Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Upgrade Mid-2011 MBA SSD

BrownManUPS

BrownManUPS

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 30, 2007
827
32
Denver
Hi guys,

I'm running out of space on my 128GB SSD, and was thinking about upgrading to 256 rather than buying a new machine (though I love the 11inchers on the market).

I am willing to pay 200-300 to have Apple do it -- is this an option? Has anyone used AppleCare/theStore to give your computer in for an upgrade? Does anyone know the price?

And if this isn't an option, has anyone done the upgrade to 256SSD themselves? Is it hard to do? I'm sorta experienced with upgrading RAM in the older MacBooks... the iFixit guide seems to suggest it isn't too hard if you have about 15 minutes. Thoughts?

Thanks.
 
dont think apple will upgrade the air's ssd.

the only way to upgrade is to buy the air's drive from owc.com and upgrade it yourself. it's easy.
 
aleni said:
dont think apple will upgrade the air's ssd.

the only way to upgrade is to buy the air's drive from owc.com and upgrade it yourself. it's easy.
Click to expand...

No, owc is not the only way. There are plenty cheaper original MBA SSD offers on eBay. The owc upgrade, however, gives you the SATA3 speeds the MBA 2012 is capable of.

I did the upgrade myself (64->128) on my MBA11 2010 and was done in less than 15 minutes. Just make sure you have the two screwdrivers listed on ifixit.
 
flatfoot said:
No, owc is not the only way. There are plenty cheaper original MBA SSD offers on eBay. The owc upgrade, however, gives you the SATA3 speeds the MBA 2012 is capable of.
Click to expand...

But it is compatible with the Mid-2011 air? Also, do I need to get the 3G or 6G for those speeds?
 
BrownManUPS said:
But it is compatible with the Mid-2011 air? Also, do I need to get the 3G or 6G for those speeds?
Click to expand...

The SSDs from 2010 and 2011 MBAs are the same, but they are "3G" (SATAII 3Gbit/s). Your 2011 MBA is SATAIII (6Gbit/s) ready. To make use of that you have to get an OWC Mercury Aurora Pro 6G SSD. Those are about twice as fast but cost a whole lot more, too.
 
flatfoot said:
The SSDs from 2010 and 2011 MBAs are the same, but they are "3G" (SATAII 3Gbit/s). Your 2011 MBA is SATAIII (6Gbit/s) ready. To make use of that you have to get an OWC Mercury Aurora Pro 6G SSD. Those are about twice as fast but cost a whole lot more, too.
Click to expand...

It's less than $20 difference between the 3G and 6G 240GB option. ($358 vs. $340) The OP was looking for a 256GB SSD. 240GB is the closest OWC makes.
 
Apple has a rather odd policy of no upgrades. They'll replace failed parts with like parts but will not perform any upgrades.

There are third parties with Apple trained techs that can do such upgrades (like BestBuy)

Or of course you can do something as simple as an SSD upgrade in an AIR yourself. The physical replacement is only about 10 minutes work, but of course the backup before and restore after can take a while.

If you are looking for a faster/larger SSD I would highly recommend OWC. Their kits come with all the instructions and tools you will need and their SSDs are much faster than Apples stock SSDs (even their 3GB ones).
 
Thanks for all the help. If I will do this, I think the extra money for the 6G option would be worth the upgrade. I'm sure it isn't too difficult to do the full backup and restore... though if anyone knows of a step by step link to do this, I'd appreciate it.
 
BrownManUPS said:
Thanks for all the help. If I will do this, I think the extra money for the 6G option would be worth the upgrade. I'm sure it isn't too difficult to do the full backup and restore... though if anyone knows of a step by step link to do this, I'd appreciate it.
Click to expand...

For an extra $20 OWC will include an external enclosure for your old SSD. This should let you migrate directly from your old SSD to the new one once you had the new one installed.

You could also clone your current drive to an external hard drive and restore from that.
 
Thanks. Good to know.

It also just occurred to me the benefit of the SD slot on the 13" MBAs. A 32-128GB card could be kept in there for normal storage. How fast does that slot run? I know cards are slow, but some of the pro-style ones dor over 60MB/s.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back