Ssd Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Mac 101: Upgrade to SSD

by Shawn "Doc" Boyd (May 14th, 2013)

If you are looking for a way to get more out of your MacBook or MacBook Pro, consider a solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs offer faster data read and write speeds, fast file transfers, speedier boot times and will save you some battery life. In the past, SSDs were considered somewhat pricey upgrades ...

Seagate to stop making 7200rpm 2.5" pure hard disk drives

by Steven Sande (Mar 4th, 2013)

Anandtech has received confirmation from drive manufacturer Seagate that it will cease manufacture of 7200 RPM 2.5" hard disk drives later in 2013. These speedy small drives are most often used in notebook computers, where their high capacity and relatively fast response times make them a ...

New 27-inch iMac's HDD, SSD and Fusion Drive options benchmarked

by Randy Nelson (Jan 15th, 2013)

The folks at Bare Feats have put together a handy look at the performance of four of the five storage options available when custom-ordering a new 27-inch iMac through Apple. These include a 1 TB and 3 TB hard disk (a 7,200 RPM Seagate Barracuda), 768 GB solid state drive and 1 TB Fusion Drive. ...

Origin Stories: Sonnet Technologies

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Nov 30th, 2012)

Sonnet Technologies has been around for 26 years, and was founded by a former Apple engineer. I've long been a fan of their products, first with a PPC daughtercard upgrade for my 8500 years ago. In this Origin Stories I talk to Greg LaPorte about the history of Sonnet. As a bonus, check out ...

OWC offering 480GB SSD upgrade for 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro

by Mike Wehner (Oct 30th, 2012)

Storage: We all want more of it, but not only that, we also want it to be as fast as possible. If the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is on your wish list but your wallet can't handle the 512GB SSD upgrade from the factory, Other World Computing may have what you're looking for. The ...

Entry Retina MacBook Pro now available with 512 GB, 768 GB drives

by Steven Sande (Aug 1st, 2012)

In a silent update to the online Apple Store, the entry-level model of the MacBook Pro with Retina display gained a few configure-to-option upgrades that can now be selected by buyers eager for the latest MacBook Pro. Initially, the entry-level Retina MacBook Pro could only get an upgrade ...

SSDs kick up performance for developers and users alike

by Erica Sadun (Jul 25th, 2012)

I'm a developer. One of the things we devs do to pass the time is complain about how long it takes to compile and brag about the power of our development systems. Hot-rodding your system isn't just limited to development, though. There are lots of people out there who sit and wait as their ...

OWC releases Internal SSD DIY kit for iMac

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 16th, 2012)

OWC released a do-it-yourself upgrade kit for 2011 27-inch iMac owners that'll let them add an SSD to their current hard drive. The US$45 kit includes all the tools and the power cable needed to add the solid state drive (sold separately). The process requires you to remove the 27-inch glass ...

Elgato's Thunderbolt SSD delivers fast portable storage at premium prices

by Michael Rose (Mar 10th, 2012)

Update: Added BareFeats performance testing information. If there's one word I'd pick to describe Elgato's newest Mac peripheral, the Thunderbolt SSD external drive, it would have to be "minimalist." With this product, the company has delivered storage so simple that it's almost featureless. The ...

DevJuice: Can I move Xcode off my main drive?

by Erica Sadun (Feb 20th, 2012)

Dear Dev Juice, Now that Xcode 4.3 is supposed to live in /Applications, can I move it off my main drive? I used to have it on my secondary, because I have a fast SSD as my primary. Also, where are all the files located, like the simulator? John Dear John, At over 3 GB, the new Xcode distro is ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Can I boot from a RAM disk?

by Erica Sadun (Feb 3rd, 2012)

Dear Aunt TUAW, I would like to run Mac OS X 10.6.7 off a RAM disk, for better performance/security while browsing the World Wide Web (I don't want to save the image with all those gnarly cookie crumbs to disk). I understand that a family living down the street from me is able to run Linux from a ...

Ask TUAW: How do I setup a Mac with both an SSD and a regular hard drive?

by TJ Luoma (Jan 20th, 2012)

Reader Mark R. Friedman wrote in to ask about setting up a Mac Pro with an SSD in the second optical drive, keeping the /Users folder on another drive; he wasn't sure how to do it. Macworld just discussed one method, using the built-in home folder path controls in System Preferences. The magic ...

Holiday Gift Guide: External Disk Drives

by Steven Sande (Nov 29th, 2011)

Welcome to TUAW's 2011 Holiday Gift Guide! We're here to help you choose the best gifts this holiday season, and once you've received your gifts we'll tell you what apps and accessories we think are best for your new Apple gear. Stay tuned every weekday from now until the end of the year for ...

OWC unleashes Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD for MacBook Air

by Michael Grothaus (Sep 19th, 2011)

Other World Computing has released the Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD upgrade kit for 2011 MacBook Airs. The SSD releases some serious speed in the latest MacBook Air models thanks to their SATA Revision 3.0, 6Gb/s buses. The Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G will give the 2011 Airs over 500MB/s ...

Intensive surgery on an old MacBook Pro yields huge performance gains (Updated)

by Chris Rawson (Aug 19th, 2011)

Installing OS X Lion on a 3 1/2-year old MacBook Pro made it clearer than ever just how slow my old machine had become. Beachballs left and right, UI lag, incredibly long reboot times, dismal application load times... as someone accustomed to the "instant on" feel of an iPad or iPhone, I was ...