So this is why the MBA feels snappier and faster than even a MBP with SF SSD

[Cerano]

You guys should have a read

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4010/kingston-ssdnow-v-plus-100-review

this SSD is nearly the same as our MBA SSD and the results in the productivity column of SYSMARK as well as the low power consumption overall show why apple chose this. Turns out during heavy loads and multi-tasking and importing of uncompressible media (eg. Videos, Movies, Mp3s)
this SSD totally owns even the Intel X25-Vs

not to forget the single most important reason, the performance of this controller and its active garbage collection prevents performance degradation even without TRIM in OSX

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Good to know, active GC is a REALLY good thing on SSDs it seems. I had no idea that a good GC algorithm could make all the difference in how the drive performs.

 

[barmann]

The review came to somewhat different conclusions than the OP, just for the record .
For an MBA, this SSD with a Toshiba controller doesn't sound like a great choice .

MBA : one (boot) drive only, mainly small files for most users , hence degredation more likely than Sandforce drives.

Heavy lifting, whichever way, is never done to a great (or any) degree by a harddrive, and not something the MBA is any good at to begin with.

I love my MBA, but let's just face some simple facts .
The SSD in the MBA comes from the lowest bidder, and is comparatively slow, like all Apple SSDs.

 

[dmelgar]

The review came to somewhat different conclusions than the OP, just for the record .
For an MBA, this SSD with a Toshiba controller doesn't sound like a great choice .

MBA : one (boot) drive only, mainly small files for most users , hence degredation more likely than Sandforce drives.

Heavy lifting, whichever way, is never done to a great (or any) degree by a harddrive, and not something the MBA is any good at to begin with.

I love my MBA, but let's just face some simple facts .
The SSD in the MBA comes from the lowest bidder, and is comparatively slow, like all Apple SSDs.

Mighty negative post here.

I've never heard it be slow, like all Apple SSDs, and you're saying its the cheapest they could find. You even say the review was negative?

The review final words says, "Toshiba is clearly close to knocking this one out of the park."
They cite two potential issues. One that its too EXPENSIVE, not cheap. Second, that it has an aggressive garbage collection which MIGHT impact drive life down the road.

 

[jamesryanbell]

I thought the article was written in a positive light. Maybe I missed something. lol.

 

[Cerano]

The review came to somewhat different conclusions than the OP, just for the record .
For an MBA, this SSD with a Toshiba controller doesn't sound like a great choice .

MBA : one (boot) drive only, mainly small files for most users , hence degredation more likely than Sandforce drives.

Heavy lifting, whichever way, is never done to a great (or any) degree by a harddrive, and not something the MBA is any good at to begin with.

I love my MBA, but let's just face some simple facts .
The SSD in the MBA comes from the lowest bidder, and is comparatively slow, like all Apple SSDs.

soz mate

i agree with you on the random read and write which before Anand wrote this review appeared to be the "holy grail" of SSDs and the all important factor in SSDs but after the SYSMARK and 3D mark vantage benching, it would appear that its not the case and the sequential read and write speeds of our SSD blows most of the competition away

please reread the review again, Anand has proven that the Toshiba controller allows for minimal degradation and this is the most resillient SSD. Thats why apple picked it.

 

[Cerano]

Intel X25-V without trim

Kingston V+100 without trim

 

[KPOM]

The review came to somewhat different conclusions than the OP, just for the record .
For an MBA, this SSD with a Toshiba controller doesn't sound like a great choice

I love my MBA, but let's just face some simple facts .
The SSD in the MBA comes from the lowest bidder, and is comparatively slow, like all Apple SSDs.

I think that's a bit unfair. The Toshiba drives overall are middle-of-the-road. They aren't as fast as SandForce but they are faster than Indilinx and Intel devices. I'm sure financial interests played a big part, since the estimates are that Apple earns nearly as much margin on flash storage as the manufacturers do, but I don't think that Apple skimped on the drive. They gave us one that performs decently and makes up for OS X's lack of TRIM support. Hopefully they rectify the latter in OS X 10.7, but in the meantime, these Toshiba drives are a big improvement over the Samsung drives they used to use.

 

[Cerano]

I think that's a bit unfair. The Toshiba drives overall are middle-of-the-road. They aren't as fast as SandForce but they are faster than Indilinx and Intel devices. I'm sure financial interests played a big part, since the estimates are that Apple earns nearly as much margin on flash storage as the manufacturers do, but I don't think that Apple skimped on the drive. They gave us one that performs decently and makes up for OS X's lack of TRIM support. Hopefully they rectify the latter in OS X 10.7, but in the meantime, these Toshiba drives are a big improvement over the Samsung drives they used to use.

i agree that these are the upper mid-range drives.
For the average apple fan, incompressible media such as moviez and songs matter so much more especially with your photoshop, premiere craziness.

In this, the Sandforce drives are incredibly slow. These drives beat pretty much anything in sequential read/write speeds. However for compressible media, these are just average so its a pretty odd drive.

however due to the aforementioned lack of performance degradation, i can say with certainty that this is the most suitable ssd for an OS without trim