OWC offers 480 GB SSD for 2010 MacBook Air

If you want to give your 2010 MacBook Air a competitive edge with the largest solid state drive available for your notebook, then check out the Mercury Aura Pro Express line from Other World Computing (OWC). The third-party SSD is available in 180, 240, 360 and 480 GB capacities and fits both the 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch Air models that debuted in late 2010.

Big and fast, OWC claims the Aura Express SSD delivers a maximum transfer rate of 275 MB/s and offers a 68% boost in performance over factory drives.

Performance comes with a cost -- the entry-level 180 GB solid state drive will set you back US$480 while the top of the line 480 GB SSD costs a whopping $1579. This latter price tag surpasses that of some MacBook Air models, which start at $999 for the entry-level 11-inch model and climb up to $1599 for the premium 13-inch model.

[Via Macworld]

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Source: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/SSD…

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If you want to give your 2010 MacBook Air a competitive edge with the largest solid state drive available for your notebook, then...

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Sebastien

Don't the new airs have the ssd chips soldered to the board ? this upgrade probably only applies to older generations of the air

May 06 2011 at 10:56 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mykul

Just got an RMA for my 360GB aura drive and ordered the 480GB for Saturday delivery. These drives are so much faster than the native drives and they let me use my machine as a primary machine instead of just a complimentary machine.

I wouldn't judge it until you've tried it. I find it to be well worth the money and will gladly upgrade my next air just as fast. Hopefully the new airs will be out soon and have thunderbolt and a backlit keyboard as these are my only two complaints about the current version.

May 06 2011 at 4:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

JKT

I have the .25Tb OWC drive in my 11" MacBook Air. It's great having a tiny Mac that I can carry everywhere but with a drive large enough to hold all my stuff (including dual boot with Lion on the other partition.) I'm not affiliated with OWC, just a happy customer.
That said, no, I wouldn't have paid $1.5k for the .5Tb drive. I found ~$500 for .25Tb to be a good price/performance point.

May 06 2011 at 2:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Matthew Nawrocki

Anyone who spends $1.5k on an SSD is certifiably insane.

May 06 2011 at 12:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Patrick

Would it be crazy if I got the next gen sandy bridge + thunderbolt MBA 11-inch at the highest specs possible and replaced the included drive with the 480gb ssd? Unfortunately, if I want the highest specs (aka highest cpu speed and RAM), it would come with the highest drive capacity offered too so I'd be paying for the biggest size drive that I would end up taking out! But regardless, I'd have a much bigger size than the included one anyway if I gow ith 480gb.

May 06 2011 at 12:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply