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

2G MBA - buy the HDD now, and upgrade with an Intel 160GB X18-M SSD later?

ducatidoc

ducatidoc

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 20, 2008
136
0
so like the heading says, i had an epiphany and am now thinking that if the connection for the drives has been updated to SATA, then it might be an easy upgrade in finding other SSD drives for this little lappie.

then i remembered intel's x18-m, set to debut any day now... and at a yummy 160 GB...

so whats the word here? i have read that the intel drive uses a SATA-300 connection. anyone know if this is the same in the apple, or is all SATA the same?

also, can we still order the 1.8 GHz chip with a regular HDD? if this upgrade is plausible, it would be worth saving the money until the intel drive debuts.
 
ducatidoc said:
so like the heading says, i had an epiphany and am now thinking that if the connection for the drives has been updated to SATA, then it might be an easy upgrade in finding other SSD drives for this little lappie.

then i remembered intel's x18-m, set to debut any day now... and at a yummy 160 GB...

so whats the word here? i have read that the intel drive uses a SATA-300 connection. anyone know if this is the same in the apple, or is all SATA the same?

also, can we still order the 1.8 GHz chip with a regular HDD? if this upgrade is plausible, it would be worth saving the money until the intel drive debuts.
Click to expand...

This is why we need reviews and tear downs of the new models. If that drive is compatible and if the Apple drive doesnt offer similar performance I think a lot of people will be doing exactly what you suggested.
 
How much of a price slam are we going to take on that X18-M? It looks cool, but isn't it going to cost an arm and a leg? 160GB of speedy SSD in a MBA with a 9400M is REALLY appealing though....
 
Let's be real about it, though, there's no seal to break, and just what, eight screws? If you pop out the stock drive and keep it somewhere, if you ever need service on it, you can pop the stock drive back in, and nobody would ever know, right?
 
KamiNoYadoru said:
How much of a price slam are we going to take on that X18-M? It looks cool, but isn't it going to cost an arm and a leg? 160GB of speedy SSD in a MBA with a 9400M is REALLY appealing though....
Click to expand...

the initial price i found was: "80GB version is priced at $595".
 
KamiNoYadoru said:
How much of a price slam are we going to take on that X18-M? It looks cool, but isn't it going to cost an arm and a leg? 160GB of speedy SSD in a MBA with a 9400M is REALLY appealing though....
Click to expand...

appealing... or downright sexy?

only issue is, do you get the 1.6 and save money now, or order a 1.8 and try to pawn off your solid state drive on ebay later??
 
Looks like the CTO option for the 1.8 is $200, where it used to be $300. That's pretty reasonable. What I really want to know is if the construction changed at all and whether the heat management in the 2G airs is going to be better.
 
Spending any more than $100 on a HD for the Air does not make sense to me. The air was not designed to be anyone's main computer. It's for taking on the road to do light duty stuff.
Dropping $400+ on a SSD now is not a wise investment. By the time SSD drives are mainstream, your current Air will be a dinosaur or only good for web browsing. Save your time and money and just enjoy the Air to the fullest now. If you need storage, get a 500GB USB HD.
 
DjAmTraX said:
Spending any more than $100 on a HD for the Air does not make sense to me. The air was not designed to be anyone's main computer. It's for taking on the road to do light duty stuff.
Dropping $400+ on a SSD now is not a wise investment. By the time SSD drives are mainstream, your current Air will be a dinosaur or only good for web browsing. Save your time and money and just enjoy the Air to the fullest now. If you need storage, get a 500GB USB HD.
Click to expand...

Actually, if I can get a decent amount of storage in my air, it will be my main and ONLY computer. Problem with your little USB HD theory is iTunes, remember? A 160GB HDD would be game over for me.
 
That's what I'm doing right now, and it's moderately passable, but it gets extremely sluggish. It does WORK, just not all that well, even on a 5GHZ wireless N network. I'd prefer to get it all local, the performance will be WAY better (if the disk has good I/O speeds).
 
ducatidoc said:
so like the heading says, i had an epiphany and am now thinking that if the connection for the drives has been updated to SATA, then it might be an easy upgrade in finding other SSD drives for this little lappie.

then i remembered intel's x18-m, set to debut any day now... and at a yummy 160 GB...

so whats the word here? i have read that the intel drive uses a SATA-300 connection. anyone know if this is the same in the apple, or is all SATA the same?

also, can we still order the 1.8 GHz chip with a regular HDD? if this upgrade is plausible, it would be worth saving the money until the intel drive debuts.
Click to expand...

The Intel X18-M is a SATA drive. The MacBook Air uses PATA connectors (a ZIF one to be exact). That drive won't connect. There are only a small number of SSDs that would work. Mtron makes one, and I bet the new ones will be Samsung.
 
Thiol said:
The Intel X18-M is a SATA drive. The MacBook Air uses PATA connectors (a ZIF one to be exact). That drive won't connect. There are only a small number of SSDs that would work. Mtron makes one, and I bet the new ones will be Samsung.
Click to expand...

As the OP states, the new MBA has switched to SATA drives...
 
dehory said:
As the OP states, the new MBA has switched to SATA drives...
Click to expand...

Oh. I didn't notice that because I saw the word "if." Anyhow, looks to be true. The only catch now is if the X-18M is the right thickness. It's a 5 mm drive, so I bet it'll work just fine.
 
As I wrote in this thread, it doesn't seem like the SSDs in the new MBAs are going to be as fast and energy efficient as Intel's.

Depending on exactly how much better the Intel drives are and how much they end up retailing for once they're widely available, I'd probably switch out the HDD for an SSD too. Maybe it'll turn out that it's cheaper to upgrade to the X18-M than pick the 128GB SSD option when ordering.

For that reason, I'm waiting until reviews start coming out in November before I make my decision...
 
I am thinking about doing the same but I was wondering is it very difficult to remove and replace the HDD in the MBA or is it a major hassle?
 
dehory said:
As I wrote in this thread, it doesn't seem like the SSDs in the new MBAs are going to be as fast and energy efficient as Intel's.

Depending on exactly how much better the Intel drives are and how much they end up retailing for once they're widely available, I'd probably switch out the HDD for an SSD too. Maybe it'll turn out that it's cheaper to upgrade to the X18-M than pick the 128GB SSD option when ordering.

For that reason, I'm waiting until reviews start coming out in November before I make my decision...
Click to expand...

Word on the street is that the Apple SSDs are likely Samsung MLCs. All MLCs except Intel have that bad controller that causes problems when multi-tasking. I think it's safe to assume that the Intel X18-M will be the better SSD. The catch is that I'm not even sure where to buy one. I got an X25-M for my Mac Pro from CDWG, but it doesn't seem as if they sell the X18-M...
 
Ain't going to fit!.

The Rev B MBA uses a sata ZIF connector while the Intel X-18M uses the mini SATA edge connector. Sorry, unless Intel does a limited run of these with sata ZIF, I don't see any way, unless some 3rd party company comes up with a ribbon connector that does the gender-bender on it.

Besides, is there a second SATA port on the Rev B ?.:confused:
 
Air with an INTEL X18-M SSDSA1M080G2GN disk score:204,93

fteoath64 said:
The Rev B MBA uses a sata ZIF connector while the Intel X-18M uses the mini SATA edge connector. Sorry, unless Intel does a limited run of these with sata ZIF, I don't see any way, unless some 3rd party company comes up with a ribbon connector that does the gender-bender on it.

Besides, is there a second SATA port on the Rev B ?.:confused:
Click to expand...

I installed an intel X18-M into my air but its no job for the amateurs....

Xbench results...
http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc1=435718&doc2=356983

Overall disk test score:
INTEL SSDSA1M080G2GN 204,93
APPLE SSD SM128 84,86

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/657341/
 
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