INTRODUCTION

    It seems that every single day that goes by storage media are getting smaller and smaller (or higher in capacity at the same size) and well, if that doesn't negatively impact durability, I'm all for it.  You see to me performance comes second because what good will performance do if my data get corrupt or even wiped out entirely? So even though USB Gen 2x2 and Thunderbolt 3/4 storage media are the fastest ones around (speeds surpassing 2000MB/s) I won't say no to a USB 3.2 Gen 2 media (1000MB/s) which will not only be more compact but will also surpass many of them in endurance. The MS70 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Portable SSD by Silicon Power could be just that and today I'll be testing the 2TB capacity.

    Founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic data storage industry experts, Silicon Power is committed to delivering outstanding product and service quality. Headquartered and with our own state-of-the-art production site in Taipei, we have become a leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, portable hard drives, solid state drives, DRAM modules and industrial-grade products. As an international player with four branch offices around the globe, we continuously strive to offer the perfect data storage solution for all requirements of modern digitalized life. With a strong focus on combining innovative technology and award-winning design, we live up to our brand promise to reliably preserve and protect your most valuable data. Because memory is personal.

    Even though Silicon Power calls the MS70 a portable SSD in reality it's just as small as your average USB flash drive (will be testing it as a portable SSD however since that's what it's marketed as), features USB-A connectivity and is currently available in 250GB/500GB/1TB/2TB capacities. Inside the very compact aluminum and plastic enclosure of the MS70 Silicon Power placed the PS2251-17 (U17) NAND controller by Phison together with 3D TLC NAND flash by SK Hynix. The U17 is a dual-channel (16 Chip Enable/CE counts) Native USB 3.2 Gen 2 controller (single chip design) that features LDPC ECC protection and is fully compliant with Toggle 1.0/2.0/3.0/4.0 and  ONFI 2.0/3.0/4.1 NAND flash interfaces. Finally, Silicon Power covers the entire MS70 line of USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSDs with a 5-year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE MS70 2TB

Silicon Power ships the MS70 inside a blister package so you can see just how compact it is from the front.

At the rear of the package, we find the serial number and barcodes on a sticker right next to contact information for Silicon Power.

The MS70 portable SSD weights just 13.8g and measures 71.3mm in length, 21.3mm in width and 10.4mm in thickness.

The company logo and capacity are printed on the top of the aluminum enclosure.

The flip-cap design of the USB-A connector seems like a nice touch, at first anyways (lanyard hole is placed on the other side of the enclosure).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

    Solid state drives are basically the same as USB flash drives and so we’re using almost the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read & write performance numbers in our charts*. The benchmark suites used are HD Tach RW (Read Speeds / Long Bench 32mb Zone Testing), HD Tune Pro (Read / Write speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Titanium 2020 (Read / Write speeds), AIDA64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear / Random Read & Write speeds), Crystal Disk Mark 6.0.2 (2GB Read / Write speeds) and finally ATTO 4.00.0F2 (Max Read / Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts (0 = we were unable to complete that test).

    All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a CORSAIR MP510 960GB NVME SSD* with all updates installed up to the day we started tests.

* Since August 2019 for portable SSD tests I started using the X299 test rig.
** For USB 3.2 Gen2x2 portable SSDs I’ll be using the Z590 DARK based test rig.
*** As of September 2024 for USB 3.2 Gen2/2x2 Portable SSDs I’ll be moving to the AMD Ryzen 7900X & ASRock X670E Taichi test rig.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA TITANIUM / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

CONCLUSION

    Three things I liked about the Silicon Power MS70 Portable SSD, its very compact and light enclosure, very good overall performance and the available capacities (again, 4TB would be nice to have but 2TB for such a compact drive is not bad). Honestly, I do hope more manufacturers start releasing USB flash drive sized portable SSDs for those exact reasons. Unfortunately, not all is perfect and aside the flip-cap which takes quite a bit of space (and thus you may not be able to fit the MS70 in one of the rear USB motherboard ports) the MS70 produced way too much heat during my tests (well over 60 degrees Celsius). Now I don’t know if this can become an issue with the drive as time goes by (I imagine Silicon Power is aware of this so it should be ok - could also be isolated to my sample) but still it’s certainly worth mentioning.

    With a retail price currently set at USD139.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 159.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the MS70 2TB USB 3.2 Gen 2 Portable SSD by Silicon Power is priced just a tad higher than expected. Still, you are getting it all, very good overall performance, compact enclosure and 2TB of capacity and that’s why the Golden Award is in order.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Very Good Performance (Up To Over 1000MB/s)
- Compact USB Flash Drive Sized Enclosure
- Available Capacities (250GB/500GB/1TB/2TB)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Temperatures
- Fixed Flip Cap