NTRODUCTION

   Who would had thought even just 5 years ago that a few years later one could just walk inside an electronics store and pick an SSD (Solid State Drive) out of a whole section filled with models from virtually every single storage media manufacturer out there? Well i always thought it would be just a matter of time but i have to admit that i never really expected to see SSD models get released even by companies which appeared out of nowhere and without any previous products in the market. That being said the competition with the leading manufacturers that hold the largest percentage of the SSD market as we speak is always a good thing since it helps keep product quality at good levels while it also helps control prices so i can't say i mind. Today on our test bench we have one of the most recent SSD models to hit the market the Slim S55 240GB by our close friends over at Silicon Power.

   Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc., founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic specialists of flash data storage industry. Well dedicated in brand image and product quality, SP 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. With superior quality and innovative design, our products stood out in several competitions and awarded Taiwan Excellence and COMPUTEX Design & Innovation Award in 2009 and 2010. Winning trust of global consumers SP holds a record of successive double-digit revenue growth for last seven years. For SP, the product we introduced is not only a digital storage device but also a real promise to create and preserve your most valuable memory in every moment.

   Last time we had a SSD model by Silicon Power with us it was their Velox V55 240GB model which featured the cost-effective PS3108-S8-I SATA-to-Flash 8-channel micro-controller by PHISON paired with 19nm MLC NAND flash by Toshiba. The flash controller by PHISON may not be the most popular in the market right now but several manufacturers have also made use of their controllers in the past including Crucial, Corsair, Team Group, Good Ram and MyDigitalSSD so PHISON must be doing something right. Strangely enough the brand new Slim S55 model also makes use of the same PS3108-S8-I controller by PHISON as the V55 did over a year ago (uses an updated firmware version however) so we don't really expect much in terms of performance difference between those two models. Also much like most consumer oriented SSD models in the market currently the PHISON controller may support many basic features including AES encryption, NCQ/TRIM/RAID, S.M.A.R.T and DEVSLP (Device Sleep) but lacks the tantalum capacitor array used for power-loss emergencies. So after this somewhat short introduction the time has come for us to see how the Slim S55 does in terms of read/write performance.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

As usual at the front of the box we see a large product picture, several icons representing the main product features, the company logo, read/write speeds and the model capacity.

The performance numbers of the Slim S55 are also showcased at the rear right above the features list printed in 14 languages, several certification logos and company contact information.

Inside the box there's only the Slim S55 SSD, 4 mounting screws and the installation guide.

THE SLIM S55 240GB

Size-wise the Slim S55 features the typical 7mm thick 2.5" aluminum housing.

Nothing really to see at the bottom but the good news is that Silicon Power uses normal screws to hold the housing together.

At the rear we see the usual SATA power and data connectors.

As mentioned already opening the housing is not a big deal but do remember that by doing so you're voiding the warranty.

The bottom side of the blue PCB features a total of eight 16GB MLC NAND flash memory modules by Toshiba.

Eight more 16GB modules are present on the opposite side along with the PHISON PS3108-S8-I controller and a 256MB DDR3 (@800MHz) cache memory chip by Nanya.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After roughly 6 years of testing sold state drives i have concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts.

   Many people made inquiries about the charts ever since the last comparison so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation with every update installed up to July 11th 2014.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TUNE PRO / HD TACH RW

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / IOMETER

CONCLUSION

   After wrapping up all our tests and comparing them it's not hard to see that the Slim S55 is a good improvement over the Velox V55 across the board (with some exceptions of course) but certainly not enough to justify going from the V55 to the S55. That being said i was expecting PHISON to come up with something new and improved by now since their PS3108-S8-I SATA-to-Flash 8-channel micro-controller is not really new on the block but it seems that with the help of some firmware optimizations they have managed to further push its performance to a point where it can keep up with all the latest models wearing Samsung, LSI/SandForce and Marvell controllers.

   If there's a serious drawback with SSD models by Silicon Power that's their availability and so although you can easily find the Slim S55 240GB model for USD167 inside the USA (Amazon.com) the same doesn't really apply for the EU since i was unable to locate it anywhere, at least not online. The price tag is also not what one would expect from an SSD model using the PHISON controller especially since for example other similar models like the 840 EVO 250GB by Samsung or even the M550 256GB by Crucial retail for slightly less. I'm not of course saying that the price is bad but i do think that Silicon Power has room to cut it further and with the current level of competition in the market i hope they do so soon. Still performance is quite good (obviously a step up from the previous V55) and the price is almost right so we strongly recommend taking a look if you’re out in the market for your first or a new SSD.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Very Good Overall Performance (Surpasses Its Predecessor The V55)
- 3 Year Warranty

CONS

- Price (Compared To Its Immediate Competition)
- Current Availability