Page 2 - A Closer Look, Test System
I think Silicon Power, to some extent, is sort of like ADATA -- a company that seems to always take pride in the design of their products, and never afraid of trying something new. While the Diamond D06 looks nothing like the ADATA DashDrive HV620 1TB I have given props to with regards to its appearance earlier this year, I am still a big fan of the design of the USB 3.0 external hard drive I am reviewing today. On the front, it features a unique diamond-check pattern, which reminds me of the seat designs in some luxury cars. However, this diamond-check pattern is not all show and no go. Its matte plastic surface, unlike glossy finishes, is quite resistant to fingerprint marks, dirt, and scratches. This is quite the polar opposite of the HV620. If you are paranoid about the appearance of your electronics, the Silicon Power Diamond D06 1TB should have no problems holding up to everyday use; unless, of course, you do something extreme to try to intentionally cause damage to it.
A blue activity LED resides underneath the Silicon Power logo at the bottom left corner of the drive. Because it is placed on the PCB inside, and shines through the black translucent plastic on the Diamond D06, it creates a pretty cool 3D effect when looking at it directly. The blue LED stays lit when powered, and blinks when there is disk activity. It will turn off when the drive goes into power saving mode automatically. Meanwhile, a short USB 3.0 cable is included. It connects to a port located at the bottom of the drive, which you can spot in the next photo.
Unlike the front of the Silicon Power Diamond D06 1TB, the edge is the glossy piano black finish plastic. If you have ever owned a black car before, you will know while anything of this finish is a sophisticated and attractive to look at, this only happens when it is new and clean. The moment you put it to use, fingerprint marks, scratches, and dust will show up, and show up prominently. Fortunately, the actual surface area is not that large, and it is quite unlikely it will make contact with your desk. I will admit it does look great though. On the other hand, the back is all flat black plastic; four tiny nubs are placed on all four corners to ensure the Diamond D06's face does not make contact with a flat surface. It will provide adequate clearance over small sand particles, but either way, you do not have much to worry about, since the matte black surface is not too scratch happy.
At the bottom, you will find a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed connector. It is labeled by a "SS" designator next to a USB logo, just to make sure Hitler would not be confused if it was still 1939. Measuring in at 116mm deep, 78mm wide, and 13mm thick, the Silicon Power Diamond D06 1TB is pretty compact and slim. I do not exactly know how much the 1TB model we are reviewing today weighs, but the 500GB version is 138g, and the 2TB version is 174g. These figures are quite standard. Because the Diamond D06 has a 2.5" hard drive inside, and uses the USB 3.0 interface, the port already provides all the power it needs; no external AC adapter is required.
The Silicon Power Diamond D06 1TB's enclosure is held together in the center. I did not disassemble the drive to take a look at its internal components, but a quick check using AIDA64 Engineer reveals a Samsung/Seagate Spinpoint M8 ST1000LM024 (HN-M101MBB) residing beneath its shiny surface. The Samsung/Seagate ST1000LM024 is a 1TB 5400RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s laptop hard drive with 8MB cache. With 500GB per platter, it is fairly high density, which should translate to pretty decent speed in the benchmarks -- which we will find out now.
In case you are wondering, the chassis shown in the background above is not the SilverStone Temjin TJ04-E as specified in the test system below. It is a good photo, however.
Our test configuration as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.60GHz
CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-U14S (Dual fan)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution
RAM: Kingston HyperX Beast KHX21C11T3K2/16X 4x8GB
Graphics: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2GB OC
Chassis: SilverStone Temjin TJ04-E (Noctua NF-S12A PWM)
Storage: SanDisk Extreme II 240GB, OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 240GB
Power: PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W
Sound: Auzentech X-Fi Bravura
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional x64
Compared Hardware:
- Silicon Power Diamond D06 1TB (USB 3.0)
- ADATA DashDrive Durable HD650 500GB (USB 3.0)
- ADATA DashDrive Elite UE700 64GB (USB 3.0)
- ADATA DashDrive HV620 1TB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G2 32GB (USB 2.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 32GB (USB 2.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G2 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy 3.0 32GB (USB 3.0)
- OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4GB (USB 2.0)
- Patriot Supersonic Magnum 64GB (USB 3.0)
- Patriot Supersonic Rage XT 32GB (USB 3.0)
- Patriot Stellar 64GB (USB 3.0)
- Silicon Power Armor A30 1TB (USB 3.0)
- Silicon Power Marvel M70 64GB (USB 3.0)
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Conclusion
