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elf69

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 2, 2016
2,333
489
Cornwall UK
My 2012 is only 64GB SSD and well it not really big enough to carry my work files and personal files.

My other Mac died so this is now my everyday machine work and light home use although at home mainly my iMac gets used.

what is cheapest option to upgrade to say 240GB or more?
I know apple proprietary connection on airs.

Do I buy apple ssd and get an m2 adaptor?

thanks every one
 

PBG4 Dude

macrumors 601
Jul 6, 2007
4,357
4,633
I bought the Jet Transcend drive off Amazon a couple years ago and it’s worked great for me. I got the 480GB option but they make smaller drives too. They come with an external holder for the SSD you remove so you can use it as fast external storage.

Here’s a link for the 240GB option. It’s ~$200
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JKCHNQS/
 

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,303
2,995
+1 for me. I also have the 480GB Transcend unit
thumbsup.gif


Lou
 

Hexley

Suspended
Jun 10, 2009
1,641
505
My 2012 is only 64GB SSD and well it not really big enough to carry my work files and personal files.

My other Mac died so this is now my everyday machine work and light home use although at home mainly my iMac gets used.

what is cheapest option to upgrade to say 240GB or more?
I know apple proprietary connection on airs.

Do I buy apple ssd and get an m2 adaptor?

thanks every one

I hope that the 2018 Mac desktop & notebooks will use industry standard M.2 SSD specifications instead of these Apple-only connectors. Although I doubt that would happen. :)

I was looking for ways to upgrade my Mid 2012 Macbook Air's SSD.

The most straightforward solutions were from OWC & Transcend.

The problem with these two brands is that their $/GB is out of step with the rest of the SSD industry without any improvement in throughput.

OWC (drive-only) review
240GB $150 @ $0.63/GB
480GB $250 @ $0.52/GB
1TB $450 @ $0.45/GB

Transcend (drive + enclosure) review
240GB $230 @ $0.96/GB
480GB $350 @ $0.73/GB
960GB $600 @ $0.63/GB

Crucial MX500 M.2 SATA SSD (will need to verify if it's short enough to fit)
250GB $73 @ $0.29/GB
500GB $120 @ $0.24/GB
1TB $230 @ $0.23/GB

Buying the OWC solution is like buying two SSDs at the same storage capacity while buying Transcend is like buying three SSDs at the same storage capacity. :)

For the M.2 SATA SSD to work with the Apple SSD on connector you will need any of these adapter

$15 http://a.co/9yzrB5C Sintech
$17 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AM411FQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_837bBbTNRJR0R (Sintech for double side memory SSDs)
$12 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077JP52PK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_jn7bBb1P6MB9H
$12 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NGU4X2T/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_Jn7bBb694PPGC
$16 https://www.amazon.com/NGFF-Adapter-MacBook-A1465-A1466/dp/B00VRO9T5K

The replaced SSD can be made into an external drive using any of these enclosures.

$23 https://www.amazon.com/Sintech-External-Compatible-17Pin-MacBook/dp/B00PZVE00U Sintech
$49 https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU3ENVOY12/
$25 https://www.amazon.com/QNINE-Enclosure-MacBook-External-Adapter/dp/B0786G667L


Installation video is below.



Other Mac notebooks have 3rd party SSD replacements as shown below. So logically they should have adapters as well.

jwsZm1x.png
 
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elf69

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 2, 2016
2,333
489
Cornwall UK
Thank you for your time and I hope it will aid someone.

I have since swapped the air for a 2012 pro and it has a 240GB standard 2.5" SSD.

Yes it bigger and much heavier machine but to me worth it for my own uses.
However the air overall felt faster even though this pro has better CPU at 2.5GHz vs the 1.7GHz in the air.
Both machines have 4GB ram and same high sierra.
 
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