Friday, September 16th 2011
OWC Announces Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD for Macbook Air
Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today the industry's first 6G SSD upgrade for the 2011 Apple MacBook Air 11.1" and 13.3"models. The new OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSDs combine award-winning SandForce technologies and Tier 1/Grade A Toggle Synchronous NAND to deliver data rates that are more than 3x faster and capacities that are up to 4x greater than factory available SSD options. Currently available in two sizes--120GB and 240GB--the new 6Gb/s SATA 3.0 Revision models continue OWC's position as the only alternative to factory SSD options for the 2010-2011 MacBook Air. 3G speed models from OWC are also available in capacities of up to 480GB.
The OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G offers 2011 MacBook Air owners a cost-effective SSD upgrade path that delivers higher performance, functionality, and reliability over the factory installed SSD. Because the Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD is SATA Revision 3.0 (6Gb/s) compatible, it can take advantage of the 2011 MacBook Air's built-in 6Gb/s SATA data bus to deliver peak, sustained data rates over 500MB/s, versus the factory installed SSDs, which are limited by SATA Revision 2.0 (3Gb/s) capability.
No Slow-down with Repeated Use
While ordinary SSDs initially offer fast read/write performance; they experience significant write speed degradation over repeated usage. Independent simulation tests conducted by leading drive performance experts like MacPerformanceGuide confirm OWC Mercury SSD's ultra-efficient Block Management & Wear Leveling technologies are able to eliminate virtually any reduction in data transfer speeds over heavy, long-term usage without dependency on less-than-effective OS TRIM management.
Up to 100X Greater Data Protection
Utilizing SandForce DuraClass technology, the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G provides an increase of up to 100X in data protection, compared to ordinary SSDs and leading enterprise-class hard disk drives. By combining the highest level of Error Correction Code (ECC) and SandForce RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) technology, along with 7% over provisioning, the Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G provides RAID-like data protection and reliability without loss of transfer speed due to parity.
"As the first and only SSD alternative to factory installed options in Apple's 2010 and 2011 MacBook Air models, the Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G sets the bar high. We're extremely excited to offer this model which completely eclipses any factory installed SSD and gives MacBook Air users the leading performance our Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSDs have been delivering to MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro, and PC owners," said Larry O'Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. "Our new Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G models enable 2011 MacBook Air owners to unleash substantially higher performance capabilities that are otherwise unrealized and limited by the factory drive."
OWC's new Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G leverages the proven success of its previously released 3G model. 2010-2011 MacBook Air owners seeking maximum storage/backup capacity can replace their factory installed SSD with up to 8x greater capacity offered by the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 3G SSD. Available in capacities up to 480GB, the 3G model SSD also delivers up to 68% faster performance in real world use.
Pricing, Availability
Compatible with 11.1" and 13.3" 2011 MacBook Air models, the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G is available now from Other World Computing as well as through select retailers. Both models include 7% over provisioning, Toggle Synchronous NAND and a three-year warranty. The 120GB version has an MSRP of $349.99 and the 240GB version has an MSRP of $599.99. For more information on the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD for 2011 MacBook Air line, including reseller inquires, visit: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express
The OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G offers 2011 MacBook Air owners a cost-effective SSD upgrade path that delivers higher performance, functionality, and reliability over the factory installed SSD. Because the Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD is SATA Revision 3.0 (6Gb/s) compatible, it can take advantage of the 2011 MacBook Air's built-in 6Gb/s SATA data bus to deliver peak, sustained data rates over 500MB/s, versus the factory installed SSDs, which are limited by SATA Revision 2.0 (3Gb/s) capability.
While ordinary SSDs initially offer fast read/write performance; they experience significant write speed degradation over repeated usage. Independent simulation tests conducted by leading drive performance experts like MacPerformanceGuide confirm OWC Mercury SSD's ultra-efficient Block Management & Wear Leveling technologies are able to eliminate virtually any reduction in data transfer speeds over heavy, long-term usage without dependency on less-than-effective OS TRIM management.
Up to 100X Greater Data Protection
Utilizing SandForce DuraClass technology, the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G provides an increase of up to 100X in data protection, compared to ordinary SSDs and leading enterprise-class hard disk drives. By combining the highest level of Error Correction Code (ECC) and SandForce RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) technology, along with 7% over provisioning, the Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G provides RAID-like data protection and reliability without loss of transfer speed due to parity.
"As the first and only SSD alternative to factory installed options in Apple's 2010 and 2011 MacBook Air models, the Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G sets the bar high. We're extremely excited to offer this model which completely eclipses any factory installed SSD and gives MacBook Air users the leading performance our Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSDs have been delivering to MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro, and PC owners," said Larry O'Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. "Our new Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G models enable 2011 MacBook Air owners to unleash substantially higher performance capabilities that are otherwise unrealized and limited by the factory drive."
OWC's new Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G leverages the proven success of its previously released 3G model. 2010-2011 MacBook Air owners seeking maximum storage/backup capacity can replace their factory installed SSD with up to 8x greater capacity offered by the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 3G SSD. Available in capacities up to 480GB, the 3G model SSD also delivers up to 68% faster performance in real world use.
Pricing, Availability
Compatible with 11.1" and 13.3" 2011 MacBook Air models, the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G is available now from Other World Computing as well as through select retailers. Both models include 7% over provisioning, Toggle Synchronous NAND and a three-year warranty. The 120GB version has an MSRP of $349.99 and the 240GB version has an MSRP of $599.99. For more information on the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD for 2011 MacBook Air line, including reseller inquires, visit: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express
6 Comments on OWC Announces Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD for Macbook Air
Option 2 is to pray to the Apple God, Machitoshi Zorra for assistance. Please note that being worthy enough to have Machitoshi Zorra respond to your plea is based on your income.
P.S. I could save you some time and prayer. The answer is "There is an app for that."
Mac users have to do fresh installs much less frequently than Windows users, especially when it comes to hardware changes. That is a fact.Carbon Copy Cloner
www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
Flawless Mac drive cloning. I've been using it for years and wish there were something similar for Windows but haven't seen it yet. Depending on the size of your drive this will completely clone your new drive to be bootable in a matter of minutes.
The developer, Mike Bombich is incredible guy when it comes to bug fixes and helping users (even those of us who haven't paid!). I could be wrong but I think he is buddies with the people over at OWC as well. (OWC advertises in the "free" version of Carbon Copy Cloner.)
I would personally use one of those USB 2.0 to SATA connectors/docking bays and a spare drive or external hard drive. You can sell or hold on to your old drive as a spare. There will probably be some demand with people looking for replacements in the future.
I will simply ignore your comment about Windows reinstalls because I don't care enough to explain why that information is not accurate. It just takes too much time.
As for the drive cloning...first I know like 12 programs off the top of my head that will perfectly clone a PC HDD's data to another. But since you have never seen one, here is a TPU favorite for your enjoyment: Acronis True Image
And if your special little software was actually flawless, it wouldn't have bugs to fix in the first place. There is no such thing as flawless software. Moving on to the actual use, I notice that Carbon Copy Cloner (which is good software by the way) requires an OS to function as it runs within the OS. Since you are removing the only persistent storage, there will be no OS in place to clone the data from the external back to your system drive. Macbook Air does have additional slots for a direct transfer. Which brings us back to the reinstall I mentioned. Either that or find software that runs off of a bootable disk. I can think of 2 Linux programs that will do that and 1 is free.
The docking bay is a ok idea, but I am not sure they make one for this drives rather strange form factor. Also the connection the drive has is PCIe not SATA, so you dock will not work. I am honestly not sure if they make a dock or cable to go from PCIe to anything that would help in this situation. And if you did find one, why limit the speed of an SSD to USB 2.0 bandwidth? Why not use any other current connector as they are all faster than USB 2.0 at this point?