuring 7mm tall making them compatible with most laptops and portable enclosures.
On the performance front, Patriot rates the drives at up to 530 MB/s sequential reads, 460 MB/s sequential writes, 90,000 random 4K read IOPS, and 80,000 random write IOPS. Patriot rates the P200 drives at 160 TBW (256 GB model), 320 TBW (512 GB SSD), 640 TBW (1TB model), and 1000 TBW (2TB drive) depending on the capacity. Further, you can allegedly expect 0.57, 0.57, 0.58, and 0.45 drive writes per day endurance out of the budget drives and whatever flash they are using.
The P200 series is backed by a three-year warranty and is priced at $31.99 for 256 GB, $49.99 for 512 GB, $87.99 for 1TB, and $189.99 for the 2TB SSDs respectively. Note that AnandTech is reporting lower pricing (listed above) for the two higher capacities with other sites (e.g. PC Gamer) reporting a much less competitive $110.99 and $239.99 MSRP for the 1 TB and 2 TB drives (and Patriot’s own online store showing those prices along with higher prices for the lower end models as well). At the time of writing only the 256 GB and 512 GB Patriot P200 SSDs are available for purchase at the above prices.
Hopefully when the 1 TB and 2 TB models hit store shelves they will be priced closer to AnandTech’s numbers as there are quite a few budget drives at or below those prices already and Patriot would do well to at least match those offerings. If the lower prices turn out to be the sale/retail prices, the 1TB drive appears to be the best value at just under 8.8 cents/gigabyte. However, if retailers do not offer the higher capacity drives for less than they are currently listed at Patriot’s store website, then the 512 GB P200 SSD would be the best value at around 9.7 c/GB with the other drives just above or under 10 cents/GB [see: Shrout’s Law].
