INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   VDSL (Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line) finally landed where i live and although it will take quite some time before we can all enjoy the amazing speeds it offers (although we still don't know what the end result will be) such speeds are bound to change things especially in everything related to storage media. We are well aware that VDSL is nothing new in several parts of the world but the majority of people hardly have DSL lines currently so you can imagine how rapidly things will change when everyone on the face of the planet jumps from regular DSL 24Mbit/s speeds to the 50-100Mbit/s offered by VDSL and VDSL2. This is also one of the reasons as to why we've focused in testing portable hard disk drives lately (we need to be ready for the change) and today we have yet another one, the Armor A80 1TB 2.5" USB 3.0 PHD from Silicon Power.

 

   Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc., founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic specialists in International Business, Global Marketing, and Technical Engineering of flash data storage industry. Well dedicated in brand image and product quality, Silicon Power 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 to reach the worldwide market. Silicon Power's overall performance has gradually drawn great attention worldwide. In 2006, we received Taiwan Rising Star Award for our foreign business achievement. In 2008, we won 17th National Outstanding Small & Medium Enterprise Award for our outstanding progress. Moreover, with superior quality and innovative design, our products stood out in several competitions and awarded Taiwan Excellence and COMPUTEX Design & Innovation Award in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Winning trust of global consumers, Silicon Power holds a record of successive double-digit revenue growth for last seven years. According to the Common Wealth Magazine's 2010 Survey of Taiwan Top 1000 Manufacturers, our 2009 revenue growth rate was ranked No.11 among Taiwan's top 1000 manufacturers, and even ranked No.1 in semiconductor industry. Positioned as Passionate, Creative and Hungry for Success, Silicon Power introduces products for users who are seeking individualized, unique and personal digital storage devices. With the mission of creating unprecedented experience for users, Silicon Power will endeavor to deliver a full range of high quality products that have innovative designs, distinctly unique features and comprehensive after sales services to create and fulfill your personal memory.

 

   Silicon Power has launched quite a few intriguing 2.5" portable hard drive models (PHD as they call them) during the past 2 years and the Armor series is without doubt their most special one not only due to the design of the enclosures but also because of their quite remarkable build quality (something revealed by the line name). To be more precise the Armor line was named after the rugged enclosures used by Silicon Power which offer protection against water (IEC 529 IPX7 standard/1m under water for 30min), pressure (anti-pressure), dust (anti-dust) and are shockproof (Military Standard MIL-STD-810F 516.5 procedure IV). Quite impressive right? The only downside is that such enclosures are always slightly larger than most regular ones but the tradeoff is well worth it. Performance however also plays a huge role when choosing the right portable hard drive to cover your needs so let's see just how good the Armor A80 1TB 2.5" PHD really is.

 

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like other PHDs by Silicon Power the Armor A80 gets shipped inside a small cardboard package with a small cut out section at the front from where you can take a look at the actual product.

 

 

A table showcasing the capacity of the entire Armor A80 line right above the features and system requirements of the unit are placed at the rear.

 

 

Aside the Armor A80 PHD you are also getting the user's manual and a USB 3.0 cable.

 

 

 

THE ARMOR A80 1TB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Largely due to the rugged enclosure the A80 PHD measures 139mm in length, 94mm in width and 18.1mm in height while weighing 270g.

 

 

As you can see although the A80 is many times smaller than a regular 3.5" external HDD it's also just a tad larger than normal 2.5" drives.

 

 

The company logo is placed at the lower end of the top.

 

 

Inside an opening at the right side of the drive we see a second short USB 3.0 cable which can be used to connect the drive with laptops, tablets and notebooks (for desktop systems the long one should be easier to use).

 

 

A full USB 3.0 port (strange but quite more sturdy than the usual one) is placed on the opposite side.

 

 

Several certification logos along with the drive capacity and country of manufacture are placed at the rear.

 

 

The ST1000L024M hard disk drive model (Seagate/Samsung) used in the Armor A80 1TB PHD is a 9.5mm thick 2.5" SATA II drive with a rotational speed of 5400RPM and 8MB cache. Also as you can see Silicon Power has covered it with 3 rubber spacers making it almost impervious to shocks.

 

 

 

SP WIDGET

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silicon Power also provides 3 programs under their support page for their USB products, the SP Widget, a trial version of Norton Internet Security and USB recovery software.

 

 

With the SP Widget you can backup pretty much everything from your computer onto the USB drive and afterwards you can even use the Data encryption selection to encrypt those files.

 

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   Keeping things simple so even people new in the field of computers can understand will always be our way so once again our testing procedure is almost exactly the same as the one we use with 2.5/3.5" external docking stations. This time however we will be comparing the product at hand with a wide range of 2.5" portable drives and standalone 2.5" enclosures all of which were benched using a HGST 7K750 SATA II hard disk drive. 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 2.46 (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 the 5^th of December 2012.

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA 64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Up until this day we all knew that Silicon Power makes quality products with very good performance levels but we didn't really expect something like the Armor A80 1TB 2.5" portable hard drive because if you really think about it there aren't that many similar drives in the market currently, not even from the leading manufacturers. However that doesn't change things and so the Armor A80 is a small tank since i run it over with the front wheel of my car (slowly and i also covered with a piece of cloth so it wouldn't get all scratched) and even threw it in a deep clear plastic tube filled with water (slightly less than 1m in depth however) but even after all that it still works. We also thought about using fire on the drive but in the end since it's not certified for something like that we decided against it (wouldn't want to ruin the drive). Also quite interesting is that although most rugged drives I’ve tested in the past performed slightly worse than non-rugged ones the Armor A80 1TB did exceptionally well and in some tests even managed to surpass the competition so thumbs up for that as well.

 

   Just with most things in life you pretty much get what you pay for and an 1TB 2.5" USB 3.0 portable hard drive with a military-grade enclosure is not something that could ever come cheap. Luckily for everyone Silicon Power follows an aggressive price policy and so currently you can have if for just USD109.99 inside the USA (Newegg) and at around 110Euros inside the EU. Certainly if you have zero use for a rugged 2.5" portable hard drive then you can find quite a few 1TB ones in the market that cost less money and with good performance (USB 3.0) but if you really want the best possible protection for your data (we do) a rugged enclosure is always the best investment. Rugged with great performance, low temperatures and not really expensive, these are the reasons as to why the Armor A80 1TB USB 3.0 PHD by Silicon Power is on the receiving end of our Platinum Award. 

 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Military Grade Enclosure (Waterproof/Shockproof/Anti-Dust/Anti-Pressure)
- Very Good Performance
- Temperatures
- 2 USB 3.0 Cables
- SP Widget (Free Download From Silicon Power)

 

 

CONS

- Price (For Some)