New SSD installed for my Macbook Air rev.A

[hunter127]

First of all, hi to all i'm new to this forum.
I want to explain my ssd experience.
Last week i buy a G-Monster Photofast SSD 64GB ZIF 40pin for my macbook air rev.A and it works like a charm!!
Macbook air now is a lot faster in all application and i get more battery life (about 20 minutes). I'm really happy with it and i haven't any kind of problem to install it (this ssd has the same dimension and connector of the original samsung HDD 80GB installed in macbook air rev. A).
This is the only ssd 100% compatible with macbook air rev.A that i found.
It's write also in their site that is compatible.
Excuse me if my english is not perfect but i'm italian.

[fteoath64]

Congrats!.
Please post Xbench 1.3 benchmarks. Thanks.:D

[demonx]

Nice, I replaced my 80gb drive but with another 80gb. Might look into SSD if they come out with some bigger sizes that work:(

[h1d]

You might want to consider getting rev B SSD then.

[VirtualRain]

First of all, hi to all i'm new to this forum.
I want to explain my ssd experience.
Last week i buy a G-Monster Photofast SSD 64GB ZIF 40pin for my macbook air rev.A and it works like a charm!!
Macbook air now is a lot faster in all application and i get more battery life (about 20 minutes). I'm really happy with it and i haven't any kind of problem to install it (this ssd has the same dimension and connector of the original samsung HDD 80GB installed in macbook air rev. A).
This is the only ssd 100% compatible with macbook air rev.A that i found.
It's write also in their site that is compatible.
Excuse me if my english is not perfect but i'm italian.

Thanks!!! They have so many products... can you link to the one you purchased? Also, where did you buy it? How much? How difficult was the swap?

[hunter127]

I purchased on ebay for € 160 and it's not too diffucult to mount thanks to youtube video on how to replace it (about 20 minutes).
The model is Photofast g-monster 64gb 40pin zif interface. There is also a 128gb version fully compatible but not now available (i think august lanch and i don't know the price).
Xbench results are:

Results 32.64
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J61)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookAir1,1
Drive Type PHOTOFAST18ZIF_64GB PHOTOFAST18ZIF_64GB
Disk Test 32.64
Sequential 37.07
Uncached Write 31.45 19.31 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 36.78 20.81 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 24.41 7.14 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 125.99 63.32 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 29.15
Uncached Write 9.26 0.98 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 40.35 12.92 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 780.13 5.53 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 314.37 58.33 MB/sec [256K blocks]

[MacFanNoob]

Interesting, a Rev A with one of these SSD's and Coolbook, is certainly a great option??? Especially if Snow Leopard is as snappy as some claim....

[mac jones]

nice results.

There's quite a few brands now for the form factor (1.8", ZIF, 5mm) but this is a vote of confidence.

Note: this form factor is rather tricky because of the ZIF. I've found that these are rather user unfriendly with sketchy standards (and it's perhaps hit and miss).

[Shrek-Moscow]

I'm really interested in upgrading my 80 GB HD in a new 128GB SSD..
I found that the 128GB KingSpec 1.8" ZIF 44-pin SSD has a reasonable price and I'm really tempted to buy one.

However I found many people on various forums that are reporting a lot of problems in upgrading a rev A MBA's HD. Most of them say that the MBA will not boot from anything other than the original disks (80 or 64 GB).

Has anyone here investigated about this problem? Is it true?

[Shrek-Moscow]

by the way, I just wrote to KingSpec factory asking informations about compatibility between their 128GB and rev A MBA.

Hope they'll reply honestly..

[lixuelai]

There is a thread on the Apple forums about the Kingspec where it did not work. However sellers on Ebay CLAIM that it works and showed pictures of it working. So I dont know, was looking into it as well.

[alexcf]

Hi,

I'm quite interested to make this upgrade myself... Can I ask where you found the instructions to change the disk out?

Thanks,

Alex.

[agerdsen]

Hi,
i have installed the 128gig from Photofast into my 1st gen. MBA.
Fits perfectly and replacing the old hd by the ssd one was not really difficult.
There is a site called www.ifixit.com, it has lots of repair manuals for apple devices. Its always detailed step-by-step instructions with lots of photos which makes it really easy to follow.
Installing the OS afterwards was also pretty easy. Just inserted the recovery DVD, formatted the new hd with the disk utility and followed the process.
The new harddisk works great, boot and shutdown is much faster and the additional gigs are more than welcome.
There is only one big problem. I also have winXP running on Parallels (i tried it also on VMwareFusion, same problem) on my notebook and windows hangs every 30 to 60 seconds for about 20seconds. I can still move the mouse, but eg. cannot click anything or move a window or type.
I am not sure but what else can it be than the new SSD.
Or are there parameters in OS X that can be changed to optimize?
I run the parallels windows with the same parameters as it was on the old harddisk and there it worked fine.
Any tips?

thx
Andy

here my xbench result:

Results 48.92
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J61)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookAir1,1
Drive Type PHOTOFAST18ZIFV2_128GB PHOTOFAST18ZIFV2_128GB
CPU Test 99.34
GCD Loop 186.96 9.85 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 89.27 2.12 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 73.56 2.43 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 98.82 17.21 Mops/sec
Thread Test 155.35
Computation 139.20 2.82 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 175.74 7.56 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 140.26
System 142.31
Allocate 191.74 704.12 Kalloc/sec
Fill 117.57 5716.48 MB/sec
Copy 135.86 2806.23 MB/sec
Stream 138.27
Copy 128.20 2647.87 MB/sec
Scale 126.97 2623.18 MB/sec
Add 151.01 3216.75 MB/sec
Triad 150.82 3226.49 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 112.89
Line 113.16 7.53 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 131.33 39.21 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 105.53 8.60 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 105.87 2.67 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 112.14 7.01 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 13.38
Spinning Squares 13.38 16.98 frames/sec
User Interface Test 114.30
Elements 114.30 524.59 refresh/sec
Disk Test 36.86
Sequential 51.94
Uncached Write 51.93 31.89 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 45.69 25.85 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 38.15 11.16 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 103.63 52.08 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 28.57
Uncached Write 8.67 0.92 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 49.08 15.71 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 982.70 6.96 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 308.33 57.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]

[h1d]

If you have the opportunity to sell rev A, check the rev B scores...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=638574 (The attached text)

In short, PhotoFast is not really that fast...

[justit]

I am not sure but what else can it be than the new SSD.

Could creating a boot camp partition then having paralells run from it work?

[TheRiseofTheFal]

so is that a positive confirmation that the photofast 128 SSD works for the MBA? I've got the 80 gb hdd and am looking to extend the lifetime of this comptuer and would be very interested if this is actually reality...thanks!

[agerdsen]

Hi,
yes, its a positive confirmation that the 128gig photofast works in the mba. Except running winXP on parallels or VMwareFusion. Everything else seems to work so far. Of course i havent checked any program and maybe there are more that cannot deal with the new hd correctly.
I also did not try to run a different os using bootcamp.
Regarding the parallels problem, i do understand that the photofast disc is not very fast, but the benchmark test shows that its in nearly all disk-tests as fast as my old original 80gig harddisk or faster. And on the original one parallels was working w/o the permanent hangings.
Are there any settings i can make or check out for the harddisk?

thx
Andy

[kntgsp]

0.92MBps Random 4K write........

EDIT: Ahhh nevermind you're on the Rev. A which kind of buggers your choices there.

[agerdsen]

@kntgsp: Sorry, i dont get what youre saying. You mean that the 0.92MBps Random 4k write is the problem? But that value is higher as it was with the 80gigs hd. And with that one parallels was working.
Andy why does me having a Rev. A buggers my choices?

thx
Andy

[Marconelly]

Hi,
i have installed the 128gig from Photofast into my 1st gen. MBA.
Fits perfectly and replacing the old hd by the ssd one was not really difficult.
Can you tell where you got it from, and for how much? I can't find it being sold anywhere, and one place that has it backordered is listing 65000 Yen price, which is about $600. If I have to spend that kind of money, I'd rather sell MBA and buy a new one :\

[leonzong]

for your reference. I'm running snow leopard 421.

Results 111.18
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6 (10A421a)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookAir2,1
Drive Type APPLE SSD SM128
CPU Test 151.34
GCD Loop 248.96 13.12 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 122.39 2.91 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 99.65 3.29 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 237.65 41.38 Mops/sec
Thread Test 271.42
Computation 330.72 6.70 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 230.16 9.90 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 173.91
System 199.87
Allocate 235.25 863.91 Kalloc/sec
Fill 170.48 8289.04 MB/sec
Copy 204.38 4221.38 MB/sec
Stream 153.92
Copy 146.31 3022.04 MB/sec
Scale 144.88 2993.19 MB/sec
Add 165.02 3515.21 MB/sec
Triad 161.55 3455.95 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 144.38
Line 137.67 9.17 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 172.24 51.42 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 148.58 12.11 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 147.41 3.72 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 124.28 7.77 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 49.36
Spinning Squares 49.36 62.61 frames/sec
User Interface Test 141.94
Elements 141.94 651.44 refresh/sec
Disk Test 78.82
Sequential 62.45
Uncached Write 50.21 30.83 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 59.34 33.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 45.95 13.45 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 181.15 91.04 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 106.83
Uncached Write 52.26 5.53 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 64.39 20.62 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1492.42 10.58 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 474.62 88.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]

[Jaap]

Do our MacBook Air Rev A's take 40pin or 44pin ZIF?

[jrabbit]

I also just replaced the drive in my Rev A MBA with the Photofast 1.8 128GB ZIF SSD (GM-1.8"-ZIF 128GB) SSD from dvnation (http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?store=dvnation&product_name=Photofast+1.8+128GB+ZIF+SSD&exact_match=exact).

Very easy to do; just follow the iFixit.com instructions (http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/MacBook-Air-Hard-Drive-Replacement/860/1).

After repartitioning the new SSD to use the GUID partition scheme and a journaled filesystem, I used Carbon Copy Cloner with and external USB drive to clone/restore the boot drive; it took about 2.5 hours each way for about 50GB of stuff. Amazingly painless.

Now I've got plenty of room for everything I need (iTunes library, iPhoto libraries, Lotus Notes replication [yeah, I know], VMware VMs [XP, Ubuntu]). Much joy!

Here are the resulting Xbench scores:

Results 57.48
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L30)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookAir1,1
Drive Type PHOTOFAST18ZIFV2_128GB PHOTOFAST18ZIFV2_128GB
CPU Test 111.80
GCD Loop 203.38 10.72 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 101.27 2.41 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 82.80 2.73 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 112.27 19.55 Mops/sec
Thread Test 156.11
Computation 157.82 3.20 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 154.44 6.64 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 140.76
System 131.95
Allocate 130.94 480.85 Kalloc/sec
Fill 124.96 6075.71 MB/sec
Copy 140.94 2911.00 MB/sec
Stream 150.82
Copy 142.31 2939.31 MB/sec
Scale 141.43 2921.84 MB/sec
Add 161.11 3432.03 MB/sec
Triad 160.84 3440.83 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 134.57
Line 127.89 8.51 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 159.68 47.67 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 129.62 10.57 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 130.48 3.29 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 129.98 8.13 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 17.77
Spinning Squares 17.77 22.55 frames/sec
User Interface Test 166.32
Elements 166.32 763.32 refresh/sec
Disk Test 33.77
Sequential 45.21
Uncached Write 41.82 25.68 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 37.38 21.15 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 33.26 9.73 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 129.18 64.93 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 26.95
Uncached Write 8.44 0.89 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 39.25 12.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 810.06 5.74 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 311.64 57.83 MB/sec [256K blocks]

[mac jones]

There's a cap of about 64 mb read/write speeds with the zif PATA on rev A

But this is pretty fast anyway. It's just that the stock 1.8 4200rpm is horrible.

I have the stock Samsung 64GB SSD and it's fine ; unless of course you want a speed demon (but I guess we all want those eah? :D )

So the Photofast or the the Sansung SSD's I would say at this point for those who (need) to upgrade their rev A's.

Something I highly recommend if your trudging along at 4200rpm

[Ilzen&Mac]

I'm also considering upgrading my rev.a hdd to something better. Do you think this ssd will work with rev.a? http://www.kingspec.com/solid-state-disk-products/ssd-18zif-1128mj.htm
It's Kingspec, 40-pin ZIF, sizes are suitable. I read about problems with kinspec's drive in rev.a, but that was a 44-pin drive, so I wonder if this one will work? It would be great to hear if someone already installed it.:rolleyes:

[Taylor1978]

my MBA SSD test result score is 167 score

[Gadgetman99]

Hi,
i have installed the 128gig from Photofast into my 1st gen. MBA.
Fits perfectly and replacing the old hd by the ssd one was not really difficult.
There is a site called www.ifixit.com, it has lots of repair manuals for apple devices. Its always detailed step-by-step instructions with lots of photos which makes it really easy to follow.
Installing the OS afterwards was also pretty easy. Just inserted the recovery DVD, formatted the new hd with the disk utility and followed the process.
The new harddisk works great, boot and shutdown is much faster and the additional gigs are more than welcome.
There is only one big problem. I also have winXP running on Parallels (i tried it also on VMwareFusion, same problem) on my notebook and windows hangs every 30 to 60 seconds for about 20seconds. I can still move the mouse, but eg. cannot click anything or move a window or type.
I am not sure but what else can it be than the new SSD.
Or are there parameters in OS X that can be changed to optimize?
I run the parallels windows with the same parameters as it was on the old harddisk and there it worked fine.
Any tips?

blocks]
I dont have my MBA yet (but it will be here today!), but windows has a featured called system restore. Sometimes that creates a "stoppage" as you describe. I am not familiar with using Parralels, but my gut feeling is that running windows under an emulated enviroment might make the system restore "stoppage" more pronounced. Just my guess.

[Gadgetman99]

I dont have my MBA yet (but it will be here today!), but windows has a featured called system restore. Sometimes that creates a "stoppage" as you describe. I am not familiar with using Parralels, but my gut feeling is that running windows under an emulated enviroment might make the system restore "stoppage" more pronounced. Just my guess.

So, as I forgot to include, try disabling system restore to see if that helps. Start, control panel, system, advanced system settings, system protection tab, and uncheck your system HD.

[gillesb14]

I am currently struggling with a 128 Gb SSD From Runcore:

Runcore SSD PO IV MacBookRevA (http://www.runcore.com/content/products/productdetail.aspx?ProductName=RunCore%20Pro%20IV%201.8”%20PATA%20ZIF%20Solid%20State%20Drive%20SSD% 20for%20Macbook%20Air%20Rev%20A&ProductDescription=Compatible%20with%20the%20Apple%20MacBook%20Air%20Revision%20A&ProductURL=http://www.runcorestore.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=800000B9-1249411107&ProductImageSmall=http://www.runcorestore.com/product_images/RCP-IV-ZA1800-Cth.jpg&GBSize=16GB-128GB)

The problem seems to be around the setting of the drive which is in Cable select and not Master.

Anyone having a clue if this can be handled from the MBA side?

Regards

[poteck]

Just a little resume.

___________________________________________________

Appear to be compatible:

G-Monster Photofast SSD 64GB and 128 GB ZIF 40pin (MLC not too fast at all)

Stock Samsung 64GB SSD
___________________________________________________

Not compatible:

Runcore

Mtron SLC (The one I bought now lives in my old mac mini G4...)

Kingspec

[jrabbit]

Hi,
i have installed the 128gig from Photofast into my 1st gen. MBA.
Fits perfectly and replacing the old hd by the ssd one was not really difficult.
There is a site called www.ifixit.com, it has lots of repair manuals for apple devices. Its always detailed step-by-step instructions with lots of photos which makes it really easy to follow.
Installing the OS afterwards was also pretty easy. Just inserted the recovery DVD, formatted the new hd with the disk utility and followed the process.
The new harddisk works great, boot and shutdown is much faster and the additional gigs are more than welcome.
There is only one big problem. I also have winXP running on Parallels (i tried it also on VMwareFusion, same problem) on my notebook and windows hangs every 30 to 60 seconds for about 20seconds. I can still move the mouse, but eg. cannot click anything or move a window or type.
I am not sure but what else can it be than the new SSD.
Or are there parameters in OS X that can be changed to optimize?
I run the parallels windows with the same parameters as it was on the old harddisk and there it worked fine.
Any tips?

thx
Andy


I was having the same problem (in both Fusion and Parallels), and thought it might by the Photofast drive.

After a lot of tinkering, I narrowed the problem to MacFuse, the application that provides the guts of folder sharing for both Fusion and Parallels. I realized that I had upgraded MacFuse to a newer version than that originally installed by Fusion, and that's when the slowdowns started; I upgraded the SSD shortly after that, and wrongly assumed it was the drive. Parallels (at least v4) installs MacFuse directly from the Google project site, so you don't have a choice of version.

In any case, the solution is to completely disable folder sharing (in both directions), and the Windows VMs work like a charm.

The way I figured this out, by the way, is to install Ubuntu into a VM; it worked really well--no pauses/slowdowns/freezes. So it certainly wasn't the drive or the VM software; it had to be something "special" about Windows. The "special" part, I think, is the particular filesystem MacFuse is working with; something about MacFuse is really slow in working with the Windows format vs. the ext3 of Ubuntu.

Anyway, I'm happy to say my VMs now behave, I'm happier with Parallels than Fusion due to a much nicer RAM usage footprint, and I just use Dropbox to move data between Windows and my Mac (with the added benefit of automatically backing up the data in the Dropbox cloud).

[Cheffy Dave]

I also just replaced the drive in my Rev A MBA with the Photofast 1.8 128GB ZIF SSD (GM-1.8"-ZIF 128GB) SSD from dvnation (http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?store=dvnation&product_name=Photofast+1.8+128GB+ZIF+SSD&exact_match=exact).

Very easy to do; just follow the iFixit.com instructions (http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/MacBook-Air-Hard-Drive-Replacement/860/1).

After repartitioning the new SSD to use the GUID partition scheme and a journaled filesystem, I used Carbon Copy Cloner with and external USB drive to clone/restore the boot drive; it took about 2.5 hours each way for about 50GB of stuff. Amazingly painless.

Now I've got plenty of room for everything I need (iTunes library, iPhoto libraries, Lotus Notes replication [yeah, I know], VMware VMs [XP, Ubuntu]). Much joy!

Here are the resulting Xbench scores:

Results 57.48
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L30)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookAir1,1
Drive Type PHOTOFAST18ZIFV2_128GB PHOTOFAST18ZIFV2_128GB
CPU Test 111.80
GCD Loop 203.38 10.72 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 101.27 2.41 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 82.80 2.73 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 112.27 19.55 Mops/sec
Thread Test 156.11
Computation 157.82 3.20 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 154.44 6.64 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 140.76
System 131.95
Allocate 130.94 480.85 Kalloc/sec
Fill 124.96 6075.71 MB/sec
Copy 140.94 2911.00 MB/sec
Stream 150.82
Copy 142.31 2939.31 MB/sec
Scale 141.43 2921.84 MB/sec
Add 161.11 3432.03 MB/sec
Triad 160.84 3440.83 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 134.57
Line 127.89 8.51 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 159.68 47.67 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 129.62 10.57 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 130.48 3.29 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 129.98 8.13 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 17.77
Spinning Squares 17.77 22.55 frames/sec
User Interface Test 166.32
Elements 166.32 763.32 refresh/sec
Disk Test 33.77
Sequential 45.21
Uncached Write 41.82 25.68 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 37.38 21.15 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 33.26 9.73 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 129.18 64.93 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 26.95
Uncached Write 8.44 0.89 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 39.25 12.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 810.06 5.74 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 311.64 57.83 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Thanks for the ifixit link This is what i am putting in mine, a Runcore SSDRunCore SSD on MBA 2.13GHz Revision C

RUNCORE SPECS
Disk Test 176.54
Sequential 152.18
Uncached Write 152.04 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 104.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 21.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 149.49 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 210.19
Uncached Write 7.43 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 112.45 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 14.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 128.80 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Stock SSD on MBA 2.13GHz Revision C

SSD THAT COMES IN THE MBA
Disk Test 86.89
Sequential 70.49
Uncached Write 50.88 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 34.01 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 13.03 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 90.01 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 113.23
Uncached Write 5.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 24.22 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 9.85 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 86.90 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Specifications

[anthonybsd]

I too replaced my wife's Air hard drive with an SSD from DVNATION. Got the 128GB Photofast, seems to work flawlessly. I was a bit hesitant since there seems to be this weird thing with 40 and 44 pin ZIFs, but whatever I got just works. It flies compared to the stock IPodish hard drive the Air had before. Also Jason (the guy running dvnation) was very helpful.

[macres]

There is only one big problem. I also have winXP running on Parallels (i tried it also on VMwareFusion, same problem) on my notebook and windows hangs every 30 to 60 seconds for about 20seconds. I can still move the mouse, but eg. cannot click anything or move a window or type.
I am not sure but what else can it be than the new SSD.
Or are there parameters in OS X that can be changed to optimize?
I run the parallels windows with the same parameters as it was on the old harddisk and there it worked fine.
Any tips?

I guess you may try to format the windows partition with FAT32 instead of NTFS to resolve your problem.

I found same problem with PCs using SSD running Windows XP.

[coast1ja]

Hey guys, I have decided to take the plunge and replace the 80gb HDD for an SSD in my 1.8ghz Rev. A MBA.

I purchased a new OEM Samsung 64gb SSD (the same model number as the original one from apple) for $200 on craigslist. My Apple repair man said it would be $1,200 for him to get the part without sending in an old one.

I am also thinking about reapplying the thermal paste while I'm in there.

I was wondering if any of you whom have already done such procedures have any advice... I have already watched every youtube video and studied everything online that I could find (e.g. the ifixit take apart story) but I figured some hands-on advice from you guys would be of the utmost assistance. Thanks.

I'll be sure to post results when my drive comes in.



EDIT: Baseline Xbench 1.3 results for my 1.8ghz 80gb Rev. A MBA HDD:

Disk Test 28.47
Sequential 51.30
Uncached Write 57.74 35.45 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 57.87 32.75 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 35.71 10.45 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 65.04 32.69 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 19.70
Uncached Write 6.48 0.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 64.14 20.53 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 50.51 0.36 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 75.34 13.98 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Those are pretty horrible numbers... so hopefully the Samsung SLC 64gb SSD will improve this quite a bit.

[VirtualRain]

Hey guys, I have decided to take the plunge and replace the 80gb HDD for an SSD in my 1.8ghz Rev. A MBA.

I purchased a new OEM Samsung 64gb SSD (the same model number as the original one from apple) for $200 on craigslist. My Apple repair man said it would be $1,200 for him to get the part without sending in an old one.

I am also thinking about reapplying the thermal paste while I'm in there.

I was wondering if any of you whom have already done such procedures have any advice... I have already watched every youtube video and studied everything online that I could find (e.g. the ifixit take apart story) but I figured some hands-on advice from you guys would be of the utmost assistance. Thanks.

I'll be sure to post results when my drive comes in.

What are the performance specs on the Samsung SSD like compared to the Photofast?

At any rate, keep us up to date on your swap-out... I'd like to do this myself.

[coast1ja]

Has anyone tried the 1.8" SSDs from Foremay??? (http://www.foremay.net/) I have never heard of this company before, but they appear to make drives that are compatible with all versions of MBA.

[coast1ja]

UPDATE:

I just installed the original Samsung SLC SSD in my Rev. A MBA.

a few tips:
It doesn't take very long, so be careful and take your time. I also replaced the thermal compound and it all only took about 45 minutes.

data transfer: I just downloaded SuperDuper and copied my HDD to an external drive, then once the SSD was installed, I just booted from the external (hold 'option' on startup) then erased the SSD (and reformatted in the process) in Disk Utility, then used SuperDuper again to copy everything from the external to the SSD.

One quirk: when I hit 'restart', I get a blinking question mark folder, but when I shut it down and restart it manually, it's fine. Also, there is no reading for HDD temp in istat.

ok, now for the results. For the baseline, please refer to a few posts above this.

Disk Test 56.74
Sequential 48.89
Uncached Write 36.88 22.65 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 57.43 32.49 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 35.95 10.52 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 105.62 53.08 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 67.59
Uncached Write 24.35 2.58 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 71.98 23.04 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1555.53 11.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 280.10 51.97 MB/sec [256K blocks]


It's still not that great, but it is better than it used to be!... and it appears to be better than the PhotoFast drive that others have posted results for. All in all, I'm pleased with my $200 upgrade!

[VirtualRain]

UPDATE:

I just installed the original Samsung SLC SSD in my Rev. A MBA.

a few tips:
It doesn't take very long, so be careful and take your time. I also replaced the thermal compound and it all only took about 45 minutes.



Thanks for the follow-up but that's hardly what I'd call a few tips!? :p

What guide did you follow for both the HD and thermal paste?

Also, what's the model # for the drive?

Cheers,
-VR

[coast1ja]

The model number for the drive is MCCOE64GEMPP-01A.

I used the iFixit guide for taking apart the MBA. It was very helpful. I also completed the build on a white cloth, so that I could put the screws around the MBA while working on it so I knew where to put them back. Basically after you get the bottom cover off, it's just unplugging some cables and taking out four screws each for the heatsink and HDD. I cleaned the old paste off with a cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol. Then I spread on a thin layer to the CPU and GPU using a razor blade.

... oh, and be sure to lift up the little black tab on the ZIF connector to get the ribbon cable out.

I would have taken pictures, but I was too anxious to get things up and running!

I was very nervous tearing apart my beloved MBA, but it was cool to see the inside of it!... everything is tiny! the motherboard and drive especially!

What can I do with my old HDD??? could I buy a broken iPod and throw it in there? Should I buy and enclosure? Should I just sell it? Decisions, decisions.

[VirtualRain]

The model number for the drive is MCCOE64GEMPP-01A.


Thanks... that drive seems to command a real premium ($600-$1000)! :eek: You lucked out big time getting one for $200. I think I'm going to have to find something much cheaper.

[coast1ja]

Thanks... that drive seems to command a real premium ($600-$1000)! :eek: You lucked out big time getting one for $200. I think I'm going to have to find something much cheaper.

Yeah, the guy I got it from was going to put it in a Dell or something and never got around to it... He wanted $550 but I argued that I could find faster drives for around $200 (which is true) and he took it! I was delighted to get the original SLC drive and know that it would work for the same price as the MLC drives that are hit-or-miss.

[macbook heir]

I installed the Photofast 128 and am very thrilled with the performance. Started with a clean install of Snow Leopard. I also installed Vista via Boot Camp and am noticing some of the unresponsiveness described in previous messages with Parallels; however, the hang-ups don't seem to be as bad. It usually happens when Update is running.

It was easy install (although ifixit.com rates it as difficult) and I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to give a little kick to MBAir Rev A. The hardest part of the install was connecting the cable to the ssd. Still, it was much easier than I thought.

[coast1ja]

I installed the Photofast 128 and am very thrilled with the performance. Started with a clean install of Snow Leopard. I also installed Vista via Boot Camp and am noticing some of the unresponsiveness described in previous messages with Parallels; however, the hang-ups don't seem to be as bad. It usually happens when Update is running.

It was easy install (although ifixit.com rates it as difficult) and I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to give a little kick to MBAir Rev A. The hardest part of the install was connecting the cable to the ssd. Still, it was much easier than I thought.

XBench Results Please???

[Bigmacduck]

I installed two weeks ago a Photofast 1.8 128GB ZIF SSD into my MacBook Air Rev A. It works very well and I am very happy with it.

I bought it from http://www.dvnation.com/ for USD 499, which is a steal for Europeans like me because of the incredibly shrinking Dollar ;)

Procedure that I used to replace HDD with SSD
==============================
1. I first installed the SSD into an external USB drive enclosure for ZIF PATA 1.8" drives.

2. Then boot normally from my original (and still built-in) harddisk.

3. Then used SuperDuper and cloned the internal drive to to the Photofast SSD that was installed in the external USB drive enclosure. SuperDuper is available from http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

4. Shutdown the MacBook Air Rev A and boot from the SSD, which was still installed in the external USB drive enclosure. It booted up correctly and in that way I could verify that the SSD itself works and the cloning went well (In step 6, I was very glad I tested this)

5. Shutdown the MacBook Air Rev A and replace the original 80GB HDD with the 128GB Photofast SSD.

6. And Oh NO! After booting I got this Folder with Question Mark symbol but not the expected Apple. I once tested the KingSpec drive and had the same effect, and I never got the Kingspec to work in my MBA. So I was shocked to the bones.
Since I knew from Step 4 that the SSD drive booted OK, I suspected something with the cabling. So I reopened the body, removed the drive cable from both ends, straightened the cable contacts that go into the SSD PATA IF with my fingernails, and reinstalled the drive (left case open). Tried to boot again with the same effect. So I removed the drive again, straightened and realigned all cables as best as I possibly could, reinstalled the drive again and tried to boot. Now everything worked perfectly :D So my learning is that these cables are extremely

7. So I reassembled the MacBook Air Rev A, tightened all body screws (do not use much force here!).

8. Booted from SSD and it worked|

So I am using my MBA daily for my work ind in the past two weeks of operation I never experienced a problem.

So Here are my XBENCH results for the Photofast V2 128GB SSD:
=========================================
Results 30.71
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.1 (10B504)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookAir1,1
Drive Type PHOTOFAST18ZIFV2_128GB PHOTOFAST18ZIFV2_128GB
Disk Test 30.71
Sequential 36.33
Uncached Write 31.02 19.05 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 37.09 20.99 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 23.60 6.91 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 117.10 58.85 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 26.60
Uncached Write 8.28 0.88 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 40.02 12.81 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 776.19 5.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 300.08 55.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]


Compare this to my XBENCH results for the original 80 GB Apple HDD
============================================
Results 26.02
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J61)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookAir1,1
Drive Type SAMSUNG HS082HB SAMSUNG HS082HB
Disk Test 26.02
Sequential 41.85
Uncached Write 48.19 29.59 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 39.80 22.52 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 31.41 9.19 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 55.93 28.11 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 18.88
Uncached Write 6.28 0.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 55.50 17.77 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 49.17 0.35 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 69.71 12.94 MB/sec [256K blocks]


I not only replaced the HDD with an SSD for speed reasons, I also desperately needed more storage capacity INSIDE my MBA.