VIDEO: How to give your Mac a significant speed boost in under ten minutes by swapping the factory SSD for OWC’s Aura Pro X2
The affordable Aura Pro X2 flash retentivity upgrade kits from Other World Computing (OWC) assistance construct your erstwhile Mac experience in addition to run similar a brand-new model. These performant SSDs swallow less might in addition to run cooler than whatever flash drive drive before. And cheers to our video instructions, you’ll live able to swap mill SSD for an Aura inward nether 10 minutes.
Bringing older Macs to modern specs
Unveiled 2 months agone inward mid-April, these PCI-e drop-in upgrade kits are available for Macs dating dorsum to the models manufactured inward 2013. Replacing Apple’s OEM SSD inward your machine, these modules receive got a similar shape portion but are a lot cheaper than buying the upgraded storage straight through Apple.
Maxing out at 2 terabytes, they offering upward to 16x to a greater extent than storage of the master copy drive. Now older Macs tin receive got plenty of storage infinite to choke on your high-resolution photographs, videos, etc.
Get the novel OWC Aura Pro X2 SSDs for your Mac now
Even better, you lot larn read speeds upward to 3.1 gigabytes per 2nd in addition to write speeds upward to 2.3 gigabytes per second—about double the speed of your Mac’s master copy SSD in addition to on par alongside Apple’s latest models. With these kinds of speeds, you lot tin edit 4K video comfortably, tape podcasts, railroad train apps in addition to run other resource-intensive tasks on older Macs to a greater extent than comfortably than always before.
The install procedure takes only nether 10 minutes in addition to tin live performed past times pretty much anyone. Our ain Harris Craycraft has swapped the SSD inward his mom’s aging four-year-old MacBook Air for a 1TB Aura Pro X2. He shot the whole procedure in addition to then laissez passer on his video a quick sentinel to encounter for yourself only how slowly it is to speed upward your Mac without breaking the bank.
You larn twice the functioning versus comparable mill SSDs. These premium NVMe (PCIe 3.1 x4) modules are coupled alongside advanced SLC caching in addition to instant full-speed write acceleration to yield read speeds upward to 3200MB/s in addition to write speeds upward to 2400MB/s.
Not exclusively that, but these SSDs deal to swallow less might in addition to run cooler than the master copy drive inward your Mac, helping prolong your notebook’s battery life. Starting at $110 in addition to alongside 1TB/2TB capacities costing $299/$699, you lot tin choke on your Mac running optimally for years at a fraction of the cost of buying a novel model.
How to supervene upon Mac SSD alongside OWC Aura Pro X2
The Aura Pro X2 upgrade kit includes all the installation tools you’ll need. For a few additional bucks, you lot tin larn the kit itself along alongside an aluminum Envoy Pro PCI-e to USB 3.0 enclosure. What the enclosure enables you lot to create is repurpose that mill SSD equally a fast USB iii portable drive to create things similar transfer files betwixt computers on the go, kicking into Windows 10 via Bootcamp alongside free driver software (or into some other operating system), dorsum upward your backups, boost your storage fifty-fifty farther in addition to what not.
Get the enclosure in addition to then you lot could transfer information from the mill SSD inward OWC’s enclosure to your novel Aura in 1 lawsuit the install procedure is complete. Follow along alongside iDB equally nosotros walk you lot through removing the master copy SSD inward your Mac in addition to replacing it alongside a novel Aura Pro X2.
1) Shut downward your MacBook Air, unplug it from its charger in addition to flip it over.
2) Using the included T5 screwdriver, take away the screws from the dorsum of the computer.
TIP: Be rattling careful non to lose whatever of them. Best thing you lot choke on them prophylactic in addition to accept notice of the 2 screws close the hinge that are slightly longer than the others.
3) With the screws off, take away the dorsum cover.
4) Unplug the battery connector from the motherboard.
Depending on your Mac model, you lot may demand to unplug the battery connector with a nylon pry tool for insulation, preventing whatever electricity from potentially causing a short.
Your battery connector may expression different from Harris’s in addition to then live certain to look upward your calculator model or banking concern check OWC’s website for to a greater extent than information.
You may also desire to attach an anti-static wrist strap to your arm in addition to clip it to the aluminum enclosure of the MacBook Air inward guild to forestall whatever static discharge from ruining your computer.
5) Using the included P5 Pentalobe screwdriver, unscrew the mill SSD.
6) Remove the mill SSD and lay it somewhere safely.
7) Connect your Aura Pro X2 in addition to lay the screws dorsum in. Be certain to spot the module fully or it won’t live recognized. And don’t forget to take away the plastic strip from the thermal celluloid (if present) at the exceed of the OWC Aura SSD’s metallic rut sink.
8) Plug inward the battery connector in addition to contrary your steps to larn the dorsum comprehend dorsum on.
9) Put your erstwhile SSD into the aluminum Envoy Pro enclosure that arrived alongside your kit.
10) With your erstwhile SSD installed, plug the external drive into your computer.
11) Turn on your calculator spell belongings Command – Option – R or Shift-Option-Command-R in guild to invoke Internet Recovery. Doing in addition to then volition starting fourth dimension upward your calculator over the Internet because the novel drive doesn’t receive got macOS installed or a Recovery sectionalization to kicking from.You should encounter a spinning earth instead of an Apple logo during Internet Recovery startup.
If you lot encounter a spinning globe, your Mac is starting upward inward Internet Recovery mode.
Depending on your Internet connection, this may accept anywhere from a pair of minutes to upward to an hour, or longer. Connect your Mac to the might adapter in addition to then that it doesn’t run out of juice whilst it’s loading Internet Recovery from Apple’s servers. If the calculator won’t starting fourth dimension upward from Internet Recovery, you lot volition demand to reinstall macOS later on starting upward from some other disk or volume, or past times using a bootable installer.
12) Choose Restore From Time Machine Backup if you’d similar to restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup or Reinstall macOS to receive got Internet Recovery download in addition to reinstall the Mac operating organisation from scratch on your newly installed internal OWC drive.
Startup is consummate when you lot encounter the utilities window
Finally follow onscreen instructions to consummate the macOS instal process. For those asking, nosotros also receive got the instructions for installing OWC’s SSDs into the MacBook Pro models.
The speed boost
I mentioned before that the 3200MB/s read speeds in addition to 2400MB/s write speeds laissez passer on you lot plenty throughput for storage-intensive tasks similar editing 4K video. That’s only scratching the surface of what 1 tin expression later on giving their calculator an Aura Pro X2 boost.
For starters, you’ll notice that the organisation boots upward faster than before. Your Pages document, heavy Photoshop in addition to complex GarageBand projects charge faster, too. Video streams are to a greater extent than fluid, games charge faster in addition to your calculator feels snappier overall. For benchmarking SSD performance, nosotros used the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test which is a pretty criterion disk speed tester for macOS available for gratis from Mac App Store.
Left: the Apple OEM SSD inward our 2015 MacBook Air alongside read speeds averaging 427 MB/s in addition to write speeds averaging 707 MB/s. Right: Aura Pro X2 alongside read/write speeds of around 1.4 GB/s in addition to 1.5 GB/s, respectively. Now nosotros tin edit4K video!
Pretty much everything you lot create on a Mac benefits from a speedy SSD—and that’s peculiarly truthful for configurations alongside less than 8 gigabytes of RAM. In low-memory situations, the operating organisation frees upward retentivity past times writing out idle sections of the RAM to the SSD. As you lot multitask in addition to apps become from actively running to existence inward a suspended state, different RAM sections larn written to the SSD in addition to replaced alongside novel code.
Hence—the faster the SSD, the nimbler the system.
Related
My thoughts on Aura Pro X2
The math couldn’t live simpler.
Replacing the mill SSD alongside a state-of-the-art 1 is the most affordable agency to breathe a novel lease of life into your erstwhile Mac. OWC’s served Mac users for decades immediately in addition to they offering some of the fastest, most reliable internal replacement SSDs the coin tin buy.
To illustrative the point, Apple charges nearly twice equally much to larn a $2,400 15-inch MacBook Pro from stock 256GB SSD to 2 terabytes. As a affair of fact, here’s a quick comparing betwixt OWC’s SSD-only upgrades (without enclosures) in addition to Apple’s exorbitant prices.
- OWC Aura Pro X2 240GB SSD — $120
- OWC Aura Pro X2 480GB SSD — $180 vs. $400 for Apple’s 128GB → 512GB upgrade.
- OWC Aura Pro X2 1TB SSD — $300 vs. $800 for Apple’s 128GB → 1TB upgrade.
- OWC Aura Pro X2 2TB SSD — $700 vs. $1,200 for Apple’s 256GB → 2TB upgrade.
Don’t live talked into spending $1,300-$4,000+ for a novel Mac notebook when a elementary DIY upgrade for a fraction of the cost of a novel model volition choke on your erstwhile calculator running at peak functioning for years to come.
OWC Aura Pro X2 SSD highlights
Here are the fundamental benefits of the upgrade kit:
- High functioning for high demands
- Read speeds upward to 3192 megabytes per 2nd (3.1 GB/s)
- Write speeds upward to 2488 megabytes per 2nd (2.3 GB/s)
- Consumes less might in addition to runs cooler that the master copy drive
- Premium NVMe, PCIe 3.1 x4
- Designed for macOS 10.13 in addition to beyond
- Supports macOS Catalina in addition to APFS
- Backed past times a 5 Year OWC Limited Warranty
The total technical specifications are listed on OWC’s website.
Pricing in addition to availability
As mentioned, Aura Pro X2 is available alongside the drive solitary or equally role of an upgrade kit that comes alongside an included drive enclosure.
All kits include OWC’c installation tools, a five-year warranty, 24/7 access to their U.S. of America back upward squad via telephone or chat in addition to other perks. Aura Pro X2 is designed for macOS High Sierra 10.13 in addition to beyond. Yes, Aura Pro X2 supports the Apple File System (APFS). And if you lot optionally trade-in your original, unaltered SSD, OWC volition care for you lot to a rebate.
The Auras are available for these models: MacBook Pro (Retina, late-2013 to mid-2015), MacBook Air (mid-2013 to 2017), Mac Pro (2013) in addition to Mac mini (late-2014). And dissimilar Apple, OWC lets you lot upgrade your Mac’s SSD later on the fact.
Visit OWC’s website to encounter all the options.
Your thoughts
Have you lot used OWC’s SSD upgrade kits before?
If so, create non hesitate to part your experience alongside readers inward the comments downward below.
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