Renice K3VLAR (Indilinx) ZIF SSD User Review

Update 12-07-2011: The Renice K3VLAR ZIF SSD has been discontinued so only old or s/h items would still be available. MyDigitalDiscount do however stock new batches of the Runcore ProIV ZIF SSDs that use the same Indilinx Barefoot + Marvell sata-to-pata bridge architecture as a Renice K3VLAR ZIF SSD and so the two drives would deliver very similar performance.

Note the subtle naming difference for two completely different Renice ZIF SSD products: K3VLAR (Indilinx+Marvell sata-to-pata) and the K3VLAR-E (EWS720 native PATA).

Introduction

The Renice K3VLAR ZIF SSD combines a Indilinx Barefoot controller with a Marvell sata-to-pata bridge chip to provide an affordable, high performance storage upgrade for ZIF PATA systems. It is available now for purchase from MyDigitalDiscount-US, MemoryC-US, Future Storage-UK or from Renice-CN. Below is my user review of this product.

PC compatibility of the Mac K3VLAR ZIF SSD	K3VLAR ZIF internals: Indilinx Barefoot controller plus Marvell sata-to-pata bridge	K3VLAR kit unboxing: usb enclosure, screwdriver, SSD & video	K3VLAR ZIF SSD installed in a HP 2510P

Renice K3VLAR 1.8” ZIF PATA SSD Specifications summary

Interface: 1.8” ZIF ATA7 Standard Retail Price: 32GB-US$120 64GB-US$200 128GB-US$380 Random 4kb reads | writes: 16MB/s | 6MB/s (measured 22MB/s | 9MB/s @UDMA5)

Sequential read/write: 85/70 MB/s (measured 88/75 Mb/s @UDMA5) Average access time: 0.1ms Power consumption idle/active: 0.5/2W

Installation

Installation was easy. Flicking the stiffener into an upright position as shown here allowed very easy insertion of the ZIF cable. I placed the ZIF HDD into the supplied USB enclosure and used Linux dd to clone the disk. Windows users could use Acronis TrueImage 15-day trial demo instead.

Once installed, the K3VLAR worked flawless together with the PATA slave optical drive work as shown or with my newmodeus sata-to-pata caddy with 2.5" sata HDD jumpered as slave, as shown. Many other ultraportables are factory delivered with the simpler single ZIF HDD or SSD setup, configured as the master PATA device.

Performance Comparison: Renice K3VLAR ZIF SSD versus Toshiba ZIF HDD

Drive​	Standby/Idle/Active Power (W)​	Benchmark​
		CrystalDisk| PerformanceTest| atto​
Toshiba MK8009GAH 80GB 1.8" ZIF HDD 4200rpm	0.12/0.3/1.0​
Renice K3VLAR 128GB 1.8" ZIF PATA SSD	-/0.5/2.0​
OCZ Vertex (Indilinx) 60GB sata SSD in 9.5mm sata-to-pata caddy from here	N/A​

Test platform: XP.SP3 HP 2510P U7600-1.2 2GB ICH8M UDMA5. WEI from Win7/64. 32GB Renice K3VLAR on Dell D430 U7700-1.33 here.

The Renice K3VLAR ZIF SSD is a very noticable improvement in performance over the HP supplied 1.8" ZIF HDD. Boot times decreased to a third, Firefox doesn't have momentary seek delays when scrolling windows or reading/writing cache, applications just popup instantly and there are no longer any HDD seek noises. Experiencing this sort of quiet speed makes it difficult to go back to using a slow, noisy ZIF HDD.

The OCZ Vertex benchmarks in a sata-to-pata optical bay caddy are included for comparison. We see it performs very similarly to the Renice K3VLAR. It's virtually the same setup but in 2.5" factor and too use a Marvell sata-to-pata chip ensuring a problem-free Windows 7 installation, something that plagued the Jmicron sata-to-pata bridge equipped Runcore ProIV.

Power Consumption and Running Temperature

The K3VLAR consumes more idle and active power consumption than the 1.8" ZIF HDD it replaced. When either drive was idle the system remained at 58degrees. Putting them under Everest's System Stability -> Stress Local disk saw the ZIF HDD maintain that temperature with it's chassis being cool to the touch. On the otherhand, the K3VLAR increased system temperature by 4 degrees with it's chassis medium-hot to the touch. Some of the increased internal temperature may be due to the I/O controller working harder because of the SSD's higher throughput.

The K3VLAR's higher power consumption saw my 46Whr battery's previous 5hr battery life decrease by 11 minutes.

Garbage Collection

The installed 1916 firmware delivered internal, transparent garbage collection and Win7 trim support. Meaning there is no manual processes like wiper or Tony Trim required to refresh the SSD to 'as new' write performance levels.

Pros

• has the fastest 4kb random and sequential I/O performance of all current MLC ZIF SSDs
• uses a Marvell sata-to-pata bridge for high performance, reliability and compatibility
• Win7 trim garbage collection maintains write performance
• internal automated garbage collection maintains write performance on XP installations

Cons

• higher active power consumption: means a decrease in battery life and a increase in internal system temp.
• <strike>new product with no product history</strike>

Conclusion

The Renice K3VLAR is the highest performance MLC ZIF SSD at one of the lowest prices making it one of the best ZIF SSD upgrades available at this time.

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Related links

• 1.8" ZIF SSDs available - competing products currently available.
• Renice 128GB SSD for rev A MBA reviewed. Double the storage and speed of your MBA!
• Renice K3VLAR ZIF SSD measured life
• Renice support forum - direct interface to Renice engineers.
• sata-to-pata bridge user review - Sunplus (newmodeus) and Marvell (ebay)