High-performance bus-powered direct-attached storage models have grow to be very fashionable, because of the appearance of high-speed interfaces and applied sciences reminiscent of USB 3.2 Gen 2, NVMe, and 3D NAND flash. Flash producers reminiscent of Western Digital / SanDisk, Crucial (Micron), and Samsung produce and market exterior solid-state drives (SSDs) below their very own model. In addition, producers reminiscent of Patriot Memory additionally purchase flash within the open market and produce their very own worth additions to the exterior SSD market. Patriot Memory despatched over a pattern of the PXD exterior SSD launched in April 2020. This assessment takes a take a look at how the unit fares towards different choices out there on this market phase.
Introduction
High-performance exterior storage gadgets use both Thunderbolt Three or USB 3.2 Gen 2 for the host interface. Traditional SATA SSDs (saturating at 560 MBps) can hardly take full benefit of the bandwidth provided by USB 3.2 Gen 2. In the final 18 months or so, we have now had a gradual variety of of NVMe drives behind a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) bridge getting into the market.
Patriot Memory had a paper launch of the PXD exterior SSD again in April, and the models began hitting the market a few months after. The PXD has a gumstick form-factor, weighs 35g, and measures 31.5 mm x 103 mm x 9.eight mm. The aluminum physique is sandwiched between two plastic tabs. It comes with a single Type-C port and two separate USB 3.2 Gen 2 cables – a Type-C to Type-C, and a Type-C to Type-A, every measuring 30cm.
In this assessment, we examine it towards the next DAS models that we have now reviewed earlier than.
- Patriot PXD 1TB
- ADATA SE800 1TB
- Crucial Portable SSD X8 1TB
- HP P700 1TB
- Lexar SL100 Pro 1TB
- Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch 1TB
- SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD 1TB
A fast overview of the interior capabilities of the storage gadgets is given by CrystalDiskInfo.
| Drive Information |
The firmware model factors to the usage of a SSD controller from Phison, which was confirmed within the teardown course of. Similar to different exterior SSDs adopting this configuration (NVMe SSD behind a USB 3.2 Gen 2 bridge), the Patriot PXD additionally has no bother with S.M.A.R.T pass-through and TRIM help (the latter of which isn’t mirrored within the CrystalDiskInfo options entry).
The gallery above presents some footage of the internals. Patriot is not any stranger to Phison-based exterior SSDs, having introduced their Thunderbolt Three reference design to market again in 2018. Our PXD assessment pattern makes use of the US model of the Patriot P300 NVMe SSD behind a JMicron JMS583 bridge chip.
Testbed Setup and Testing Methodology
Evaluation of DAS models on Windows is completed with a Hades Canyon NUC configured as outlined beneath. We use one of many rear USB Type-C ports enabled by the Alpine Ridge controller for each Thunderbolt Three and USB gadgets.
| AnandTech DAS Testbed Configuration | |
| Motherboard | Intel NUC8i7HVB |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-8809G Kaby Lake, 4C/8T, 3.1GHz (as much as 4.2GHz), 14nm+, 8MB L2 |
| Memory | Crucial Technology Ballistix DDR4-2400 SODIMM 2 x 16GB @ 16-16-16-39 |
| OS Drive | Intel Optane SSD 800p SSDPEK1W120GA (118 GB; M.2 Type 2280 PCIe 3.zero x2 NVMe; Optane) |
| SATA Devices | Intel SSD 545s SSDSCKKW512G8 (512 GB; M.2 Type 2280 SATA III; Intel 64L 3D TLC) |
| Chassis | Hades Canyon NUC |
| PSU | Lite-On 230W External Power Brick |
| OS | Windows 10 Enterprise x64 (v1909) |
| Thanks to Intel for the construct parts | |
Our analysis methodology for direct-attached storage gadgets adopts a even handed mixture of artificial and real-world workloads. While most DAS models concentrating on a selected…
