OWC calls for a 22% boost in performance, but does that hold true? Let’s dig into the data to find out. And in considering OWC’s drive buyers will balance the capacity options, ease of upgrade and of course performance. So MacBook Air owners are pretty much limited to buying whatever Apple has to sell them – or now they can consider the Mercury Aura Pro Express SSD. PhotoFast announced a replacement SSD too, but never got the product to market, likely due to intellectual property infringement. But so far they remain an OEM product only, leaving MacBook Air owners with few self-help options. You also have to consider this product is also geared toward a niche audience, where there are few alternatives. Toshiba, whose X-Blade Gale SSDs are what live inside a new MacBook Air, announced the slim SSDs would be available to other manufacturers.
That means for the 360GB model for instance, OWC has to use 64GB NAND, where a standard 2.5″ drive would use smaller capacity (and cheaper) NAND.
OWC had to create an entirely new form factor to suit the MacBook Air and is limited by the number of NAND chips they could use (maximum of eight). Part of the premium is the cost of being unique. While not a tremendous difference, the second reason to buy is that the Mercury Aura Pro Express comes in capacities of 180GB, 240GB and 360GB, while the current MacBook Air SSD offerings top out at 256GB.īeing on the cutting edge has a price though, OWC’s MacBook Air SSDs carry a premium. First, the OWC MAPE (is that any better?) uses a SandForce SF-1200 processor to deliver speeds that are purportedly 22% faster than the stock SSD.
While saying OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express several times in a row is certain to lead to a tired tongue, MacBook Air owners should be excited about two things. While Apple likes to control their computing environments the best they can, MacBook Air owners at least now have an option when it comes to replacing or upgrading their SSDs, the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express. Apple is also not so great – because an SSD shaped like a stick of gum with its own specialized interface connector, isn’t readily available as a replacement should you need to replace it.
Apple also puts in the latest tech features, like an elongated stick of gum shaped SSD. Apple is great – they make products people want to buy, like their very cool and very portable 2010 MacBook Air that comes with an 11″ or 13.3″ display.
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