Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD Review: The Ultra-Budget Upgrade with a Serious Catch

We’ve all been there. That trusty old laptop or desktop PC, once a faithful companion, now groans under the weight of modern software. Booting up the operating system feels like an eternity. Opening a simple web browser takes an act of patience. You know it has more life left in it, but the sluggish, grinding noise of its mechanical hard drive is a constant reminder of its age. The thought of replacing the entire machine is daunting and expensive. This is the digital purgatory where countless perfectly good computers are left to gather dust, their potential squandered by a single, slow component. The frustration is real; a slow computer doesn’t just waste time, it actively kills productivity and drains the joy from using technology. It’s a bottleneck that holds the entire system hostage.

What to Consider Before Buying a Solid State Drive

A Solid State Drive is more than just an item; it’s a key solution for breathing new life into ageing hardware and unlocking the true potential of new builds. Unlike traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) that rely on spinning platters and a mechanical arm, an SSD uses flash memory—similar to a USB stick, but vastly more powerful and durable. This fundamental difference eliminates moving parts, resulting in near-instantaneous boot times, lightning-fast application loading, and a snappier, more responsive feel across your entire operating system. The benefits extend beyond speed; SSDs are also more durable, consume less power (which can improve laptop battery life), and operate in complete silence. They are arguably the single most impactful upgrade you can make to a computer.

The ideal customer for a budget SATA SSD like this is someone facing the exact scenario described above: the owner of an older laptop or desktop that lacks the modern M.2 NVMe slots but has a standard SATA connection. This user wants a dramatic performance boost without a significant financial investment. It’s perfect for reviving family computers, upgrading office workstations for better productivity, or even creating a secondary drive for storing games. However, a SATA SSD might not be suitable for those building a top-of-the-line gaming rig or a professional video editing workstation. These users demand the absolute highest transfer speeds and would be better served by a newer, more expensive NVMe SSD, which connects directly to the motherboard’s PCIe lanes for unparalleled performance.

Before investing, consider these crucial points in detail:

• Form Factor & Interface: The Patriot P220 uses the 2.5-inch form factor with a SATA III interface. This is the classic SSD shape that fits into the same drive bays as traditional laptop hard drives. It’s crucial to ensure your device has a spare 2.5-inch bay and a SATA port. Newer, thinner laptops and modern motherboards often prioritise the much smaller M.2 form factor, so check your system’s specifications before purchasing.
• Capacity & Performance: Capacity is straightforward—256GB is enough for an operating system and a good selection of essential programs. Performance, however, is nuanced. Look at sequential read/write speeds (measured in MB/s) for large file transfers, and 4K random read/write speeds (measured in IOPS) for how quickly the drive handles the small files that make an OS feel snappy. Also, consider if the drive has a DRAM cache; DRAM-less drives like this one are cheaper but can slow down significantly during sustained write operations.
• NAND Type & Durability: SSDs store data on NAND flash memory. The most common types are TLC (Triple-Level Cell) and QLC (Quad-Level Cell). QLC, often found in budget drives like this one, can store more data per cell, making it cheaper to produce. The trade-off is lower endurance (total terabytes written, or TBW) and potentially slower sustained performance compared to TLC. For a boot drive with light to moderate use, QLC is often sufficient, but for heavy-duty tasks, TLC is the more durable choice.
• Ease of Use & Maintenance: Installation is typically plug-and-play. You’ll need a SATA data cable and a SATA power cable from your computer’s power supply. The most involved part is software-side: you’ll either need to perform a fresh installation of your operating system or use cloning software to migrate your existing data from the old drive. Once installed, SSDs require no physical maintenance and benefit from features like TRIM, which most modern operating systems handle automatically to maintain performance over time.

Keeping these factors in mind, the Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD stands out in several areas, particularly its price point. You can explore its detailed specifications here.

While the Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD is an excellent choice for a specific budget-focused purpose, it’s always wise to see how it stacks up against the competition. For a broader look at all the top models, we highly recommend checking out our complete, in-depth guide:

First Impressions: A No-Frills Approach to Speed

Unboxing the Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD is an exercise in minimalism. It arrives in a simple blister pack, showcasing the drive itself without any unnecessary fanfare. There are no included SATA cables or mounting screws, which is standard practice for bare drives in this price bracket. The drive itself is incredibly lightweight, weighing a mere 30 grams. Its black plastic enclosure feels basic but functional, with the standard mounting holes on the sides and bottom. The label is clean and provides the essential model information. There’s nothing here that screams “premium,” but that’s precisely the point. Patriot has focused all its efforts on the internal components to hit an aggressive price, forgoing any cosmetic embellishments. It’s a tool designed for a single purpose: to replace a slow mechanical drive. When you hold it, you immediately understand that its value isn’t in its physical presence, but in the performance transformation it promises to deliver once installed inside your machine.

Deep Dive: Performance vs. Longevity – The P220’s Defining Conflict

The story of the Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD is one of duality. On one hand, it offers an almost unbelievable performance uplift for an incredibly low price. On the other, it carries a significant shadow of doubt regarding its long-term reliability. Our in-depth testing and analysis, corroborated by a wealth of user experiences, reveal a drive that excels in specific scenarios but falters critically in others. It’s a product that demands you understand exactly what you’re buying—and the risks involved.

Installation and Initial Setup: The Gateway to Speed

For anyone who has ever worked inside a desktop PC or swapped a laptop drive, the installation process is refreshingly simple. As a standard 2.5-inch SATA drive, it’s a universal fit. In our test desktop, we simply mounted it in a spare drive caddy, connected a SATA power cable from the PSU, and a SATA III data cable to the motherboard. The BIOS recognised it instantly without any fuss. For our laptop test—an aging Lenovo T440s—it was a matter of removing a few screws from the bottom panel, sliding out the old 2.5-inch HDD, and slotting the P220 directly in its place. The entire physical process took less than ten minutes.

The software side was equally straightforward. We opted for a fresh installation of Windows 10. The process was blisteringly fast compared to installing on an HDD. From start to a functional desktop, the entire procedure was completed in under 15 minutes. This is where the P220 first shows its value. Users consistently praise this aspect, with one noting it’s a “great way to revive the old slow laptops or optiplex and give them a quicker boot time.” This is not an exaggeration. The boot time on our test laptop dropped from over 90 seconds to just 18 seconds. This initial experience is transformative and delivers exactly on the promise of an SSD upgrade.

Real-World Performance: A Tale of Two Speeds

This is where the nuances of the Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD become apparent. For everyday tasks—booting the OS, opening Chrome, launching Microsoft Office, or loading a saved game—the drive is excellent. We ran CrystalDiskMark and our results were very close to the advertised speeds, hitting around 545 MB/s sequential read and 470 MB/s sequential write. These are fantastic numbers for a SATA drive and explain why the system feels so responsive. Small, random file operations, which are the bread and butter of an operating system, are handled with ease.

However, the budget-oriented architecture reveals its weakness when you push it harder. The P220 is a DRAM-less SSD, meaning it lacks a dedicated stick of RAM to cache the mapping table of where data is stored. To compensate, it uses a small portion of its fast QLC NAND to run in a pseudo-SLC mode (SLC cache). This works wonderfully for small, bursty writes. But what happens when you try to transfer a large file, like a 40GB video file or a game installation folder? The results are stark. For the first 10-15GB of the transfer, speeds remained high. But once that small SLC cache was saturated, the drive had to write directly to its slower QLC NAND. Performance plummeted dramatically, dropping to under 50 MB/s—slower than many modern mechanical hard drives. This confirms the experience of a user who stated that for large copies, “Se eterniza… Su cache se llena y empieza la odisea” (“It takes forever… its cache fills up and the odyssey begins”). This makes the drive ill-suited for tasks like video editing or frequently moving massive files. It’s built for consumption and quick launches, not heavy-duty creation or data shuffling.

Gaming on a Shoestring Budget: A Viable Second Life

Where does the Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD find its ideal home? For many, it’s as a secondary games drive. Modern games can have excruciatingly long load times when run from a traditional HDD. We installed a few popular titles like *GTA V* and *Valorant* to test this specific use case, mirroring a user’s setup who found it a “Good option for games if you have a tight budget.” The difference was night and day. Loading into the sprawling world of Los Santos in GTA V took a fraction of the time it did on our old HDD. Fast-traveling across the map was nearly instantaneous. In a competitive shooter like Valorant, loading into a match before everyone else can provide a small but welcome advantage.

The key here is that gaming is primarily a read-heavy operation. Once the game is installed, the drive spends most of its time reading assets, a task it performs very well. The slow sustained write speeds are not a factor during gameplay. This makes the 256GB model a fantastic, low-cost way to store two or three of your most-played games to eliminate loading screens without breaking the bank. If you have an existing, larger HDD for your massive back catalogue, adding this drive specifically for your current favourites is a smart and effective upgrade strategy. The experience is so much better, it’s hard to go back.

The Elephant in the Room: Longevity and the Reliability Gamble

We cannot conclude this review without addressing the most serious concern surrounding the Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD: its questionable reliability. While our review unit performed flawlessly during our weeks of testing, we cannot ignore the alarming number of user reports detailing complete and sudden drive failure. Reports of the drive dying after 4 months, 5 months, a year, or 1.5 years are far too common to be isolated incidents. One user summed up the experience bleakly: “Worked great up until it just died without warning. No symptoms or anything of the sort.” Another simply stated, “After just over a year the drive just stopped working. Avoid!”

This pattern of failure is likely linked to the drive’s budget components: a low-cost controller combined with low-endurance QLC NAND. While these components allow for the incredibly low price, they appear to lack the robustness for long-term, consistent use. Some have speculated that heat from the controller during sustained writes could be a factor, especially in poorly ventilated laptop chassis. Whatever the root cause, the risk is undeniable. Therefore, we must issue a strong warning: do not use this drive for storing critical, irreplaceable data. It should not be your sole backup for family photos, important documents, or work projects. Its best use is as an OS drive where you have cloud backups for your data, or as a secondary drive for applications and games that can be easily re-downloaded. You are trading long-term peace of mind for immediate performance at a rock-bottom price. For some, that’s a worthwhile trade, but you must enter into it with your eyes wide open. If this sounds like too much of a risk, we strongly advise you to investigate alternatives with a more proven track record.

What Other Users Are Saying

The user feedback for the Patriot P220 is a perfect reflection of its split personality. On one side, you have users who are thrilled with the value proposition. One happy customer noted it was a “great way to revive the old slow laptops or optiplex and give them a quicker boot time,” highlighting its primary strength. Another who uses it for gaming said, “Juegos como GTA V, Apex o Valorant cargan mucho más rápido que en un disco duro normal” (“Games like GTA V, Apex or Valorant load much faster than on a normal hard drive”). These reviews confirm that for specific, light-duty tasks, the drive delivers an excellent experience for the money.

On the other, starker side, is the chorus of warnings about reliability. The most damning feedback comes from users whose drives failed unexpectedly. “Used this as a secondary drive for my PC build about a year ago. Worked great up until it just died without warning,” one user lamented, capturing the frustration of sudden data loss. Another review from France was even more specific: “Ce SSD est en panne au bout de 4 mois et demi d’utilisation légère… ce disque a rendu l’âme après avoir écrit environ 300Go dessus” (“This SSD broke down after 4 and a half months of light use… this disk gave up the ghost after having written about 300GB to it”). This feedback is critical and paints a picture of a product that, while fast, may have a tragically short lifespan.

How Does the Patriot P220 Compare to the Alternatives?

The Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD operates in the budget SATA space, but many modern alternatives use the faster NVMe M.2 interface. It’s important to understand the differences.

1. KingSpec 128GB Gen3x4 M.2 NVMe 2242 SSD

The KingSpec drive represents a different class of storage. As an NVMe M.2 drive, it is significantly faster than any SATA SSD, with read speeds up to 3500 MB/s. However, it requires a compatible M.2 slot on the motherboard, which many older systems targeted by the P220 lack. Its capacity is also half that of the Patriot drive. This KingSpec SSD is a better choice for someone upgrading a modern laptop or a small form factor PC that has an M.2 2242 slot and needs a fast, small-capacity boot drive. The P220 is for those limited to the older, more universal SATA interface.

2. Samsung 980 1TB NVMe M.2 Internal SSD

The Samsung 980 is a premium PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive from one of the most reputable names in the industry. It offers blistering speeds, four times the capacity (1TB), and Samsung’s renowned reliability and software support. This is not a direct competitor in terms of price or target audience. The Samsung 980 is for serious builders, gamers, and content creators who want top-tier performance and peace of mind from their primary drive. Someone would choose the Samsung 980 over the P220 if their budget is significantly larger, their motherboard supports NVMe, and data reliability is a top priority.

3. SP Silicon Power 1TB UD90 NVMe 4.0 M.2 SSD

The Silicon Power UD90 pushes performance even further by utilising the newer PCIe 4.0 interface, reaching speeds of up to 5,000 MB/s on compatible systems. It offers a fantastic balance of speed, capacity (1TB), and value, often undercutting premium brands like Samsung. This drive is aimed at enthusiasts with modern motherboards (Intel 11th Gen/AMD Ryzen 3000 series or newer) who want to take full advantage of the latest technology without paying the absolute highest price. The P220 is a bicycle to the UD90’s sports car; they both get you from A to B, but in entirely different ways and for entirely different types of journeys.

Final Verdict: A High-Reward, High-Risk Upgrade

So, should you buy the Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD? The answer is a heavily qualified “maybe.” If you are reviving an old computer that will be used for web browsing, office work, or as a secondary games machine, and you are on the tightest of budgets, this drive offers a phenomenal performance-per-pound ratio. The speed boost it provides over a mechanical hard drive is genuinely transformative and will make an old PC feel new again.

However, you must go into this purchase acknowledging the significant risk of premature failure reported by many users. We cannot, in good conscience, recommend this drive for storing any data that is not backed up elsewhere. It is a gamble. For some, the low entry price is worth the risk for a non-critical system. For anyone who values long-term reliability and data security, we strongly advise spending a little more on a drive from a brand with a more consistent track record for durability, such as Crucial, Western Digital, or Samsung.

If you’ve weighed the pros and cons and decided the Patriot Memory P220 256GB Internal SSD is the right fit for your specific, non-critical project, you can check its current price and purchase it here.