The Patriot Memory Inferno is a great performer thanks to the latest controller technology. The drive offered solid sequential throughput and very fast random access times across a range of transfer sizes. We measured reading and writing speeds that reached the the 280MB/sec and 240MB/s, respectively. The drive SATA 3Gbps interface rather than the latest 6Gbps. We felt that the sequential read and write performance was sometimes limited by the interface rather than the drive itself.

Like other Sandforce drives, one of the Inferno's key strengths is random access. In addition, the IOMeter test showed around 12K IOPS, leaving behind the SandForce-based Agility 2 series (10K IOPS), which we have also recently tested.

The Patriot Inferno 100GB is a standard 2.5-inch SSD, meaning that it's suitable not only for desktops, but also most laptop PCs. And of course, the Inferno has full support for the Windows 7 TRIM command, an essential feature for maintaining long term SSD performance.

Besides the great features and performance, the drive's high retail price indicates that it's obviously aimed at enthusiasts and computing specialists. To be honest, the the Inferno 100GB is poor value for money in $/GB terms, and you most probably won't feel the difference between the Inferno 100GB and the SandForce-based MLC competition in real world usage. But that's the situation today at the SSD market. What makes the Inferno series a really desirable product is the 5-year warranty provided by Patriot Memory, rather than the typical 3 years covering the competitive drives..

Positive

+ Very high reading/writing performance
+ Includes 3.5" mounting bracket for desktop systems
+ Drive worked great during our benchmarks
+ Supports TRIM command
+ 5 years of warranty
+ Active forum community

Negative

- High retail price

- Not 3rd-Generation SATA-6.0 compliant