AS SSD:
AS SSD is a relatively new benchmark designed specifically for solid state drives. The application contains five synthetic tests used to determine the sequential and random read and write performance of a drive.
AS SSD also includes a copy benchmark. This test copies an ISO (two large files), program (many small files) and game (small and large files), returning the speed and duration of each.
HD Tune Pro 4.61:
Next, I ran a series of tests using HD Tune Pro. This hard disk utility measures a drive's performance by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its access time, burst rate and CPU usage. For this review, I'm also going to use it to benchmark the Pyro SE's random read and write speeds, random access times and the number of operations per second.
 Patriot Pyro SE 240GB - HD Tune Read Benchmark |
 Plextor PX-256M2P - HD Tune Read Benchmark |
 Patriot Pyro SE 240GB - HD Tune Write Benchmark |
 Plextor PX-256M2P - HD Tune Write Benchmark |
The Pyro SE performed very well when benchmarked with HD Tune. The drive had average read and write speeds of 495.5 MB/s and 413.9 MB/s, respectively, and a burst rate of 327.9 MB/s when reading.
 Patriot Pyro SE 240GB - HD Tune Random Access Read |
 Plextor PX-256M2P - HD Tune Random Access Read |
 Patriot Pyro SE 240GB - HD Tune Random Access Write |
 Plextor PX-256M2P - HD Tune Random Access Write |
The Pyro SE didn't disappoint when doing random reads and writes. When reading 4KB blocks, the drive reached 16457 IOPS and had an average speed of 64.287 MB/s. The Pyro SE was even faster when writing, reaching 19261 IOPS with an average speed of 75.242 MB/s.
Iometer:
Lastly, I ran a series of tests using Iometer. This tool can be configured to benchmark a number of things. In this case, I used it to measure the Pyro SE's read and write speeds and the number of operations per second. The tests were run using random bytes and a queue depth of 3.
The Pyro SE's performance was very similar to what we saw in our other tests. With highly compressible, repeating data, the drive was able to read at 523.8 MB/s and write at 472.74 MB/s. The Pyro SE did not slow nearly as much as the OCZ Agility 3 when reading random data. However, its write speeds dropped to 291.12 MB/s.
The Pyro SE performed very well when doing random reads and writes. With repeating data, the drive was able to read at 65.56 MB/s and write at a blazing 288.52 MB/s. Here too, the Pyro SE took a performance hit when tested with random data. However, it was still able to write at 172.09 MB/s.
According to Patriot, the Pyro SE can deliver a maximum of 85,000 IOPS when randomly writing 4K blocks. In our tests, the drive reached 73,861 IOPS with repeating data and 44,055 IOPS with random data.
