How to make my Macbook Air work faster?

Macbook Airs already have SSDs, so I'd not recommend looking to replace it. Apple uses a proprietary SSD, so you'd need something from transcend or OWC, both sell the type that is used in your MBA.

You cannot upgrade the ram because its soldered onto the logic board, so in essence there's nothing you can really do to improve the performance.

maflynn said:

Macbook Airs already have SSDs, so I'd not recommend looking to replace it. Apple uses a proprietary SSD, so you'd need something from transcend or OWC, both sell the type that is used in your MBA.

You cannot upgrade the ram because its soldered onto the logic board, so in essence there's nothing you can really do to improve the performance.

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The 2008 MBA did not come with an SSD. It was a $1000 upgrade for a 60GB SSD, which was dropped to a $600 upgrade for a 128GB SSD 7 months after its release. It came with an 80GB HDD when it was released in January of 2008.

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htorbov said:

I have Macbook Air 13" (2008) with 1.6GHz Dual-Core Intel and 2GB RAM Memory.

I'm running OS X Lion (10.7) and the CPU is on 10% (I'm OK with that), but the RAM is on 60% without almost none software running.

I was thinking about buying 128GB SSD (http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/ki...rade-series-1.8-inch-pata-zif-ssd-for-pc-mac/), but then realized, that 1.8" SSDs have only ~100MB/s speed (which is clearly not enough to replace RAM with Swap).

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RAM is cached in OSX, so even if you aren't doing anything it will load up RAM. If you had 16GB of RAM, about half of it would be queued up when idle. The HDD is your bottleneck. It is a pain to upgrade the SSD on the original MBA, but it would help if you can manage the upgrade. Your best bet is to probably just get a new computer at this point. Your MBA is over 6 years old. You can pick up a new MBA for about $850.

htorbov said:

but the RAM is on 60% without almost none software running.

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Are you experiencing poor performance, or just going off of what activity monitor says?

htorbov said:

The performance is poor, indeed. For example, I closed all applications, then run a movie with VLC and after 20-30 minutes it starts to lag.

I just saw this article:
10.5 Leopard - 512MB RAM
10.6 Snow Leopard - 1GB RAM
10.7 Lion - 2GB RAM

Do I need to go to lower version of OS X? If so, it would be a pitty, since I just brought the Lion and I really liked it...

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If you have the minimum system requirements, you should still be able to perform basic tasks rather easily. I would guess that video lag has more to do with your internet speed, and less to do with your computers hardware.

Ok, I checked the SN you provided, and from what I can see, your MBA is a 1,1 machine (the first MBA model). However, it is being reported that it has a CPU upgrade, 1.8MHz and it came with an 80MB 4200 MB HDD. Transcend does not offer an SSD for the 1,1 MBA, but OWC does, up to 128GB. I'm not a fan of OWC, I believe their quality is spotty. And their statement on TRIM not being required for their drives to be false.

However, an SSD will do wonders for any Macintosh. I agree with capathy21 that your lag is more related to your internet speed than your MBA.

BTW, your machine originally shipped with OS 10.5.2 and the Max OS it will support is 10.7.5. You indicated your running 10.7, I recommend you upgrade this to 10.7.5.

Lou

capathy21 said:

If you have the minimum system requirements, you should still be able to perform basic tasks rather easily. I would guess that video lag has more to do with your internet speed, and less to do with your computers hardware.

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The lag likely has zero to do with his internet speed because if he's using VLC to watch it, he likely has the video file on his hard drive as opposed to streaming it.

HarryWarden said:

The lag likely has zero to do with his internet speed because if he's using VLC to watch it, he likely has the video file on his hard drive as opposed to streaming it.

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This is true. I'm so used to everyone streaming their media these days, that my mind automatically went to that

I had a 2008 MBA and put in a Runcore SSD and it made the world of difference. I'd be tempted to stick with 10.6.8 too.

I upgraded my sons 2009 MacBook Air which came with that horrible 120GB 4200 RPM iPod HDD. I used the OWC AuraPro 120GB SSD kit and it was a very simple install. The 2009 Air now runs much much faster and cooler with Mavericks on it. It was a great, simple (and cheap) way to upgrade the device and get a few more years out of it.

Dude, later MBAs with 4GB of RAM (at least) and faster SSDs are SOOOOOO...

OOOOOOOOOOO... much faster. Battery life is awesome too.

Sell the 2008 and buy a used 2011+ MBA. Thank me later.

JP

The first few revisions of the MacBook Air were horribly underpowered. Since they're really isn't a whole lot you can upgrade spec wise, I'd suggest looking into upgrading to a new computer.

htorbov said:

Ummm the video was on my HD... I'm thinking about trying with 10.6.8. BTW, the main problem is that I've just brought the MBA for 400$ and I was hoping to stick with it for at least few months. About the Runcore SSD - it seems they're with 100mb/s speed, which I think it won't matter alot..

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$400 is not worth it for a 2008 MBA, especially if you are going to be upgrading anything on it. You might as well have picked up a 2010 MBA for $500-$600. The 2014 MBAs were $700 just two weeks ago

Just out of interest, is the SSD in the current MBA replaceable? I'm planning on installing a SanDisk Xtreme II into my HP Envy 17 and if I could get something faster, larger, and more efficient than what comes in the MBA as standard then I would. It'd also save me from needing an external drive.

^^^^Yes, the drives are replaceable, but there is no third party solution yet. They have them on eBay from time to time, but they are expensive. The SSDs from the nMP and current MBA are interchangeable. However, I know that Transcend and OWC are working on a third party solution.

Lou

maflynn said:

Macbook Airs already have SSDs . . .

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Ahem!

Not the original models, which used a dog-slow 1.8" spinning drive. That's part of the reason the original MBA models are so weak performance-wise and in resale.

Naimfan said:

Ahem!

Not the original models, which used a dog-slow 1.8" spinning drive. That's part of the reason the original MBA models are so weak performance-wise and in resale.

Click to expand...

mad3inch1na said:

The 2008 MBA did not come with an SSD. It was a $1000 upgrade for a 60GB SSD, which was dropped to a $600 upgrade for a 128GB SSD 7 months after its release. It came with an 80GB HDD when it was released in January of 2008.

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Ahem - That was established waaay back in post No. 4 (29 hours before your post). And confirmed by succeeding posts.

Lou

htorbov said:

I've just brought the MBA for 400$

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Ouch not a good buy at all. Let it be a lesson to do a little more research next time before shelling out that much money on an old machine.

capathy21 said:

Ouch not a good buy at all. Let it be a lesson to do a little more research next time before shelling out that much money on an old machine.

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I've seen MacBook Airs from 2010 and newer going for not much more. Granted, they almost always have a few cosmetic imperfections, but the performance is still there and you can't really complain about an 11" MacBook Air for between $400 and $500.

Ouch indeed!

I sold mine about 9 months ago with the Runcore SSD for £300

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