256GB SSD Upgrades for New MacBook Air Announced

[MacRumors]

Taiwanese company Photofast has announced the first 3rd party SSD storage upgrade kit for the new MacBook Air. (via Engadget) The new MacBook Air is the first Apple laptop to use a special SSD card rather than a traditional hard drive enclosure. While the new SSD storage card allows Apple to further reduce the size of the MacBook Air's enclosure, upgrade parts are less readily available. Photofast is the first of likely many vendors who will fill this void.

Photofast plans on offering 64GB / 128GB / 256GB SSD aftermarket upgrades based on the SandForce controller. This gives 11.6" MacBook Air owners the option of upgrading to a maximum of 256GB -- a configuration not available from Apple. The upgrade promises speeds of 250MB/s for sequential reads and writes, a notable increase from Apple's offerings which bench around 150-160MB/s for the same metric. Overall performance improvements are said to be in the 30% range. In a particularly elegant twist, Photofast will allow you to convert your MacBook Air's existing SSD card into a USB storage device. This storage device then allows you to transfer your existing data over to your Mac.

Unfortunately, no pricing or availability has been announced, but we expect we'll see similar products from other companys in the near future.

Article Link: 256GB SSD Upgrades for New MacBook Air Announced

 

[R.Youden]

I guess the USB drive is not applicable here, all we are interested in is what's inside, stick that in you MBA and off you go

 

[Full of Win]

I wonder how much that little jewel cost? I'm going to venture a guess and say 399.99. Given the dollar current weakness against other currencies, such as the NT (its about 30NT to 1 US dollar) this will not be cheap.

 

[Thirddaylou]

yes it does say USB3....

 

[hexx]

this must be usb3 device, usb2 doesn't support transfer speeds declared in the article, so not for this version of macbook air

 

[arn]

I guess the USB drive is not applicable here, all we are interested in is what's inside, stick that in you MBA and off you go

the USB drive is so you can copy your existing data onto the new SSD drive you just installed. Plus you have a (64GB / 128GB) SSD USB drive if you want (backups, perhaps)

this must be usb3 device, usb2 doesn't support transfer speeds declared in the article, so not for this version of macbook air

apparently the picture of the USB drive is confusing people (I removed it). The 250MB/s transfer speeds are for the SSD card you are putting internally in your MacBook Air. The USB thing is just to get data off your old SSD card.

arn

 

[ThomasJL]

Hard drive connector's max data transfer rate?

Nice!

Is the SSD connector on the new MacBook Air SATA 3 Gbit/s, SATA 6 Gbit/s, or something else entirely? What is the maximum data transfer rate for whatever that hard drive connector is?

 

[barny]

Im not sure some of you understand all this. Basically the idea is this company swap the default Apple SSD storage with a much bigger one. They then give you the Apple one with a USB enclosure so you can transfer data back across to the air. The USB doent always have to be in. Youll have the bigger SSD storage already in the MacBook so you just use the USB as an external drive.

 

[ipoppy]

MacBook Air = Sleek, Elegant, Minimalist, etc.

Then you go and stick a diving board on the side of it!!!

My thought exactly. I don't think it will be popular solution. MBA is for those who can benefit from fast wireless network. Other people without it should rather focus on MBP instead.
By the way; thats remind me USB 1 which I have found at my work

 

[hexx]

the USB drive is so you can copy your existing data onto the new SSD drive you just installed. Plus you have a (64GB / 128GB) SSD USB drive if you want (backups, perhaps)



apparently the picture of the USB drive is confusing people. The 250MB/s transfer speeds are for the SSD card you are putting internally in your MacBook Air. The USB thing is just to get data off your old SSD card.

arn

aaah now it make sense - where did we get through out the years, i still remember the time when i was proud owner of 250MB hdd

 

[arn]

My thought exactly. I don't think it will be popular solution.

re-read the article. you're missing the point.

arn

 

[NickK1066]

Wooo... ahhhh..

That's one of those nice products that you really would end up buying. Saying anything else is just admiting you'd be in a state of denial.

*pats his OCZ Vertex 128GB in his '07 MBP*

 

[KnightWRX]

MBA is for those who can benefit from fast wireless network. Other people without it should rather focus on MBP instead.

Really, explain your reasoning here ? The MBA works quite fine offline, just as well as a MBP.

 

[markm49uk]

Up the Tigers!

I guess the USB drive is not applicable here, all we are interested in is what's inside, stick that in you MBA and off you go

Sorry off topic but nice to see a fellow Tigers supporter here!

 

[Compton]

Really, explain your reasoning here ? The MBA works quite fine offline, just as well as a MBP.

Online data access to circumvent the lack of storage capacity?

 

[clarksworth]

When this gets to the 3-400 GB range, an MBA would be very tempting for me.

re-read the article. you're missing the point.

arn

It must be depressing to know that a fair percent of your readership are cretins :/

 

[niuniu]

Very nice. Anxious to see what sort of price they'll put on this..

 

[EmmEff]

Glad to see third-party options so soon after the release of the new MBA.

So much for the naysayers who said this was Apple proprietary technology...

 

[Mord]

This makes the MBA a hell of a lot more appealing, it will definitely be my next laptop.

 

[NickK1066]

Online data access to circumvent the lack of storage capacity?

The problem with doing data processing on the MBA is:
1. CPU and memory are low speed
2. The local storage is small
3. The off-host storage is connected by USB2.0 or WiFi (WiFi has extreme latency and bandiwidth limitations)
4. No FW/USB3.0 connectivity to expand

So for editing your HD movie.. this is not going to cut it. It may work for some developers but it's probably not got the connectivity for developing apps beyond the Apple closed environment (an increasing trend). For us that develop using external interfaces (ie MIDI via FW) this isn't an attractive proposition. Pity as developing on the move is useful. Gaming? Perhaps last generation games on medium settings.

So this is basically the merging point of the iPad/OSX boundary so office, domestic work and content consumption. Designed for a purpose.

 

[2992]

The problem with doing data processing on the MBA is:
1. CPU and memory are low speed
2. The local storage is small
3. The off-host storage is connected by USB2.0 or WiFi (WiFi has extreme latency and bandiwidth limitations)
4. No FW/USB3.0 connectivity to expand

So for editing your HD movie.. this is not going to cut it. It may work for some developers but it's probably not got the connectivity for developing apps beyond the Apple closed environment (an increasing trend). For us that develop using external interfaces (ie MIDI via FW) this isn't an attractive proposition. Pity as developing on the move is useful. Gaming? Perhaps last generation games on medium settings.

So this is basically the merging point of the iPad/OSX boundary so office, domestic work and content consumption. Designed for a purpose.

I guess editing one HD movie at a time will do just fine. Correct me if I am wrong.
However, if one buys MBA for HD editing, then that's not ok. Not yet. Not until MBA will be designed with editing HD movies in mind. As of now, MBA is designed for something else, and its design is great for its purpose.

 

[Hawkeye411]

Why would you want to run you Mac off of a giant USB drive??

 

[dernhelm]

Wow. Some of the comments here just show a total lack of comprehension. It must be early or something...

 

[newagemac]

re-read the article. you're missing the point.

arn

Reread? I'm sorry to inform you but I would say half of your visitors don't even read the articles at all. They just read the headline only, look at the pictures, and then spout off uninformed nonsense.

 

[Adidas Addict]

Why would you want to run you Mac off of a giant USB drive??

Have you even read the article?