- #970 EVO SSD VS OWC AURA PRO X2 MAC OS X#
- #970 EVO SSD VS OWC AURA PRO X2 DRIVER#
- #970 EVO SSD VS OWC AURA PRO X2 UPGRADE#
- #970 EVO SSD VS OWC AURA PRO X2 PRO#
#970 EVO SSD VS OWC AURA PRO X2 UPGRADE#
OWC doesn't have a complete lock on this upgrade market.
#970 EVO SSD VS OWC AURA PRO X2 PRO#
HP EX950 and adapter compared to OWC Aura Pro X2 The price disparity is even worse at 2TB, which may be the most important capacity for the Aura Pro X2 since Apple never offered a 2TB SSD in this form factor. The Aura Pro X2 currently starts at 26¢/GB, when M.2 SSDs with the same hardware are retailing for just over half that price. The downside to the OWC Aura Pro X2 is that as it's a niche product, retail pricing is well above commodity M.2 SSDs. With the Aura Pro X2, OWC can now offer performance and capacity far beyond what Apple's factory-installed SSDs could provide. Micron and Silicon Motion have since fixed their performance issues and the current generation of SSDs with 64-layer Micron 3D TLC and Silicon Motion SM2262(EN) controllers are serious competitors at the high end of the consumer SSD market, and a big step up from anything that was available in the 2013-2015 time frame. Unfortunately, Micron's first-generation 3D NAND and Silicon Motion's first-generation NVMe controller were both disappointing performers, so the Aura Pro X was again not a clear upgrade over the Samsung-based Apple original SSD. OWC responded with the Aura Pro X SSD, based on Micron 32-layer 3D MLC NAND and the Silicon Motion SM2260 NVMe controller.
#970 EVO SSD VS OWC AURA PRO X2 DRIVER#
This allowed OWC to provide a functional drop-in replacement that could offer higher capacities, but it was a big step backward in performance (and probably power efficiency, but we didn't get the chance to test it).Īpple eventually added a standard NVMe driver to MacOS, albeit after retiring upgradable internal storage from almost all of their product line. Rather than use an outdated AHCI PCIe SSD controller comparable to the ones in the early Apple PCIe SSDs, OWC put two SATA SSD controllers and a RAID controller onto one card.
#970 EVO SSD VS OWC AURA PRO X2 MAC OS X#
Their first Aura SSD hit the market back when Mac OS X didn't include a standard NVMe driver, so the Aura had to present a standard AHCI interface.
The Aura Pro X2 isn't OWC's first attempt to offer an upgrade for Apple PCIe SSDs, but it's the first one that does the job well. The Aura Pro X2 is sold either as a bare drive, or in an upgrade kit that includes an external USB enclosure for the Apple original SSDs it replaces. This is a modern high-end SSD with 3D TLC NAND and the latest Silicon Motion SM2262EN controller, with the reference M.2 PCB layout adjusted to fit Apple's form factor. OWC has offered several aftermarket SSDs in Apple's custom not-quite-M.2 form factor, culminating in the recent release of the Aura Pro X2 SSD.
This is where Mac accessory and upgrade specialist Other World Computing (OWC) comes in. So even though Apple's machines from 2013 through at least 2016 (depending on the model) included the fastest storage that money could buy at the time, those systems have been left behind as the NVMe storage market has matured from an exotic high-end novelty into the technology that's rapidly displacing SATA for mainstream computing. Apple's PCIe SSDs used a proprietary form factor rather than the M.2 standard that went on to become the standard for client PCIe SSDs. Apple's earliest PCIe SSDs used the AHCI protocol for compatibility with existing operating systems, but hardware compatibility was a very different story. Envoy Kit.Apple was an early adopter of PCIe SSDs, introducing them in 2013 when the NVMe specification was still in its infancy and before any NVMe hardware was available. Please note: High Sierra (10.13) or higher needs to be installed before you can place the new SSD.ĭon’t have the necessary tools to replace the SSD at your disposal? The please check out the OWC 240GB Aura Pro X2 SSD incl. With read speeds up to a whopping 3282MB/s and write speeds up to 2432MB/s, it is twice as fast as the factory SSD! So don't wait any longer and upgrade your MacBook Pro Retina with the Aura Pro X2 for a fraction of the cost of a new model. Not enough storage on your MacBook? Then check out the OWC 240GB Aura Pro X2 SSD MacBook Pro Retina. OWC 240GB Aura Pro X2 SSD for MacBook Pro Retina (Late 2013 – Mid 2015)