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Boost Your MacBook's Speed with a Hybrid Drive
Earlier this week, Seagate CEO Steve Luczo challenged Steve Jobs'
assertion that SSDs are the future of laptop computing (second link
below), contending that hybrid hard drives - such as his company's
Momentus XT - are a better alternative, offering what Luczo claims to
be basically the features and function of SSD at more hard drive-like
cost and capacity, since hybrids use flash memory more as a cache than
as the main storage medium.
Macworld's Rob Griffiths and Kirk McElhearn note that SSDs have no
moving parts, offer incredible access speed, and can make a huge
difference in the performance of your computer but are
capacity-restricted and quite expensive. For example, substituting a
standard 320 GB hard drive in a $1,499 13" MacBook Pro with a 512 GB
SSD will drain your wallet by an extra $1,400, nearly equaling the
price of the machine itself.
However, Seagate's Momentus XT 2.5" hard drive, which combines a 4
GB SSD with a standard 500 GB hard drive, can be had for a street price
as low as $114.99 (see Amazon.com link below).
However, they observe that while hybrid drives promise a bit of the
best of both worlds - SSD speed with traditional hard drive costs - you
won't get anywhere near the speed boost you would with a full SSD, but
the price premium for the speed boost that you do get is very
modest.
Griffiths and Kirk McElhearn tested the Momentus XT hybrid drive in
a mid-2010 2.66
GHz 15" MacBook Pro and found the hybrid notably faster than the
stock drive that came with the machine, but still well-short of full
SSD performance. They conclude that Seagate's hybrid drive seems like a
great compromise for budget-conscious users.
They also text a Mac mini with a Seagate Momentus XT drive, and it
reduced startup time by 40% compared with the stock 5400 rpm hard
drive.
Link: Boost
Your MacBook's Speed with a Hybrid Drive
Link:
Seagate Technology PLC F1Q2011 Results - Earnings Call
Transcript
Link: Seagate
Momentus XT Drives from $100 (shipped) at Amazon.com
15" and 17" MacBook Pros Get a 2.8 GHz BTO
Option
All but eclipsed in the excitement over the new MacBook
Air release last week was Apple's quietly adding a faster CPU option
for the 15" and 17" MacBook Pro models.
Both machines now have a new Build to Order option to upgrade from
the previous high-end 2.66 GHz Core i7 chip to a 2.8 GHz Core i7 for an
extra $200 (for the 15" 2.66 GHz model) or $400 (for the 17" Core i5
2.53 GHz MacBook Pro).
That seems a bit steep for such a modest (5%) bump on what what are
already exceedingly fast computers, but the configuration button is
there if you want to exercise that option.
Link: 15" MacBook Pro at the
Apple Store
Link: 17"
MacBook Pro at the Apple Store
Why Apple Stuck with Core 2 Duo for the New MacBook
Air
Ars Technica's Chris Foresman notes that if you were hoping for
enough CPU muscle in the new MacBook Air models to keep a bunch of
Flash-addled webpages from bringing the portable to its knees, you'll
be sorely disappointed that the Intel Core 2 Duo is still used in the
new MacBook Air models, with the 11" MacBook Air trailing its
predecessor in clock speed, while the 13" model hasn't changed
CPU speed at all.
The explanation?
Foresman observed that the multicore GPU in Nvidia's GeForce 320M
integrated graphics processor unit handily spanks Intel's HD GPU in the
Core i-series processors, and the Nvidia chipset is also compatible
with OpenCL, which Intel doesn't yet support in its built-in GPUs.
Apple's argument is that the greater graphics power of the 320M is more
important than more raw CPU processing power in smaller laptops, which
is why the 13"
MacBook Pro update comes with Core 2 Duo chips - and similar logic
has been applied to the new MacBook Airs. Intel has thus far refused to
license Core "i" silicon for use with Nvidia's graphics chipsets.
Foresman also explains why the 11.6" MacBook Air can only be had
with 1.4 GHz or 1.6 GHz clock speed Core 2 Duos, while the larger 13"
Air gets somewhat faster 1.86 GHz or 2.13 GHz CPUs. The reason is the
chip's thermal profiles. The 1.4 GHz and 1.6 GHz units draw a
cool-running 10 watts, while it's 17w (still quite respectable by
today's torrid standards) for the 1.86 GHz or 2.13 GHz chips, which
have more breathing room to cool in the 13-incher's larger
enclosure.
Link: Why Apple Saddled
the MacBook Air with 'Gimped' CPUs
Steve Jobs Is Wrong About the MacBook Air and DVD
Drives
ITworld's Ryan Faas contends that Apple and netbook manufacturers
have proved optical drives aren't critical, but says the technology is
not ready to be buried just yet, even though the new MacBook Air ships
with an install/restore "disk" on a bootable flash drive instead of a
DVD.
Faas acknowledges that in many instances he can download software
and install it without purchasing a box containing a CD or DVD that may
never be used after installation, and that in the age of portable music
players like the iPod, we don't really need CDs, and indeed are
entering the age of streaming media for our computers and Internet
direct to our TVs.
That still leaves emergency restore and diagnostic tools, (although
some of them are migrating to flash and external hard drives), so there
are are still reasons that computers need optical drive support.
Faas thinks the affirmative, for the near-term at least, noting that
there are still a greater number of DVD/Blu-ray only titles than titles
you can watch instantly via streaming, and some large software packages
(Adobe Creative Suite comes to mind) that are so bulky that downloading
them, while possible, is a challenging prospect even over broadband
connection.
Editor's note: Since the MacBook Air finally has two USB ports, it
should be relatively trivial to create your own bootable USB flash
drive from the install/restore drive and then install your favorite
utilities. 32 GB flash drives are available for the same $80 price as
Apple's external SuperDrive. dk
Link: Why Steve Jobs Is
Wrong About the MacBook Air and DVD Drives
How to Install Windows 7 on a MacBook Air
Cnet's Dong Ngo has posted a tutorial on how to install Windows 7 on
a MacBook Air from a USB flash drive, obviating the necessity of buying
an optional external optical drive for the Air, at least for that
purpose.
Ngo says that all you'll need is a computer running Windows 7 with a
working DVD drive, a 4 GB or larger USB flash drive, a Windows 7
installation DVD, and about an hour of free time.
Link: Install Win 7 on
MacBook Air from a USB Drive
Should Apple's Next MacBook Be an $800 Price
Leader?
The Apple Blog's Darrell Etherington thinks the MacBook Air
represents a bold move forward in mobile computing with its flash
storage and no compelling need for an optical drive, but he contends
that Apple's greatest achievement with the Air - its defining feature
that will have the strongest influence on Apple's other notebooks - is
the Air's entry-level price, with the base 11.6" MacBook Air listing at
$999, the same as the consumer
MacBook.
Etherington suggests that the MacBook is due for a refresh and that
a new MacBook should arrive by spring 2011 at the absolute latest,
noting that Apple has little to gain by pitting two $000 laptops
against each other. He anticipates a new, lower price point for the
next of the MacBook iteration, noting that with component price drops
and advances in manufacturing efficiency, there should few barriers to
Apple offering a $799 MacBook, thereby opening Mac laptop ownership to
a whole new tier of both consumers and price-sensitive enterprise and
institutional users who've been tuning Mac laptops out up to now based
on price.
Editor's note: That would also mean just a $200 difference in price
between the Mac mini and
the MacBook, which could bode well for a price reduction on the tiny
desktop as well. dk
Link: Should Apple's
Next MacBook Be an $800 Price Leader?
MacBook Air vs. iPad Smackdown: Which Is Best for
You?
PCWorld's Ian Paul says Apple's 11" MacBook Air may create a
conundrum for prospective Mac owners: Should they buy a petite Apple
laptop or an iPad?
When Apple launched the Air, it said it was a hybrid device
combining the best aspects of the MacBook with the iPad. Just like
Apple's tablet device, the Air has flash storage and no optical or hard
drive. But like previous versions of the Air, the new computer runs Mac
OS X and has a laptop form factor.
If you had to pick just one device and you specifically wanted an
Apple device for travel or use at home, which one would you choose?
Link: MacBook Air vs.
iPad Smackdown: Which Is Best for You?
Did the New MacBook Air Just Crush the iPad?
TCGeeks says:
"I just got one of the new 11.6" MacBook Air laptops. So far I love
it. But there's an issue. The issue is that it's the perfect solution
that I was looking for when I got my iPad. It's small, light, great
battery life, keyboard, and soon it will have the Mac App Store. Now I
have to ask myself and my readers what choice they would make now that
we have this new MacBook Air to choose from."
Link: Did the New MacBook
Air Just Crush the iPad?
$670 Alternative to MacBook Air: iPad with Toccata
Keyboard
Fast Company's Chris Taylor proposes an iPad paired with Aussie
peripherals-maker Padacs $70 Toccata keyboard case as a budget
alternative to the new MacBook Air, which he says, based on his own
such rig, gives you an ultralight Apple notebook with an entirely
solid-state hard drive, a battery that charges fast and lasts for so
long reports: merely has to think about it (just plugs it in every
other night), and a portable 9.7 in. screen that conveniently detaches
to be used in pure tablet mode, and cost in total, just $670.
Taylor notes that like the best products in Apple's ecosystem, the
Toccata "just works," connecting automatically via Bluetooth when you
press any key, and switching itself off when not in use, providing 45
hours of runtime, and recharging via USB.
He reports that the rubberized silicon keys are soft yet solid
enough to take some finger-tapping punishment, and they make a
beautiful sound when you're in a typing flow, like rain on a window
pane, and even though it's not a full-sized keyboard, it's surprisingly
pleasant to type on, including a row of F-keys, a volume control, music
controls, and a button that takes you back to the iPad home screen,
although one sour note is an oddly-placed single and double quote
key.
Taylor also likes that the iPad/Toccata combo runs cool and makes it
possible to write virtually anywhere, and elicits a lot of admiring
attention from computer-toting cafe patrons.
He concedes that the iPad doesn't do everything power users need,
and says he still uses his MacBook Pro for serious editing work, but
contends that for writers the Toccata case vastly improves the iPad's
functionality.
As a limited-time incentive, Padacs is offering free shipping for
its US customers to celebrate the launch of Padacs in North America.
Padacs currently ships its products throughout the US, Canada, and
Australia.
Link: The $670
Alternative to MacBook Air: iPad, Toccata Keyboard
Link: Padacs iPad
Cases & Stands
3 Ways to Overcome the 2010 MacBook Air's Lack of a
Backlit Keyboard
Bare Feats' rob-ART Morgan offers three tongue-in-cheek solutions to
the omission of keyboard backlighting from the new MacBook Air, noting
that he's having some fun at Apple's expense, but asking "seriously,
why did Apple drop this very popular feature from the 2010 MacBook
Air?" and suggesting that at the very least, Apple should offer it as a
CTO option.
Link: Three
Ways to Overcome the Lack of a Backlit Keyboard on the 2010 MacBook
Air
Reviews
iFixit's 11" MacBook Air Teardown
iFixit's Miro Djuric says:
"The new MacBook Air is an exercise of proprietary engineering.
While you can easily access everything once you remove the proprietary
screws, you can't really replace any component with an off-the-shelf
part, unless you source it from Apple or someone involved in
Apple-based repair ((*)cough(*)). Most components - RAM included - are
soldered to the logic board, preventing them from being replaced. We
definitely recommend users to buy the 4 GB RAM version of the Air,
as the paltry 2 GB already borders on obsolete by today's
standards.
"The one standout in this proprietary sea is the 64 GB SSD. It's not
locked down like the rest of the components, although it is a very slim
and unusual form factor (for a hard drive). It's attached to the logic
board with what appears to be a new mini-SATA (mSATA) connector, which
brings hope to super-slim-laptop-hackers all across the globe. This may
enable some crafty tinkerers to rig a larger drive inside the Air,
provided they can fit everything within the tight confines of the .68"
thick case.
"We gave 11" MacBook Air a not-so-good
repairability score of 4 out of 10, with 10 being easiest to repair.
Simply put, a plethora of proprietary parts prevents people from
painlessly fixing their machines."
Teardown highlights:
- The flip-open port door has been scrapped and the IR sensor and
sleep LED are gone. In exchange, the new model manages to fit an extra
USB 2.0 port along its right edge.
- Apple apparently doesn't want you inside this thing. They decided
to use proprietary 5-point security Torx screws to attach the lower
case. Once inside, the Air is held together with more normal 6-point T5
and T8 Torx screws.
The battery is comprised of six individual
lithium-polymer cells, which combine to form a 35 Watt-hour
battery.- Although in a different form factor, the new MacBook Air uses the
same Broadcom BCM943224 WiFi/Bluetooth chip as the current lineup of
MacBook Pros.
- The back of the trackpad has a Broadcom BCM5976A0K chip on it,
likely responsible for the multitouch capabilities of the the
trackpad.
- The 11.6" MacBook Air features a resolution of 1366 x 768. That's a
few more pixels and noticeably more widescreen (16:9 vs. 16:10) than
the 1280 x 800 resolution of previous Air models. In a welcome
improvement, Apple has substantially enhanced the rigidity of the
display assembly.
"The new MacBook Air is a tidy little package, but we wish Apple
would stop intentionally preventing users from upgrading and repairing
their devices."
Link:
MacBook Air 11.6" Teardown
Primate Labs Posts New MacBook Air Benchmarks
Primate
Labs' John Poole has done an abbreviated performance comparison of the
new MacBook Airs that Apple released last week using Geekbench 2 scores
from the Geekbench Result Browser and the latest 13" MacBook Pro models
as his reference point of comparison, deducing that the smallest
MacBook Pro, is the machine most folks will be comparing the new Airs
against.
Geekbench 2 scores (which measure only processor and memory
performance) tallied range from a high of 3655 for the 2.66 GHz 13"
MacBook Pro, to a low of 2026 for the new 1.4 GHz 11.6" MacBook Air
among the laptop machines.
Low End Mac has reduced the original graph to only show MacBook Air
scores along with the current consumer MacBook.
Link: MacBook Air
Benchmarks (Late 2010)
Macworld Benchmarks 'Ultimately Upgraded' MacBook
Airs
Macworld's James Galbraith reports that the standard 2010 MacBook
Air models offer impressive improvements in both design and performance
when compared to previous MacBook Airs. But with just 2 GB of RAM
and the slowest Intel Core 2 Duo processors in the entire Mac lineup,
Macworld's editors were interested in putting some of the
build-to-order options to the test.
Galbraith notes that the ultimate 11" MacBook Air takes the $1,199
MacBook Air and adds 2 GB of RAM (4 GB of RAM total) and
bumps the processor from the stock 1.4 GHz to 1.6 GHz, bringing its
cost to $1,399, while the ultimate 13" MacBook Air configuration starts
with the $1,599 version and, after the RAM gets bumped to 4 GB and
the processor gets a boost from 1.86 GHz to 2.13 GHz, sells for
$1,799.
You can spend more than that on Apple's configuration page by adding
an external optical drive ($79) and selection of I/O adapter
dongles.
Macworld found that the 13" 2.4 GHz MacBook is still 5% faster
overall than the 1.6 GHz 11" MacBook Air - but the ultimate 13" 2.13
GHz Air is 20% faster than the MacBook.
Link: 2010 MacBook Air:
Ultimate-Edition Lab Tests
AnandTech Thoroughly Reviews 2010 MacBook Air
AnandTech reviews are probably unsurpassed in their thoroughness,
and editors Anand Lal Shimpi & Vivek Gowri have trained their
formidable analytical skills on the new MacBook Air models. I won't
even attempt to summarize the contents of this comprehensively ranging
review except to say that all bases are covered. The reviewers do say
that Apple won't call the Air a netbook, but that's exactly what the
11.6 inch MacBook Air is: a netbook with much better hardware. You get
a full sized keyboard, an old but faster-than-Atom processor and a
great screen.
Link: Apple's 2010
MacBook Air (11 & 13 inch) Thoroughly Reviewed
Inside the New MacBook Air's Screen
ZDNet blogger Jason D. O'Grady talks to Tech Restore's CEO Shannon
Jean, who sheds some light on the hoops that Apple jumped through to
save weight and thickness on its thinnest notebook ever.
TechRestore is so far the only vendor offering a matte finish screen
replacement for the new MacBook Air's glossy screen, and Jean notes
that getting inside the Air's screen bezel is more difficult than with
previous models, since the screen is paper thin and not inside a
housing like the traditional screens, but rather in layers, a mode Jean
says he doesn't think has ever been used before in a laptop.
Photos of screen removal process are included.
Link:
Inside the New MacBook Air's Screen
Products & Services
First SSD Upgrade Kits for New MacBook Air Boast
30% Performance Increase
PR: Who says the new Late 2010 MacBook Airs can't be
upgraded? Taiwan-based PhotoFast Global Inc.'s new GM2 SFV1 Air Upgrade
Kit for the latest MacBook Airs is claimed to offer a greater than 30%
performance increase from the original configuration.
The new MacBook Air is ultraportable, offers good performance
and gorgeous industrial design. But PhotoFast have decided to offer
even more - an alternative SSD choice with 256 GB capacity in the 11.6"
MacBook Air is now possible.
SandForce is a well-known SSD controller manufacturer with which
PhotoFast has a solid partnership. "Creating a whole new form factor
SSD in the very limited time was quite a challenge. Thanks to support
from SandForce, we finally made it," says chief engineer Eddie
Wang.
There's one more thing, the SSD to USB 3.0 adapter. Considering
system switching or cloning to new drive, PhotoFast added a handy
adapter with an aluminum housing which makes upgrading even easier,
allowing you to recycle your pulled OEM SSD as a portable storage
device.
GM2 SFV1 Air Features:
- Above 30% performance increase from original
- USB 3.0 adapter for system clone, and for spare SSD to act as
portable storage device.
- 256 GB SSD option for 11.6" MBA
- The kit will be available in 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB
capacities.
Physical Specifications
- Weight: 15g
- Dimensions: 108.5 x 29.0 x 1.6 mm
- Controller: SandForce SF-1200
- Host Bus Interface: Customized SATA interface
- Capacity: 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB
- High Performance
- Support: NAND Flash MLC flash supported
- Performance:
- Read: Seq. 250 MB/s, Random 50 MB/s
- Write: Seq. 250 MB/s, Random 30 MB/s
- Environmental
- Operating Temperature: 0C ~ 70C
- Storage Temperature: -25C ~ 85C
- Vibration Operation: 20G Peak
- Storage: 20G Peak
- Shock Operation: 1500G
- Storage: 1500G
No prices or release date are cited. PhotoFast say they are seeking
distributors outside of the Japan region.
Link: PhotoFast GM2 SFV1
Air Upgrade Kit for New MacBook Air
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