The SSD Review The Worlds Dedicated SSD Education and Review Resource | 
REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS
In examining our benchmark results for the Runcore Rocket Air, we had to consider the fact that our only test medium for effective performance testing was that of the 2011 version of the MacBook Air. Unlike most other SSDs, there is no SATA adapter available that would allow evaluations to be conducted in our main bench. To add to this, our testing was being conducted in a dual boot mode as our favorite SSD software is PC based and not Mac. The question then becomes one of how this SSD would run in a Mac environment and the only benchmark we had on hand for that is that of Disk Speed Test where this was the result:
Now these scores are encouraging! The result on the left is that of the Rocket Air in our 2011 MBA and that on the right are the results out of the MBA, yet installed in the external carrier and plugged in via USB 3. Both results are up to spec and great to see.
From there, we threw caution to the wind and started to dig up another program that we had on hand which was SSDLife Pro. We liked what we saw on this as well, especially since it identified the drive at its full capacity and calculated its end life date as 2021 which we found a tad amusing. Drive health is EXCELLENT!
This brought us full circle to the fact that we had this SSD on hand for a bit and, only now, did we get a chance to test it when we were reminded that this was a pre-release sample we were looking at.
By the time this hits the streets, we are bound to be seeing marks a bit higher with typical LSI SandForce Driven speeds as well as a firmware update along the way.
For now though, we must rely on what we see above and the ‘hands on’ feel as I now hold our 2011 11.6″ MBA in hand with the Runcore Rocket Air 256GB SSD running both OSX Lion and Windows 7. Considering that it wasn’t so long ago that having a 256GB SD in an MBA running any dual boot environment was only a dream, we have come a long way.
On release, the Runcore Rocket Air SSD will become only the second on the streets to offer an upgrade option to 2011 MBA owners, the first being the OWC Mercury Aura Pro which offers great speeds and a decent price. As much as competition is limited, final pricing and availability will make or break this SSD.
We would also be remiss if we didn’t mention that, although the Rocket Air lists compatibility with ASUS Zenbook and Lenovo Thinkpad models, any potential purchase for such should definitely follow confirmation that the SSD will work in your specific system.
All in all though, it is nice to see another SSD entry to hit the market and even better, one that steps out and utilizes the highest grade memory we would expect to see in a consumer SSD.
It seems like many of us are on our second or third mSATA SSD and using a mSATA-to-2.5inch converter inside a 2.5inch enclosure is a waste of space. Have you seen a USB3-to-mSATA enclosure that is just as sleek as that aluminum external adapter?
No I don’t know of any other than Mac specific ones as we have seen from Runcore and OWC, both being blade style specific and not mSATA. MyDigitalSSD markets one we did a short piece on but it is an external that is the size of a SSD
Hi, where I can buy this SSD?
It is still to be released in typical outlets and I might contact Runcore.
Not sure if you still have the drive, but if so, any chance you might be able to examine battery life as compared to the stock SSD? One of the critiques of the Aura was that it had a higher power draw than the stock SSD. Thanks! 🙂
Negative sorry.
Will it fit the new imac 27′?
and will we have the possibility to make fusion drive with it?
Any update on this blade SSD compatibility with Asus zenbook and prime series laptops and also on its poor performance issue not meeting the manufacture’s published data?
Will it work with X1 Carbon model 2012/2013