[Brian]

There's little argument that the Apple MacBook Air is a fantastic computer; my bias after using both since the 2010 refresh notwithstanding. If there's much to complain about with the July 2011 MacBook Air though, it's that Apple continues to offer two SSDs that vary widely in performance. If you're unlucky, you get stuck with a Toshiba SSD; the lucky ones get a Samsung drive. But even the lucky ones are getting an SSD that doesn't even come close to leveraging the speed potential of the SATA 6Gb/s interface. Thanks to OWC though, MacBook Air owners can finally unlock the full performance capabilities of their MacBook Air with the Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD.

Full Review

[mike2h]

does the ssd difference having anything to do with the configuration choice- the samsung comes on the more expensive configs or is it puirely random?

[golemB]

Brian,

Thanks for a great review! I was just wondering if you might relay a suggestion to OWC.

Since the Mercury Aura Pro Express series are quite compact, and OWC already makes enclosures for the form factor, why not make an external enclosure for a Mercury Aura Pro Express plus a conventional 2.5" hard drive, including a caching controller? This would allow folks to build their own hybrid drive (like Momentus XT). For MacBook Air buyers who upgrade to Mercury Aura Pro Express and purchase the external enclosure, this would enable them to re-use the replaced Apple SSD and gain a high-capacity external drive without sacrificing much performance. At the same time, it would propel other people to buy the Mercury Aura Pro Express (for top performance in this configuration, where OWC has a near-monopoly).

golemB

[Brian]

mike2h, on 13 October 2011 - 05:21 PM, said:

does the ssd difference having anything to do with the configuration choice- the samsung comes on the more expensive configs or is it puirely random?

Appears to be random...both MBA's we bought were 13" 128GB models.

[Brian]

golemB, on 14 October 2011 - 09:02 AM, said:

Brian,

Thanks for a great review! I was just wondering if you might relay a suggestion to OWC.

Since the Mercury Aura Pro Express series are quite compact, and OWC already makes enclosures for the form factor, why not make an external enclosure for a Mercury Aura Pro Express plus a conventional 2.5" hard drive, including a caching controller? This would allow folks to build their own hybrid drive (like Momentus XT). For MacBook Air buyers who upgrade to Mercury Aura Pro Express and purchase the external enclosure, this would enable them to re-use the replaced Apple SSD and gain a high-capacity external drive without sacrificing much performance. At the same time, it would propel other people to buy the Mercury Aura Pro Express (for top performance in this configuration, where OWC has a near-monopoly).

golemB

Interesting idea...you'd be limited by the USB 2.0 interface though, not sure a caching external makes sense. At least thanks to OWC you can use the old drive in an enclosure now. I also believe they'll buy back your original SSD, though I could be remembering that incorrectly. There's certainly a secondary marketplace though for the stock SSDs.

[danchan]

I am looking for a SATA converter from MBA style to standard SATA so that I can use my stock Toshiba SSD for my other computer. In this article it's stated that they used a converter from OWC to do the test. Where can I get it? I could not find it In their website.

Update:
Forget it. I found out it here, although I can't buy it separately.

This post has been edited by danchan: 12 November 2011 - 07:34 AM

[Brian]

Yeah, you'll have to buy one of their MBA SSD enclosures.

[danchan]

Brian, on 13 November 2011 - 08:32 PM, said:

Yeah, you'll have to buy one of their MBA SSD enclosures.

That would be an expensive adapter. But if it works I would like to try. Can I really use the included adapter to connect to a standard SATA connector? What about the power supply connector? Is it also provided?

[Brian]

It's part of the PCB, yes.

[Snikch]

danchan, on 12 November 2011 - 04:08 AM, said:

I am looking for a SATA converter from MBA style to standard SATA so that I can use my stock Toshiba SSD for my other computer. In this article it's stated that they used a converter from OWC to do the test. Where can I get it? I could not find it In their website.

Update:
Forget it. I found out it here, although I can't buy it separately.

Is the adapter in the drive just a simple pin conversion, or is there a chip on the board? If it's just a simple pin conversion / adaptor, do you know where there are any photos of it to figure out what pins need to be mapped to what?

Cheers!