INTRODUCTION

   With storage media devices exceeding the 2TB mark as we speak (portable hard drives to be more specific) it's only natural and quite expected to be honest for the majority of people to pick the ideal one for them solely based on the price/capacity ratio. However if you happen to be a professional or even an enthusiast things get far more complicated since for them performance and durability seriously outweigh price and capacity. Unfortunately although most if not all portable hard drive manufacturers do focus quite a bit in the performance end not many focus in durability so there really aren't many exceptions in the market as we speak. Silicon Power is perhaps the only portable hard drive manufacturer that designs and manufacturers new rugged models all the time aimed towards the more demanding users and today we're taking a closer look at their latest Armor A65 1TB USB 3.0 PHD.

   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.

   Whenever we received a portable hard drive by Silicon Power that carries the name Armor we know that it will be yet another rugged model with an highly durable housing. Well the A65 features an IEC529 IP67 certified housing (dustproof and waterproof up to 1m) which can keep your data safe since it can withstand drops from up to 122cm and on 26 contact points ((conforms to the MIL-STD-810G 516.6 procedure IV) thanks to the exterior hard drive protective shell (an anti-slip rubber layer is also present) and interior shock-absorbing suspension system. The A65 also features a storage area for the USB 3.0 cable, several free utilities including one which can be used to password secure your sensitive data and is also available for MAC (white/grey model).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Once again the package used allows the potential buyer to take a look at the drive from the clear plastic opening at the front.

All of the product features are printed at the rear in 14 languages right above the specifications table, the bundle contents and the OS compatibility list.

Along with the A65 PHD Silicon Power packs just a USB 3.0 cable and the user manual.

THE ARMOR A65 1TB

The rubber/plastic enclosure of the Armor A65 measures 143.4mm in length, 86.7mm in width and 20.7mm in height and weighs 260g.

Several certification and warning logos are present at the rear of the drive along with the drive capacity and two long openings on the rubber cover.

A normal sized USB 3.0 port is placed at the base of the A65 right behind a waterproof/dustproof cap and next to the activity LED (opposite corner but can't be seen if the PHD is not plugged in).

This is how you can store the cable using the two long openings and although it's not really nice looking it actually works.

The Momentus/Spinpoint (ST1000LM024/HN-M101MBB) 2.5" HDD model by Seagate/Samsung spins at 5400RPM, has a total of 8MB Cache and is SATA III compatible.

Silicon Power has a few utilities you may want to try with the A65 (most noticeably their HDD lock utility) all of which are free to download from their online page.

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 July 2nd 2015.

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

   Having reviewed pretty much every single Armor PHD model released by Silicon Power i have to admit that i did expect more from the A65 purely in terms of performance. Now i don't know why Silicon Power decided to use an HDD model (Spinpoint/Momentus M8) with just 8MBs of cache (this choice did impact performance) but i was expecting the same exact one as the one used in the Armor A30 (Spinpoint/Momentus M9T) since this model proved to be very fast (the 32MB of cache certainly helped). Of course we did like the design of the A65 more than the one of the A30 and ontop of that the enclosure feels much better in terms of durability so it's quite obvious that Silicon Power focused a bit more in this area.

   As expected of us later on we will also bring you the review of the 2TB variant but for now the 1TB model retails for just USD64.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 84Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). This price tag may not be on par with what other manufacturers ask for their 1TB 2.5" external models but due to its rugged enclosure the A65 is quite different since it can effectively protect your sensitive data in more ways (water, dust and accidental drops) so do take that into consideration. Performance may not be the highest in our charts and that certainly deducts some points from our final evaluation but its rugged exterior and the good overall performance are enough for us to give the A65 1TB by Silicon Power our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Military Grade Rugged Enclosure (Waterproof/Dustproof/Drop-proof)
- Good Performance
- MAC Version Available
- Low Temperatures
- SP Widget & HDD Lock Utility (Free Download From Silicon Power)

CONS

- Cable Storage Area (For Some)