
The PCIe Aura SSD's RAID design unfortunately does not support passing through TRIM commands nor retrieving SMART information from the individual SSD controllers.

The Silicon Motion SM2256 controllers mean the PCIe Aura SSD is almost certainly using TLC flash, which is less expensive but also performs worse and draws more power than MLC flash. The Marvell 9230 has a PCIe 2.0 x2 host interface, so the PCIe Aura SSD has the potential to outperform SATA SSDs but won't be able to approach the peak transfer rates of the recent Samsung SM951-based Apple originals. Instead, the PCIe Aura SSD uses a Marvell 9230 SATA RAID controller and a pair of Silicon Motion SM2256 SATA SSD controllers. In order to keep costs under control, OWC has opted to not use a native PCIe SSD controller.

#Original macbook pro 2013 ssd license#
Marvell has shipped several AHCI-compatible PCIe SSD controllers, but their typical business model is to sell just the controller and leave it up to the customer to write their own firmware or license from a third party, either of which is a substantial up-front expense. While Apple is a big enough customer to convince Samsung to make the SM951 in a custom form factor, OWC is not. The requirement to use AHCI instead of NVMe limited OWC's choices for SSD controller. Like the Apple originals, the OWC Aura PCIe SSD uses the AHCI protocol Apple so far only supports and uses NVMe on the Retina MacBook that doesn't have a removable SSD. OWC has finally devised a compatible replacement and released it as part of their Aura SSD product line. Transcend has generally used Silicon Motion controllers while OWC has used SandForce controllers, but until now their offerings have been limited to SATA-based SSDs.Īpple migrated their notebook SSDs to PCIe-based interfaces in 2013 and has been using drives supplied by Toshiba, SanDisk, and Samsung. Only a few companies have produced SSDs in Apple-specific form factors, most notably Other World Computing (OWC) and Transcend. This has contributed to keeping the market for third-party upgrades very small. Rather than adopt the mSATA or later M.2 form factor, Apple's SSDs have used custom form factors and pinouts.
#Original macbook pro 2013 ssd Pc#
If you are looking for storage to use on your PC as well as on your smartphone or tablet, then the Freecom Tablet Mini SSD is definitely worth considering.Apple's Retina MacBook Pro and all but the earliest MacBook Air models have relied solely on SSDs for internal storage, as Apple slimmed down the designs to the point that even a 1.8" hard drive was too bulky. The read and write performance is much better than that of a regular hard drive, but we are used to SSDs a bit more. By processing the connections in the housing, you don’t have to think about the right cables.Īs an external SSD, however, the Tablet Mini is no champion. The fact that you can connect a hard disk or SSD to a mobile device is not new, but it is the way in which Freecom deserves praise. You can copy and paste, or play files directly from the external ospag. Most smartphones recognize the external storage, after which you can access the files from an explorer app of your choice. We tested the Mini SSD on a few devices, mostly with success. You can of course format the SSD to another file format such as NTFS, but then the thing will no longer work with your smartphone or tablet. You cannot put individual files larger than 4 GB on this SSD. That file system makes it compatible with smartphones and tablets, but it’s also a limiting factor. You can access the files via the explorer, just like any other external hard drive or USB stick.

The Mini SSD works on the computer as you would expect. One USB 3.0 port for the computer and one micro USB port for mobile devices. The small box has two built-in connections, which conveniently click away in the side. The thing is much smaller than a real hard drive, the size of a thick bank card. As the name suggests, the Tablet Mini SSD doesn’t just work on computers. Unfortunately, the speed promise of an SSD is not fulfilled.įreecom didn’t have a hard drive that met our demand, but it did have an SSD. The Freecom Tablet Mini SSD is a compact external SSD that can handle both your PC and your smartphone or tablet.
