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SSD Upgrade Kits Push 2010 MacBook Air Capacity to 360 GB

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Apr 12, 2001
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Other World Computing (OWC) last week announced the debut of its new Mercury Aura Pro Express solid state drives for Apple's latest 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models. The new drives, which offer greater speed and capacity than Apple's factory options, are available in 180 GB, 240 GB, and 360 GB capacities. Based on a SandForce controller, the drives also feature a number of other technologies to enhance speed, performance, and data integrity.
The Mercury Aura SSD line features industry leading SandForce DuraClass Technologies:

- DuraWrite extends the endurance of your Solid State Drive (SSD).
- Intelligent Block Management & Wear Leveling automatically distributes data evenly across the entire SSD.
- Intelligent Read Disturb Management spreads the active read/write across the flash components eliminating data corruption caused by constant use.
- Intelligent "Recycling" for advanced free space management gradually re-writes data across the SSD over time to ensure data never gets corrupted.
- RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) protects the data on your drive similar to having a RAID setup.
- Best-in-Class ECC Protection for longest data retention and drive life.
Click to expand...
Prices begin at $499.99 for the 180 GB drive and move up to $579.9 for the 240 GB model and $1,179.99 for the 360 GB model. Shipping estimates are currently listed at 19 days for the 180 GB version, 2 days for the 240 GB version, and "pending" for the 360 GB version.

All three drives are compatible with both the 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch MacBook Air models introduced in October 2010. Apple's own drive options begin at 64 GB for the 11.6-inch model and top out at 128 GB, while the 13.3-inch model comes with 128 GB and 256 GB options.

Taiwanese firm PhotoFast had previously announced similar SandForce-based SSDs ranging up to 256 GB that would be compatible with the 11-inch MacBook Air, but Apple quickly moved to halt sales of the drives. It is unclear if Apple is objecting to the new offerings from OWC and/or applying pressure to have them removed from sale.

Article Link: SSD Upgrade Kits Push 2010 MacBook Air Capacity to 360 GB
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/12/ssd-upgrade-kits-push-2010-macbook-air-capacity-to-360-gb/
How about SSD PC cards? I know you can get 'em in 96 GB capacities, and they're easy to install. A bit hard to find, though, for some reason. Anyone have experiences to share with them?
 
Very pricey, but maybe worth to some people if you can get the performance boost they claim to get.

22% more faster than factory?
 
Wow, the price jump from 180 to 240 makes the 240 look real good. But the 360 looks ridiculous. 120 extra GB isn't worth more than double the price.

If you do this, does OWC buy back your factory original SSD? I seem to remember they did this for RAM and/or Hard drives.
 
it's pricey, but it's a good sign that there will be more solutions and, of course, prices will drop over time.

arn
 
When are the prices for SSDs going to come down. The transition has been painful to say the least. It's a toss up between SSD and 64bit computing as to which has been the slowest. I thought the computing world was supposed to be one of the fastest moving sectors.
 
Wow, those prices gave me a good laugh! To me the MBA isn't about storage, I don't think it's meant to be your one and only computer, so it doesn't need a ton of storage. I think Apple's offerings are enough.

I'm going to pick up a 64gig 11.6 inch in a couple of days and I'm not concerned about running out of storage. I probably won't even use half of it :p
 
Still a good, solid 5 years away from SSD replacing traditional drives alltogether. They're nice to have and are gaining in capacity, but the expense makes them more of a luxury item. The day will come though....and we'll no longer have any moving parts (save a fan).
 
I like it, but not at those prices haha

It's not like you can use the one you already have for something else. It's pretty much worthless now.
 
Good to see that there are upgrade kits but good god that is expensive even by Apple standards. :eek:
 
Now I want one of the 240GB SSDs in an 11" MBA in the worst way! Damn you, MR!

f00f said:
Good to see that there are upgrade kits but good god that is expensive even by Apple standards. :eek:
Click to expand...
Expensive, no doubt about it. OTOH, the 240GB (w/overprovisioning) SSD for the MBA is just $50 more than the same one in the 2.5" drive form factor.
 
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Apple will oppose it. They always do.
 
Ordered mine 3 days ago

I've been eagerly awaiting this; I ordered my 11" MBA last year with just 64Gb storage specifically because I planned to upgrade it to 256Gb. Then Apple squashed Photofast and I got stuck with 64Gb...until now. It would REALLY SUCK if Apple manged to kill these too.

Yes, the 360Gb drive cost is nuts; it's more than my entire Air cost. But the 240Gb (nee 256Gb with allowance for bad sectors), while also pricey, is just what the doctor ordered.

One caveat on these is they do not come with the "Pentalobe" driver needed to open the Air up. So I ordered one of those from iFixit.com.
 
It is pricey, but OWC make some of the best SSD's out there. Plus you know they are using the best Sandforce controllers out there. Some benchmarks I've seen from 3rd party's show OWC SSD's on top of most of them and when not, they're coming in a very close 2nd or 3rd. So again, pricey yes, but if you have the cash, OWC's stuff is well worth it.
 
That's good news ... MacAir just came a step closer to be an option for me. Looking at my work MacBook, I need ~400MB - so I'm still holding out for a 500GB options. The price is high, but it will come down. For my MacBook at home a got a while ago a 256GB SSD (paying a lot for it) and it was the best update I ever did to any machine, applications start instant, no wait for 99.9% of the apps, extreme fast boot, ... - my newer and faster MacBook Pro at work 'feels' so slow compared to my old MacBook with SSD. I think it is a given that 500GB will become available and that the prices come down - can't wait. (However - I will look into cleaning out stuff from my work MacBook to see if I can fit everything on a 360GB drive)
 
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