Silicon Power Armor A30 2TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive - Featues and Inside Look

Features:

The following list of features and specifications have been pulled from the Silicon Power product page here. We've included a few of the highlights below, but if you want the latest information as well as software downloads that are digitally included with this drive, please be sure to visit the manufacturers site to get the full scoop.

• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 compliant and backwards compatible with USB 2.0
• Meet the U.S. military drop-test standards MIL-STD 810G Method 516.6 Procedure IV (transit drop test), including specific height free fall test (122cm).
• Cable carry design
• Advanced internal hard drive suspension system
• Easy Plug in and use - no external adapter required
• SP Widget free download software, providing 7 major back-up and security functions

A30 2TB Specifications:

• Dimensions: 87.5 x 134 x 18.6 mm
• Weight: 181g
• Standard Compliance：USB 3.0 / 2.0
• Data Transfer Rates：Max. 5 Gb/s (USB 3.0 Mode); Max. 480 Mb/s (USB 2.0 Mode)
• Power Supply：DC 5V (Power supplied through USB)
• Supported Operating Systems：Windows 8 / 7 / Vista / XP / 2000 , Linux 2.6.31 or later, Mac OS 10.5 or later (only USB 2.0 currently supported)
• Operating Temperature：5℃~ 55℃
• Storage Temperature：-40℃~ 70℃
• Three-year warranty

Drive Specifications:

• Interface: SATA 6GB/s
• Form factor: 2.5-inch (9.5mm)
• Spindle: 5,400 RPM
• Cache: 32MB
• Average Latency: 5.6ms

Closer Look:

As we planned on testing this drive to the maximum, we figured we'd better take a look inside before we jump into testing - in case it doesn't survive. I was a bit confused at first as the drive is clearly labeled as a Samsung "Spinpoint", but lower down on the drive it states "Momentus" (Seagate property). I then realized that a while back Seagate bought the mechanical drive division from Samsung and this is now their love-child.

The drive is wrapped and padded from all sides by the silicon bumper and there is even a bit of a pad on the top lid of the drive to prevent anything from bumping on that side and damaging the drive where the silicon bumper doesn’t cover. It’s a good idea and we’ll see if it holds up a little later on.

Silicon Power has used a small interface card to convert the SATA 3 6Gbps connector on the drive to a speedy USB 3.0 port that is capable of 5Gbps. Thankfully, mechanical drives don't run anywhere near this throughput so we shouldn't be seeing any bottleneck on this drive by the controller and interface.

On the next page we'll cover some of our testing ideas before we jump right into testing the performance of this drive.