Aftermarket Mac upgrade specialists OWC have announced that the long-awaited PCIe flash storage upgrades for old model Mac laptops are now available.
The late-2013 MacBook Pro and the Mid-2013 MacBook Air product cycles are eligible to upgrade. According to 9to5mac, upgrades include a 480GB or a 1TB PCIe-based flash storage solution.
Given that most of these Macs shipped with anemic 128GB or 256GB SSDs, the upgrade is major. For example, with MacBook Airs that had 128GB of flash storage space, a 1TB upgrade is eight times the storage space, which is a significant increase in eligible storage.
A report from Anrdoezrs reveals that OWC's Aura SSDs have the following:
- Tier-1 Flash - the best flash for superior performance and reliability.
- Superior Error Correction - Three levels of error correction for enhanced dependability and RAID-like protection for data.
- Global Wear Leveling, which is an algorithm that serves to evenly distribute data across the SSD besides extending the life of the drive by preventing premature wear.
- Cell-Level Data Refresh - The SSD controller monitors data blocks and maintains correct charge at the cell level, enhancing data integrity and extending drive life.
The greatest thing about using OWC for upgrade is that the solution is straightforward and painless. OWC stated that the upgrade is as simple as removing a few screws with the compact Torx T5 and Pentalobe P5 drivers added in the upgrade kit.
Apart from the upgrade being easy to perform, OWC will incorporate an Envoy Pro SSD enclosure to repurpose the old factory-installed flash storage drive that users replace. One can then use the Envoy Pro to transfer data to the new upgrade drive.
MacBook Pro models eligible for the storage upgrade include MacBook Pro 11.1, MacBook Pro 11.2, MacBook Pro 11.3, MacBook Pro 11.4, MacBook Pro 11.5, and MacBook Pro 12.1. On the other hand, MacBook Air models eligible for the upgrade include MacBook Air 6.1, MacBook Air 6.2, MacBook Air 7.1, and MacBook Air 7.2.
Kits have a price tag of $347.99 for the 480GB upgrade without enclosure, and $399.00 with enclosure. 1TB models start at $597.99 without enclosure and $649.00 with enclosure. Users can purchase an Aura PCIe-based flash storage upgrade here, although it will not be available until the end of this month.
Watch the clip below for further details.