What ssd in macbook air. Which SSD to choose for MacBook

SSDs in MacBooks are gradually being replaced hard drives. Today, Apple puts them not only in laptops, but also in desktop computers.

The company's desire to occupy a leading position in the market is reflected in the development of all manufactured products, including macbooks. Once Cupertino introduced the USB standard, then the first in the world tried to approach ultrabooks, removed optical drives. And, finally, they put it in their laptops on SSD drives. The latter turned out to be super productive, compared to everything else that the market offers.

Below are the features of the SSD for the MacBook Pro, the differences between the models of solid state drives, the way to change the HDD to SSD.

In the new MacBook Pro line, SSDs have phenomenal speed compared to competitors. Its values ​​reach 3.1 GB / s and 2.1 GB / s for reading and writing. The volume of the element does not affect the result in any way. These results were reached by Computerworld resource experts after a series of tests. According to the test results, it was revealed that the new Pro MacBooks show an increase in performance by 200% compared to last year's representatives.

Such results became possible thanks to the use of the NVMe interface. It provides the drives with high throughput. For the first time, the technology was implemented in a 12-inch MacBook. However, in this device, its capabilities could not be fully revealed due to the weak “stuffing”.

According to Jeff Yanukovych, an expert from the IDC group that owns the Computerworld resource, Apple's competitors will come to similar results no earlier than 2017. This only emphasizes the position of the new laptops from Apple as close to ideal.

Types of SSD for Macbook Pro

Consider storage options for current versions macbooks. Let's see what their differences are, and which Pro model each element fits.

An SSD is a solid state drive, which is an "advanced" version of a hard drive. Compared to the latter, the SSD weighs much less, but has increased speed. The cost of the novelty is significantly higher than that of hard drive. But despite this, the update to install a solid state drive on the MacBook Pro is definitely worth doing.

SSD for Macbook Pro

The list of items for this device includes variations of 13”, 15” and 17” MacBooks up to 2012. The SSD has a form factor of 2.5, that is, it is similar in size to the main disk of a MacBook.

Possibility SSD installations instead of HDD there is, but is it worth taking such a step? The hard drive must have a large volume, and the price of an SSD of the same volume is quite high. Here you can resort to the most appropriate method.

Mostly SSD is used to increase the speed of the device. Therefore, the best solution would be to install a solid state element instead of a DVD, which almost no one needs today. This will require a special adapter. This is an optibay adapter. In this situation, small SSDs are sufficient, for example, up to 240 GB. You can not buy a 512 GB SSD. The main disk will be responsible for saving the data, and the drive will ensure the high speed of the MacBook.

SSD for Macbook Pro Retina

In the "apple" laptops of the new sample, there are drives of a completely different type. They are small but powerful. These facts also affected the cost of the elements.

In addition, SSD dice in MacBooks with Retina display put in place for the main disk, which the representatives of this line do not have. By the way, there is no DVD drive either. So you can not dream of an additional hard drive.

Change HDD to SSD

The instruction below tells you step by step how to replace an HDD with an SSD in a MacBook Pro. For the MacBook Pro Retina, the information is not good, because they already come with such drives.

But the owners of Pro laptops released in the middle of 2012 and earlier, this manual will improve the performance of the device without extra spending.

Replacing a MacBook Pro SSD involves the following steps:

• We turn the macbook over and put it on a smooth tabletop without unnecessary things so that they do not scratch the cover of the device. We unscrew the 10 screws that hold the bottom cover with a Phillips screwdriver. Carefully remove the lid and set it aside.
• At the bottom left, near the battery, we find a hard drive attached with brackets (on two screws each). We remove one bracket - this is quite enough. We are talking about an element located as close as possible to the optical drive. Unscrew both screws and remove the bracket. We slightly lift the disk by the tongue and get the fasteners from under the other bracket.
• Carefully disconnect the SATA connector from the hard drive. The cable from the "motherboard" to the SATA connector is thin, so all actions must be slow and accurate.
• We unscrew the fixing screws from the "stuffing" of the hard drive.
• We fasten the fixing screws to the SSD. We glue the plastic tongue from the HDD to the SSD, so that later you can easily get the drive out of the MacBook.
• The SSD is prepared for placement in the case. But you need to connect a SATA connector to it, after which you can place the element in the bay.
• Install and fasten the mounting bracket. The drive is where it should be - you can attach the cover.

By the way, you can replace the SSD for the MacBook Air in a similar way. But remember that the MacBook Air 13 will require a different adapter. In addition, for models with different encodings, for example, for the MacBook Air A1466, you need to buy a certain type of SSD. Changing the hard drive in the MacBook Air, as in the MacBook Pro 13, to one of the solid state drives is a more realistic task.

Transferring the operating system to a new SSD

To complete this task, you will need a container for a 2.5″ USB hard drive. We place the hard drive removed from the MacBook there. After the resulting element is connected to one of the USB elements on the MacBook.

• We start the macbook by pressing the Option element (aka Alt). The boot menu will pop up shortly.
• Select Recovery and press Enter. The OS X Utilities window will immediately appear. You need to select disk utility and click on the continue item.
• In the left section highlight recently installed SSD and proceed to the erasing section. During the procedure, a section called "New" will be formed. You don't need to change it, because it will then become Macintosh HD.
• Next, go to the recovery tab. We indicate Macintosh HD as the source. In the destination field, move the new section on the right side.
• We click on the restore button to transfer data from the selected category to the new SSD. The download step will be displayed.
• Upon completion of the download, the new drive will have a 100% copy of the operating system installed on the macbook - with all the settings and information.

In the same software, at the end of the operation, you can clean the hard drive connected via USB. Subsequently, the disk can be used as an external portable element.

The operation will take half an hour. But the performance of the device will increase significantly. The operating system and software will load instantly. The laptop will quickly respond to your every action. And all for the reason that the system will acquire quick access to all the data that is required to increase the speed of the device.

The advantage of an SSD is that it does not make noise even with high activity. Therefore, the MacBook will become even more silent.

Due to the reduced power consumption, the SSD, when compared to any conventional drive, shows longer periods battery life. This is another important advantage of using such drives in "apple" devices.

What the MacBook will lose as a result of such a replacement is a few grams of weight. After all, the SSD element for the MacBook Pro is slightly lighter than the hard drive.

Remember that you can always connect outer element. But in this situation, you will need an adapter or special adapters.

In the basic configuration of the McaBook Pro Apple sets hard drives to 5400 rpm. And their performance with modern operating Mac systems OS X (10.6-10.8) leaves a lot to be desired. And it’s not for nothing that Apple is gradually, but surely, switching to installing ssd drives in all laptops.

We think it's time to spruce up your favorite MacBook too. You just need to install it SSD drive. And so that you are not embarrassed by the limited volume of ssd - you can install a second HDD in place of the DVD drive.

Which laptop models are suitable for this solution? - Yes, to almost all MacBooks and MacBook Pros except MacBook Pro Retina

In laptops, the combination of read / write speeds from / to a hard disk at a disk spindle speed of 5400 rpm. does not even reach 50 Mb / s. A 7200 rpm drive will almost double your MacBook's life: the read/write speed can range from 80 to 105 Mb/s.
It is worth noting that there are also Seagate hybrid hard drives on the market, in the design of which a 7200 rpm hard drive with a 16 MB data cache and an 8 GB ssd drive. With such a "combo" drive, the read/write speed can be increased by another 5-7% compared to a conventional 7200 rpm drive.

SSD read/write performance varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and model to model. In addition, the prices of ssd drives have not yet reached a level comparable to conventional hard drives. The price is gradually falling, and even top-end ssds with a capacity of 500 and 960 GB are approaching $ 1 for 1 GB of storage.

Since Mac OS X is very compact operating system, and in the set with the majority necessary programs the total volume on the disk usually does not exceed 30-50GB, you can safely look at ssds with a capacity of 120GB or more.
Although, in our opinion, it is already worth considering an ssd with a capacity of 180GB or more.

It is precisely because the volume of ssd, combined with its price, that limit most users in the direction of choosing to use ssd - we suggest that you consider the option of high ssd speed and a good capacity hdd installed in place of the DVD drive.

For upgrade Apple Mac Book Pro 2011-2012, we need 3 screwdrivers: torx 6, torx 8 and Philips 00 or 000 Phillips screwdriver.

Remember! Dispose of any residual static electricity before disassembling any device.

Unscrew 10 screws on the bottom cover, 3 of which are long.

This is what a MacBook Pro 13 looks like from the inside

Before changing anything in the laptop configuration, you MUST disconnect the battery from the motherboard. We do not want to start repairs with you with the replacement of the motherboard after a short circuit, do we?

We install an ssd-drive in place of the standard "slow" hard drive, and we can old disk put in optibay in place of the DVD drive. In our case, we put in optibay new disk with a capacity of 750GB at 7200 rpm, in order to increase the speed when accessing user data, which we plan to store on hdd.

Unscrew the two screws on the bracket that holds the hard drive.

4 screws (torx 8) around the perimeter of the "old" hard drive are transferred to the ssd drive.

We install ssd in place of the system disk and fix it with a bar on two screws.

We install the hard drive in Optibey and be sure to screw it with reverse side two screws.

We are filming optical drive.

We need to disconnect 5 loops.
We do it very carefully.

Disable

• hard drive cable
• optical drive cable
• wi-fi cable
• camera cable
• speaker cable

We unscrew the speaker and disconnect the antennas from the Wi-Fi module and put the speaker aside.

DVD superdrive. Unscrew the three screws and pull it out.

We rearrange the data cable and the mounting bracket from the dvd drive to optibay, observing the direction of installation of the corner.

Install optibay with hard drive in place of dvd drive.

We put back the plastic bar of the speaker and connect the antennas to the Wi-Fi module.

We connect in reverse order the loops and cables to system board. And connect the battery.

Close and screw the bottom cover.
We install the system from an external boot drive or through the system Mac recovery OS X via the Internet (using the Cmd + R combination when booting the computer).

Now, at the owner's disposal, a very fast 2011 Apple MacBook Pro: the system itself and all programs run several times faster than with a standard hdd. The system responds instantly. With a significant amount open applications there are no fading and hanging of the “spinning colored candy”. Programs that use production data caching work with big files without any delay. And when processing very large arrays of information, the execution time was reduced (according to the owner of the laptop) by 2-3 times.
It is worth noting again that the hard drive is limited by the physical ability to read / write to spinning metal plates. Therefore, his throughput» does not exceed 115 MB/sec. (in best case). There are no mechanical elements in ssd, so the read / write speed on ssd can reach 550 megabytes / sec. There is an option to theoretically increase this value to 1.2 Gigabytes / sec, but for this you need to use an external hardware RAID array that is NOT system drive, connected at best over a Thunderbolt 10 Gigabit / s (or 1.25 Gigabytes / s) bus and communicating with another identical RAID array over the same Thunderbolt bus.
If you are an Apple owner Mac Pro- you can install four or more ssd drives, make a large RAID array (but note that it will not be hardware, but software if you do not use a special RAID controller). And even then, you can achieve theoretical data transfer rates of up to 750 MB/s (corresponding to a 6 Gigabit/s sata bus data rate).

In the next article, we will tell you how to make a Fusion Drive yourself on an Apple laptop with two or more hard drives installed. And how, in our practical opinion, Fusion Drive differs from the operation of a conventional combination of SSD + HDD.

The article was prepared based on the results of the repair work of the MacFix Service Center.

The cost of installing an SSD on a MacBook in our service center

Good to know about preparation and correct setting systems on SSD-equipped Apple computers.

Long live SSD

In the utility, it is enough to unlock access by entering the system password and activate the TRIM switch. After that, the computer will restart, and we will no longer need the Chameleon SSD Optimizer program.

By the way, after digging into the utility settings, you can find the Sudden Motion Sensor turned off, hibernation turned off and the dump was not created. random access memory. Theoretically, these options extend the life of the drive, but it has long been proven that the impact of these processes on the disk is extremely small and will not greatly affect the overall resource of the SSD.

2. Connect an external drive

If 128 or 256 gigabytes of SSD drive is not enough for you, and this is really not enough for most active users worth thinking about buying external hard disk. There will be enough at home, but there will be a financial question.

You can stop at buying a simpler external drive or. The easiest option is to use a USB flash drive as storage for not the most desired files. Now models for 64 and even 128 gigabytes are cheaper than leather cases for the iPhone 6. We advise you to purchase, it will not be worse.

3. Set up work with NTFS

When working with external drives, sooner or later you will have to face file system NTFS. By default in OS X, files in NTFS system can be read, but not changed or added new ones. It is better to prepare for this in advance so that at the most inopportune moment the Mac does not refuse to work normally with the "unfriendly" flash drive created in the Windows ecosystem.

All ways to do this have already been collected and described in a separate . There are free options.

4. Transfer your backups to an external drive

No wonder we suggested connecting an external drive or USB flash drive. Alternatively, you can place a system backup on them.

To do this, go to the settings time machine and choose a place for backups on removable media. That's it, no need to splurge on the Time Capsule.

5. Move your Photos and iTunes libraries

If the size of the connected disk allows, then after backup you should transfer your iTunes and Photos data there. Active users of these services sooner or later create a huge media library that takes up a decent amount of space on their hard drive.

To transfer correctly and not lose anything, follow our instructions for changing the location and.

6. Keep track of free space

To prevent a small SSD drive from becoming a garbage dump, you need to regularly cleanse it. Of course, you can manually open all dubious folders and delete everything unknown at your own peril and risk, but it is better to trust specialized applications.

For a visual display of the occupied space, the utility is perfect. At first glance, it will become clear what exactly is eating up precious space.

7. Connect cloud storage

If the volume of the SSD and external drive still not enough, help will come cloud storage. Someone will have enough native iCloud, someone will add Dropbox and Google Drive, and someone will not stop and register in the Mail.ru and Yandex clouds.

Each service has a separate client for OS X with the ability to selectively sync. You can disable it altogether and only upload data to a remote server, and then delete it from the Mac. Send the files you least need to the cloud so you can always upload them back if you need to.

8. Keep an eye on your Downloads folder

This directory most often eats up precious space on the SSD drive. To prevent this from happening, we regularly disassemble the downloaded and put everything in the right places - on external drives or to the cloud. You can entrust this process to the utility.

In such a simple way, you can get used to a small amount of hard disk space and work comfortably with it. Remember the main principle - the less memory in your computer, the more order in it;)

We note right away that the information will not be useful for owners of the most modern laptops, because, firstly, they only come with pre-installed solid state drives, and secondly, the installed drives have an unconventional form factor and interface.
But the owners, made in the form factor 2.5 "and SATA interface, the presented instructions will help to increase the performance of a laptop without significant costs.

You can, of course, apply for a drive replacement at an official Apple service center, but the service can be quite expensive, besides, you will probably be offered some kind of Solit-State Drive Kit - “official, from the manufacturer”, the price of which, to put it mildly, is will not match performance.

We, in turn, suggest that you replace the HDD with an excellent SSD yourself and are ready to provide.

In the photos below you can see the SanDisk SSD. It was this solid state drive that ended up in our laboratory at the time of this article. This SSD instance is based on the SandForse SF-2281 controller, which has proven itself well in other solid state drives. characterized by high read / write speed and increased fault tolerance.

So what do we need?

This whole procedure will not take you even 30 minutes, but the performance of the laptop will increase quite seriously - the operating system and applications will load almost instantly and in general the laptop will “respond” to your requests much faster. This is because the system will have instant access to data, which is exactly what is needed to increase the speed of work.
In addition, it does not make any sounds even when active work with data, so your MacBook will be even quieter.
In addition, due to the significantly lower power consumption of an SSD, compared to any 2.5" HDD, the MacBook will be able to work a little longer on a single battery charge - this is another undeniable plus from using SSDs in laptops.
The only thing that will lose yours is a couple of grams of weight, because the SSD is also a little lighter than the hard drive.

(early 2011) at home.

There is a crisis in the yard, and dreams of buying new Macbook disperse like smoke. In this harsh time, when a kilogram of ordinary cucumbers costs like a kilogram of Israeli apples, it's time to get a screwdriver and upgrade your faithful aluminum comrade with your own hands.

If there is no screwdriver, hands, or lack of courage, if you please, turn to the professionals of modding and repair. Proven masters live in the company modmac who, with unwavering hands, will ruthlessly dismantle any gadget, fix it and assemble it back without unnecessary remaining parts.

On a winter Saturday morning, by the pattern of clouds in the sky, I realized - it's time! Having made a backup, my MacBook Pro and I went to workshop for rejuvenation surgery. The plans included replacing the native HDD cable with a new one, as well as replacing the optical drive with a super-fast SSD drive using a special Optibay tray.

Few people know, but if you put an SSD drive instead of a native HDD, and install a native HDD as a second hard drive instead of a CD drive, then in this situation the system will work a little slower. It is better to stick an SSD drive in place of the optical drive, and leave the native HDD in its place. Performance will be higher.

Upon arrival, my laptop immediately passed into the hands of the master, and I got the small role of an impassive extra, who recorded on camera every movement of the specialist’s hands.

Training

So, the MacBook Pro is located on the table, turned upside down, revealing its defenseless belly to our eyes. With deft movements of a Phillips screwdriver, 10 screws were unscrewed along the perimeter of the back cover. And then, with little effort, the lid was removed and carefully set aside.

Once again, I marveled at the ergonomic arrangement of all components inside the brainchild of Steve Jobs. How fascinating all the stuffing is fitted to each other!

The first stage is successfully completed, we move on to the next level.

HDD cable replacement

In my MacBook, the hard drive is removed quite simply. In some models, for example, to pull out the HDD, you must first remove the battery, but this is not our case. So here's what you need to do, point by point:

1) Disconnect the cable leading from the battery to the board;

2) unscrew the two screws and pull out the clamping bar;

3) gently pull the hard drive by the special tab and use your fingers (with a mediator, a special plastic spatula) to disconnect the cable from the hard drive.

The hard drive cable is very fragile, it is not recommended to pull, tear and twist it strongly.

Why you need to change the cable to a new one: sometimes (rarely, but still) after replacing an ordinary HDD with an SSD, the MacBook drive starts to behave strangely. It seems that disk utility sees the new SSD, formats it and does not find any errors; The operating system is downloaded, but all installation attempts are interrupted by a gray screen with a flashing folder icon or a question mark.

In this case, replacing the hard drive cable helps. The operation is very jewelry and requires confident movements and some skill in such actions. Here is how the HDD cable is replaced:

1) Carefully disconnect the cable connector from the board, unscrew the two screws that fix the cable in the case and the two screws that fix the black bar on the front inner wall of the case.

With your fingers, carefully pull out the black bar to which the HDD cable is glued and be horrified by the miniature size of the connector, which must be carefully removed.

At this stage, you need to gather all your concentration into a fist and disconnect the connector from the HDD cable with tweezers. You can’t swear at your mother, it’s desirable to breathe every other time.

After this dangerous procedure, you can exhale and relax, the HDD cable is completely removed.

So, at this stage, we have removed the native hard drive and completely disconnected its cable. To install a new cable, all the above steps must be repeated in reverse order. Again, the hardest part is connecting the small connector to the connector on the new HDD cable.

Replacing an optical drive with an SSD drive

Carefully disconnect the cable responsible for Airport/Bluetooth and the camera cable from the board. These cables (like most others) are very fragile and brittle.

Then carefully remove the cable around the perimeter of the CD drive and disconnect the antenna connector.

The easiest thing left is to unscrew the three screws holding the optical drive, carefully remove it, and disconnect the cable connector. Everything, half the work is done, now you need to insert an SSD drive into the resulting void.

SSD and Optibay

Everything is simple here. An Optibay tray is taken, a new SSD drive is inserted into it, two fixing screws need to be tightened on the side, a short cable from the CD drive, which was removed in the previous step, is inserted into the tray, and the entire resulting structure is inserted into place. In conclusion, repeat all the above manipulations to remove the drive in reverse order.

At the very end, the main thing is not to forget to reconnect the battery cable, which was disconnected at the very beginning of this instruction article.

Note to the owner

After “pumping” the MacBook wizard from modmac can set up something like Fusion Drive.

Fusion Drive is a technology that combines a conventional hard disk drive (HDD) and solid state drive(SSD) with 128 GB of flash memory into a single logical volume. Mac OS X automatically manages its contents, so frequently used files such as applications, documents, photos (and so on) are dynamically moved to flash memory for faster access. For example, if a program is used frequently, it will automatically be moved to an SSD drive to speed up access to it. As a result, startup time is reduced, and as the system accumulates information about the computer usage profile, programs start up and access files faster.
– Wikipedia

Through cunning manipulations with terminal commands, the guys from modmac can configure the MacBook so that the system will see one shared drive, with a capacity of 768 gigs (total capacity of SSD and HDD drives) as if it were a single SSD drive.

Productivity grows, nerves are protected, the owner is happy. I highly recommend. The only caveat is that during the operation of the laptop, you need to avoid emergency shutdowns, the Fusion Drive may “crumble”, and you will have to restore all the information again ( so you should always remember about backup!).