INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   You don't really need me to tell you all that data capacity needs have increased exponentially over the last 5 years since nowadays most people need far more TB's that they can possibly afford. Granted prices have dropped significantly so now you can even find 4TB drives in the market for much less than we could have possibly hoped for but still that's not enough. Now the strange thing with HDDs is that although the market has internal HDD models up to 8-10TBs in capacity external models have yet to reach that point so the highest capacity model one can currently find is 6TB. However the fact that not every manufacturer out there has released 6TB desktop HDD models along with an extremely good price/capacity ratio has pretty much allowed 4TB models to take over the market. Today we have one such drive on our test bench and more specifically the latest Stream S06 4TB USB 3.0 3.5" External Hard Drive by 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.

   The Stream S06 4TB USB 3.0 3.5" external hard drive model by Silicon Power may be part of their Stream line of products but it actually looks much more elegant than its 2.5" "trendy" counterparts. That being said the enclosure is made out of hard plastic, has vents all around to allow hot air to exit with ease and features a nice handle which can be used to move the drive around without having to worry about dropping it. Inside the S06 4TB Silicon Power has placed an SATA III Seagate Desktop HDD model that features a rotational speed of 5900RPM along with 64MB cache and Seagate’s AcuTrac servo technology which ensures superior reliability at all times. Now we haven't really focused a lot in 3.5" external drive reviews (desktop) and we will try to fix that in the near future but for now let's see how the Stream S06 4TB USB 3.0 3.5" external hard drive does against the drives we have used/tested in the past.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the front of the box a large product image is accompanied by the company logo, drive capacity, two OS logos and the 4 main product features.

 

 

Over at the left side of the box Silicon Power has placed some examples on how many video, photo, audio and data files you can fit in 2, 3 and 4TBs.

 

 

The two available connectors for power and USB 3.0 along with one of the vents are showcased on the right side.

 

 

Company contact information is placed at the rear of the box along with 3 product pictures and the features list printed in 14 languages.

 

 

Aside the S06 you will also get a USB 3.0 cable, AC power adapter (we got a UK plug version instead of the EU one) and the user manual.

 

 

THE STREAM S06 4TB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 36.3mm thick hard plastic enclosure of the Stream S06 measures 199mm in length, 117.7mm in width and weighs 876g.

 

 

At the lower end of the top we see the model name and the activity LED (blue).

 

 

The handle is also made by hard plastic but it's very sturdy.

 

 

Both the DC in and the USB 3.0 host port are placed at the base of the S06 (depends on how you've placed the drive of course) right next to one of the vents.

 

 

Of course as mentioned earlier the S06 is perforated on all sides.

 

 

You can see the product serial number and storage capacity on a small sticker at the rear of the drive.

 

 

The Desktop HDD used by Seagate is a 4 disk (1TB per disk) SATA III (NCQ supported) drive which can spin up to 5900RPM and features a total of 64MB cache.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   Complicating things is not really our way so once again our testing procedure will be almost identical to the one we use with 2.5" external drives and 2.5"/3.5" external docking stations. Naturally we will also be comparing the product at hand with previously reviewed 3.5" external drives so you know what you're getting (we no longer include 3.5" enclosures in our charts). Our standard selection of benchmark suites is used here as well including the famous HD Tach RW (Long Bench 32mb Zones), HD Tune Pro (read/write -when possible- speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read/Write - also when possible- speeds), AIDA64 (Linear Read/Random Read), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB/1000MB read/write speeds) and finally the quite outdated yet highly reliable ATTO 2.47 (Max Read/Max Write speeds). Every test was repeated for a total of 6 times and after that the average (not peak) numbers were recorded into our charts. As always every test was performed in a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 with every update installed up to December 5th 2014.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Although we've tested pretty much every 2.5" portable hard drive from the Silicon Power product line the Stream S06 4TB is their first 3.5" external hard disk drive to arrive here so we didn't really know what to expect in terms of performance. I mean we all know that Silicon Power makes very good 2.5" PHDs but that doesn't really guarantee the performance of their 3.5" models. Fortunately as you can see from our charts the S06 is the fastest 3.5" desktop HDD to pass from our test bench (although Atto and Crystal Disk Mark disagree the other 4 suites agree). Now i would like to see a higher capacity HDD in that line since Seagate, Toshiba and WD have already released 5TB desktop models (Seagate also has released 6TB ones) but i think Silicon Power will follow sooner rather than later. Also the design of the enclosure may not be something unique but it gets the job done and it's quite durable so not much more to ask from such a device.

   With an current price tag of 210Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) the Stream S06 4TB USB 3.0 3.5" External Hard Drive by Silicon Power lands right between entry and high end level 4TB desktop models by companies such as Seagate, HGST, WD, Toshiba and Samsung. Of course if you're not looking for excellent read & write performance levels i guess you'd be better off with one of the entry level models that cost roughly 30% less compared to the S06 4TB model. On the other hand however performance does play a very important role for some people and since we feel that Silicon Power offers one of the top 4TB models in the market currently the Stream S06 gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Excellent Performance
- Capacity (4TB)
- Handle Design
- SP Widget Software Suite

 

CONS

- No On/Off Power Button