HDD by stefan @ 2013-12-26
The rugged Armor A30 drives from Silicon Power have a body composed of plastic and silica gel; they come in both 500GB and 1TB capacities while operating on the USB 3.0 bus. For added value we get SP Widget which helps us perform backups, encrypt the drive and more.
I would like to thank at first Silicon Power for supplying a sample of their Armor Series A30 USB 3.0 Portable HDD for testing and reviewing.
“Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc., founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic specialists in International Business, Global Marketing, and Technical Engineering of flash data storage industry. Well dedicated in brand image and product quality, Silicon Power has been recognized and well accepted by millions of end-users in more than 100 countries, becomes the world's leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, DRAM modules, solid state disks, and portable hard drives in less than a decade. Headquartered in Taipei, we continuously established various branches throughout the world including Netherlands, Japan, Russia, Mainland China and other emerging market to reach the worldwide market.
Silicon Power's overall performance has gradually drawn great attention worldwide. In 2006, we received Taiwan Rising Star Award for our foreign business achievement. In 2008, we won 17th National Outstanding Small & Medium Enterprise Award for our outstanding progress. Moreover, with superior quality and innovative design, our products stood out in several competitions and awarded Taiwan Excellence and COMPUTEX Design & Innovation Award in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Winning trust of global consumers, Silicon Power holds a record of successive double-digit revenue growth for last seven years. According to the Common Wealth Magazine's 2010 Survey of Taiwan Top 1000 Manufacturers, our 2009 revenue growth rate was ranked No.11 among Taiwan's top 1000 manufacturers, and even ranked No.1 in semiconductor industry.
Positioned as Passionate, Creative and Hungry for Success, Silicon Power introduces products for users who are seeking individualized, unique and personal digital storage devices. With the mission of creating unprecedented experience for users, Silicon Power will endeavor to deliver a full range of high quality products that have innovative designs, distinctly unique features and comprehensive after sales services to create and fulfill your personal memory.”
- SuperSpeed USB 3.0 compliant and backwards compatible with USB 2.0
- Meet the U.S. military drop-test standards MIL-STD 810G Method 516.6 Procedure IV (transit drop test), including specific height free fall test (122cm).
- Cable-carry design
- Advanced internal hard drive suspension system
- Easy Plug in and use - no external adapter required
- SP Widget free download software, providing 7 major back-up and security functions
- Dimensions: 87.5 x 134 x 18.6 mm
- Weight: 181g
- Standard Compliance: USB 3.0 / 2.0
- Data Transfer Rates: Max. 5 Gb/s (USB 3.0 Mode); Max. 480 Mb/s (USB 2.0 Mode)
- Power Supply: DC 5V (Power supplied through USB)
- Supported Operating Systems: Windows 8/7/Vista/XP/2000, Linux 2.6.31 or later, Mac OS 10.5 or later (only USB 2.0 currently supported)
- Operating Temperature?5?~ 55?
- Storage Temperature?-40?~ 70?
- Capacity: 500GB, 1TB
- Color: Black, White
- Three-year warranty
In this article we will take a look at another rugged portable HDD from Silicon Power, this time with the A30 code name. The manufacturer has fully sealed the external surface of the packaging, in order to ensure more protection:
On the front page of the box we will get to see the drive itself along with some pictograms which represent the shockproof characteristics, cable-carry external design and also the 3-year warranty:
Silicon Power has made some approximations regarding how many photos, video files, MP3 music or data files could fit on the 1TB drive:
The main product features can be seen on the back side of the box in multiple languages; also here we will find the product specifications along with the list of package contents and supported operating systems:
Besides the main product, we will get a User Manual which shows us the installation procedure:
The enclosure of the drive is composed of both plastic and rubber; the rubber works well for vibration dampening purposes and when the drive would fall on any corner, the rubber will attenuate the shocks even further:
The rubber component also has routing channels for the data cable:
On the top side of the unit, in a corner we will get to see the USB 3.0 connector:
Here is also a photo of the main unit with the cable removed from it:
On the bottom side of the enclosure we will spot some black screws along with the total storage capacity written on the plastic surface:
By removing the four little black screws from the back we will be able to remove the plastic part of the chassis; this way we will reveal the rubber core which keeps the drive safe inside:
The 2.5’’ HDD is connected to a small daughterboard which provides the USB 3.0 connection:
The controller used is an ASMedia ASM1053:
By turning the product on the other side we will have access to the sticker with HDD specifications:
Inside the A30 we will find a Samsung Momentus ST1000LM024 drive:
The USB cable is quite short and the manufactured has opted not to use a miniUSB 3.0 port for increased durability:
The testbench was composed from the following hardware:
CPU: Intel I7 Retail @ stock
Motherboard: Foxconn BloodRage with G42 BIOS
RAM: 3x2GB Patriot PVT36G1600LLK 1600MHz
Video: Sparkle GTX 470 with stock and OMNI A.L.C.
Power Supply: Nexus RX-8500 850W modular
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.11
Case: Thermaltake Armor+ LCS, stock cooling
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Expansion: ASUS U3S6
When powered on for the first time, we will see that the Armor Series A30 drive comes formatted FAT32, with a single partition:
With the help of AIDA64, we will be able to extract some more information about the drive, which is a Samsung Momentus M8, with the rotation speed of 5400RPM:
On the drive we have preloaded an utility which helps with the product registration:
A free-to-download utility is to be found on the Silicon Power website, which contains multiple functions to the drive:
The interface of the software is split into multiple sections:
One of the functions is the ability to backup the My Documents folder:
Next, we can sync and backup any folders from the internal drive:
We can always choose to encrypt or decrypt the data stored on the drive:
Also, we can backup My Favorites folder, Outlook Email contents or different tasks:
The software also comes with a “PC-Lock” function:
Some more details about the drives can be found in the “Storage Device Information” tab:
The SP Widget app can be also updated from the same interface:
Finally, with the utility we can also change the language of the interface or scan the drive contents:
As the Power Armor Series A15 drive we have tested a while back, the A30 variant comes with the same HDD model, but we were surprised that the overall performances were a little bit better. The outside casing is made from plastic, while the silica gel corners protect the drive from damages which can occur during drops. Thanks to the hexagonal pattern which covers the plastic surface, the A30 is more durable against scratches or fractions during a daily basis.
The silica gel layer extends underside the plastic covers but the manufacturer has still left some spare in order to aid HDD ventilation.
While the USB 3.0 cable can be fixed with ease on the exterior of the case, it can prove as being short at times and might need an extension.
For added value, we can download SP Widget multi-function utility but also a 60-day Norton Internet Security release.
The Silicon Power Armor A30 (1TB capacity) drive can be found online for about 85.7 Euros.
We would like to thank again to Silicon Power for making this review possible!