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The MacBook Air offers a solid-state internal hard drive. Solid-state drives have been around for a number of years now (think iPod Shuffle). Unfortunately, however, the solid-state memory used in today’s flash drives gets pretty expensive as capacity increases. In fact, the cost has been the limiting factor, because a solid-state drive offers a number of advantages that really set it apart from a conventional magnetic hard drive:
- No moving parts: Unlike a typical magnetic hard drive, there’s no read-write heads, no magnetic platter — just gobs of happy silicon memory chips. In effect, a solid-state drive works along the same lines as your MacBook’s system RAM.Unlike your Mac’s RAM, though, a solid-state drive doesn’t lose the data it stores when you turn off your laptop. As you can imagine, no moving parts on a computer in motion is superior on two levels:
- The solid-state drive never wears out or needs replacing.
- If your laptop is accidentally abused (think getting knocked off your desk), it’s far less likely that you’ll lose a hard drive’s worth of priceless data when it hits the ground.
- Speed: Oh, is this thing fast! Your MacBook will boot/restart/awake in far less time than computers with magnetic drives can, and everything you do on your laptop will benefit from the speed boost. A solid-state drive can read data far faster than a conventional magnetic hard drive.
- Power usage: Forget your hard drive spinning up from sleep mode. The solid-state drive uses far less power than a conventional hard drive, resulting in significantly longer battery life.
- Blessed silence: The solid-state drive is completely silent. (No more of that gargling noise while the disk is accessed. Sweet.)
Solid state drive macbook Best Buy customers often prefer the following products when searching for Solid State Drive Macbook. Browse the top-ranked list of Solid State Drive Macbook below along with associated reviews and opinions. Introduction Use this guide to upgrade or replace the solid-state drive in a MacBook Air 11” Early 2015. This MacBook Air uses a proprietary storage drive connector, and is therefore not compatible with common M.2 drives without the use of an adapter. Before you perform this repair, if at all possible, back up your existing SSD.
If you’re considering a MacBook Air, solid-state drives are standard equipment — but what about the solid-state drive option for your MacBook Pro? The answer lies in your bank account (as well as your need for elbow room).
If you can afford the extra expense of the solid-state drive and you can fit all your applications and data into 128, 256, or 512GB, consider joining Buck Rogers with the storage device of the future.
If you’d rather save that coin for something else, or you need a larger 750GB internal hard drive to hold things like a massive collection of digital video and today’s latest 3D games, stick with the tried-and-true magnetic hard drive option for your MacBook Pro.
MacBook Air Q&A
Update Published August 13, 2019
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How do you upgrade or replace the storage in the 'Mid-2013,' 'Early 2014' and 'Early 2015/Mid-2017' MacBook Air models? Is it even possible?
This Q&A covers the most recent three lines of MacBook Air models including those currently sold. EveryMac.com provides storage upgrade instructions for earlier MacBook Air models -- the original, 'Late 2008,' and 'Mid-2009,'Late 2010 and 'Mid-2011,' and 'Mid-2012' lines, too.
By default, the 'Mid-2013,' 'Early 2014,' and 'Early 2015/Mid-2017' MacBook Air models all shipped with 128 GB or 256 GB of SSD storage. Some configurations could be upgraded to 512 GB of SSD storage at the time of purchase for an extra US$300, but Apple does not intend for one to upgrade the SSD module after purchase.
Nevertheless, the SSD is a removable module and it is quite possible for a technical user to upgrade the SSD himself or herself.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (Left - 11' MacBook Air, Right - 13' MacBook Air)
Identification Help
As these MacBook Air models share Model Numbers with other lines, so this identifier is not suitable for the purpose of upgrading the SSD.
However, these models can be readily identified externally via EMC Number and in software by Model Identifier.
To locate the model identifier in software, select 'About This Mac' under the Apple Menu on your computer and click the 'More Info...' button. If the iMac is running OS X 10.7 'Lion' or later, you will need to click the 'System Report' button after clicking 'More Info...' as well. As always, EveryMac.com has carefully hand documented each EMC number and model identifier for your convenience.
The identifiers for each of these MacBook Air models follow:
MacBook Air | Subfamily | Model ID | EMC |
Mid-2013 | |||
Mid-2013 | |||
Mid-2013 | |||
Mid-2013 | |||
Early 2014 | |||
Early 2014 | |||
Early 2014 | |||
Early 2014 | |||
Early 2015 | |||
Early 2015 | |||
Early 2015 | |||
Early 2015 | |||
Early 2015 | |||
2017 | |||
2017 |
EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Lookup feature -- as well as the EveryMac app -- also can uniquely identify these models by their Serial Number, which is listed on the underside near the EMC number and within the operating system alongside the model identifier. More details about specific identifiers are provided in EveryMac.com's extensive Mac Identification section.
SSD Storage Details
As first reported by AnandTech, the 'Mid-2013' MacBook Air models all use a PCIe-based SSD rather than a SATA-connected one like earlier SSD-equipped MacBook Air models. The 'Early 2014' MacBook Air models are practically identical to their predecessors and use the exact same internal storage.
More specifically, AnandTech shared that the SSD in these lines use a custom Apple design with a 'PCIe 2.0 x2 interface, capable of a theoretical maximum of 1 GB/s in each direction.'
The 11-Inch 'Early 2015' MacBook Air models (MacBookAir7,1) also use the same PCIe 2.0 x2 interface, but as documented by site sponsor OWC, the 13-Inch 'Early 2015' and 'Mid-2017' models (MacBookAir7,2), on the other hand, have a faster PCIe 2.0 x4 interface and provide significantly faster drive speeds as a result.
Storage Installation Instructions
Apple has used less common 'Pentalobe' or 'Five Point Torx' screws to make access more difficult, but with the correct screwdriver, upgrading the SSD is a straightforward procedure.
Site sponsor Other World Computing's helpful videos that covers upgrading the storage in the earlier 'Mid-2012' MacBook Air models are similar enough to use to upgrade these models, too:
11-Inch MacBook Air
13-Inch MacBook Air
This video covers how to install the original PCIe SSD from your MacBook Air in OWC's convenient 'Envoy Pro' external case to repurpose it as an external drive:
By watching the videos for the MacBook Air above, you should be able to determine if you feel comfortable performing this upgrade yourself or if you would instead prefer to hire a professional.
SSD Purchase Options
In the US (and many other countries), site sponsor Other World Computing sells compatible SSDs as well as other upgrades for MacBook Air models.
In the UK and Ireland, site sponsor Flexx sells MacBook Air compatible SSDs with free shipping. The company provides flat rate shipping to France, Germany, and Switzerland and inexpensive shipping for all of Europe, too.
In Canada, site sponsor CanadaRAM sells MacBook Air SSDs with guaranteed compatibility, fast shipping, and no customs duties to worry about.
In Australia, site sponsor RamCity sells SSDs that are compatible with these MacBook Air models and others all with fast, flat-rate shipping Australia-wide.
In Southeast Asia, site sponsor SimplyMac.sg sells the entire line of OWC SSD upgrades for the MacBook Air series with free delivery -- and optional upgrade service -- in Singapore and flat rate shipping to Brunei, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Also see:
- How do you replace or upgrade the hard drive in the original, 'Late 2008' and 'Mid-2009' MacBook Air models? Can you swap the hard drive for an SSD?
- How do you replace or upgrade the storage in the 'Late 2010' and 'Mid-2011' MacBook Air models? Is it even possible?
- How do you replace or upgrade the storage in the 'Mid-2012' MacBook Air models? Is it even possible?
- Which SD Card Slot storage solution is best for the MacBook Air? Which models are compatible? Is this kind of storage safe?
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