Photofast vs OWC for 1st gen. MBA

I have the first generation macbook air and have looked into upgrading to an SSD as my hard drive is faulty. Probably a 120/128GB one.
After extensive searching it seems OWC and Photofast have some of the best (and most expensive..) pata zif ssds. runcore and renice also have some that seem good, but perhaps not as reliable.
Anyone know the owc and photofast ones or seen any comparisons?
The photofast v4 is slightly faster according to the specs, but not sure if it will have any practical significance. Photofast does offer a 256GB option which is tempting, but fairly costly.
Thanks for any input if anyone has done a comparison or have tried these!
Also, great if you have any recommendations on where to buy one

OWC OWCSMBAZIF120 120GB Mercury ZIF Solid State... in stock at OWC
PhotoFast 1.8 GMonster- ZIF V4 SSD

 

Both your candidate SSDs are overpriced.

See http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...orage/531052-1-8-zif-pata-ssds-available.html for better value options, eg: Runcore ProIV (Indilinx bridged) or SuperTalent ZT2 (EWS720).

 

Thanks

So far I've dug up:

Supertalent zt2 128GB for $215
Runcore pro IV 128GB for $222
Renice K3E 120GB for $275
Photofast V4 128GB for $299
OWC 120GB for $319

Have read mixed reviews of runcore, good ones of renice and nothing yet of supertalent. Does supertalent and renice use the same EWS720 drive?

What's the difference between Renice K3E and K3A? K3A is a lot more ($400).

Thanks again!

 

Renice K3A = K3VLAR = Indilinx BF + sata-to-pata bridged
Renice K3E = K3VLAR-E = EWS720

The K3A and Runcore ProIV are architecturally the same. The K3A has been discontinued so the $400 128GB is probably old pricing.

If you want best performance + TRIM support but at higher power consumption then grab the Runcore ProIV. Their latest batch uses the Marvell sata-to-pata bridge resolving many compatibility issues mentioned in those 'mixed' reviews.

If you want low power consumption and native PATA compatibility but with lower performance and no TRIM support then grab a EWS720 drive by Photofast, SuperTalent, MX-Technology or Renice. They all appear to use a reference board design and only alter the MLC NAND flash. Only way to tell who's using the best flash is by whoever offers the longest warranty.

 

Thanks again
So, Runcore is the only one coming with TRIM?
Is it hard to use a trim program on the others? Not very experienced with this..

 

See comments RE: Trim and Garbage collection on Indilinx bridged vs EWS720 ZIF SSD units here.

 

I have received my Renice K3E and the physical installation was pretty straight forward. However I have no clue how to get it working. I dont have the snow leopard cds, i have the old hdd backed up with time machine on a separate drive, and I have downloaded a dmg file of snow leopard to my PC, but for some reason it wont let me put it on a usb pen even though there's enough space. Could you please give me some advice or a link to a guide?
If i dont manage I'll have to get the apple guys to do it, but would prefer to save the $100.
When I start up tve machine with the old, barely working and extremely slow hdd plugged into the usb i either get a wifi detector symbol or the blinking question mark, depending what keys i hold down when starting the thing.
Finally, there sere no instructions with the box, and I am not 100% sure if i use the cabel for the external renice case correctly, it seems to go very little into the old hdd zif.

What is the best way to do it and do I nedd to format the ssd before use? Could be tricky as old hdd is having a near-death experience, do i need to use this to format the new drive?

Thanks for any hints, and excuse my extensive question, first time I try anything like this.