Silicon Power S57 240GB Solid State Drive Review

Introduction

I recently had a closer look at Silicon Power’s S56 SSD, and today it is time to take a look at its brother, the S57. The two drives are similar in many aspects, but not all. Just as the S56, the Silicon Power S57 is a drive designed for the entry market. The area of usage is clear, to replace that old mechanical drive with something that consumes less power, makes less noise, and is less prone to shock damage.

The S57 comes in two different capacity options, 120GB and 240GB. That means that this drive is designed for systems that don’t write a lot of local data. Chromebooks and other similar cloud-based solutions could be the perfect target audience for this drive. A small capacity means a low price and the S57’s strength is reading.

The Silicon Power S57 is built with TLC NAND that is aided by a portion of SLC cache. The ”SLC Cache technology”, as it is called, adopts the new caching architecture that combines both SLC and TLC flash blocks. The implementation of such technology enables all data to be written in the SLC portion first and then sequentially copied to TLC, therefore leading to higher peak writing performance.

Where the NAND setup is similar to the S56, the controller isn’t. The S57 SSD that we’re looking at today employs a Marvell controller. A different controller with different strengths, but similar features. We find basics such as Trim, SMART, and Garbage Collection along with Error Correction Code and Bad Block Management.

Silicon Power backs the S57 by a three-year warranty, and the drive comes with a mean time before failure (MTBF) rating of 1.5 million hours. Further value can be added through the SP Toolbox. It provides multiple ways for users to obtain disk information, and to change settings easily.

Feature Highlights

• TLC NAND flash and the “SLC Cache Technology.”
• Marvell controller for better endurance and stability
• 15 times faster than a standard 5400 RPM HDD
• 7mm slim design suitable for Ultrabooks and Ultra-slim notebooks
• Support TRIM command and Garbage Collection technology
• NCQ and RAID ready
• Implemented with ECC technology to guarantee reliable data transmission
• Built-in with S.M.A.R.T. monitoring system
• Low power consumption, shock and vibration-proof, no noise and low latency
• Free-download SP ToolBox software provides multiple ways for users to obtain disk information such as view S.M.A.R.T. status, wear out count, block information and diagnostic scan.

Package and Content

The SP57 comes in a simple package, but also one that is more than sufficient. The included drive is shown off through the plastic part while the cardboard presents you with all the vital information.

The rear side has a few more detail on the features and the performance.