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SSD Upgrade Kits Push 2010 MacBook Air Capacity to 360 GB

Geez, at those prices it would be cool if you could order a MBA sans the SSD or at least send OWC the factory-installed SSD for a discount off a new one.
 
The best feature is missing....

Wang Foolio said:
Economy SSD's kind of defeat the purpose of SSD's. If it's not as fast or has less advanced measures to deal with degredation, then why would you pay hundreds of dollars to mod your MBA with it?
Click to expand...

... and that's Apple OSX support for TRIM !
 
Mister Snitch said:
How about SSD PC cards? I know you can get 'em in 96 GB capacities, and they're easy to install. A bit hard to find, though, for some reason. Anyone have experiences to share with them?
Click to expand...

ROTF. PC cards? You might want to look at MacBook Air specs first.
 
The flash density for the package size is what's going to be the killer in the Macbook Air.

RAID 0 Spinpoint F4s for my desktop looks better and better everyday.
 
Enter Sandforce

All I can hear going through my head now is a modified version of Metallica song: "Enter Sandforce" :)

Love the chipset. It has revolutionized SSDs. Have a 60GB in my MBP now, and I have a 20 second boot (all plugins loaded and Safari started)... less than $200 for the mod. Still have a 500GB data drive too. Lovin' it.
 
Eidorian said:
The flash density for the package size is what's going to be the killer in the Macbook Air.

RAID 0 Spinpoint F4s for my desktop looks better and better everyday.
Click to expand...

So I take it you still have to experience the awesome-sauce that an Solid State Disk is with such a comment?

At least use an Solid State Disk as the boot drive?
 
No TRIM = Pointless

There is no OS X support for TRIM, therefore, using an SSD is pointless since it will degrade and slow down over time.
 
3goldens said:
I'm so not going to even consider this. I like mine just the way it is!

Besides their greedy bastards and I hope Apple shuts them down!
Click to expand...

greedy bastards?
and apple isnt?

at least they provide SANDFORCE controlled SSD's not the kind of crap apple puts in their SSDs (toshiba crap)

also apple charges more.......
 
Pressure said:
So I take it you still have to experience the awesome-sauce that an Solid State Disk is with such a comment?

At least use an Solid State Disk as the boot drive?
Click to expand...
The same logic used for DIMMs and SO-DIMMs can be applied. You're going to need higher density memory on a smaller platform. A 2.5" SSD is gigantic compared to a blade. (or DIMM vs. SO-DIMM). You can use an array of lower density memory at a lower price to reach the required size.

The price per GB on SSDs is still too high for me. I just want 200 GB too. I can get a pair of single platter Spinpoint F4s (640 GB) for around $90.
 
3goldens said:
I'm so not going to even consider this. I like mine just the way it is!

Besides their greedy bastards and I hope Apple shuts them down!
Click to expand...

??? Are you talking about the the OWC ?

The have very competitive prices and great information online. I ordered the 256GB SSD for my MacBook there, great experience and great price. Absolutely nothing to complain about. Not sure what you are talking about.

Also: if you think a product is too expensive - just don't buy it, nobody is forcing you.
 
D'Illusion said:
When are the prices for SSDs going to come down. The transition has been painful to say the least.
Click to expand...
They are coming down:
2010-1214-graph-ssd-prices.gif


Source:
http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2010/20101214_SSDPrices--ssd.html
 
This is fantastic!!! No way I can afford this, but it's great to see drives of this size. Maybe in a year, I could afford a 1/2 GB drive in SSD. SSDs are getting much closer to mainstream!!! So long, spinning platter :)
 
Robert M. said:
Wow, those prices gave me a good laugh! To me the MBA isn't about storage, I don't think it's meant to be your one and only computer, so it doesn't need a ton of storage. I think Apple's offerings are enough.

I'm going to pick up a 64gig 11.6 inch in a couple of days and I'm not concerned about running out of storage. I probably won't even use half of it :p
Click to expand...

64 Gb may be good for now. In a few years, the 240 gb unit will cost around $300, and will be a very good upgrade for the current 64 gb model.
 
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pr5owner said:
for 1TB of storage, there is no internal solution
Click to expand...
In a MBP, you can put up to 1.5 TB of storage (two 750 GB drive, one going into the place of the optical drive, works for 13", 15", and 17" models).
Benjy91 said:
This is what has been putting me off SSD, I need at least 1TB of storage... That won't be a reasonable price for many, many years. At this point my storage needs will have probably grown :(.
Click to expand...
Just get a 13" MBP (instead of the Air) and combine a 250 GB SSD with a 750 GB harddrive. Presto, there you have your 1 TB of storage.
 
pr5owner said:
for 1TB of storage, there is no internal solution
for Macs you have a SLOW external solution
for PC's you have a FAST external solution

external 2.5" drives arent that bad to carry, just 3.5s are
Click to expand...

manu chao said:
In a MBP, you can put up to 1.5 TB of storage (two 750 GB drive, one going into the place of the optical drive, works for 13", 15", and 17" models).
Click to expand...
I don't believe you're limited to 9.5 mm tall drives in the Unibody models. At least that is what I was told.
 
Benjy91 said:
This is what has been putting me off SSD, I need at least 1TB of storage... That won't be a reasonable price for many, many years. At this point my storage needs will have probably grown :(.
Click to expand...

Eidorian said:
I don't believe you're limited to 9.5 mm tall drives in the Unibody models. At least that is what I was told.
Click to expand...
I have heard statements going both ways. Possibly, there is a also a difference between the 13" and the 17" models.
 
The MacbookAir is still just a curious trinket-device to me. Nice, good, and all, but it should have been a tablet. Adding all this cash into a laptop seems so pointless in 2011; it would have made better sense in 2008.
 
Our Sandforce based SSDs, unlike pretty much any non-SF based SSD, don't depend nor require OS TRIM support to operate. The Sandforce processor handles this independently.. which is why we also are able to offer models with RAID support. Even with TRIM support on Windows, that is defeated when you RAID.

This is data endurance load testing of our SSDs vs. Crucial C300 and M225:
http://macperformanceguide.com/SSD-RealWorld-SevereDuty.html

Since Apple OS doesn't support TRIM - any SSD that needs TRIM is ultimately going to degrade in use with the Mac or in any platform when setup for RAID. Good thing that our line doesn't depend on TRIM - and even with TRIM supporting operating systems, TRIM is far from ideal and much better off not needing at all.

With the MacBook Air and Legacy entries - we now have the full span covered with Sandforce based solutions for nearly any Mac or PC over the last 12 years:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/

As for cost - yes - the MacBook Air 2010 units are pricey, more pricey than the 2.5" and 1.8" standard profile drives even... and that's not because we're taking any kind of vantage. We're very competitive in general with our product line and always have been. It is the cost of flash that drives the cost of these products.

These SSDs are better then a processor upgrade... and proof in point is watching a 2006 MacBook Pro with 2GB start up and launch CS5 faster than a 2010 i7 MacBook Pro latest and greatest with 4GB stock memory and same OS version, etc.
http://eshop.macsales.com/owcpages/ssd-speed-test-4way.html

Put the latest Mac and our SSD together - and there's the top today. The latest Mac or not - once you get a taste, no going back. It's like being on Dial up and moving to broadband for the first time.

There ya go. :)

ThomasJL said:
There is no OS X support for TRIM, therefore, using an SSD is pointless since it will degrade and slow down over time.
Click to expand...

All MacBook and MacBook Pro Unibody models are able to accept a 12.5mm SATA Hard Drive.

Prior to the 2008 and later various Unibody models -

MacBook 13", MacBook Pro 15" are 9.5mm max. MacBook Pro 17" is the only pre-unibody that can also take 12.5mm.

manu chao said:
I have heard statements going both ways. Possibly, there is a also a difference between the 13" and the 17" models.
Click to expand...
 
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pr5owner said:
for 1TB of storage, there is no internal solution
for Macs you have a SLOW external solution
for PC's you have a FAST external solution

external 2.5" drives arent that bad to carry, just 3.5s are
Click to expand...

Utter rubbish. Grab an IMac with a two tb Internal hard drive. People that need more storage or faster than this are pro users, who will simply grab a mac pro and add eSata to it. You can also have eSata fitted to the iMac if you really need it. There are identical options available for mac and windows machines, I suggest you do some research before spreading FUD.
 
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