Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review

Pyro SE Overview
The Pyro SE is a 2.5-inch form factor drive like most of the solid state drives you will see these days.  It has an black aluminum casing with silver trim.  On the front there is a sticker with the Pyro SE logo and it lets us know this is the 120GB drive and that it is a SATA III 6Gbps drive.

Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review

On the opposite side there is another sticker with the model information and part number.  There are also 4 mounting holes on the bottom of the drive as well as 2 on each side of the drive.  Just like all SATA drives you have  the SATA power and SATA data connections on the end of the drive.

Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review

Let’s check out what’s inside the drive.  Note: If you open your drive you will void your warranty!  To take the drive apart you remove the 4 screws on the top of the drive.  Then you can take the drive apart.  The PCB looks pretty plain with the SandForce SF-2281VB1 chip sitting by itself on the left.

Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review

To the right of the controller you have eight 25nm Micron synchronous flash chips.  On the opposite side of the drive’s PCB there are 8 more chips giving you a total of 16.  Each chip is 8GB giving you a total of 128GB.  The drive is marketed as a 120GB drive, the 8GB extra is used for used for over-provisioning.

Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review Patriot Pyro SE 120GB Solid State Drive Review

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