macbook air, the new one

hi, I've never owned a mac in my life before, but I want to give it a shot. I've been watching videos on youtube and I really like lion.

well here's my question: is there a way to find out which ssd is installed in the machine before buying it? I understand they use samsung and toshiba and the samsung one is double the speed of the toshiba. if not, what is apples return policy?

 

It's an apple....you will take what you get and you WILL like it.

 

haha, yeah...probably...I don't save much but music and I just surf the net and stream stuff online.

 

There's no way you can tell which SSD until you open it and run system information.

I don't know where you got 2x the performance figure from. I had one with a Samsung SSD with a dud Samsung screen (big dark spots on the bottom). Exchanged it for one with a perfect screen (LG!) and Toshiba SSD. I felt absolutely no difference in bootup or app open speed. I ran benchmark on them both. The Samsung is a bit faster in sequential performance (not very meaningful), but the Toshiba is faster at small random which is more important.

 

I can tell you that the Samsung does not provide twice the speed of the Toshiba modules. Any differences in benchmarks are going to be negligible in terms of real world performance noticeability. It's not like we are talking about 150MB/s SSD vs 300MB/s SSD.

I can also tell you that you have about a snowball's chance in Hell of returning a MBA on the basis that it comes with Toshiba SSD instead of Samsung. Apple will take products back if there is actually something wrong with them. However, having slightly slower SSD is not a valid reason.

 

You could buy it from best buy and check it out, but if you returned it your chance of getting a different drive would be slim, but you could return it,and it most likely will be cheaper

 

Even if the specs are doubled on paper, actual performance that can be *felt* (as in actual use rather than benchmarks) in everyday use is not going to be the case. I had a 64GB Sandforce 1200 SSD in my i7 box, 275MB/s. I upgraded to a 120GB Vertex 3, 550MB/s. It feels absolutely no different when booting and opening apps.

Other than running benchmarks, any recent SSD will offer excellent performance.

 

They have a 14 day return policy. You absolutely could return it during that time, without providing a reason. There doesn't have to be anything wrong with it.

That said, there's absolutely no reason to bother cherry picking a solid state drive. It's just not worth your time.

 

Ah, I forgot about their 14 day return policy. Still, anytime I have had to return anything at the Apple Store up here, they always ask for a reason. I had to return the original Magic Trackpad I purchased up there as it wouldn't connect to my Mac. I was well within the timeframe to do so (I actually went back the next day) but they still asked what was wrong with it.

I also tried to take back my 5G 60GB iPod that I purchased in 2005 as the display had a bunch of light coming through the back (it almost looked like it had a bunch of white stuck pixels but it was the backlight shining through the LCD panel) and they would not take it back despite me having it for a few days.

 

I would hope they do! That lets them know whether it's a defective one (in which case it needs to be heavily refurbished or scrapped) or whether it just didn't meet the purchaser's expectations. So long as they don't then say "you can't return it for that reason," asking detailed questions about why I'm returning something is perfectly appropriate in my opinion.

 

ive returned stuff simply because I dont like it. I tell em that too. I dont like it im not happy with it. I have no issues with returns. as long as its within reasonable time of purchase you dont have to bs them.

 

This. They ask for the reason so that they know the reason, not to prevent you from returning it.

This helps them gain insight into why people return their products, which ultimately helps them develop a better product.

 

on mac book air there is no SSD there is flash storage
only MBP has SSD

 

Actually, the MBA line does use SSD. It is in a different form factor than found in the MBP line but it is still SSD.

Edit: it should also be noted that most SSDs uses NAND-based flash memory. There are some SSDs that use RAM-based flash memory for even faster speeds but they are few and far between. Either way, SSDs are nothing more than arraignments of NAND-based flash memory with a controller chip or two and that is exactly what the MBA has.

 

just to continue korn's point:

Generally, an SSD refers to a high performance flash storage solution, which connects via a high speed interface, and is intended to be used internally by the computer.

But- you're right to note that there is a difference between the macbook air and a normal SSD, in that the 2.5" case has been removed for size optimization reasons.

 

You can return them at Best Buy no questions asked.

 

I think the OP is referring to this Some 2011 MacBook Airs Slower Than Others! How To Check SSD Model - YouTube

 

Hmm, I've bought 2 airs and also checked my friends- they all have Samsung.

Seems like Samsung's are more frequent than the Toshiba's?

 

Mine came with a Samsung as well. I didn't really care but I checked anyways out of curiosity. Of course, the read and write speeds aren't anywhere near what my OCZ Vertex III was getting in my MBP but I am not noticing any difference in terms of performance. My OCZ could achieve over 500MB/s read and write while the Samsung in my MBA gets up to about 250MB/s read and write. So about half the speed but it still boots in the same amount of time, programs load just as quickly, etc. I imagine performance would be the same with a Toshiba model. The whole Samsung vs. Toshiba thing is really blown out of proportion.