HDD by stefan @ 2020-11-20
The A85 Armor from Silicon Power is a solid external storage product and offers capacities of up to 5TB by the help of 2.5’’ drives which do not require extra power besides the one offered via the USB Type A port. It is built from high quality materials and meets 3m military-grade shockproof along with IP68 dust and waterproof resistance standards.
We would like to thank at first Silicon Power for supplying their Armor A85 Waterproof and Shockproof 5TB Portable HDD 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."
Tough, Tougher, Armor A85 -> Dustproof - Waterproof - 3m Military-Grade Shockproof
Where will you take it? With huge capacities of a 5TB A85 in your hands, there’s no limit. With extremely high definition video footage and picture quality becoming a bare necessity these days, the need for content creators has skyrocketed.
The word “content” gets thrown around a lot these days. Today, you can watch a 4K timelapse of a tropical sunset or an HD walking tour of a distant city all from your computer.
Creators are everywhere.
The Armor A85 is for people who are creating the very best. Filmmakers, photographers, influencers, artists, travelers, creative entrepreneurs, and more.
For the explorers, the storytellers, those who thirst for knowledge and experience, those who want to share what’s out there with the rest of the world.
The real question is, where will it take you?
Tough Nut
The A85 offers the highest protection level for your data. It is 500kg pressure-proof, IP68 water-and dustproof, and 3m military-grade shockproof. The portable data fortress is equipped with three layers and an internal suspension system to prevent data loss or damage caused by accidental drops, falls, or prolonged exposure to liquids, dirt, or pressure.
IP68 Dust- and Waterproof
An IP rating of 68 means that the A85 is dust tight and offers complete protection from dust ingress. The drive and your data are also protected against harmful ingress of water with immersion of up to 1m depths.
Tough Shell
The A85 is up to 500kg pressure resistant and its robust aluminum casing not only looks good and classy, but was also sandblasted to make it resistant to scratches, smudges, and dirt. The all-round safety package is topped off with the free SP HDD Lock Utility software to enhance data security with password protection.
Cable-Carry Function
The A85 comes with a storage and carry function for the cable. Because wherever you need to access your data, the cable should be there right with you.
A smarter, palm-sized vault
Enhanced data protection with SP's very own HDD Lock Utility Software. The encryption software is designed and created specifically for the Armor A85. A password is required to access your data. The protection does not go away; whatever you keep in the hard drive stays in the hard drive. Furthermore the built-in LED indicator lets you know the status when it’s powered-on or under data transmission.
Capacity - 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 5TB
Dimensions - 132.5 x 92.3 x 25.9mm
Weight - 298-364g (by capacity)
Material - Aluminum, rubber, plastic
Color - Silver
Interface - USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB 3.1 Gen 1 & USB 3.0, USB 2.0 backwards-compatible)
Supported OS - Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Mac OS 10.5.x, Linux 2.6.x
Operating Temperature - 5?-55?
Storage Temperature - -40?-70?
Operation Voltage - DC5V (Power supplied through USB)
Certification - CE/FCC/BSMI/Green dot/WEEE/RoHS/KCC/EAC/RCM
Patent - TW Patent No. D172227, M513441
Warranty - 3 years
It is time to look at another rugged external HDD from Silicon Power, packing the A85 model number and coming with storage capacities of up to 5TB! Compared to the A62, the A85 does pack an even more durable chassis made from aluminum, weighting a bit more than the former and besides fitting in with the military 810G Procedure IV transit drop test it does also support the IP68 standard.
The product is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure with a small plastic window; right from the front we will learn of the product characteristics but also the USB 3.1 Gen1 it supports, along with the total storage capacity (in this case 5TB):
On the side, we will learn of some estimations regarding how many multimedia drives will fit on the A85:
The back side does offer a small product description in multiple languages, the drive specifications, package contents, system requirements but also advertisement regarding two software solutions from Silicon Power:
After removing the top packaging layer, we will learn that the A85 is held secure inside a transparent plastic mold, along with the USB Type A data transfer cable:
A85 does sport a very solid construction, two thirds of the chassis being made of aluminum and the rest a combination of plastic and rubber:
The top rubber material acts as a cable holder and does include a SP logo on the side:
Here is also a look on the side, which reveals the thickness of the enclosure:
The bottom area includes a cover highlighting the supported standards:
On the back side, we will note the same design lines:
The black plastic section of the chassis does come with a rough texture in the top area but also the port cover:
On the back of the plastic port cover but also underneath the whole plastic section there is a rubber gasket present:
Here is an exploded view of the whole assembly:
Let’s plug in the USB cable, connect it to our test system and check out the drive!
The testbench was composed from the following hardware:
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
When powered on for the first time, we will see that the Armor A85 drive comes formatted NTFS, with a single partition:
With the help of AIDA64, we will be able to extract some more information about the drive, which is a Seagate ST5000LM000, with a platter rotation speed of 5400RPM:
On the drive we have preloaded an utility which helps with the product registration, but also the manual in electronic PDF format:
The A85 Armor from Silicon Power is a solid external storage product and offers capacities of up to 5TB by the help of 2.5’’ drives which do not require extra power besides the one offered via the USB Type A port. It is built from high quality materials and meets 3m military-grade shockproof along with IP68 dust and waterproof resistance standards.
For ease of use, a cable carry rubber band is integrated right into the chassis while the internal Seagate ST5000LM000 Barracuda Compute 15mm height drive offers optimized read and write data flow thanks to the equipped Multi-Tier Caching Technology.
Considering the amount of storage and ease of use, the 5TB version is priced well at around 137 Euros!
We would like to thank again to Silicon Power for making this review possible!