I will be getting a 13 MBA and actually didn't realize how much more it was for only double the storage. Anyway, I was thinking about ordering a 64GB SD card (for about $90 on Amazon) and just "permanently" sticking that in there to store my iTunes and such... do you think it could handle the constant use?
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Can an SD card stand to be constantly used, as if it were an SSD
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Yes, it will handle it, but 1) the SD card will be sticking out the whole time and 2) SD cards aren't that fast, nowhere near as much as a true SSD (SanDisk do up to about 40MB/s)
As long as it can perform as fast a an HDD I'll be good... (does it?) And damn, really? I've never messed with the Airs so I didn't know that it stuck out and didn't go flush. Hmmm....
What does the average HDD read/write at?
HUGE bummer. Man... I really don't want to fork over $300 more for the 256...
I'd hazard not too well, but depends on the content you're streaming. You'd be better off with a small external HD.
A few issues with SD cards.
-Reliability - Memory cards fail at a pretty high rate
-Speed- Even a class 10 card will be slow if you have it almost filled up, no cache or anything on them.
-Like others said, it will stick out
Just get an external for much less money that will be faster and much more reliable.
-Reliability - Memory cards fail at a pretty high rate
-Speed- Even a class 10 card will be slow if you have it almost filled up, no cache or anything on them.
-Like others said, it will stick out
Just get an external for much less money that will be faster and much more reliable.
Edit: Oops! Double post. Ban me now.
Well this really sucks.
I'm not too familiar with SSDs as I've never had a machine with one. So does this mean that if my drive (the MBA one) is 80% full, it will start running slower?
A little bit but not that much. TRIM support helps.
Amazon, I didn't go looking for it, I just linked you to the search. Laziness at its best.
Awesome thanks, hopefully its the same price in Canada
Speed test of SD card in MacBook Air
My mid-2011 MacBook Air recognizes and uses a Komputerbay 64 GB SDXC card just fine. It's a $54 class 10 card from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008AN1DHI) and I formatted it Mac OS Extended (Journaled). However, I only get read speeds around 33 MB/s and write speeds around 15 MB/s from this card.
My mid-2011 MacBook Air recognizes and uses a Komputerbay 64 GB SDXC card just fine. It's a $54 class 10 card from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008AN1DHI) and I formatted it Mac OS Extended (Journaled). However, I only get read speeds around 33 MB/s and write speeds around 15 MB/s from this card.
There was a recent Kickstarter campaign for this: http://theniftyminidrive.com
They've not sent the rewards out yet so I'm not sure how well it actually performs but this would be a perfect solution for you when they actually ship.
They've not sent the rewards out yet so I'm not sure how well it actually performs but this would be a perfect solution for you when they actually ship.
SD cards are terribly unreliable. Make sure you have backups of whatever data you're doing this with.
I haven't found this to be true at all, and I have extensively used SD cards for years. However, I have always used Sandisk brand cards. I am well aware that many of the lower priced, off-brand cards have a high rate of data loss and almost never perform to their rated speed.
To respond to the OP, an SD card will not be a good replacement for larger internal storage if you are truly accessing over 128GB of data on a frequent basis. Personally, I moved a few dozen GB of infrequently used documents and files to an SD card, allowing me to use the default 128GB drive and still have 40GB free space. This is with a 40GB music library, 15GB photo library, and 10GB of video.
A typical 2.5 HDD will do 80-95 MB reads and writes (actual). At least thats what I see with my 2010 MBP 13 and 2011 MBP 15, both with 7500 RPM drives.
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I don't TRIM is necessary as it once was.
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You PROBABLY don't need blazing performance for iTunes if you are just playing movies and music. A fast SD should work fine for speed. I'd be more concerned reliability the physical aspects of this solution. I think that the solution should work fine.
Be sure that you are using time machine and that the SD is included in the backups. As long you backup regularly you risk is pretty low.
Give a shot, what do you have to lose. If it doesn't work, send the SD back.