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Final judgement on MBA 2011 SSDs

S

snuuggles

Member
Hi, I've scoured anandtech and some other forums, and I don't feel like I've gotten a final consistent call on which SSD is "better"--if any. The reason I'm interested is that I have the 13" 2011 with the 128gb Toshiba drive.

My questions:

1. Anand benchmarked the two drives, and said that in all four major categories, the Toshiba was worse by a substantial margin (Random Read/Write, Sequential Read/Write). I've seen posts on other forums where the claim is made that the Samsung is better sequentially, and the Toshiba is better for Random stuff. Anand's tests do not bear this out. Is there any way he is incorrect?

2. Assuming that the samsung 128gb is definitively better than the toshiba 128gb as demonstrated by anand, can I safely extrapolate that the 256 versions have the same performance delta? I'm considering upgrading to the 256 when/if I exchange.

3. Maybe I should post this separately, but I'll just add this: I'm not aware of a definitive and comparison of the 13" i5 vs i7. Anand compared the 13" i5 and the 11" i5 and the 11" i7, but I'm curious if anything (temps, noise, gaming, etc) are positively affected by putting the i7 in the 13" vs the 11". I'd consider upgrading to the i7 if I upgrade to the 256, because, fuck it, why not. I do plan on playing games on the unit, but no real heavy photoshop or video encoding where I'm certain there will be an advantage. I guess I figure at worst the i7 will be worth an extra $50 if I ever sell it, so that cuts the investment in half - might be worth it *unless* there is some significant *dis*advantage to the i7 (much worse battery/noise/heat come to mind). Thoughts on this would be welcome, and a link to a more complete comparison than anands would also be welcome.


Disclaimer: I am completely aware that I have little chance of detecting a difference day-to-day with either SSD. However knowing my ocd self, I could never "settle" for something I know is inferior when for the same price I could have the better option. Also, I think it's worth communicating this to Apple by forcing them to lose money exchanging my MBA. I do think it's the only way they'll be forced to deliver more consistent performance across the line.

Thanks all, I'm sure you are all sick to death of this, but I can't stop obsessing until my two weeks runs out and I am forced to make the call on keeping or exchanging. I know some of you will be tempted to say "suck it up, it doesn't really matter". Please be assured if I could "suck it up", I would. I can't, so here I am trying to see if what I have is distinctly worse in most or all regards or simply a trade-off with some disadvantage and some advantage.

Edit:

4. I also was wondering if I should purchase the 256 because of performance issues. Specifically, my understanding is that you want to keep an SSD about 50% empty to insure longest life. God, I'm not even sure where I came up with that, maybe it's stupid to ask but: I have the 128, and I'm splitting it in half for bootcamp (win7 64bit). That means each half has ~60gig. I've already filled each to about 50%, but inevitably those numbers will creep up. Is there are strong reason to avoid maxing out each partition? If I could safely and reliably fill each partition without concern for performance or longevity, I don't need the 256. If there is some good reason to keep them 50% full, I suspect I'll need to upgrade and I'll do that and hopefully get the Samsung drive at the same time.
 
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I own a 13" 2011 with the i5 and the toshiba SSD. To keep the answer short and to the point...this thing is fast as hell. Easily the fastest, most responsive machine I have ever owned. I do basic computing tasks with it - web browsing, document creation, movies, ect and this thing screams. I do not know how a faster drive would be measurable perceptible to me.

As far as the life of the drive...don't sweat it too much. I think the 128 gig drive will have an average life of 10-20 years under normal use. The 256 even longer than that.

The device will likely be long outdated or something else will fail in it before the drive becomes unusable.

EDIT: People sweat the details waaaaaay to much. Just enjoy your ultralight, fast little machine and don't worry about perforance differences you likely are unable to notice.
 
Whats the easiest way to tell what SSD an Air has, without opening it up? Anand's article really makes the Toshiba look pitiful.
 
The easiest way to tell, as far as I know, is make a wild guess.

There's actually a 50/50 chance of your guess being right, so it's not that much of a gamble.
 
I am having a whole lot of trouble believing those numbers. I mean the discrepancy between the Toshiba and the Samsung is just ridiculous huge.
 
I don't think the difference translates to real life experience at all, though it may matter in some specific circumstances.

Personally, I think the difference in screen quality is more of an issue, as more users have complained about that one than about the difference in SSD speed. In fact, I don't think anyone would have cared about the SSD until the point was brought public by benchmarks.
 
vi edit said:
People sweat the details waaaaaay to much. Just enjoy your ultralight, fast little machine and don't worry about perforance differences you likely are unable to notice.
Click to expand...

Yeup, as I said, I'm one of those people. If I could not sweat it, I wouldn't sweat it, but I can't not sweat it 🙂

TheStu said:
I am having a whole lot of trouble believing those numbers. I mean the discrepancy between the Toshiba and the Samsung is just ridiculous huge.
Click to expand...

*Exactly* what I'm wondering. I just feel like there's something wrong with the numbers. The random write is literally an order of magnitude worse. I mean, 10% worse? 25%worse? I can deal with, not 1000%! I'm just saying, I wish Anand would take a moment to address the discrepancy between what he is reporting and what others (on macrumers for example) are reporting. I lean 99% towards just trusting anand but a) that would mean I just have to swap the machine and b) the difference is just so significant - I'd be curious even if I didn't own one what the deal was!

runawayprisoner said:
I don't think the difference translates to real life experience at all, though it may matter in some specific circumstances.

Personally, I think the difference in screen quality is more of an issue, as more users have complained about that one than about the difference in SSD speed. In fact, I don't think anyone would have cared about the SSD until the point was brought public by benchmarks.
Click to expand...

Another reason why I'd rather not trust what anand is saying. Basically, if the drives were just a trade-off of good and bad features spread between them, I could easily live with that, but if what he's printing in his charts is true, there is just no way that's not something you are going to notice at some point, or at least always be wondering "gee, what if I had just swapped out the drive, would this not be so slow?" Ahem, or at least that's what I'm constantly thinking now. Yes I am aware that is crazy, but what can I do?

I am concerned about the screen issue, though anand seemed to indicate that there wasn't a huge difference - they are both pretty bad 🙂

Since I do have the purported superior one, I'd hate to lose it, another reason I'd rather discover that the drives are less unequal than is printed in anands charts. Could you point to a more in-depth review of the screen differences than anands? If he is reporting the true "worst case" between the two, I'm really not as concerned. I guess I'll check out some of the demo models in store to see if there is a Toshiba panel in there I can compare to though...

Basically, I understand everyone who says "you won't notice a difference" with the SSD, but I think that's just opinion, and numbers are facts: one is 25-1000% slower than the other. Until operating systems and programs load instantly, I'm not going to be satisfied with "you won't notice the difference". If there is a significant numerical difference, I really can't help but think I *will* notice a difference.
 
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I havent seen the article, nor did I care to seek it out. However did he use a POOL of drives for his numbers and average them together? or did he just take ONE of each drive and compare numbers. If it is the latter, his numbers could easily be skewed by a single bum drive. Hard numbers cannot be dirived from single instances, to make true figures you have to test a significant amount of drives, record all thier numbers and average them all together, also reporting the best and the worst ranges.

If someone would linky me I would go take a look, but honestly, if it was only a single drive test, even being anand, I would take the results with a grain of salt.
 
If it bothers you that much (especially since a purchase is luck-of-the-draw in regards to which SSD you get), then pony up for a SATA-III SSD for the Air:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express

$279 for the 120GB or $549 for the 240GB. Reads at 504 MB/s and writes at 454 MB/s, with a 4K read speed of 24.38 MB/s and write speed of 57.56 MB/s. It absolutely stomps the stock Apple SSD. Forget the paltry 50 MB/s difference in the default drives - these give you more than DOUBLE the original speeds! And you can stick your old one in an external USB case:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World Computing/SSDAPOTGU3/

or an external USB/Firewire/eSATA case:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDAPEPMQ/
 
Kaido said:
If it bothers you that much (especially since a purchase is luck-of-the-draw in regards to which SSD you get), then pony up for a SATA-III SSD for the Air:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express

$279 for the 120GB or $549 for the 240GB. Reads at 504 MB/s and writes at 454 MB/s, with a 4K read speed of 24.38 MB/s and write speed of 57.56 MB/s. It absolutely stomps the stock Apple SSD. Forget the paltry 50 MB/s difference in the default drives - these give you more than DOUBLE the original speeds! And you can stick your old one in an external USB case:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDAPOTGU3/

or an external USB/Firewire/eSATA case:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDAPEPMQ/
Click to expand...


Huh, that's really not a bad idea. Do you know if there is a way to stick one of those MBA ssds in an *internal* case. In other words, I have an old laptop I'd like to put an ssd into, if I could put the mba stock drive in it that would make paying for an upgrade worth it.

I'll investigate - thanks!
 
snuuggles said:
Huh, that's really not a bad idea. Do you know if there is a way to stick one of those MBA ssds in an *internal* case. In other words, I have an old laptop I'd like to put an ssd into, if I could put the mba stock drive in it that would make paying for an upgrade worth it.

I'll investigate - thanks!
Click to expand...

Anand just posted a review yesterday:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5076/...ress-6g-review-a-fast-macbook-air-ssd-upgrade

I have not seen any 2010/2011 Macbook Air SSD-to-2.5" adapters yet. In fact, OWC is the only company I've seen with a connector kit for the stock drive. In the previous models, Apple used SATA LIF and PATA LIF connectors, but the new one uses a custom little connector.

OWC's external cases are their run-of-the-mill 2.5" drive models which are sporting a custom adapter from SATA to Apple's 2011 Air SSD connector (you can remove it from the external case and pop a standard 2.5" drive if you want). If you want to get creative, you might be able to rig up an enclosure with that adapter and stick it in another laptop. It'd be kind of ghetto-rigged, but it'd probably work fine.

Also, they give you a discount on the external case if you buy it with one of their replacement SSD's - the USB model is $35 and the combo-port model is $70 (normally $70 & $110 respectively).
 
Kaido said:
Anand just posted a review yesterday:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5076/...ress-6g-review-a-fast-macbook-air-ssd-upgrade

I have not seen any 2010/2011 Macbook Air SSD-to-2.5" adapters yet. In fact, OWC is the only company I've seen with a connector kit for the stock drive. In the previous models, Apple used SATA LIF and PATA LIF connectors, but the new one uses a custom little connector.

OWC's external cases are their run-of-the-mill 2.5" drive models which are sporting a custom adapter from SATA to Apple's 2011 Air SSD connector (you can remove it from the external case and pop a standard 2.5" drive if you want). If you want to get creative, you might be able to rig up an enclosure with that adapter and stick it in another laptop. It'd be kind of ghetto-rigged, but it'd probably work fine.

Also, they give you a discount on the external case if you buy it with one of their replacement SSD's - the USB model is $35 and the combo-port model is $70 (normally $70 & $110 respectively).
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It is actually a standardized connector, I cannot recall if it is mSATA or µSATA but I think it is µSATA (µ should be mu). I think that the Ultrabooks are all using them, and the latest HP Envy's also have them so you can use an SSD in addition to your HDD.
 
Thanks guys. I think I might just upgrade my old msi x340 with a cheap ssd and 4gb of ram and see if I can wait till more ultrabooks come out. Or Ivy bridge MBA. Maybe by then the MBA will have settled on SSDs that deliver a more consistent performance. I figure spending $200 to double/triple the speed of my old dog is a pretty good investment for now.

To be clear: this will compel me to return the MBA I just got, which I'm incredibly sad about because it really is very, very nice.
 
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snuuggles said:
Another reason why I'd rather not trust what anand is saying. Basically, if the drives were just a trade-off of good and bad features spread between them, I could easily live with that, but if what he's printing in his charts is true, there is just no way that's not something you are going to notice at some point, or at least always be wondering "gee, what if I had just swapped out the drive, would this not be so slow?" Ahem, or at least that's what I'm constantly thinking now. Yes I am aware that is crazy, but what can I do?
...

Basically, I understand everyone who says "you won't notice a difference" with the SSD, but I think that's just opinion, and numbers are facts: one is 25-1000% slower than the other. Until operating systems and programs load instantly, I'm not going to be satisfied with "you won't notice the difference". If there is a significant numerical difference, I really can't help but think I *will* notice a difference.
Click to expand...

I sincerely agree with vi_edit. I think you are overreacting. Even Anand noted this:

In regular use I doubt you'd notice a huge performance difference between the two, but if you want the fastest drive you want the Samsung. Compared to last year's MacBook Air (Toshiba) you get a huge boost in sequential read/write performance.
Click to expand...

Write and read speed really only matters in situations where you constantly write and read from the drive. Otherwise, it's just mostly 1-2s slower to transfer files depending on whether the files are easily findable.

Since Mac OSX indexes all files regardless, finding files is almost an instant operation.

But as said, it's your money, so decide accordingly. Personally, I haven't seen a single person complain about SSD performance on the Macbook Air.

If anything, slow performance is more likely attributed to slower processor.
 
snuuggles said:
Also, I think it's worth communicating this to Apple by forcing them to lose money exchanging my MBA. I do think it's the only way they'll be forced to deliver more consistent performance across the line.
Click to expand...

Did they not give you what they said they would give you?
 
wait for the new macbook air err pro 15" that should have sata-3. honestly the air is so weaksauce it doesn't matter what ssd you have - unless you are doing some sql server stuff i doubt you'd feel the difference in a fully mac daddy macbook air 4gb ram 2ghz?
 
Emulex said:
wait for the new macbook air err pro 15" that should have sata-3. honestly the air is so weaksauce it doesn't matter what ssd you have - unless you are doing some sql server stuff i doubt you'd feel the difference in a fully mac daddy macbook air 4gb ram 2ghz?
Click to expand...

What? Can I get a translation please?
 
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