REVIEWS / EXTERNAL DRIVES / SILICON POWER COMPUTER & COMMUNICATIONS INC.

Silicon Power Stream S10 750GB - Big and Fast

14 Jun, 2011, 10:16 am IST | by Ashish Koshy | External drives

External drives

It has everything from faster speeds to a good storage capacity

It has everything from faster speeds to a good storage capacity
Sleek and light weight

PRICE IN INDIA

4,750

TECH2 RATING

8.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

8.5

How we test

CONTACT

Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc.

 india_service@silicon-power.com

 +91 9971 574923

 http://www.silicon-power.com

As the USB 3.0 standard has started becoming the norm, prices of USB 3.0 drives keep dropping and well, capacities keep increasing. Silicon Power is offering a new USB 3.0 drive called the Stream S10. It’s available in 320 GB, 500 GB, 640 GB and 750 GB versions, which is the one we’re reviewing today.

Features and Design
The Silicon Power Stream S10 750GB is a USB 3.0 spec drive. The S10 looks pretty sleek with a smooth glossy finished top and a matte finished lower half. This is definitely one of the more colorful looking drives around. The front of the drive has a small LED indicator, which isn’t too bright, but serves its purpose well.

Sleek and light weight

Sleek and light weight

 


The connector for the drive is placed on the side of the drive instead of the back, like it is the case with most other external portable drives. The cable bundled with the drive is thick and sturdy. Silicon Power has bundled a carry case for the drive but there is no provision for the cable to be carried along with the pouch.

The drive doesn’t use any rubberised material, so it’s not the sturdiest feeling drive around. The use of plastic also makes the drive very light in weight. The Stream S10 uses a Toshiba hard drive. The USB connector on the drive is a proprietary one and not a mini-USB or a microUSB one.

Proprietary port

Proprietary port

 


Performance
Being a USB 3.0 drive, we expected the performance to be impressive. We started off with our usual synthetic benchmarks and we saw drive read speeds of 78.13 MB/s. Most drives based on the USB 2.0 specification peak out at around 35 MB/s, so this is definitely a big step up. Write speeds were also identical - a write speed of 78.87 MB/s.

Real world tests were equally impressive. We used 4 GB data sets to test the drive’s read and write speeds. The drive recorded write speeds of 93.09 MB/s and the same read speeds, as well. This was the speed for 4GB sequential data. We used a second set of data which consisted of multiple files totalling up to 4 GB. Write speeds for this data set took 1 min 23 seconds, which is an average speed of 49.35 MB/s, and is still pretty respectable.

Internal file copy test from one partition to another within the drive as expected were slow. Copy speeds for a single 4 GB file was 24.8 MB/s and 27.30 MB/s for the multiple data set.

It has everything from faster speeds to a good storage capacity

It has everything from faster speeds to a good storage capacity

 


Verdict
The Silicon Power S10 750GB sells for Rs. 4,750 which is a great price for a USB 3.0 drive of this capacity. The real world performance is excellent for a portable drive and there’s a massive difference in performance between a standard USB 2.0 drive and the Stream S10. In conclusion, the Stream S10 has a good capacity, performs really well and will not burn a hole in your pocket!


Tags:

Silicon Power Stream S10 , Silicon Power , Stream , S10 , Stream S10 , 750 GB , USB 3.0 , USB , USB 2.0 , external hard drive , hard disk drives , HDD

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How We Test

The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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