We would like to thank at first Silicon Power for supplying their Bolt B75 Pro Portable SSD for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About Silicon Power:

 

"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 Pro 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 and anodized casing to this portable SSD. Why? Because the ridges add strength, sharpness, and spirit. Where will inspiration take you? To the edge of your map.

 

Soar At Great Heights

 

Wrapped in a sleek and slim aluminum body that’s both shockproof and scratchproof, the Bolt B75 Pro is a wondrous design you won’t want to put down. But when you do, it shines from the inside too. It has huge storage capacity (256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB) and reads and writes at blistering speeds (up to 520 and 420MB/s respectively). This portable SSD with Type-C USB 3.2 Gen2 interface can also transfer data up to a lightning fast 10Gbps.

 

Protect The Work You Love

 

If you’re a creative who can’t be disrupted by turbulence, the Bolt B75 Pro Portable SSD will be your pilot in command. Launch your next masterpiece with stylish durability. With 12.2mm-thick casing, the Bolt B75 Pro is military-grade shockproof, while made with a lightweight aluminum alloy material. And it dissipates heat, so it’s both temperature- and impact-resistant. Keeping your work safe so you can create everywhere you go.

 

Sharp Design For A Safe Landing

 

Photographers, videographers, designers, and creators will all be delighted with the military-grade shockproof portable SSD, the Bolt B75 Pro. Its 3D ridges provide a barrier from scratches and fingerprints, while the embedded wraparound LED indicator gives clear indication of the data transfer status from nearly any angle. Plus, it includes 2 USB cables for Type-C to Type-C and Type-C to Type-A connection.

 

 

Remember the Bolt B75 external SSD from Silicon Power we have reviewed some months back? The Pro version does come with the same durable chassis which borrows the design of the Junkers F.13 German transport plane from a century ago. The main difference is support for USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface, which allows higher transfer speeds.

 

The product is shipped inside a compact cardboard enclosure with a small window, so we can admire the light aluminum chassis without unsealing the box; here the manufacturer does also list some of the main highlights:

 

 

 

Some more details on the product can be found on the back, including the list of box contents and system requirements:

 

 

 

The B75 Pro is shipped with not only one but two USB cables; all stay secure inside a transparent plastic mold:

 

-Type-C to Type-C

-Type-C to Type-A

 

 

 

 

A User Manual can be also found in the packaging:

 

 

 

 

The enclosure does sport a premium look, thanks to its sleek and slim aluminum body; it weighs only 105 grams and comes with an activity LED, under the SP manufacturer logo:

 

 

 

 

The total thickness of the enclosure is 12.2mm:

 

 

 

On the back side of the drive, we have noted the total storage capacity but also an internal serial number:

 

 

 

The compact Type-C port is easily accessible:

 

 

 

After removing only four screws, we will have access to the drive internals:

 

 

 

The actual SSD does sport a SATA interface, that connects to an adapter; the SATA drive does use the top layer of the enclosure as a heatsink and uses a thermal pad for cooling purposes:

 

 

 

The controller has been updated to an ASMedia ASM235CM, that acts as a SATA to USB 3.1 Gen2 bridge:

 

 

 

Test Bench:

 

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

 

 

For testing purposes, we have formatted the drive NTFS; here is the total remaining free space afterwards:

 

 

With the help of AIDA64, we could extract more information regarding the drive:

 

The Tests

 

HDTach Short Test

Blank SSD

 

HDTach Long Test

 

Blank SSD

 

CrystalMark HDD Test Suite

AIDA64 Disk Test Suite

PCMark05 HDD Test Suite

CrystalDisk Test Suite (Random)

HDTune Test Suite

Blank SSD

 

PCMark Vantage HDD Test Suite

 

PCMark 7

 

Anvil [Read]

Anvil [Write]

 

Extra Tests:

 

AS SSD Benchmark

Blank SSD

AS SSD Benchmark (IOPS)

Blank SSD

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Blank SSD

PCMark 8

Blank SSD

 

 

 

The Tests

 

HDTach Short Test

Filled SSD

 

HDTach Long Test

 

Filled SSD

 

CrystalMark HDD Test Suite

AIDA64 Disk Test Suite

PCMark05 HDD Test Suite

CrystalDisk Test Suite (Random)

HDTune Test Suite

Filled SSD

 

PCMark Vantage HDD Test Suite

 

PCMark 7

 

Anvil [Read]

Anvil [Write]

 

Extra Tests:

 

AS SSD Benchmark

Filled SSD

AS SSD Benchmark (IOPS)

Filled SSD

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Filled SSD

PCMark 8

Filled SSD

 

 

 

The B75 Pro external SSD drive is a clear improvement over the regular B75 in terms of overall performance and we should not experience drastic performance drops if data is moved to it in small quantities. If we need to transfer large files from a single stage, the TLC NAND limitations will be visible as soon as SLC cache gets filled and writes can drop to as low as 6 megabytes per second. The aluminum chassis is light, gives the product an overall premium look and also acts as a heatsink for the internal 2.5’’ SSD.

 

We can observe the exact behavior when writing continuous data to the drive by running the well-known HD Tune Pro utility in Write mode:

 

 

Depending on the user needs, the B75 Pro can be purchased with capacities of 256GB, 512GB, 1TB or even 2TB. The 1TB model, as tested, can be found online for about 187 Euros.

Silicon Power Bolt B75 Pro Portable SSD is Recommended for:

 

 

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