Can you buy SSD that Apple puts in MB?

[silverblack]

Does anyone know what brand and model is the SSD that Apple puts in aluminum MB and MB Pro for CTO? Is there somewhere that we can buy this SSD?

If not, has anyone put a 3rd party SSD drive in their glassbooks? Would you recommend it, how much and where did you get it?

Thanks

 

[Philflow]

I believe it's the 128GB Samsung MLC.

Yes most SSDs will work fine with the Macbook. Read some reviews at Tom's hardware, Anandtech, Techreport or Laptopmag.

 

[DJY]

There is now a thread in here - with someone pulling apart their new MBA.
Samsung SSD... you might be able to make out further details from the photo posted.

 

[mac jones]

Yeah sure you can.

 

[mac jones]

The new Air has a mini Sata connector as the drive is 1.8. The connector looks the same as the 2.5 inch ones but is smaller. You can get adapters on Ebay that are like enclosures that convert the 1.8 sata drives to 2.5 inch drives that will work in the Macbooks and Macbook pros. I have one of these that was used in a Levono. It's a Samsung SLC 64GB SATA2 SSD 1.8 inch that will work both in the Macbook Air and the Macbook using this adapter.

Note: since these are just chips It may be that a lot of these new SSD drives are just 1.8 drives with adapters. That way they have just one model to manufacture; at least that makes sense.

I'm testing an Intel X-25 and I suspect that it's just an X-18 (1.8") with an larger mounting bracket around it. (I'm not going to take the bracket off to see cuz if i'm wrong (which I usually am) ....well it ain't cheap folks

BTW here's the xBench for a Macbook unibody 2.0GHZ, X-25

Results 238.16
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.5 (9F2088)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBook5,1
Drive Type INTEL SSDSA2MH080G1GC
Disk Test 238.16
Sequential 159.85
Uncached Write 133.02 81.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 119.05 67.36 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 156.46 45.79 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 368.47 185.19 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 466.85
Uncached Write 630.76 66.77 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 188.52 60.35 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1575.47 11.16 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 958.38 177.83 MB/sec [256K blocks]

I'd say 'Smokin' but apparently it runs rather cool

 

[Philflow]

I'm testing an Intel X-25 and I suspect that it's just an X-18 (1.8") with an larger mounting bracket around it. (I'm not going to take the bracket off to see cuz if i'm wrong (which I usually am) ....well it ain't cheap folks

I guess you're wrong because otherwise it wouldn't take intel so long to release the 1.8" version.

 

[silverblack]

I believe it's the 128GB Samsung MLC.

Yes most SSDs will work fine with the Macbook. Read some reviews at Tom's hardware, Anandtech, Techreport or Laptopmag.

I read these reviews, and that's when I starting having concerns about these MLC drives. Take this one for an example:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=7&cp=9#comments

That's why I wonder what Apple uses. If it's the Samsung drive, does anyone know where I can get one (I searched, but couldn't find any resellers).

 

[Philflow]

I read these reviews, and that's when I starting having concerns about these MLC drives. Take this one for an example:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=7&cp=9#comments

That's why I wonder what Apple uses. If it's the Samsung drive, does anyone know where I can get one (I searched, but couldn't find any resellers).

As you can read in that review MLC is not the problem, it's the Jmicron controlller that some MLCs use.

The Samsung MLC does not use the Jmicron controller. I think it's only sold to OEMs, not in the retail channel. Your best bet is Ebay.

But then again, some people have reported that OCZ Core 2 and Patriot Warp V2 (both have Jmicron controller) work excellent with Macbooks, without any of the problems Anandtech describes.