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If you’ve been hanging around TSSDR or Technology X lately, you will have noticed that Apple shipped us a brand smacking new MBA, complete with a Samsung 256GB NGFF PCIe SSD that spits out performance as high as 825MB/s.
Since our initial MBA reports, we have had the opportunity to do what we do best and install Windows 7 on the MBA, followed by complete testing of the new Samsung PCIe SSD in a Windows environment.
To be frank, our PC benchmarking of this SSD resulted in some of the worst SSD performance we have seen to date and we don’t believe this to be the fault of the Samsung PCIe SSD. While testing in Windows 7, performance had even increased from 794MB/s to 824MB/s and, on the outset, this machine appears to the screaming thunder of storage performance.
Our storage review of the new 2013 MBA is a great opportunity to illustrate the need to understand different storage performance and in very common language. This understanding may save potential buyers of SSD contained systems a great deal of money or….may cost them a great deal of money unnecessarily.
2013 MBA OVERVIEW
We are not going to belabor this report by rehashing things that we stated in the linked reports above, but to say that the new 2013 is an amazing ultra, regardless of what we discovered while testing this system in a Windows 7 environment. No other laptop on the market can reach 12 hours battery life, and it’s build and pricing model consistent with the last generation MBA, make purchase a no-brainer for those looking to purchase the Mac experience. Add to that the fact that it is based on the new Haswell chipset and it is the first with the new PCIe storage solution, a solution that will definitely appeal to media professionals who transfer countless gigabytes of media files on a daily basis. The new 2013 MBA has set itself up for a definite following.
THE SAMSUNG NGFF STORAGE SOLUTION
Once the base of the 2013 MBA is removed, the most prominent feature (at least to an SSD guy) is the Samsung NGFF PCIe SSD. The Samsung SSD will be found in 256 and 512GB models while a SanDisk ‘Marvell based’ SSD is found in the 128GB SSD contained MBA.
Clicking on any of our charts or photographs will bring up a larger high resolution version.
The Samsung PCIe SSD is a blade style SSD and contains the Samsung S4LNo53X01-8030 controller based on their 3-core eight channel MDX (300MHz) architecture, only without the restrictions of SATA 3 that limits performance to just over 500MB/s. There is also a Samsung 512MB LP (low power) DDR2 DRAM cache present on the SSD along with eight modules of Samsung MLC NAND flash memory, numbered K9HFGY8S5C-XCKO.
Each package of memory is 32GB in size for a total advertised RAW capacity of 256GB, although final formatting only leaves the end user with a user capacity of 232GB.
Actually, it isn’t an NGFF (M.2), this is a custom Apple form factor. This has already been posted at major media outlets. https://www.anandtech.com/show/7058/2013-macbook-air-pcie-ssd-and-haswell-ult-inside
Thats the first I have seen of Anands update and thanks. We figured that it was a proprietary design and based very closely on the NGFF/M.2. The problem is that both Apple and Samsung are very tight lipped because of contractual agreements.
Apple is like Dell, HP, Gateway, Cisco and other past darlings of American offshore out sourced manufacturing stampede out of the country. The whole object is change something in the design just enough to make it impossible to substitute another more common part. Similar to what all these non-manufacturing companies do with GPU manufacturers too.
This enables companies like Apple to claim they actually invented something new or different. But like always it’s never in the best interest of consumers. The bottom line, it’s all part of these Gypsy Barker Type Snake Oil Selling Companies (that don’t even make any of their own parts, let alone assemble them any more), Planned Obsolescence Business Model to always keep a NEW….. Improved or Revolutionary Sticker on the Box! ;-P ……so you have buy a new one to keep up with iJones!!!
No doubt SAMSUNG has their own far better surprises in store for us. But at least they make their own parts and assemble their own products. Some of those same parts end up in CrApple from Apple products. Not only that, but same parts coming off the same Fabrication lines in Austin Texas too! …..for me….. NEW Macbook Air…. could take a hike to the Dark Side of the Moon, before I’d ever buy one! ^_*
It IS M.2. That “UPDATE” which they published is sign of incompetence.
It’s a custom Apple design, not M.2. Since there’s no PCIe routed off of
the CPU in Haswell ULT, these 2 lanes come from the on-package PCH. <—look at the connection alone on the SSD and you can tell.
A bit surprised that this issue with 4Ks goes all the way back to 2012…and still no fix? For the premium u pay for Apple, this should have been resolved by now. It’s giving Samsung a black eye before this type form factor launches fully.
Yes but it doesnt seem to be just the Samsung as the SanDisk suffered same in our testing of the Sammy/SanDisk in comparison. It is almost like there is a configuration issue with BootCamp or any Win7 installation that is partnered with IOS.
Been an issue with BootCamp since the very get go. Because the Intel Macs boot UEFI rather than BIOS, Windows won’t load AHCI drivers without some major tweakery (Google – “BootCamp Win 7 AHCI”), consequently the bog standard MS IDE drivers are loaded and performance is pretty bad. Apple don’t seem overly concerned about correcting this
Try to repeat the benchmarks using Windows 8 installed in EFI mode. I am sure you will get very different results.
* On 2013 MBA you can install Windows 8 in EFI mode (this will install Windows with AHCI drivers) via bootcamp using the latest OS X updates.
Already did that and we saw no appreciable difference. My first venture was to install all 3 OS’s and try all… Have tested in not only boot camp, but also in Parallels. Performance is not really fair in Parallels as typical reads and writes are 3058MB/s and 2730MB/s….gotta love virtual environments.
Please check this link: https://www.pcper.com/reviews/General-Tech/MacBook-Air-11-2013-Review-Windows-Perspective/Windows-Experience-and-Storage-P
Do you have any plans on testing the new iMac with PCIe flash storage in Windows 8?
No. Our system has had BootCamp removed and we are running Parallels right now…
Did you had the chance to test the iMac PCIe flash storage in Windows 8? If so, can you please share the results?
This was answered previously and to reiterate, there are no appreciable differences between performance in Win 7 or Win 8. Thank you for your comments and feel free to join the Forums for further discussion if you have some benchmarks that you might like to provide.
The last question was about iMac, not about Macbook Air performance.
Regarding Macbook Air, I just wanted to point out that in the below article they obtained much improved 4K perfomance in Windows:
https://www.pcper.com/reviews/General-Tech/MacBook-Air-11-2013-Review-Windows-Perspective/Windows-Experience-and-Storage-P
Thank you for your answers and patience.
Where are you finding this performance improvement…from the ATTO benchmark itself? This, in itself, is not telling whatsoever and it doesn’t matter whether you are speaking of the iMac or Air, they are based on the same architecture as far as storage testing is concerned.
Quick question, will the samsung SSD work on my 21.5 Late Image as a PCIE SSD + 2.5 SSD?
Will the Samsung PCIE SSD work with my 21.5 Imac (Late 2013)? Will this still leave me room to upgrade the 2.5 SATA drive to SSD later on?
Here is a little trick to make this SSD fast as hell in 4k in Bootcamp! Give it a look: https://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=18705715&postcount=25
Seems like this Samsung XP941 is totally fine if not to say excellent! The thing is in Windows power management.
Les, do you know where it might be possible to buy these Samsung PCIe drives (or any brand, for that matter) to fit the MacBook 2013 & 2014 lines? OWC doesn’t have them (been waiting AGES…) and we’re wondering if any other 3rd party manufacturer has started doing it, or whether Samsung is allows to resell the very same ones in your photos above that they ship with. Thoughts? We would like to be able to upgrade our clients to larger drives when necessary and cannot find a supplier. Thanks!
Negative…I dont know of any replacements as of yet. That is what Apple has always wanted, you having to upgrade through them.
Les, I might be mistaken, but I think Apple is not even doing these upgrades. We’re hearing that people who go to an AppleStore are being told to buy new computers rather than being given an HD upgrade option even though Apple’s the only one that seems to have these PCIe drives.
Have you heard otherwise?
They are crazy fast, I love the 1TB I got in my personal MBP, but what about the folks that ended up with a smaller HD and they just want to put a larger one in? Apple seems to be saying “screw you?”
Les, we’re a little late to the thread, but we are only aware of two potential manufacturers for the PCIe SSDs that go into most of Apple’s portable line now. Transcend and OWC. Both companies have slipping 2015 dates and are now suggesting they won’t have product till “sometime in the 2nd Quarter.” This seems really bizarre and we’re having trouble understanding why it’s taking so long to bring these things to market. Do your sources indicate whether or not Samsung will ever sell directly and not just to Apple? Have you heard of any other manufactures to date? Thanks!
Samsung will not manufacturer and retail Apple SSDs directly and the reason there is pretty obvious, but I might keep my eyes open to see what otherworldcomputing.com markets in the next few months. YOu are not alone in this; we have dozen of e-mails and pm’s asking this exact question.
OWC has told us that their “1st Quarter of 2015” has now also slipped to “2nd Quarter 2015.” By “obvious” about the Samsung decision, I guess you’re referring to licensing agreements? I guess that’s confusing for me because the drive patents are not owned by Apple. Or are they?…
I can’t answer that but to say that Samsung has had its own issues getting retail M.2 drives out, much less that of Apple. As they manufacture the Apple custom M.2. I am going to guess there is an agreement that they can’t create competition for that by manufacturing their own version side by side.
The Samsung EVO series seems to be rocking the industry with very competitive pricing and (so far) pretty decent performance reviews. We’re still Mushkin guys, but they don’t offer a 1TB drive of the same ilk and Samsung has filled the void. Still think it must be an amazing legal document that prevents Samsung from at least selling wholesale to someone other than Apple if these are open standards drives. Especially because we’re hearing that even AppleStores are not willing to offer larger sized HD upgrades to people who got suckered in to believing a 128GB drive would be more than adequate for their needs. :-
What always amazed me about the Apple upgrade was the caveat that, for a price we will upgrade you but we are keeping your old SSD. Say what?
Huh. I wasn’t aware of that. Are you sure they’re even offering to upgrade the drive? Our local AppleStore usually suggests people buy new computers when their hard drive is too small for their data. Or worse, we’ve heard of “Genies” telling people, “Just put all of your pictures on this external HD,” without any warning about the dangers of data loss with that strategy. Apple lives and breathes to sell more hardware, sell more, sell more, sell more. With the RAM soldered to the logic board of 90% of their portable line, they’re working on designed obsolescence with the hope that people will replace their laptops as often as they replace their iPhones.
[sigh]
Let us know if you hear of any other manufacturers or release dates.
Thanks again.
Mick
Hi Les. An update here. Transcend is now saying 2016 and OWC just keeps saying “we’ll let you know when we know….” Have you heard of any other sources hitting the market?
All the best,
Mick
Negative…there just doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for this specific SSD config.
That is just so weird. It’s the ONE upgradeable part in a fantastically lucrative line of very expensive, overpriced laptops. There are millions out there with the tiny, 128GB “iPhone” hard drives that would kill to get some more space in there. Apple doesn’t even offer the 1TB for any of the MBAir models even at their inflated prices, so I find it hard to understand why someone couldn’t make incredible margins (OWC has very lucrative margins too) with a 3rd solution like this. I know we could sell them every week. I don’t keep up with Kingston and Crucial, but I would hope the first company to market to have a freakin’ PRESS CONFERENCE if they got them out there. Heck, I’d buy stock!
Hi Les,
Do you have an email address you can be reached at by businesses like ours? You can reach me that way via our website MicksMacs.com.
Thanks.
Mick
Look at ‘About’on top of website. there is an email form and also my email address there.