Model: Silicon Power 2TB Armor A30 USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive
Manufacturer: Silicon Power
Provided By: Silicon Power
Silicon Power is a relatively new name in the storage industry. Founded in 2003 by a group of professionals specializing in international business, global marketing and technical engineering, the company has already established itself as one of Taiwan's top manufacturers. With an eye for attractive and versatile design, Silicon Power has built its brand around the concept that its customers deserve products that represent who they are in life and mirror their personality. The end result is a variety of uniquely designed storage products including USB flash drives, memory cards and solid-state drives (SSDs).
In addition to their flash based storage solutions, Silicon Power offers a growing number of portable hard drives. One of the latest additions to their product lineup is the Armor A30. Available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities, this shockproof USB 3.0 hard drive meets the U.S. military's drop-test standards. Along with a scratch-resistant, hexagonal patterned surface, the Armor A30 is equipped with an internal suspension system comprised of a shock-resistant silica gel. This gel also extends outside the drive's case, adding an extra layer of protection and serving as a place to store the cable when not in use. To top it all off, the Armor A30 works with Silicon Power's SP Widget backup and security software and is covered by a 3-year warranty.
| Silicon Power Armor A30 USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive | |||||||||||||||||||
General Specifications
Environmental
Dimensions and Weight
Other Features
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With specs and features like this, it's hard not to be impressed by the Armor A30. However, as you all know by now, we're not ones to take things at face value. In this review, we'll take a closer look at Silicon Power's portable hard drive and then put it through its paces to see how well it performs. Is the Armor A30 the best choice for the person on the go? Keep reading as we find out.
Packaging and Contents:
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The Armor A30 comes packaged in an eye catching white, orange and purple box. The front advertises key features like the drive's 2TB capacity, USB 3.0 interface and military-grade shockproof protection. There is also a large, plastic window which lets you look inside the box and see what the drive looks like. The back of the box provides a bit more information, including the Armor A30's specifications, package contents and key features. Inside the box you'll find the drive as well as a USB 3.0 cable and User Manual.
Physical Features:
Compared to Silicon Power's other portable hard drives, the Armor A30 is a bit on the large side. The drive measures 87.5 x 134 x 18.6 mm and tips the scales at a whopping 205g. The extra bulk is primarily due to the orange, shock-resistant silica gels on all four corners and along the sides. These gels protect the drive against drops and can be used to store the USB cable when not in use.
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The Armor A30's outer casing is constructed out of lightweight, black plastic. While the bottom and sides have a smooth, matte finish, the top has a special hexagonal pattern that Silicon Power claims is resistant to scratches. Underneath the outer casing, the Armor A30 also has a multicolor LED which lights up red or blue, depending on the USB connection type. This indicator also flashes to show when data is being transferred.
Along the back, you can see the Armor A30's SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface. This full size connector not only transfers data but provides power for the drive.
With the outer casing removed, you can see the Armor A30's internal suspension system, which is comprised of a shock-resistant silica gel. This one piece design wraps around the drive and extends outside the plastic case to add an extra layer of protection.
If you look closely, you can see that Silicon Power has used Samsung's Spinpoint M9T ST2000LM003 hard drive. This drive features a SATA 3.0Gb/s interface, 32MB cache and a 5400 RPM rotation speed.
Installation:
As with most USB drives, the Armor A30 was very easy to install. Those running Windows can simply plug the drive into any available USB 2.0 or 3.0 port on their computer. If the computer is already turned on, plug and play will automatically detect the drive.
If installed correctly, the Armor A30 should show up in the Device Manager. Under Windows 8.1, the drive is identified as a "PHD 3.0 Silicon-Power USB Device".
The Armor A30 comes formatted with FAT32, giving the 2TB model about 1.81TB of usable space. If you plan to store files larger than 4GB in size, you'll want to convert or reformat the drive with NTFS.
Software:
While the Armor A30 doesn't ship with it, the drive is compatible with Silicon Power's SP Widget software. Available as a free download, SP Widget for Windows 8 provides six major backup and security functions for use with Silicon Power's portable hard drives and USB flash drives.
SP Widget's browser interface is pretty straightforward. Along with a meter that shows how full a drive is, there are a handful of icons along the right hand side of the screen. From here you can launch functions that will backup your files, folders and browser favorites. You can also encrypt your files to prevent other people from accessing them.
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SP Widget also has the ability to classify your files by format and transfer them to a portable storage device. Along with that, you can login to your Dropbox account and upload them to the cloud.
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The last major feature of SP Widget is Norton Internet Security. The version available for download through the browser is only a 60 day trial. However, Silicon Power has cut a deal with Symantec, which lets users extend their subscription at a discounted rate.
The test system used in this review was an HP 8200 Elite. The computer came equipped with an Intel Core i5-2400 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory, Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3250312AS 250GB SATA 6 Gb/s hard drive, NVIDIA Quadro FX580 512MB PCIe graphics card, Intel 82567LM-3 gigabit network card and Patriot SuperSpeed USB PCIe host card. For the operating system, I installed a fresh copy of Windows 8.1 Enterprise.
To test the performance of the Silicon Power Armor A30, I ran a series of benchmarks using CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3, HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0, ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46 and HD Tune Pro 5.50. To get a feel for the "real world" performance, I also copied and pasted 500MB of random files and directories in Windows Explorer.
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3:
First, I ran a few quick tests using CrystalDiskMark. This benchmark tool measures the performance of a storage device by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its random read and write speeds using blocks 512K and 4K in size.
Silicon Power Armor A30 - USB 3.0
Silicon Power Armor A30 - USB 2.0
Silicon Power doesn't really say what kind of speeds the Armor A30 is capable of. Using CrystalDiskMark we can see that the drive is able to read at 121.8 MB/s and write at 122.6 MB/s when connected to a USB 3.0 port.
HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:
Next, I used HD Tach to test the Armor A30's read, write and burst speeds as well as its seek times and CPU usage.
When connected to the computer's USB 3.0 port, the Armor A30 had average read and write speeds of 94.6 MB/s and 76.1 MB/s, respectively, as well as a burst speed of 194.5 MB/s. The drive wasn't nearly as fast when using USB 2.0 though. Compared to what we saw with USB 3.0, the Armor A30's average read and write speeds dropped by more than 52 MB/s.
ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46:
I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the Armor A30's sequential read and write speeds. The test was run using blocks ranging in size from 0.5KB to 8192KB and the total length set to 256MB.
 Silicon Power Armor A30 - USB 3.0 |
 Silicon Power Armor A30 - USB 2.0 |
When tested with ATTO, the Armor A30's read speeds topped out at about 120 MB/s and its write speeds at 128 MB/s when connected using USB 3.0.
HD Tune Pro 5.50:
Next, I ran a series of tests using HD Tune Pro. This hard disk utility measures a drive's performance by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its access time, burst rate and CPU usage. For this review, I used it to benchmark the Armor A30's random read and write speeds, random access times and the number of operations per second.
 HD Tune Read Benchmark - USB 3.0 |
 HD Tune Read Benchmark - USB 2.0 |
 HD Tune Write Benchmark - USB 3.0 |
 HD Tune Write Benchmark - USB 2.0 |
Once again, the Armor A30 performed very well when connected to the computer's USB 3.0 port. The drive had average read and write speeds of 90.4 MB/s and 89.4 MB/s, respectively, and a burst rate of 141.4 MB/s when reading.
 HD Tune Random Access Read - USB 3.0 |
 HD Tune Random Access Read - USB 2.0 |
 HD Tune Random Access Write - USB 3.0 |
 HD Tune Random Access Write - USB 2.0 |
Using USB 3.0 didn't have nearly as big of an effect on the Armor A30's random read and write performance. Nevertheless, the IOPS and average speeds were, in most cases, higher than what we saw when the drive was connected to a USB 2.0 port.
"Real World" Benchmark:
To test the Armor A30's "real world" performance, I copied and pasted 500 MB worth of randomly generated files and directories. All of the files are between 10 bytes and 32MB in size and no more than four directories deep.
| Silicon Power Armor A30 | ||
| USB 3.0 | USB 2.0 | |
| Write: | 14 seconds | 41 seconds |
| Read: | 13 seconds | 23 seconds |
The Armor performed relatively well here, taking as little as 14 seconds to write our test data and 13 seconds to read it back.
Final Thoughts:
The Armor A30 is a great choice for travelers, sports enthusiasts or anyone else needing a rugged, yet affordable, portable hard drive. Silicon Power's new drive is good looking, well constructed and is equipped with an advanced internal hard drive suspension system designed to meet the U.S. military drop-test standards. This simple, yet effective system utilizes a shock-resistant silica gel which extends outside the drive's case to protect the corners and serve as a place to store the cable when not in use. For a portable drive, the Armor A30 also packs some impressive performance. Thanks to its USB 3.0 interface, it was able to read and write at speeds in excess of 120 MB/s. The Armor A30 is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0, but, as you saw in our tests, it's much slower when operating in this mode.
Aside from it not being dust or water-proof, the only real issue I have with the Armor A30 is that it's not entirely scratch resistant. Only the top of the drive is protected by the scratch resistant, hexagonal patterned surface. The rest of the case is made out of plastic and will eventually become scratched from everyday use.
The 500GB, 1TB and 2TB versions of the Armor A30 are available now and can be purchased from Amazon.com for as little as $53.
Highs:
- Available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities
- Fast transfer rates with USB 3.0
- Backwards compatible with USB 2.0
- Good looking and well constructed design
- Advanced internal hard drive suspension system
- Meets the U.S. military drop-test standards
- Top of the drive has scratch-resistant, hexagonal patterned surface
- USB powered
- Works with SP Widget software
- Cable carry design
- Reasonably priced
- 3 Year Warranty
Lows:
- Design is not water or dust proof
- Entire case is not scratch resistant