Zalman S-Series Overview
The S-Series solid state drive looks much like many other solid state drives that we have reviewed. It has the same 2.5-inch form factor and has a black aluminum casing. On the front there is a large sticker with the S-Series logo on it.
The back of the drive is all plain, not much to talk about here. Just like any other solid state drive you have the SATA power and data connections. Unlike many other drives you also have a mini USB port. This allows the drive to be used as a portable drive if you want to use it that way.
So what’s under the hood? To open the S-Series drive up you need to remove the 2 screws on each side of the drive. Interestingly enough there was no void if removed sticker anywhere on this drive, so opening it may not void your warranty, but I wouldn’t take your chances. Once you open the drive you can take a look at the PCB inside.
The S-Series drive from Zalman is powered by the JMicron JMF616 controller. There is a 128MB Elpida cache chip. There are 8 8GB Intel MLC flash chips.
If you remove 2 more screws you can actually take the entire PCB out. On the back of the PCB there are 8 more 8GB Intel MLC flash chips, giving you a total of 16, which is 128GB.
