Transcend Debuts JetDrive SSD Upgrade Kits Up to 960GB for MacBook Air, Retina Macbook Pro

grad said:

It sucks. I'd like to have the option. It was probably my idea but I thought that when TRIM was enabled the drive seemed faster. I might do some tests to check.

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You most assuredly do have the option. Trim Enabler is still available and works quite well with Yosemite, if the proper precautions are taken. The need for this utility and the precautions that need to taken with it's use are not the fault of the aftermarket community, but because of Apple's PigHeadedness.

http://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/

Lou

flowrider said:

You most assuredly do have the option. Trim Enabler is still available and works quite well with Yosemite, if the proper precautions are taken. The need for this utility and the precautions that need to taken with it's use are not the fault of the aftermarket community, but because of Apple's PigHeadedness.

http://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/

Lou

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Actually, I did use cindori's trimenabler for the time where Transcend Jetdrive Toolbox did not support trim in Mavericks 10.9.5. But it's more about the manufacturer (Transcend) supporting their products themselves. At least they should make it clear in their web site, providing links for both 1.9 and 1.11 versions (in the product's support page in their english site you can only find v1.8).

Best price I've found (so far)...

LouisLoh said:

Hi guys,

is it a good time to buy a Jetdrive now, or are SSD prices poised to come down in the near future?

I'm looking to buy a Jetdrive 725 960GB on Amazon for my MacBook Retina for US$570. Any thoughts?

I mean when compared to Apple's upgrades it's cheaper, but I can wait if price reductions are imminent.

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I've also been waiting (and praying) for a lower price but I couldn't be more eager to upgrade from 256GB to 960GB.

Immediasys is worth a look for the "725".

I also wish I knew if any other upgrade options were imminent...

FYI, Apple changed the form factor on the SSD's again..
I have a JetDrive 725 (TS960GJDM725) from my original MBP, GUI logic board blew up... so i now have a 2Mid 2014 model, doesn't fit, not that i expected it to, just figured i'd let everyone know that the Transcend compatibility matrix is correct to not have the Mid 2014 models.

Just sent my jetdrive 725 back. Installed it 28 days ago, was working today and the screen froze, then went black. Rebooted and got unable to find root partition or something to that effect.

Tried repairing, restoring and even formatted. Says it can't erase the disk, even tried to format with gparted, no love. Hopefully I just got a lemon.

Does anyone know if the memory on these drives is equal quality to apples?

It was nice while it worked. Noticeably faster than my stock hd.

threat?

Someone seems to be dumping a bunch of these drives on ebay lately, hopefully, that doesn't mean there are going to be EOL'd soon, and ultimately not updated.

I'm a USER of this drive, so i'm not looking to scare anyone, just posting info

Update please re defective SSD

phinsup said:

Hopefully I just got a lemon.

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Have you installed a replacement? Did you deal directly with Transcend?
I haven't read of too many failures of this drive (Transcend 725 960GB) but I'm wondering whether the situation vis-a-vis Apple disabling Trim Enabler in Yosemite is in any way a possible contributing factor.

Re-use OWC SSD

@TranscendInfo

I am looking at upgrading from a 240GB OWC SSD to a 480GB JetDrive 520 in my MacBook Air 2012. Do you know if I would have any problems using the OWC SSD in your USB enclosure? OWC warn that their SSD cannot be used in their USB enclosure because it may damage the drive, the enclosure, or both (and presumably it also wouldn't work).

I asked OWC what the technical issue is, but they were not telling. I can only think that it is a power supply issue. The following is pure conjecture but suppose that
The proprietary SATA connector in the MacBook Air provides both 5V and 3.3V power supplies.
The Apple SSDs do not use the 3.3V power supply.
The OWC SSDs do use the 3.3V power supply.
The OWC enclosure provides a 5V power supply but not a 3.3V power supply. (The 5V would come straight from the USB bus power but the 3.3V would have to be produced by the enclosure, using a voltage converter.)
Then this would explain the warning from OWC.

I have a question.
Which of these SSD's would be the one for MacBook Air 13" mid 2013?

Thank you.

^^^^There isn't one yet, but it's on the horizon.

Lou

Thanks

JetDrive SSD for MacBook Air 13" mid 2013

Hi,

When will be available a JetDrive SSD solution for MacBook Air 13" mid 2013?

Thank you,

gianpiero8282 said:

Hi,

When will be available a JetDrive SSD solution for MacBook Air 13" mid 2013?

Thank you,

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Look 3 posts up from yours.

Gjwilly said:

Look 3 posts up from yours.

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thanks

hed1117 said:

Have you installed a replacement? Did you deal directly with Transcend?
I haven't read of too many failures of this drive (Transcend 725 960GB) but I'm wondering whether the situation vis-a-vis Apple disabling Trim Enabler in Yosemite is in any way a possible contributing factor.

Click to expand...

I sent it back to B&H and got a refund, bought a new MBPr with a 512 and gave the 256 to wife. Mine was the 725/480gb not the 960 FWIW.

Like I said i probably just got a lemon, i researched it pretty good when i bought it and most of the reviews were good.

As far as trim on Yosemite, it was supposedly enabled by the transcend application.

When the drive went bad i wasn't able to do anything with it. I even tried to format it with gparted and it would error every time I tried to format it. It was toast.

phinsup said:

As far as trim on Yosemite, it was supposedly enabled by the transcend application..

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The Transcend App doesn't work in Yosemite, you need TRIM Enabler with a third party SSD.

Lou

Yosemite 10.10.2

I turned trim off, then upgraded to Yosemite 10.10.2. The Transcend Toolbox app doesn't allow you to enable Trim for 10.10.2. I got a new version of the toolbox. It now has no mention or Trim.

Does this mean I don't need Trim, or that it is no longer supported by Transcend? Should I get some other tool to enable Trim?

^^^^Did you read my post just above yours? As I said, you need TRIM Enabler to enable Trim:

http://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/

Lou

The app works fine. There are other solutions to the Trim problem so perhaps I should have asked if Transcend now supports those (like doing equivalent of Trim in the SSD firmware).

By your answer I assume that I do need Trim and need to get it from TRIM Enabler.

Another question is: Is Transcend abandoning their customers to 3rd party Trim support or do they plan an update Transcend Toolbox to enable Trim on 10.10.x? Why did they take it out?

pferrel said:

The app works fine. There are other solutions to the Trim problem so perhaps I should have asked if Transcend now supports those (like doing equivalent of Trim in the SSD firmware).

No!

By your answer I assume that I do need Trim and need to get it from TRIM Enabler.

Yes!

Another question is: Is Transcend abandoning their customers to 3rd party Trim support or do they plan an update Transcend Toolbox to enable Trim on 10.10.x? Why did they take it out?

No, the problem is Apple is making it much harder for third party software and third party SSD manufacturer's to support TRIM due to restrictions in the Yosemite OS. Apple has been quizzed on this, with no answer. There is a petition on this forum asking Apple to remove the TRIM restriction (related to kext signing) from Yosemite. Let's Hope.

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Answers to your questions above.

Lou

The size of the SSD was probably too large (when this model air was designed), that it couldn't fit where it was needed. Now, as tech progresses, we can fit more storage on smaller NAND, and in a smaller package. Example, the SSD in the new MacPro (which goes up to 1GB), is the same size as the one in the MBA, but it came out a while after the MBA.

a bit confused. When swapping should I have trim enabler installed and on then copy the disk to the new ssd, installed and turn on after, or install after the swap?

^^^^Doesn't really matter whether TRIM Enabler is installed or not. But, what is important, is that if it is installed that it be turned OFF Until the new SSD is up and running. Then you enable it, and do a restart.

Lou

grad said:

It sucks. I'd like to have the option. It was probably my idea but I thought that when TRIM was enabled the drive seemed faster. I might do some tests to check.

Click to expand...

TRIM support is faster, and better for your drive. There is a reason why Apple has kernel level support for their drives in their OS. Here's a hint: It's not because they like adding unnecessary tasks. The fact that Transcend dropped the ball and cannot figure out how to get a signed kernel driver from Apple is uber disappointing. I've noticed a huge slow down in performance on my JetDrive without TRIM enabled. You can't really see it in benchmarking (maybe a 20-30MB/s loss read/write) but some things are just plain sluggish. Mount a DMG and notice how long it takes to verify? There are other little things I've noticed here and there. The fact is, the built-in garbage collection is not enough, the OS is much better at managing the disk I/O. GET ON THE BALL TRANSCEND!!!

Actually the problem is not with Transcend, it's with Apple for making the kext signing apply to only Apple labeled devices:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1807889/

We all should sign this petition:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1816557/

And as of right now, the best answer for those of us using third party SSDs is Cindori's TRIM Enabler.

Lou