Patriot Torqx 128GB SSD
2. Package
We have in our hands the retail packet of the Torqx 128GB SSD product (PFZ128GS25SSDR) that costs ~ $399 ($385 after $12 mail-in rebate). Compared with the Warp v2 series ($259), this product would cost you more for exactly the same capacity, so let's hope that it worths the extra cash. The product is backed by a 2-year warranty as it is usually the case with the majority of the currently available SSD drives except OCZ , which recently announced a 3-year warranty for its high-end SSD models.
The retail package follows the design we have seen with the Warp v2 series. It is small and can be easily identidied with all these logos found on it.
A large plastic film covered window at the front side allows you to actually see the contents of the package and the drive itself. The additional 3.5" mounting bracket for desktop use found in the package is very useful for users who simply wish to install this product in their main system and not use it in any external disk case or laptop.
The well-packaged product is placed into two plastic shells protecting it from any damage. The 3.5" bracket is found in the second shell:
The SSD drive is black covered with a sticker with information about the available capacity and the model number. The drive's weight is just 91grams:.
The available power and SATA connectors are typically placed in the rear side of the drive, offering easy installation for your laptop or desktop PC:
We also found interesting the we pins we saw at the right side of the interface panel. These pins should be used and connected before upgrading the firmware of the drive, using the inlcuded header:
The 3.5" bracket is a simple metal plate with the right dimensions to fit at any typical 3.5" bay. Some mounting screws are also included for securing the bracket before installation.
The drive's I/O controller is the Indilinx Barefoot with a 64MB cache chip by Elpida Memory. We should remind you here that this is an MLC SSD solution and as such, it is more affordable than SLC products. In theory, SLC SSDs should be faster, although these new controllers have been proved fast and and efficient compared with SLCs.
On the other hands, SLC products seem to offer a better protection for your data since they produce less read/write cycles.