Patriot Memory's latest solid-state drive has borrowed a page from Western Digital's Velociraptor line of magnetic hard drives.
The company used this year's CeBIT show to show off its newest Warp SSD, a third-generation product featuring a capacity point of 256 GB. But how does that relate to a Velociraptor drive? Not because of the sizing similarity (256 GB to 300 GB) nor the technology of the drive itself (magnetic versus SSD). As a head-nod to system builders, Patriot's is including a bracket with the drive that converts its 2.5-inch drive into a mountable 3.5-inch form factor.
Unlike the Velociraptor's IcePAK, which actually serves as a giant heat-transfer mechanism and drive bay adapter for the 10,000 RPM drive, Patriot's bracket is little more than an adapter. Internet news site Fudzilla claims that the bracket will help cool the SSD, but that's quite a stretch given just how little heat solid-state drives produce.
If there's anything to take away from this generous inclusion, Patriot hasn't learned Western Digital's lesson from the first iteration of the Velociraptor drives. The SSD's bracket, while helpful, does nothing to adjust the placement of the SATA and power ports on the drive--they're stuck right in the center of the 3.5-inch contraption. This cements the fact that you'll be unable to use the Patriot Warp drive/bracket mash-up in the next-generation hot-swap bays of your favorite new chassis. As to why the company couldn't have offered a bracket akin to the latest Velociraptor line, which places the proper ports in the perfect place for hot-swap happiness, we'll never know.
No word on the drive's pricing or availability as of yet.
