Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2011 Macbook Air SSD Upgrade Question

J

jerm8832

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I have recently acquired a 11 inch 2011 macbook air. I am interested in purchasing a faster and larger ssd for it. Could anyone make any suggestions? From my understanding, I can also pick up an adapter so I do not need to purchase ssd's made specifically for the macbook air?
 
Thanks for the reply! So this drive will have faster read/write speeds than the stock 128gb ssd?
 
I bought OWC along with the enclosure for the old SSD (which turns it into a great external HDD) Easy install and works fantastic. Mine was on a 2010 MBA so the improvement in speed was 60%. You will get more being a later model. (2x?)

Highly recommend. I think I have screen shots of the read/write speeds before and after if you want them.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2010-2011

Edit: Don't forget to enable trim in terminal

http://lifehacker.com/enable-trim-for-third-party-ssds-in-os-x-with-a-termina-1714978260
 
I've had the transcend model in my 2012 11" MBA for over a year now with no problems. Came with all necessary tools and a cool USB3 external enclosure for my old SSD that matches the MBA's aesthetics.
 
You can indeed buy an adapter; here is a link to one for your model.

Apple was still using SATA for flash in 2011, so you have a bunch of great value options. Look up MyDigitalSSD. They have 250 and 500GB SATA sticks that fit this adapter for $75 and $130, respectively. I put their 250 in my 2010 Air; speeds are fine and TRIM works if you use 'trimforce'.

If you care more about performance, probably go for like a Samsung 850 EVO. Roughly $100 for 250 and $180 for 500 on the street.

Heck, go for Transcend's own SATA M.2 blades (MTS800 series), which are about the same prices as the Samsung ones. And consider for a moment how crazy that is, given that the components (the flash chips and the controller chip) on the Transcend MTS800 blades are *EXACTLY THE SAME* as the ones they use on their JetDrives (the Transcend blades that fit in a MacBook without an adapter). So you save nearly $100 on the storage itself by using a $10-15 adapter. The mark-up on the JetDrives and OWC Auras is nuts...

-- Nathan
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
mackme1 said:
I bought OWC along with the enclosure for the old SSD (which turns it into a great external HDD) Easy install and works fantastic. Mine was on a 2010 MBA so the improvement in speed was 60%. You will get more being a later model. (2x?)

Highly recommend. I think I have screen shots of the read/write speeds before and after if you want them.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2010-2011

Edit: Don't forget to enable trim in terminal

http://lifehacker.com/enable-trim-for-third-party-ssds-in-os-x-with-a-termina-1714978260
Click to expand...
I also bought a 1TB OWC. The speedup over the factory SSD was noticeable. Then there is all that space

In a disk, quality is key. No place to save pennies or a few bucks.
[doublepost=1473995450][/doublepost]
haralds said:
I also bought a 1TB OWC - the Pro version. The speedup over the factory SSD was noticeable. Then there is all that space

In a disk, quality is key. No place to save pennies or a few bucks.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back