Transcend480GB JetDrive 520 SATAIII 6Gb/s Solid State Drive Upgrade Kit for MacBook Air, Mid 2012 (TS480GJDM520)

My Review of the Transcend JetDrive 520 480GB SSD in a 2012 11" MBA.My Review also includes a comparison of the JetDrive with the OWC Aura Pro Drive.I ordered the OWC Aura Pro Drive the day before the Transcend Drives were announced. Before I received the drive, I called OWC to see if they would price match, and the answer was no. So, I thought Shame on Me. OWC's pricing was $449. for a bare drive and $475. for one that included tools and an enclosure for the old SSD. (OWC's pricing has since been reduced to $398. and $419. respectively) I opted for the bare drive. I installed the drive, and as others have noticed, the vertical dimension of the circuit board the components are mounted on is a millimeter or 2 larger than the stock SSD. Others have cut the board, I didn't, I applied a little pressure and it snapped into place. OWCs installation video is, IMO, far better than the Transcend video. Once set up, the SSD seemed to work fine, for awhile, but less than a day later, the drive started giving me problems. I tried repairing it with both Disk utility and Tech Tool Pro, both to no avail. Two days later it happened again. I called OWC and asked for an RMA. They agreed but said I would have to pay a restocking fee and pay for return shipment. I challenged that, saying this was not a capricious return, that the unit was defective and I expected OWC to pay for shipping and refund the full amount. They agreed, and sent me a UPS label.When ordering the Transcend JetDrive I was quoted a delivery time of from 2 to 4 weeks. The unit was shipped 3 days after the order was placed and I received it one day later, that's 4 days after order placement! The price of the JetDrive 480 GB SSD from Amazon was $350. + Sales Tax (OWC charges no tax in Arizona). If I could have waited longer, I could have bought it from my memory Supplier, Data Memory Systems and not paid Sales Tax, but Transcend has not yet supplied it's distributers with this product.Upon receipt of the JetDrive, yesterday, the first thing that jumped out at me was the packaging. The OWC SSD came packed in an anti-static bag enclosed in a thin gauge blister packed piece of cardboard with blue printing. It looked the packaging used by Ace Combs. The Transcend packaging on the other hand was impressive. A heavy gauge white slide out box with a full color picture of the SSD. The box was multi layered and contained the drive, the enclosure for the OEM drive, and the tools necessary for installation. Each layer was a plastic bed with depressions sized to fit the associated parts. It also contained an instruction booklet and warranty information. The instructions are, IMHO, inadequate, and only two pages apply, the other 26 pages being written for other languages.The tools worked very well, and installation was a breeze. the form factor of the circuit board is the same as apple's so no undue pressure was needed for installation. My old SSD fit into the supplied enclosure with no issues.I then cloned the JetDrive using Tech Tool Pro from the external Hybrid Drive I had been using as the main drive for my MBA. I foolishly ordered my MBA with only the 64GB SSD.No issues. Everything is working as expected. In terms of speed. I have not measured the speed, but it feels very snappy. I believe the OWC and Transcend drives to be equal here. Transcend even supplies software to enable Apple's Trim support, OWC does not. There is however, third party software that enables Trim, Trim Enabler. I use that anyway for the SSD I use in my Mac Pro.The Transcend drive seems to run color than true OWC drive. When feeling the bottom of my MBA where the SSD is mounted, the area while warm, is not as warm as it was with the OWC unit.In ending, I would urge anyone installing the JetDrive in a MBA to watch the OWC installation video, again, it is superior to the Transcend video, and will make things more understandable to you.The JetDrive is by far the superior product, and as of right now is $69. cheaper than the OWC Aura Pro. When I bought the OWC product, it would have cost $125 more than the corresponding Transcend product.That IMHO is Value.Currently, Apple charges $500. to go from a 128GB SSD to a 512GB SSD in the MBA. So, $350. for a 480GB SSD AND you get to keep your old drive, you can't beat that.The Transcend drive seems to run color than true OWC drive. When feeling the bottom of my MBA where the SSD is mounted, the area while warm, is not as warm as it was with the OWC unit.

Love my new SSD. I replaced the factor Apple 128GB SSD with this model due to space constraints. Not only is the new SSD larger but it's twice as fast as the factory one. This is not that unusual for SSDs since larger models tend to be faster than smaller ones. But using BlackMagic bench mark I am getting twice the read and write speeds compared to the factory SSD. How this translates into the real world is that the machine feels snappier. I frequently copy large files (1-2 GB) and the increased thought put will make a noticeable difference. But overall the system seem snappier. SSDs in general are very fast, so the difference is not light and day, but it is noticeable.This model in particular I would like to state that Transcend did a good job with it. The box it came in, the included tools, the drive and external enclosure, all are top notch. The only thing lacking was the instructions, which were not up to the same level as the rest of the components here. The drive installed without any problem. The tools allowed me to open the back case of the laptop and install the new drive. I'd say it took 15 minutes including me cleaning out the dust that had accumulated inside the laptop near the exhaust vents and fan.Overall I'm extremely happy with the drive and will absolutely use Transcend again if I need another drive upgrade.

I have to say, I highly recommend this company. Assuming you get the right one, I did... the hardware change out is awesome. It comes with 2 good quality screw drivers.. The real highlight and pleasant surprise, is it comes with a nice metal case to put the old drive in, with a USB cable so you can still use the old one!! How cool is that!! I figured it would be a paperweight.Now the not so good. The instructions are very clear, except I missed where it said to use GUID. That hung me for awhile. Once past that hurdle the copy went very fast. However.... it fails at the end with a failure to invert the APFS. The newer OSX uses a different file system, so the instructions are now invalid in this instance. I found a long convoluted process to fix it via the terminal window.I didn't want to do that, so I did a restore from my Airport backup system. Everyone uses those right!? NO? GET ONE!!! Invaluable. The first time I started a restore it started out extremely slow. I went to bed and the next morning it was up to 16hours to complete and climbing! I started over and then it went fine and was done in 4 hours. It rebooted and voilla, I'm back in business. A pita that I have to re-sign into everything including unlocking my Office, but hey we are good as gold now. Thanks for a quality product.

El producto es todo lo que promete el vendedor, un sistema fiable para actualizar la Macbook Air, con una tasa de transferencia de datos que no te hace extrañar el drive original, es de muy fácil instalación, el sistema Mac-OS esta preparado para este tipo de cosas lo que hace que la migración de la información y el sistema sea cosa de niños.En definitiva es la opción si estas pensando en actualizar un equipo que funciona muy bien y que si no has necesitado de mas potencia seguro que si has necesitado mas almacenamiento, en este caso el ordenador es de mi esposa y ya tenia que hacer respaldos muy continuamente por falta de almacenamiento (64Gb), con lo que 4 veces mas seguro que hace la diferencia.En contra tiene el precio casi USD 170 lo hace una solución no muy barata pero si consideras un ordenador nuevo vale la pena.

Questa versione comprende il pratico case. Pensateci bene, non serve unicamente per trasformare il precedente SSD in un hard disk portatile: è un metodo facile per installare tutti vostri dati sul nuovo disco. Infatti, all'interno della confezione troverete un depliant che spiega in 10/12 passi come clonare il disco vecchio su quello nuovo e più spazioso, usando il pratico case. Inizialmente pensavo fosse inutile, infatti cercavo la versione BULK con solo la scheda ssd. Siccome questa era l'unica versione disponibile subito, l'ho acquistarla e mi sono assolutamente ricreduto: non perdete tempo con la versione bulk, acquistate la versione con il case e trasferite i vostri dati in 15 minuti!L'ssd si presenta molto compatto e di ottimo materiale, i cacciaviti sono di qualità e li potrete riutilizzare più volte se fate installazioni o riparazioni. Ho notato un notevole incremento delle prestazioni rispetto al sud originale apple. E sono molto soddisfatto di questo articolo. Inoltre, il precedente ssd è ora un pratico har disk portatile, utile per qualsiasi necessità.

Good product

wasnt compatible

My macbook air was sorely in need of space, and this appeared to be the only way to do it.Luckily, we have here 1. a reasonably competitive price, 2. Easy installation - like really easy, because the kit comes with the appropriate pentalobe screwdrivers, and 3. a working, fast, and so far reliable drive.Can't get any better than this.And one more thing: the external caddy that they provide for the original drive has come in surprisingly and pleasantly useful over the last few months. Very happy about that too.