INTRODUCTION

   Inside 2014 we've received plenty of emails by some of you asking us whether or not we know (or can tell) how much capacity storage media like 3.5/2.5" HDDs and SSDs can hold if maxed out. However as most of you are well aware technology never sits still in this segment of the market so although it's not really hard for us to calculate this with today’s standards that automatically means that tomorrow (or in a couple of months from now) those numbers will no longer be valid. For now let’s just say that we don't expect things to change much in the following years so 3.5" and 2.5" drives should be able to reach much higher capacities (yes SSDs included). No matter how one sees it however it's far more preferable for us to focus our efforts on things that are already out in the market and in our hands so since 2TB 2.5" portable hard drives seem to be quite popular right now today we decided to test yet another of the latest 2TB 2.5" PHDs released by Silicon Power that listens to the name Stream S03.

   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.

   Unlike the Armor line of USB 3.0 compatible PHDs (portable hard drives) again by Silicon Power which features rugged enclosures that protect your data far more efficiently against accidental drops, dust and even water (always compared to regular ones) the Stream series features smaller and more elegant enclosures ment for people who obviously place design and size above durability. That being said the hard plastic enclosure of the Stream S03 PHD features a black/white matte color which is both scratch and fingerprint resistant so although not rugged at least i prefer it over glossy/polished enclosures. Now since both the Stream S03 we're testing today and the Armor A60 we tested a couple of weeks ago both feature 2TB 2.5" drives inside chances are they are using the exact same model so i don't really expect significant differences in read/write performance. Still we need to be certain so let's check it out and see just how good the latest Stream S03 2TB PHD by Silicon Power really is.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

As always with products by Silicon Power the box allows you to take a look at the drive from the clear plastic opening at the front while right next to that you can see the main unit features and its capacity.

Some examples on how many media files you can store in a 500GB/1TB/2TB drive are present on the left side.

The features of the Stream S03 are listed at the rear of the box in 14 languages right above the specifications table, bundle contents, OS compatibility list and company contact information.

Along with the S03 and the attached USB 3.0 cable you will also get the manual.

THE STREAM S03 2TB

The Stream S03 weighs 145g and measures 122.5mm in length, 77.5mm in width and 13.3mm in height.

Just the company logo is printed at the top of the drive.

At the top right corner we see a small HDD activity LED which turns blue in USB 3.0 mode and red in USB 2.0 mode.

The capacity of the drive along with several certification logos and its country of manufacture are placed on the left side.

Silicon Power has placed the USB 3.0 port at the front of the drive as you can see from the above picture.

The serial number and a 2D barcode are the only things found at the rear (along with two screws).

For the Stream S03 2TB Silicon Power has used a 2TB Samsung/Seagate 9.5mm thick drive (model ST2000LM003) that features a rotational speed of 5400RPM and 32MB of cache (so nothing to do with the one used in the A60).

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 2.47 (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 September 20th 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

   The Stream S03 2TB USB 3.0 PHD may not feature a rugged enclosure like the Armor series and thus doesn't offer the best possible protection against drops, dust and water but largely thanks to the Samsung/Seagate SpinPoint 2.5" drive used it leaves the A60 far behind in terms of read/write performance. Obviously that's not a strange result since the SpinPoint drive by Samsung/Seagate has a higher rotation speed (5400 vs 5200) and larger cache memory (32MB vs 8MB) compared to the WD Green used in the A60 (although we had no way of knowing that Silicon Power had used a better drive with the S03 prior to opening the enclosure) but I don’t know why Silicon Power isn’t using this particular model with all their latest PHDs. Certainly as many of you know my "favorite" external PHD by Silicon Power is still the Armor A80 model since i consider it to be the tank of portable hard drives but i certainly wish it had the same performance as the Stream S03 (on a side note the 2TB just might so we'll do our best to check it out as well).

   2TB portable hard drives haven't been around for that long so their price is not what many would call "good" still as we speak the Stream S03 2TB USB 3.0 model retails for around USD130 inside the USA and for 125Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) so it's slightly cheaper compared to the A60 2TB model. Of course in the end most people will need to choose between performance and durability and although that's not going to be the easiest choice ever still i think that not everyone needs a rugged PHD model. Overall the Stream S03 may not be the perfect PHD due to its regular enclosure but it's very fast and that's why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Size
- Fingerprint & Scratch Resistant Enclosure
- Very Good Performance
- Low Temperatures
- SP Widget Software (Free Download from Silicon Power)
- 3 Years Warranty

CONS

- Regular Enclosure (Not Rugged)