Silicon Power S57 240GB Solid State Drive Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Silicon Power S57 is brand new and as such still difficult to find. Amazon US was one of the few places that I could find it. On there, you can get the 120GB model for just $47.99 and the 240GB model that I tested today for $72.99.

Overview

I quite like Silicon Power’s new drive design, it is a lot fresher than the previous drive series. While it isn’t vital to the performance, it is a nice bonus for everyone with a see-through PC case. The S57 comes in two small capacity options which make it a great drive for cloud-based systems and other setups that don’t require a lot of local writes. You get the speedy read scores for quick boot-ups and fast application loading.

The TLC NAND coupled with SLC technology for cache buffer is a great way to boost the performance of a drive and keep the costs down. The Marvell controller used is another one, but it also has performance impacts when compared to the Phison controller used on S56.

Where the drive is great at reading, it isn’t so great at writing. However, if we think of the usage scenario mentioned above, we don’t need it. There is a second downside to the drive which is the random performance which again is something that isn’t as relevant when you use the drive for what it’s intended. Quick read scores and a low purchase price along with a long warranty and endurance rating are things that are arguments hard to ignore.

Pros

• Good read scores
• Perfect for cloud-books
• Bad Block Management
• Error Correction Code

Cons

• Write scores
• Random performance

“Quick read scores and a low purchase price along with a long warranty and endurance rating are things that are arguments hard to ignore.”

Thank you Silicon Power for providing us with this sample.