Toshiba SSD vs OWC6G SSD - Noticable?

[raftr]

And professionaly speaking...editing files (audio, video) usually happens on an external drive, the bottleneck then is the connection with that external drive. Unless of course you use a desktop (an optibay perhaps is another option, but this is the MBA forum).

Use-case scenarios vary. I use the MB Air as my main and only computer—the first computer I had that is both fast enough and really portable. Editing files in my case happens on my main drive whenever it's possible and if upgrading the SSD will get Lightroom thumbnail grid or previews to display noticeably faster, I guess it is worth it.

I wonder what the hit on battery life is in reality though.

 

[johnhurley]

I'm thinking about moving to a 120GB OWC 6G SSD, but would I really notice much of a change in Application launching, file extracting(I do a LOT of that with 14-40GB files that are broken down into 50+ Rar files) and battery life?

Would you be better served by changing to a mac pro or macbook pro that you could load with 16 gb ( or more ) or memory?

 

[paulrbeers]

I can see your point. But the Toshiba SSD's are still slower. Numbers and real world experience don't lie

Maybe you can't tell and that's fine...... most people won't be able to.

Heres a video to check out to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_vaZl0H56o

Toshiba is the slower of the 2.... No amount of saying I don't understand the SSD experience can refute that...

We aren't saying it ISN'T slower, its that unless they are sitting next to each other you would never realize it. Why spend $250+ for even the cheapest model just so you can shave a few seconds here and there. Oh and don't forget you are also voiding your warranty since that isn't a replaceable part per Apple.

I've got the money to upgrade from my "slow" Toshiba drive, but I'd rather keep my warranty and deal with the 1-2 slower boot times and the fraction of a second slower App loading time.

 

[raftr]

Would you be better served by changing to a mac pro or macbook pro that you could load with 16 gb ( or more ) or memory?

No, I don't need that much power, not at the cost of losing the instant mobility my Air gives me. I don't do video/print, only web/photo, otherwise it could've been different. Also, I always hated having to sync two computers, have been using laptops as desktops for 7 years now and I am not looking back.

I moved on to the Air when I realized how I never took my laptop with me because it was too heavy and bulky. I once had to take my almost 3Kg, 17" Pro on holidays, only to do 2 hours work on it—that was the last straw.

The Air is smaller, lighter, faster (than the old MBP of course), has good enough resolution and the department where it's really lacking is storage (and until Thunderbolt goes mainstream, connectivity).

It is now closed, driving a 30" Cinema Display really smoothly—I can't imagine not being able to just slip it into a sleeve and take it with me, even if doesn't happen every day.

 

[thekev]

Also, with the Samsung/LG display controversy, there is actually a very noticeable difference.

The LG has some calibration issues, but is brighter and has better viewing angles. The Samsung has weak viewing angles, but looks good out of the box. I probably prefer the Samsung as I'm not good at calibrating, and you sort of have to work at the LG. But I like both, and would not care either way.

Suggestion is a powerful thing

If you happen to read this, would you mention how many times you've seen this effect between the different panel brands? Lcd panels have quite a lot of sample variation in terms of hardware. Some of it is corrected before the machine makes it to market, but they're not going to adjust it level by level as it would increase assembly costs too much.

I have both too and I stick to it. Samsung is most certainly faster. http://i.tuaw.com/2011/07/26/macbook-airs-using-ssds-from-both-toshiba-and-samsung/

It's hard to describe some of these things in two dimensional terms as their behavior can be different in different areas, but it makes me wonder if anyone has done a real analysis on the component comparison. With the sales volume of these computers, it doesn't surprise me that they require multiple component vendors.

No, I don't need that much power, not at the cost of losing the instant mobility my Air gives me. I don't do video/print, only web/photo, otherwise it could've been different. Also, I always hated having to sync two computers, have been using laptops as desktops for 7 years now and I am not looking back.

I don't blame you. Owning one computer for everything would be nice . I'm a little jealous, but my needs are a bit different, and even if I could make due with a laptop, I couldn't work with integrated graphics. Much of the software I work with uses OpenGL (some OpenCL or CUDA if available), and none of them really test on Intel's integrated gpus, so unless that changes one day, I'll never use this class of machine. It's impressive how far they've come along with the Air, and it seems to have increased significantly in popularity since the base macbook went away.

 

[Smileyboy]

No, I don't need that much power, not at the cost of losing the instant mobility my Air gives me. I don't do video/print, only web/photo, otherwise it could've been different. Also, I always hated having to sync two computers, have been using laptops as desktops for 7 years now and I am not looking back.

I moved on to the Air when I realized how I never took my laptop with me because it was too heavy and bulky. I once had to take my almost 3Kg, 17" Pro on holidays, only to do 2 hours work on it—that was the last straw.

The Air is smaller, lighter, faster (than the old MBP of course), has good enough resolution and the department where it's really lacking is storage (and until Thunderbolt goes mainstream, connectivity).

It is now closed, driving a 30" Cinema Display really smoothly—I can't imagine not being able to just slip it into a sleeve and take it with me, even if doesn't happen every day.

So how do you use your Air?

 

[raftr]

So how do you use your Air?

Some 90% of the time it is a desktop computer, lid closed, with external keyboard, a large LCD display and a Wacom tablet.

My previous laptop had a 500GB drive, I can't say I don't miss it—hence my interest in the OWC offerings. I am not 100% sold on 6G yet, not until I find if it really adds speed in real-world use and doesn't drain the battery too much.

 

[psxp]

at first when I got my air I was all caught up in all this mumbo-jumbo.. now,
I dont care. The machine works well and speed difference is minimal for my use. If I was to be doing major rendering or massive computation, I would have bought a different machine,

 

[atMac]

I think we can all agree though that an ULV quad core i7, with 8GB RAM, and SATA3 SSD would be the best of both worlds.

I just want my files to extract faster instead of taking about 10 minutes. Yes, I know I'm just arguing over a few moments saved.

 

[Smileyboy]

I'm totally with u!!!! My minutes are precious. I can't get them back!

 

[stylinexpat]

Does OCZ make a Vertex 3 SSD Kit for the Macbook Air?

 

[austinguy23]

Does OCZ make a Vertex 3 SSD Kit for the Macbook Air?

Only OCW has an internal SSD for the MBA.

 

[carreragt7]

I've got an 11" Ultimate Air that came with the 256gb Samsung drive, and I recently upgraded to the 240gb 6G OWC. For normal usage it really isn't noticeable, but when I have Photoshop, Captivate, etc going it is definitely snappier than the stock drive. If I had to do it over again I would just stick with the Samsung drive and enjoy the extra $500 saved from not buying the OWC.

 

[raftr]

I've got an 11" Ultimate Air that came with the 256gb Samsung drive, and I recently upgraded to the 240gb 6G OWC. For normal usage it really isn't noticeable, but when I have Photoshop, Captivate, etc going it is definitely snappier than the stock drive.

Thanks, this is valuable input. Did you notice a hit on battery life?

 

[carreragt7]

Thanks, this is valuable input. Did you notice a hit on battery life?

Honestly, not really. I usually only use it on battery for a couple hours at a time, I usually have it plugged into my cinema display when at home and into the regular power supply when at work or class. But for those couple of hours of use I don't notice it draining any more than what it did with the stock drive.

The computer does boot up slightly faster as well, but the boot up time of the regular SSD isn't slow by any means.

 

[raftr]

Honestly, not really. I usually only use it on battery for a couple hours at a time, I usually have it plugged into my cinema display when at home and into the regular power supply when at work or class. But for those couple of hours of use I don't notice it draining any more than what it did with the stock drive.

Thanks for that info.

Interesting news: Envoy, OWC's new SSD enclosure, aimed at Air users:
http://blog.macsales.com/13057-owc-...-macbook-air-ssd-as-a-portable-external-drive
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/drive/enclosure-kits/OWC/Envoy

 

[raftr]

I just installed the 240GB 6G Aura Pro blade in my Air. First impressions…

• Boot-up time — no change, 19 sec from chime to desktop. It used to be about 16-17 seconds before I updated to 10.7.3 I think.
• App launch — no improvement. Photoshop used to take 5 seconds on first launch, then 2.7-3 seconds on subsequent launches without restarting. It is now respectively 5 and 3-3.3 seconds. More or less the same or worse (could be measuring error).
• Displaying previews in Lightroom — visible improvement. "Loading from previews…" used to pop out a lot and lasted about a second when I browsed my photos. I rarely see it now and it is always only split second. This is exactly where I wanted to see an improvement.