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How fast is your SSD, and when did you buy your MacBook Air?

K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 23, 2010
18,556
8,722
DeBilbao's recent review of the MacBook Air raised some interesting disk speed results. Specifically, he is getting read and write speeds about 12-20% faster than what the rest of us are seeing.

He downloaded Aja System Test (http://www.aja.com/products/software/) and ran the disk test with a 4GB file at the 1920x1080 and 10 bit video frame setting. Most of us are getting write speeds around 184 MB/s and read speeds of about 208 MB/s. He's getting 207 MB/s and 250 MB/s, respectively.

I'm wondering if Apple has made a running change to the MacBook Air (Rev D). I propose an informal survey. First, what are your read/write speeds running this same test? Second, when did you purchase your MacBook Air? Third, what is your Apple SSD revision number?


I'll start:

Read: 208 MB/s
Write: 184.3 MB/s

Purchased: November 2010

Revision: CJAA0201
 
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I ran it yesterday and got similar results to yours. The SSD is the same revision as yours. Got it in late November.
 
Faster

Mine are as follows write: 211.8MB/S read:263.3 MB/S 35gb of 128gb used
purchased jan 31st 2011 revision is AXM09A1Q
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

How do I find out this info?
 
Narkotiq said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

How do I find out this info?
Click to expand...

Click  > About this Mac > More info > Serial-ATA > Select the SSD > Revision

Too lazy to check that but I think that's how you find it. As for benchmarking the SSD, use the AJA System Test linked in the first post.
 
This is the THIRD time I've read about later models being faster (SSD). I think there's something to this.
 
Similar results for CJAA0201. January 2011 from MacMall.

Can we be more specific? :D 11.6" or 13"? 64, 128, or 256GB? SSD model? How much space used/left?

Mine: 11.6", 128GB, APPLE SSD TS128C, 68 used/53 available.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, this is important. Larger capacity SSD models tend to be faster than smaller capacity ones. This could be why the speed is varying...
 
13" MBA 2.13 Ghz - 4 GB Ram - 256GB SSD
149 Used
101 Avalable
Cjaa0201
W 181.6
R 206.4
Apple Store Des Moines 1/30/11
 
Mac32 said:
Yes, this is important. Larger capacity SSD models tend to be faster than smaller capacity ones. This could be why the speed is varying...
Click to expand...

Actually, the capacity is pretty irrelevant. When it comes to HDs, that is true because bigger capacity means the drive is denser (assuming they are the same form factor), meaning that more data can be read or written each time the HD spins.

However, this does not apply to SSDs since they don't spin. 40GB SSD is as fast as 480GB one with the same controller. Amount of NANDs may affect the speed but usually they don't.
 
samiznaetekto said:
Can we be more specific? :D 11.6" or 13"? 64, 128, or 256GB? SSD model? How much space used/left?

Mine: 11.6", 128GB, APPLE SSD TS128C, 68 used/53 available.
Click to expand...


It shouldn't make too much of a difference, since I think each version uses the same number of channels, but in any case, I have a 256GB SSD with over 50% free right now.
 
KPOM said:
It shouldn't make too much of a difference, since I think each version uses the same number of channels, but in any case, I have a 256GB SSD with over 50% free right now.
Click to expand...

Maybe, not much difference in terms of speed, but with more detailed info we can track down which models of MBA got new revision of SSD.
 
181 write, 209 read. revision CJAA0201

Bought in January from MacMall, prob old stock from original release.
 
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Hmmm.. I'm starting to wonder if the SSD in newer MBAs is made by Samsung instead of Toshiba. In the past, Apple has used Samsung SSDs which were reported as "APPLE SSD SM128" in OS X. The new ones are SM128C now. It would make sense if SM stood for Samsung. Toshiba SSDs are "APPLE SSD TS128C" so again, it's logical if TS stands for Toshiba.

If I had to guess, the SSD in newer MBAs is Samsung 470-series as that has speeds of 250/220 MB/s, which makes sense when looking at the benchmarks. Apart from the speed differences, it looks like the newer ones support Native Command Queuing while older ones don't.
 
Hellhammer said:
Hmmm.. I'm starting to wonder if the SSD in newer MBAs is made by Samsung instead of Toshiba. In the past, Apple has used Samsung SSDs which were reported as "APPLE SSD SM128" in OS X. The new ones are SM128C now. It would make sense if SM stood for Samsung. Toshiba SSDs are "APPLE SSD TS128C" so again, it's logical if TS stands for Toshiba.

If I had to guess, the SSD in newer MBAs is Samsung 470-series as that has speeds of 250/220 MB/s, which makes sense when looking at the benchmarks. Apart from the speed differences, it looks like the newer ones support Native Command Queuing while older ones don't.
Click to expand...

how very logical of you :D are there any negatives to using the samsung chips as opposed to toshiba? i was always very skeptical of them :/
 
DoFoT9 said:
how very logical of you :D are there any negatives to using the samsung chips as opposed to toshiba? i was always very skeptical of them :/
Click to expand...

Well, the old Samsungs suffered from pretty heavy degradation issues or so I've heard but that was something like 2008. A lot has happened in SSD world since that.
 
Ultimate MacBook Air 13 (bought yesterday):

180.9 / 207.7

Revision: CJAA0201

So it turns out I was sold an older revision, right? That's why it's slower, right? I'm mad!!! :mad::mad::mad:

Should I have asked the sales person to pull out the latest revision? Is it even possible to identify one? :(
 
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