The Patriot Burst Elite is currently the cheapest SATA SSD with 1 terabyte of storage space, costing less than 45 euros. A similar terabyte SSD from Ebay dealer Kendihion is also available in different colors and one euro cheaper. However, c’t reader Uwe R. purchased a Kendihion SSD and became skeptical during his first tests. The write rate dropped significantly to less than 100 MB/s, prompting him to reach out for assistance.
To determine if Kendihion’s SSDs were genuine, the c’t team purchased two units for themselves. Despite achieving around 450 MB/s in short tests, the write rate quickly fell to values below 10 MByte/s when tested with their capacity test program H2testw. After several hours, H2testw certified the terabyte SSD as having a real capacity of only 110 GB, confirming that it was a fake.
The two flash chips on the circuit board of the SSD were printed with a Micron logo, but this type of flash did not exist. Moreover, the surface of the SSD controller had been sanded off, and a board label on the underside pointed to the Realtek RTS5732 controller, which is a cheap controller without DRAM support. Tools found on the dark web can manipulate this controller.
The SSDs’ origin was indicated by the sticker on the back of the SSD. The serial numbers printed there were the same for both SSDs and didn’t match those determined by a SMART tool. The SMART tool reported a constant temperature of exactly 30 °C, regardless of the load. However, a thermometer showed higher values.
After some negotiations, the retailer first offered a refund of 10 euros, then the entire purchase price as long as they hadn’t used the SSDs yet. This suggested that they wanted to resell the SSDs again. C’t advises buyers against purchasing cheap SSDs from unreliable outlets and to buy branded goods from reputable dealers.
In addition to this warning, c’t 7/2023 also covers VPNs with peer-to-peer technology, setting up Tailscale, Nebula, and Co. for remote networking, and testing cheap smartphones and AI writing aids. A nostalgic look back at the Second Life hype, Vanilla OS, and ChatGPT are all featured in c’t’s anniversary article.
