We have all heard of the Hummer and what it originally was utilized for through tough chaotic terrain, it’s developed large and rugged with outstanding performance. The Vehicle can withstand most water and rock climb like no others out there in the globe. Most of us would love to have one of these monsters sitting in the driveway but where can you park this humongous vehicle? Well most of us couldn’t even keep up with it now and days, not to mention it’s a gas guzzler. The day you may buy this baby is the day you probably make about a quarter million bucks!

Today, we have a product that we can compare ruggedness with the hummer in its unique tests. It is portable, small, and a beast to most people that are familiar with the HDD storage market. In this competitive market, the product does stand out from the rest because of its proven features. This little beast can endure water and physical abuse, where many just can’t. UMLan would to thank Silicon Power for providing their all enduring show off portable hard drive which consists of a traditional 2.5” 9.5mm 1TB hard drive inside, they call this little beast the Silicon-Power Armor A80.

Most of us say “Eh…” Some of us say “Wow!” well let me break down some cool little features for some of you. As many and most enclosures, they are all the same, “True!” but what can’t the rest do?! Most of us purchase HDD enclosures by design, features, and how cheap the enclosures are compared to in pricing. They all do the same but some may show differentials in Transfer Speeds and Design, the Armor A80 states one question and directly states it is a small battle tank, UMLan would like to Thank Silicon-Power for providing us the opportunity to test and try out the product, let’s check out the details and performance tests.

Setup:

• Cooler Master CM Storm Trooper
• Intel i5 2500K Sandy Bridge Quad-Core Processor Unlocked
• Cooler Master Gemin II S524 CPU Cooler
• MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA1155 SATA 6GB/s USB 3.0
• Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W Continuous
• Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 3.5” 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s
• OCZ Vertex 3 Series MI 120GB
• Icy Dock 2.5” SSD Xpander Hybrid Adapter

About the Product

Following information is taken from the Silicon Power website.

Product Specs:

• Dimensions: 139 x 94 x 18.1 mm
• Weight: 270g
• 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)
• Operating Temperature：5℃~ 55℃
• Storage Temperature：-40℃~ 70℃
• Supported Operating Systems：Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Linux 2.6.31 or later, MacOS 10.4 or later (only USB 2.0 currently supported) -- Three-year warranty
• Color: Blue

Key Features:

• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 compliant and bakwards compatible with USB2.0
• High transferring rate up to 5Gb/s
• Advanced internal hard drive suspension system
  Meet the water resistant standard "IEC 529 IPX7"
• Meet the U.S. military drop-test standards MIL-STD-810F 516.5 procedure IV (transit drop test) 
  Anti-pressure and anti-dust function
• Cable carry design
• Easy Plug and Play operation - no drives required
• USB powered - no external adapter necessary
• SP Widget free download software features seven main functions to maximize your SP Portable Hard Drive
• Package Contents: Armor A80, USB Cable, Quick Start Guide & Utility Disc
• Patent Information: patent numberM391812

Now that we got basic information out of the way, lets take a closer look at Silicon Power Armor A80.

Closer look

Front of the Package		Back of the Package

Bottom of the Package		Top of the Package

Right of the Package		Left of the Package

Overlook of the Package		Overlook of the Package

The Silicon-Power Armor A80 has a nice and clean window package design for retail store locations which stands out from the rest. The packaging consists of Silicon-Power’s signature colors of a rainbow blended purple to orangey yellow with a clean logo design as well. The front of the package has a bunch of tagged certifications and awards as well as the back which includes details and specifications during time of purchase at local retail store locations. The sides, top, and bottom are just a clean print of Manufacturing Company Logo and simple product details.

Opening the package		What's in the Package?

User Instruction Manual		1M USB 3.0 Cable

3.5 inch USB 3.0 Cable		Closer look at the 3.5 inch USB 3.0 Cable

Front of the Armor A80		Back of the Armor A80

Left of the Armor A80		Right of the Armor A80

Overall look of the Armor A80		Overall look with USB 3.0 Cable Installed

Opening up the Silicon-Power Armor A80 package, we find a user instruction manual along with an additional bonus 1 Meter USB 3.0 Cable and the A80 portable hard drive. A provided view from all angles, it’s very simple and has a clean ergonimic block design including a small side slot for the portable USB 3.0 cable that is attached, simply because most of us either loose it or forget to bring the cable during travelling. The Armor A80 has a perfect even flush all around and is slightly heavier than normal because of materialized thickness weighing a bit heavier than normal which is double the thickness from all others.

Testing

ATTO		CrystalDiskMark

HDTUNE		HDTUNE

HDTACH

The benching software used are ATTO, CrystalDiskMark, HD TACH, and HD Tune Pro which has been included. ATTO benched @ 2GB file size, CrystalDiskMark @ 4GB file size, HDTACH @ 1GB file size, and HDTUNE PRO @ 40GB file size. Overall benchmarks resulted in the same average score and stability for most USB 3.0 transfer speeds, the sequential read and write levels @ 116/112 MB/s, Random 512KB read and write levels @ 36/39 MB/s, Random 4KB read and write @ 0.4/0.7 MB/s, and Random 4K + Queue Dept of 32 read and write for NCQ and AHCI levels @ 0.49/0.70 MB/s.  Adding this storage device to collection, I see that the Silicon Power Armor A80 can perform stably amongst most other portable hard drives in the market with a strong punch by adding additional rugged support for security during accidental physical and abusive damages even from liquid.

Currently I am working on an introduction test video to reveal the Silicon Power Armor A80 Portable Hard Drive, the video will introduce to the product in addition to multiple endurance tests, physically abused!! Stay tuned!!!

Conclusion

The Silicon Power Armor A80 1TB portable hard drive is just like all others in the market with additional rugged support regardless of being kicked around, drowned, and fully neglected. Through these overall abusive tests, the Armor A80 can certainly endure the wrath of my physical tests as you will see in the coming video. The overall performance resulted in transfer speeds relatively similiar and respected just like most others. Silicon Power uses the Asmedia AS1051 processor, which we can usually tell by now a days, those that are unfamiliar with Asmedia, they are one of the first few USB 3.0 chipset certified manufacturers in this technology. The overall design of this unit is fairly sleek, ergonomic, and holds a solid quality feel to the Armor A80. Today we thank Silicon Power again for sending over proof of what this portable hard drive can do as well as securing our data for the rest of our lives. Now, it all just depends on when the HDD will EOL, not the Armor A80's tough and rugged protective casing. UMLan would like to provide the Silicon Power Armor A80 portable hard drive a score of 9/10 for the following pro's and con's listed below.

Some pros we found:

Easy to use
Rugged Portable Hard Drive
Sleek and Ergonomic Design
2 x USB 3.0 Cable
Easy to dismantle
USB 3.0 transfer speeds

Some cons we found:

Price