SSD by stefan @ 2019-08-16
As the Armor A75, the Bolt B75 does feature a military-grade shockproof casing that is quite light and also acts as a heatsink for the internal SSD. Being based on a SATA 6Gb/s internal SSD interface, the drive is limited a bit in terms of reads/writes, even before the cache fills up, but for regular backup tasks that do not involve usage of very big files, this should be a non-issue.
We would like to thank at first Silicon Power for supplying their Bolt B75 Ultra-Thin Portable SSD for testing and reviewing.
"Founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic data storage industry experts, Silicon Power is committed to delivering outstanding product and service quality. Headquartered and with our own state-of-the-art production site in Taipei, we have become a leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, portable hard drives, solid state drives, DRAM modules and industrial-grade products. As an international player with four branch offices around the globe, we continuously strive to offer the perfect data storage solution for all requirements of modern digitalized life. With a strong focus on combining innovative technology and award-winning design, we live up to our brand promise to reliably preserve and protect your most valuable data.
Because memory is personal."
Inspiration to Take Flight
The Bolt B75 Portable SSD is a tribute to “form follows function.” Who else feels a dash of inspiration and nostalgia when they look at vintage airplanes? You wouldn’t be the only one. In fact, when you gaze upon the Junkers F.13, an impressive German transport plane born nearly a century ago, you’ll discover a little secret. Its corrugated duralumin metal skin inspired the Silicon Power design team to add unbending ridges to this portable SSD. Why? Because the ridges add strength, sharpness, and spirit. Where will inspiration take you? To the edge of your map.
For Work You Love
If you’re a creative who can’t be slowed down by glacier-paced transfers and banged-up, broken tools, then the Bolt B75 Portable SSD will excite you. We’re looking at you, game-changing photographers, explorers, writers, inventors, videographers, designers, or anyone who creates amazing things. Work that makes you lose track of the hour is time spent doing what you love. Launch your next masterpiece with style, durability, and sped-up transfer speeds.
A Beast with Bells And Whistles
What happens when you blend rugged durability with an unforgettable visual appeal? The Bolt B75. L-shaped wraparound luminous LED indicator. Sleek and slim aluminum body. Grooves straight as arrows. Nothing without purpose. You won’t be able to put down its shockproof, scratchproof wondrous design. And when it’s time to set it down and plug it in, the Bolt B75 shines from the inside, too.
Your New Drive, Stunning
Looking to expand your computer’s capability? The Bolt B75 Portable SSD, able to boost performance anywhere, will delight those who need to create on the go. This swift SSD’s got huge storage potential (120/240/480/960GB) and reads and writes at blistering speeds (max. 440 and 430MB/s respectively). You're now free to create everywhere you go.
Back in 2018, we were reviewing the Armor A75 2TB USB 3.1 drive from Silicon Power, which had an aluminum chassis with an aircraft inspired design, but also low weight for easy transportation purposes.
With the Bolt B75, the manufacturer is reusing the same cool looking chassis, but has replaced the HDD with a speedier SSD, while the USB 3.1 Type-C interface is preserved.
The product is shipped inside a compact cardboard enclosure, with a small plastic window; some of the main highlights are present here as well:
On the back side we will find some more details, such as product specifications, package contents (Silicon Power has opted for an USB Type-C to USB Type-A since it is more compatible), system requirements but also some info regarding the service center:
After removing the top packaging layer, we will get to see the main item, together with the data transfer cable and the user manual:
Inside the manual, the manufacturer has listed the basic tasks needed to be performed in order to get the drive operational:
The provided USB cable is braided and features the exact same design as we have seen with the other BOLT drives:
As we have seen before with the Armor A75, the new drive chassis does feature a design inspired from the Junkers F.13, which was an impressive German transport plane. The corrugated duralumin metal skin did inspire the design team to add unbending ridges on both sides, for additional durability purposes:
Near the shiny SP logo, we will find an L-shaped status LED, in order for it to be visible from more angles:
Silicon Power does also note the drive total storage capacity on the bottom area of the chassis, and here we can also observe four removable screws:
After the removal of the said screws, we can take a look closer at the drive construction:
The Bolt B75 does use a SATA to USB 3.1 adapter PCB:
At its core, it comes with an ASMedia ASM225CM controller, that bridges the USB 3.1 to SATA 6Gbps interfaces:
The used drive does not have any markings/stickers of any kind and after its removal from the chassis, we will observe the semi-transparent plastic layer, along with the thermal pad used for cooling purposes:
CPU: Intel I5 9700K Retail
CPU Cooler: Deepcool Captain 240 EX RGB AIO
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming
RAM: Patriot Memory Viper RGB Series DDR4
Video: KFA2 GeForce GTX 1060 OC 6GB
Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W
SSD: OCZ Vector 150
Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
The drive has arrived formatted FAT32:
For testing purposes, we have formatted it NTFS; here is the total remaining free space afterwards:
With the help of AIDA64, we could extract more information regarding the drive:
Blank SSD
Blank SSD
Blank SSD
Blank SSD
Blank SSD
Blank SSD
Blank SSD
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
Filled SSD
As the Armor A75, the Bolt B75 does feature a military-grade shockproof casing that is quite light and also acts as a heatsink for the internal SSD. Being based on a SATA 6Gb/s internal SSD interface, the drive is limited a bit in terms of reads/writes, even before the cache fills up, but for regular backup tasks that do not involve usage of very big files, this should be a non-issue.
The HD Tune Pro utility does assist finding the minimum and maximum write speeds, while operating on a non-partitioned drive; till the write buffer fills up, we have seen speeds over 250MB/s, but if we do write to the drive large files continuously, it may sometimes drop under 6MB/s. In terms of reads though, the drive will deliver the same high performance, no matter the fill rate:
Depending on the user needs, you can choose between 120GB, 128GB, 240GB, 256GB, 480GB, 512GB and 960GB capacities. The 960GB variant, as the one we have tested in the article can be found online for about 141 Euros. The drive is also backed by a 3-year warranty and benefits from AES 256 encryption when used along with the free SP Widget tool.
We would like to thank again to Silicon Power for making this review possible!