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OWC Announces Aura Flash Storage Upgrades for Mid-2013 and Later Mac Laptops

GaiusBaltar said:
I bought the 480 SSD for my macbook air 2015 with 128 GB, and after I installed it I wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible and returned it asap.

three reasons:

1: the SSD can't be recognised as internal ssd "for some reason", and can only be recognized as "external pci-device" (with all consequences already told). Reinstalling osx was a drag.

2: my air was always running very cool, almost never feeling hot, but with the OWC ssd, several times it was feeling really hot while not doing anything special (watching a film?)

3: most important: I have the air for a specific reason: its stunning battery life of more than 10 hours, but with the OWC that battery life was at least cut in half

so well, that was a quick decision.

Oh and also, very dissappointing R/W speed. Half of my original. mkay.

So... no. I don't think they did a very good job, and a lot of how they advertise is very clearly vague on purpose.
If it would be "perfecly compatible" then my mac should recognise it as the internal disk, not an "external pci-device".

Stay away from this. Really. They shouldn't have had this released.
I read the topic through after I already bought it, and I'm afraid all of your concerns are righteous.

If you want to upgrade your 2013-.. machine, look for an original SSD, or sell it and buy a new one with a bigger disk. Or well. Get some half-ass excuse for a vastly overpriced "upgrade" in size which negates half the advantages your macbook had in the first place.
Click to expand...
Wow, thank you for the first hand experience. As for the heat and the power draw, are you sure that your OWC SSD was free of faults?

Thanks again,
Magnus
 
can't be completely sure, but I asked OWC's support and they gave me a very vague answer, asking to check my power settings, and they weren't sure about the fact that it cut my battery life in half. (???) "since I got from 128 to 480 that could be a reason". Well that's just ridiculous..

My power settings were always fine, and it was clear to me from that answer they weren't really thinking that the fault might be with their SSD I got, so well.. The only rational decision was to return it. I don't have the intention to wait until some magical software solution'd come up within some.....time.
It's a hardware problem, not a software one. Clearly.

Even if it was a faulty ssd, they should just admit it that their ssd-upgrade solution is some experimental workaround thing that'll never be able to achieve the quality of the original SSD's. It felt like some... beta-experiment I don't want to be part of.

Maybe in a couple of years they'll get it right, but for the time being.. no.
Unless they're willing to give me another SSD for free to experiment with if that might work better ;).

I really wonder if they really tested the thing, also, I'm really curious about other experiences, because all I could find until now were some promotional blabla-stuff.
 
QuiteSure said:
That's actually an encouraging review. I've been tempted by the upgrade, but shied away based on some of the comments here.
Click to expand...
Actually, I'd shy (far) away for the time being. On the German Macuser forum also the first hands-on reports are trickling in, which confirm what GaiusBaltar reported:
  1. Slower than current Apple SSDs
  2. no Bootcamp support
  3. heats up pretty quickly
  4. halves MBA battery live
Furthermore, one user reported that the SSD also does not support TRIM: The Mac recognises it as a 'rotational storage device'.

(for German speakers) more here: http://www.macuser.de/threads/erste...e-ssd-mba-rmbp-stay-away.745653/#post-8779886

Best,
Magnus
 
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Dong2016 said:
Hey ppl,

I’ve a MBP Retina 2012 13 " which has 128GB stock SSD - (Read 356 MBps, Write 233 MBps)
I’m considering to replace it with an OWC Aura 6G 240GB SSD (Read 501 MBps, Write 503 MBps)
But there is noticeable improvement in performance / disk speed?
Are Read 501 MBps, Write 503 MBps much better than Read 356 MBps, Write 233 MBps?

//
dong

Link: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDA12R240/
Click to expand...

Yes, higher numbers faster throughput.

OWC has a chat feature, they will confirm if you ask them.
 
Thunderhawks said:
Yes, higher numbers faster throughput.

OWC has a chat feature, they will confirm if you ask them.
Click to expand...
Of course they will confirm that their products are better :). If anything transpires from this thread than that OWC SSDs have a sketchy reputation among Mac users.

I personally would look for an original Apple SSD to replace your 128 GB one. Usually, large capacity SSDs are faster than smaller ones, ceteris paribus (the benchmarks for Apple's 256 GB and higher SSDs of the same MBPr are higher than those you report for the 128 GB). Second, there is an intrinsic difference between a manufacturer's claim in the data sheet and your own (BlackMagic or other) measurements.
 
Thx for the answers :)... But what i hear Apple do not replace MBP Retina SSD disk?
I was most interested to hear if there are noticeable improvement in performance / disk speed or it's just on the paper ;)...
 
Dong2016 said:
Thx for the answers :)... But what i hear Apple do not replace MBP Retina SSD disk?
I was most interested to hear if there are noticeable improvement in performance / disk speed or it's just on the paper ;)...
Click to expand...
Personal experience: largest difference between spinning disk and modern SSD (of any kind), rest at normal use (which you have since our are still on a 128 GB disk) purely academic.

For an original Apple replacement you need indeed a good relationship to your ASP or look at Ebay and DIY (which is what I do). Its fairly easy with a rMBP.
 
mbosse said:
Of course they will confirm that their products are better :). If anything transpires from this thread than that OWC SSDs have a sketchy reputation among Mac users.

I personally would look for an original Apple SSD to replace your 128 GB one. Usually, large capacity SSDs are faster than smaller ones, ceteris paribus (the benchmarks for Apple's 256 GB and higher SSDs of the same MBPr are higher than those you report for the 128 GB). Second, there is an intrinsic difference between a manufacturer's claim in the data sheet and your own (BlackMagic or other) measurements.
Click to expand...

I have several OWC SSDs as well as HDs and they have all been fine.
There are warranties that come with it.

The last SSD I bought was 1GB for the 2014 MBP which was not available for a long time.
Runs beautifully.

Yes, people sell OEM SSDs on ebay, but the prices are usually crazy.
At least for what I wanted.

So, buy whatever best you can afford.
 
Programs I use on my MBP Retina is:
Google Chrome, Safari, Adobe Photoshop, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Diablo 3, Dropbox, Sublime Text 2, MAMP, Spotify, VLC, TI-Nspire CX, Skype, iTunes.
 
Dong2016 said:
Thx for the answers :)... But what i hear Apple do not replace MBP Retina SSD disk?
I was most interested to hear if there are noticeable improvement in performance / disk speed or it's just on the paper ;)...
Click to expand...

I just upgraded from a 2011 i7 15" MBP with a 1TB SSD (about 350 read/write) to the new mid 2015 rMBP with 1TB (~ 1,300 write/1,838 Write) and honestly, besides copy pasting like a 30 GB file, you don't really notice a massive difference. It's a bit noticeable for sure, but you kind of get to a point where its like "does it take the computer 5 seconds to open this app, or 2.5 seconds?" Not really gonna notice much lol. Love the USB 3.0 transfer rates, but other than that data processing wise, not a massive difference.

------------------------------------

iTunes is noticeably MUCH better when streaming to Apple TV etc BTW.

Basically everything else you use works about the same, a bit better really.
 
iFixit I think has actual original drives available, but are super expensive. Unless there are reliabilty isssues with the OWCs, their performance should be more than adequate unless you deal with TBs of non compressible files (video for example). Nothing beats plenty of easily accessible storage, and as has been said, larger drives perform better in SSDs.
 
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