We would like to thank at first Silicon Power for supplying a sample of their Armor A60 2TB USB 3.0 HDD for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Silicon Power:

 

“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.”

Product Features:

 

Pass 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)

Mark the IPX4 water-resistant level

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 compliant and backwards compatible with USB 2.0

Cable carry design

Advanced internal hard drive suspension system

Easy to plug and use; no external adapter required

SP Widget free download software, providing 7 major back-up and security functions

TW Patent No.M486125.M487543

 

Product Specifications:

 

Dimension: 138.5 x 85.9 x 23.2 mm

Weight: 228~280g (by capacity)

Capacity: 500GB?1TB?2TB

Material: Plastic/ Rubber

Color: Black

Interface: USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 compatible

Data transfer rates: Max. 5 Gbps (USB 3.0 Mode); Max. 480 Mbps (USB 2.0 Mode)

Power supply: DC5V (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

Operating temperature: 5?~55?

Storage temperature: -40?~ 70?

Warranty: 3-year warranty

 

Here we have on our testbench another portable drive from Silicon Power, this time the Armor A60 2TB version; the product is shipped inside a cardboard enclosure with a small transparent plastic window, which allows us to see how the item looks like without unsealing the original packaging; some of the main features are represented with small pictograms on the top side of the box:

 

 

 

 

If we look on the side, we will discover an approximation of how many multimedia files will fit on the A60, depending on the model we have purchased (500GB, 1TB or 2TB):

 

 

 

The list of main features along with the specifications table can be found on the back:

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with a transparent mold, which contains the Armor A60 along with its bundle:

 

 

 

Inside the manual, we will be explained how to perform the hardware installation, in multiple languages:

 

 

 

Armor A60 comes with a chassis which combines layers of plastic and silicone; the top comes with a special surface texture which sports anti-slip function and does not pick up fingerprints either:

 

 

 

 

On the bottom area we will find besides the plastic layer two silicone feet; thanks to the simple cable-carry design, the USB 3.0 cable is wrapped around the chassis of the product for easy storage when not in use:

 

 

 

To protect against damages, the USB 3.0 port is also covered by a silicone cap:

 

 

 

By removing the four bottom screws, we were able to disassemble the drive and look inside for more details; the 2TB disk drive is also wrapped inside the silicone layer for vibration dampening, along with the SATA-to-USB 3.0 adapter:

 

 

 

After removing the drive from this layer, we will discover that we are dealing with a Toshiba MQ01ABB200 drive which was intended for storage applications and regarding specifications we could remind Serial ATA 300 interface at 5400RPM and 8MB of cache:

 

 

 

The drive is thicker than usual models, holds internally four 500GB platters and has a thickness of 15mm; the drive is also equipped with a G-force sensor for protecting itself when large vibrations are detected or when it falls off the surface:

 

 

 

 

The drive is provided with the usual SATA Data/Power ports, but also four pins for factory use purposes:

 

 

 

On its back we will be able to see the electrical board, which also supplies power to the central motor:

 

 

 

Upon a closer inspection of the adapter, we have discovered the JMS567 Bridge Controller by JMicron:

 

 

 

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 A60 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 ST2000LM003 drive, with the rotational 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:

 

 

 

Along the drive, we can also use the latest version of the SP Widget software; with it we can perform different tasks like backups, file classifications and so on:

 

 

From the Project Backup tab, we will be able to define new backup tasks to be saved onto the drive:

 

 

Next we have the Data Encryption tab, which is pretty self-explanatory:

 

 

The favorites from different web browsers can be saved to the drive from the next tab:

 

 

The files can be also classified in different pre-defined folders:

 

 

We can also work with available online cloud storage:

 

 

From the Storage Device Information menu, we can check the current drive status:

 

 

The last two menus allow us to download a trial Norton version, but also provide us with a section for choosing the language of the interface:

 

 

CrystalMark

AIDA64 Disk Benchmark

 

HD Tach

 

HD Tune

 

PCMark 2005

 

PCMark Vantage

 

After releasing the rugged Armor A30 model, Silicon Power went ahead and upgraded it with a new Armor A60 model, which has passed the military drop-test standards (MIL-STD 810G), including the specific height free fall test of 122cm. Additionally, the product is water resistant by supporting the IPX4 standard and the internal Toshiba MQ01ABB200 drive is equipped with a G-force sensor for protecting itself when large vibrations are detected or when it falls off the surface.

 

Thanks to the mounting system, the cable can be attached to the silicone layer of the product chassis, for easy manipulation and the USB 3.0 port is also fully covered when not in use.

 

Surprisingly, the drive is a bit slower than the Armor A30 2TB model, but this should be a non-issue when used only for storage, when counting the added features for protecting our data.

 

The tested model is available online for about 127 Euros, while the 1TB version can be picked up for 74.50 Euros; the smallest capacity model, 500GB can be picked up for about 61 Euros.

 

Silicon Power Armor A60 USB 3.0 Portable HDD is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Silicon Power for making this review possible!