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OWC Announces Aura Flash Storage Upgrades for Mid-2013 and Later Mac Laptops
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I want to upgrade the capacity of my late 2013 13" rMBP, but these prices are just stupid. I'll deal with what I've got.
At these prices couldn't a person just sell their current Macbook or Macbook Air and put this money towards buying a brand new computer? I'm pretty sure it would be pretty close.. Maybe only a difference of a $100.00 or so.
Not sure why anyone would do this.
Not sure why anyone would do this.
That's probably how they got Apple's blessing. "Engineered for Mac first. No extra software needed."
One could assume, that means no 3rd party TRIM tool needed ?
Been waiting since they announced them. Now 1TB inside. 512 GB outside, plus 256 tardisk or transcend jetdrive into the slot and we are golden.
PS : there is also a minidisk option to make things exchangable, but the write speeds are sloooooooowww
Indeed! I just bought a 2013 MBA refurb with 128GB SSD, swapped it with my Mac Mini's 256GB SSD (128 is enough for Fusion drive) and added cheap $50 128GB mini usb drive + 128GB microSD drive with a flush mount adapter.
256GB of 90% mostly read-only storage for iTunes content & photos.
OWC is overpricing this.
El Capitan has a trim enabler built in via terminal. No need for 3rd party tools anymore. At these prices that owc is charging, I'd rather go on a well known bidding site and get a genuine Apple/Samsung pcie ssd that's just as fast as the original. Also that bidders site rules are so skewed in favor of the buyer that you're guaranteed free returns for at least 30 days or more if it doesn't work on your machine.
You won't get read speeds of 750 MB/s on that $129 external drive since it will be SATA-limited.
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If said AASP is the one that put in the third-party SSD for you, they by definition have worked on your equipment. And are thus unlikely to refuse further work.
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You mean as they have done when OWC started to offer SSD upgrades for the 2012 rMBP in 2014?
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If an AASP is installing third-party parts in a Macintosh covered by AppleCare that is a fast-track to having Apple shut them down. More to the point, no; just because someone violates the rules does not exonerate you in the future. Again, if you want to take the chance, don't be surprised if it bites you in the future.
Well, the 1TB is still cheaper than the Apple upgrade. I'm trying so hard to not fill my 512gb but it's so hard!
Wonderful!
Beats tracking down nMP drives. Although price is about the same and they might be faster.
Beats tracking down nMP drives. Although price is about the same and they might be faster.
These are junk....1/3 of the read speeds from the 2015 Samsung 951 drives and 1/2 the write speeds....
I'm just skeptical of Silicon Motion controllers. They are typically used on lower end drives. I prefer Marvell myself. I'm also not a fan of Sandforce either.What's wrong with that controller? (I actually don't know, just asking)
I highly doubt that. The one I am using is a quite prominent 'Apple' store in my city and has done this for many years for me on machines with AppleCare. In fact, I have even discussed this with Geniuses in a (real) Apple Store which actually recommended them for such tasks.
I can also confirm that a 2013 SSD on a PCIe adapter card from eBay works in a very old Classic Mac Pro 1,1. It can also be used in a PC with the adapter card, just not bootable.
i had always been under the impression there was some signalling change in the connector that made the apple drives "special".... so is the reality they're just using custom form factors to screw over their customers?
One can never have enough storage, my developer Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013's 500GB flash is constantly too full, with plenty of Xcode objects, VM images, etc.
When I purchased it it was a hefty premium, maybe even the largest available at the time.
Recently I asked in the local Apple Store if I can pay them to upgrade, install a bigger genuine Apple SSD. Short answers: Nope–no way.
This are indeed very sad times–brave new world. When on such an expensive premium machine the original vendor will not sell you any serviceable upgrade :-/!
In my opinion it are things like this that draw pro users and developers to other platforms again.
When I purchased it it was a hefty premium, maybe even the largest available at the time.
Recently I asked in the local Apple Store if I can pay them to upgrade, install a bigger genuine Apple SSD. Short answers: Nope–no way.
This are indeed very sad times–brave new world. When on such an expensive premium machine the original vendor will not sell you any serviceable upgrade :-/!
In my opinion it are things like this that draw pro users and developers to other platforms again.
if its anything like there past drives....GARBAGE and stay away.
we had 3 fail and be replaced 2 twice. they are sitting in a drawer right now.
I didn't see anyone catch this, but it explains the slow speeds:
It also uses a Marvell 9230 SATA RAID chip. So this drive is basically a SATA RAID setup converted to PCI-E 2.0.
Thus no need for PCI-E x4 speeds.
Basically I'm staying far away from this one.
Hm, in the product specifications it actually says "TRIM: not supported".
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDAB2MB10K
Oh man, that no good!Hm, in the product specifications it actually says "TRIM: not supported".
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDAB2MB10K
I just checked my 2013 MBA speeds and it can do 650MB/s on writes, the Aura only specs up to 425MB/s and without TRIM will slow down more once it fills up.