Filip Novotny Our portable devices are gradually becoming thinner and thinner. Whether it's mobile phones, tablets or computers, this trend is clearly taking its toll. The arrival of Retina displays marked the end of easy additional exchangeability of a number of components, and if these actions are not downright impossible, few users would want to do them themselves at home. One of the few relatively simple upgrades is the replacement or expansion of the storage, and it is precisely these steps that we have now focused on at Jablíčkář.
We tested a pair of products from the Transcend brand - the 1TB JetDrive flash memory (along with an external frame for existing storage) and also its smaller brother JetDrive Lite, which works using the SD interface. They helped us in the company with the acquisition and installation of all these products NSPARKLE.
The first thing we will look at is the Transcend JetDrive flash storage, namely the 725 model with a size of 960 GB. We will be particularly interested in what exactly the product will offer, how complicated its installation is and if it will also bring an increase in read and write speed.
In our testing, we used a 2013-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display from the first half of XNUMX. This computer already has very fast flash storage in its original configuration, so it will be interesting to see what difference the upgrade we tested can offer. Keep in mind that speed differences might be different for other MacBook models.
First steps
When you first get your hands on the Transcend JetDrive storage, you will be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the packaging. After opening the simple white box, we immediately see the main part of the package, the chip itself. One floor below is an external frame, in which we can place, for example, our existing flash memory from the computer, and at the very bottom accessories such as a brief manual, a cable to the external frame and a pair of screwdrivers.
And we will also need all the contents of the package from the very beginning. The easiest way to prepare the storage for use is to insert it into an external frame and connect it to the computer with a cable. So we won't have to open the notebook yet, we only need to open the additional frame, for which one of the enclosed screwdrivers will be used. After that, we can use software such as Carbon Copy Cloner, move all your data to an external drive. (Disk Utility cannot be used in OS X, as it cannot copy the partition from which the system runs.) Naturally, a clean installation is also an option.
Then we can reach for the second of the screwdrivers and open the bottom of the laptop. After cleaning it, which is surprisingly necessary even after only a few months of use, we can use a Torx screwdriver to remove the original memory, move it to an external frame and install a new Transcend module in its place in the MacBook.
ž is a simple type of memory that stores information about connected devices, resolution, volume or also the startup disk. Just hold the Alt (⌥), Command (⌘), P and R keys while turning on the computer until you hear a long tone from the speaker. Then you can release the keys and let the computer load the operating system.
After it's fully launched, it's a good idea to take one more step and from that moment on, we can fully use the new storage. Transcend recommends downloading special software that will take care of 100% memory usage. Without it, he wouldn't be able to reach full speed and wouldn't be able to handle the command trim. The Transcend Toolbox utility can arrange everything in a few clicks, and in addition, it also monitors the "health" of the storage.
It is also possible to forego all these steps and have them performed directly by the seller, if they offer such a service. We used this possibility at the Prague company NSPARKLE, which also sells the Transcend JetDrive series and lent two products of this family to Jablíčkára. Whatever you decide, everything should be ready to use at this point. We can forget about the whole process and use our computer as before.
Speed
The size of the new storage is only one of two important aspects, although it will offer up to 1 TB of space. The other side of the matter is, of course, speed. To test it, we used two standard measurement applications available for OS X Yosemite – AJA system test and somewhat less reliable Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.
Gallery
As already mentioned in the introduction of the test, for our MacBook Pro with Retina display, specifically with Samsung brand flash memory. There are big differences in the components used between different models, and even the same laptop model can contain memory from different manufacturers (for example, slower Toshiba chips). If you want to see how fast the storage in your machine really is, there is nothing easier than downloading one of the utilities we use. Both are free and you can even find Blackmagic in the App Store.
The computer we tested achieved values of around 420 MB/s for reading and 400 MB/s for writing in both tests. If we insert the same original memory into an external frame, the measured values are slower, but not significantly so. The small change is understandable given the connection via USB 3. However, if you own a computer older than 2012, the slower USB 2 will significantly limit the performance of the external flash storage (the maximum is 60 MB/s).
Gallery
However, the external frame is just an accessory, how is the Transcend?nota's memory itself in terms of speed, approx. 420 MB/s for writing and 480 MB/s for reading. Although these are not dizzyingly different numbers, it does bring a slight increase in performance. We can certainly imagine better values, but with this product size comes first.
And it can increase significantly with the help of Transcend memories. For the MacBook Air, the size of the basic drives varies between 128 and 256 GB, and for the Pro model up to 512 GB. It is then possible to order even higher versions up to 1 TB on the Apple website. However, upgrading to larger storage isn't exactly cheap. At the same time, Transcend memories offer the same maximum.
Since Transcend does not yet offer storage for the latest generations of MacBooks (which have new flash memories connected via PCIe), the comparison is understandably not direct. Still, it's interesting in some ways, it might help show if Apple is charging an adequate amount for storage upgrades.
| MacBook Air 11 ″ | |
| Capacity | Price |
| 128 GB | 24 990 $ |
| 256 GB | + CZK 5 |
| 512 GB | + CZK 12 |
| MacBook Air 13 ″ | |
| Capacity | Price |
| 128 GB | 27 990 $ |
| 256 GB | + CZK 5 |
| 512 GB | + CZK 12 |
| MacBook Pro 13″ Retina | |
| 128 GB | 34 990 $ |
| 256 GB | + CZK 5 |
| 512 GB | + CZK 14 |
| 1 TB | + CZK 27 |
| MacBook Pro 15″ Retina | |
| Capacity | Price |
| 256 GB | 53 990 $ |
| 512 GB | + CZK 7 |
| 1 TB | + CZK 20 |
| Transcend JetDrive | |
| Capacity | Price |
| 240 GB | 5 441 $ |
| 480 GB | 9 625 $ |
| 960 GB | 17 339 $ |
Verdict
Expanding storage is one of the few ways we can adjust the parameters of our MacBook. Nowadays, due to the speeds of the original flash memories, it doesn't make much sense to change the storage because of the increase in performance, and the Transcend JetDrive doesn't even offer significantly higher speeds.
But if you don't have enough space that Apple basically gave you, replacing the flash memory may be a better solution than moving some files to external drives. And if you don't mind the additional solution, you can simply use your original drive as a storage space for any files. At the same time, even this external memory will maintain a high access speed, so it is not necessary to significantly deal with filtering the content into important and unimportant files.
We thank the company for the loan of the product and the quick assembly NSPARKLE.
It would only be appropriate to write that thanks to kext protection, the trim must be switched on and off via Trans. the utility breaks when you update the system with a fee. Otherwise, thanks for the article, it would still be worth reviewing the SSD as the manufacturer thinks that the macbook does not recognize that it is not original.
Thanks a lot for the article, exactly what we need more of. For the 13 and 2013 MacBook Air 2014, there's probably no way to replace the original SSD with a bigger one yet, right?
Hello, that's right. PCIe SSD drives are not yet offered separately by any manufacturer. It is possible to get one taken from another MacBook on eBay without warranty or to exchange it through an Apple Authorized Service Provider - but at a price that is worth buying a new MacBook with a larger drive and selling the old one. Both OWC and Transcend are said to be working on these drives, so we'll have to wait for now.
thanks a lot for the answer :-)
Unfortunately, the expensive SSD storage is the reason why I stay with the classic Macbook Pro and will not switch to the retina yet. I need 0.5-1TB for local things and that is not worth the money. For me, the combination of a smaller SSD + a larger classic HDD + NAS is still the best, and the middle link cannot yet be left out cheaply :(
After all, no additional software is needed to move the original disk to the new jet drive. Just boot into recovery mode (CMD+R), start the disk utility here and clone the original disk to the new one. Then turn off the Mac, put the original in the frame and the new one in the computer :-)
Yes, but if you change disks of the same size, if the internal one is bigger than the external one (SSD), then it is not possible. I had to use CCC. Adding an SSD drive to the Mac mini.