2013 MacBook Airs come with PCI Express-based SSD!

[Fraud OS 11]

Yesterday Apple updated its MacBook Air with new models for 2013. The notebooks don't look too different, but inside they have been updated to Intel's 4th Generation Core processors that go by the code name Haswell and it turns out that they have significant improvements when it comes to the storage drives. The new MacBook Air no longer uses SATA drives, but has moved on to the PCIe interface instead. It appears that the Macbook Air uses a PCIe 2.0 x2 interface that is capable of 1GB/s in each direction. Initial benchmarks done by Anand and others show that the new MacBook Air is capable of nearly 800MB/s read and write speeds. Not too shabby at all and we all knew that the retail SSD market was headed to the PCIe interface. It's taken years to get there, but go figure that Apple was the first to fully embrace it. Time for the Intel Ultrabook to keep up!

Source: http://www.legitreviews.com/news/15665/

[AnotherITguy]

So, just how much faster does it make it compared to the last gen MacBook Air?

[Aergan]

I didn't even know you could get native drive access on PCIe :s

[ahhell]

"Not too shabby at all and we all knew that the retail SSD market was headed to the PCIe interface. It's taken years to get there, but go figure that Apple was the first to fully embrace it."

Uh...what? These have been available for a couple of years.

[lmaobox]

Uh...what? These have been available for a couple of years.

I guess you are wrong, I can't find such thing anywhere.

[techbeck]

I guess you are wrong, I can't find such thing anywhere.

Did you even search? Lots of info out there for PCIe based SSD drives.

[Argi]

Yeah, they're definitely on the market already though this would be the first consumer product with it by default. Speeds according to Anand are in the 800Mb/s range.

Haswell's focus is on battery life, not performance. Perf is slightly better but the battery life's improvement over the previous gen is up to 50%.

[Avi]

Impressive. (and I really don't usually say that about Apple)

[djdanster]

Dell had PCIe SSD's in their netbooks by default around 2 years ago. I remember servicing one at work. PITA to replace though as they were really short to fit into the space, had to look around for the correct dimensions one.

[Stetson]

Dell had PCIe SSD's in their netbooks by default around 2 years ago. I remember servicing one at work. PITA to replace though as they were really short to fit into the space, had to look around for the correct dimensions one.

PCIe or MSATA?

[(Account no longer active)]

"We don't ship junk." It's true. You pay more for an Apple, but you don't get bottlenecks at hardware level like you would with a $400 PC notebook.

I am pleased Apple are always trying to stay ahead with hardware.

[Argi]

"We don't ship junk." It's true. You pay more for an Apple, but you don't get bottlenecks at hardware level like you would with a $400 PC notebook.

A $400 PC notebook no, but at the same price point you'd probably be around the same performance. Biggest (and more crucial) difference is the touch pad accuracy which still stucks in the Windows world.

[djdanster]

PCIe or MSATA?

Ah I see ;)... Two different interfaces (msata vs pci-e). Was talking about msata btw :). Yeah it's late... I need sleep now.

[Fraud OS 11]

Yeah they've been available for many years now. First or not, the great news is that it will go mainstream as others may try to do the same meaning more faster laptops.

[0nyX]

Are there any comparison charts for PCIe VS mSATA interface?

I tried google but couldn't find any.

[boydo Veteran]

I guess you are wrong, I can't find such thing anywhere.

Try the OCZ RevoDrive 3 and OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 :)