Hooray! New SSD's for 2010 MBA's

OWC introduced these at MacWorld 2011.
Let's hope that Apple doesn't sue now. LOL

OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express SSD, SandForce Equipped, SATA, 7% Over Provisioning

They even come with "A"-type screwdrivers for unbridled entry.

 

Wow that's just in time for my MBA 11" purchase.

A tad pricey though.

 

I'm good with my 256gb lol

 

True, but if you buy your 11.6" with the 64 GB, you will save $200 right away, then wait a bit until OWC's price drop (provided you can wait), and then apply that $200 towards the purchase of a 250 GB or greater from OWC. Do this when you come close to filling that 64 GB, and it should not cost that much.

 

Hmmm looks like there may be issues with these:

MacRumors Forums - View Single Post - 256 GB SSD on 11" Macbook AIR?

Or just an unlikely coincidence.

 

OWC doesn't offer a 256 version.

 

If you read the whole thread you will see that he is talking about the OWC 360GB SSD.

MacRumors Forums - View Single Post - 256 GB SSD on 11" Macbook AIR?

 

Thanks for the link iaTa... it was interesting. Hopefully it was just one faulty SSD and OWC will follow through on a quick replacement of the dead one. I've dealt with OWC customer service and they've been great, although my purchase was no where near $1100 USD. I trust he'll get his replacement soon so we can hear how these do.

 

Installed the 240GB one into my 11" MBA yesterday, takes 5 mins, well 15 if you've forgotten to shutdown the MBA before installing the new SSD! Had to remove the new drive and put the old one back in, shutdown, then put the new back.

Installed SL, recovered from time machine, total time <60 mins, which was good as we to leave to go to Rome for a few days.

They say its 14% faster, I probably won't notice, but I do notice the extra 100GB or so!

Is it worth the money? Well for me it was, got it shipped to the UK, so was expecting to pay import duties and 20% VAT, didn't happen, not sure why but I'm a couple of hundred dollars up and not complaining.

- Colin

 

C Henry,

Did the new drive have chips on both sides of the circuit-board, unlike the stock drive only having chips on the side away from the the motherboard?

If so, did you feel that the chips on the side facing the motherboard interfere much with the memory chips?

I can see how there might be issues with heat buildup as a result. It would be interesting to see the memory temp & SSD temp difference between stock versus the upgrade in hard driving conditions, such as gaming.

I wonder if the user who reported a problem mentioned by iaTa above, could have had an overheated SSD.

This is not even a concern on the 13" air, as there is no physical proximity (relative) of the SSD and board memory.

 

Hi,

Yes, the OWC has chips on both sides, I didn't notice it when I put it in, but I was in a rush. So I opened it up again this morning. Here's some pics.

SSD Installed, front:



SSD Rear:



Once the SSD is screwed down, there's a slight curve:

Side shot:



Top, showing curve:



With Apple 128 above for comparison:



As for temps, I don't know, I've not really been looking at them, I am now, but have no previous temps for reference. Doesn't seem to be hotter on the lap:



Apologies for the quality of the pictures, I was shooting in a kitchen with little natural light and hand holding.

Hope this helps.

- Colin

 

how hot can you get mem bank a1 to go. im not worried about the ssd im worried about the memory being damaged from the extra heat. the ssd can be swapped but the memory would need a whole new motherboard if that was damaged.

 

Apologies for the late reply, been bust at work. I ordered a 11/4G/64G to put the 240G disk in, arrived the other day and have now put the OWC 240G SSD in it. Put the 128G SSD back in the other MBA.

Not sure I want to run the memory so hot it fails though, it's like revving your engine 'til it breaks just to see how far it would go. But I will keep an eye on the temps when its under some strain to see how its doing.

I was hoping other might post their temps so I could see if the upgrade means higher temps.

- Colin