Upgrading Rev A 1.6 80g Macbook Air with Mtron mobi3000 SLC 32gb SSD

[mac jones]

I spent forever trying to get the Mtron to work. It worked once at first but after that-no..

I even replaced the ribbon cable. I tried all configurations.

I think is is a finicky connector (a physical problem).

Some may work, others may not.

That's just my guess

After all, those little ribbon cables are not the most robust.

 

[poteck]

Thanks to all for the replys, I will post the "resolution" of my problem as soon as i know something from Mtron...


One more thing, Mac jones: where did u get the RUNCORE 64 GB ssd?

Poteck

 

[radus]

Intel X25-M twice as fast even as the MTRON 7525

I bought both the Intel X25-M and the MTRON 7525 (64GB).
The Intel outperforms the MTRON in writing and reading !!
May be it is an UDMA 7 problem. The MTRON support could not help.

Ullrich

 

[mac jones]

Thanks to all for the replys, I will post the "resolution" of my problem as soon as i know something from Mtron...


One more thing, Mac jones: where did u get the RUNCORE 64 GB ssd?

Poteck

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/SP...olid-state-drive-ssd--80000908-1227178988.jsp

 

[lankox]

I bought both the Intel X25-M and the MTRON 7525 (64GB).
The Intel outperforms the MTRON in writing and reading !!
May be it is an UDMA 7 problem. The MTRON support could not help.

Ullrich

Do you mean the Intel x18-M? I thought the Intel SSD would not work because it did not have a Zif connector??

 

[mac jones]

Do you mean the Intel x18-M? I thought the Intel SSD would not work because it did not have a Zif connector??

He used different machines.

 

[lankox]

I'm ready to buy one of the $999 refurb Mac Air's but I'm waiting for a decent option to upgrade to a SSD. Is there one??

 

[justit]

I'm ready to buy one of the $999 refurb Mac Air's but I'm waiting for a decent option to upgrade to a SSD. Is there one??

The $300 additional for the apple refurb 64GB SSD will probably be your best reliable option. Everyone seems to be moving to SATA not PATA/ZIF as showcased at CES.

 

[radus]

slow MTRON

I put it in a Macbook Pro late 2008 and did tests with Drive Genius.
But I assume the Intel X-18M will behave the same (compared to the MTRON 7518). The only problem with the Intels might be a firmware upgdate - because the Mac wil recognise them as a RAID - and this can prevent it from doing the firmware update.

I think you will go better with the Intel X-18 M ( which is also cheaper ) and much better with the Intels X-18 E.

Ullrich

 

[lankox]

The $300 additional for the apple refurb 64GB SSD will probably be your best reliable option. Everyone seems to be moving to SATA not PATA/ZIF as showcased at CES.

From what I understand, the SSD in the Rev A had just a little faster read times and slower write times than the HDD. I'm wondering if that is due to the particular SSD Apple is using or due to the PATA interface?

 

[AIRniloc]

From what I understand, the SSD in the Rev A had just a little faster read times and slower write times than the HDD. I'm wondering if that is due to the particular SSD Apple is using or due to the PATA interface?

its bc of both

PATA slows it down, and the MLC samsung was one of the slowest on the market at the time..

 

[kikote]

my performance boost with the MTRON

Well, I also did it. I bought the MTRON MOBI from the same guy in Ebay than fan9 did. Yesterday it arrived (from Korea!)... At the evening I intalled the MTRON drive in the Macbook Air.

The computer feels snappier now, I thought I could give you some info about the time the computer needs to start applications:

Boot into leopard (till the log-in screen appears):
Standard 80GB Samsung: 45 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 21 Sec

Start Microsoft Word 2008
Standard 80GB Samsung: 18 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 5 Sec

Start OmniGrafflePro 5
Standard 80GB Samsung: 10 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 4 Sec

Start Mindmanager 7:
Standard 80GB Samsung: 5 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 2 Sec

Start OmniFocus:
Standard 80GB Samsung: 6 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 2 Sec

Start Iphoto (with 4GB photo DB):
Standard 80GB Samsung: 15 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 6 Sec

Start Microsoft Excel 2008:
Standard 80GB Samsung: 10 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 4 Sec

Start Pathfnder 5:
Standard 80GB Samsung: 8 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 3 Sec

Start Firefox:
Standard 80GB Samsung: 10 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 3 Sec

Start Mail.app:
Standard 80GB Samsung: 5 sec
MTRON MOBI SSD3000: 2 Sec

In my opinion this is a respectable performace boost. I will keep the MTRON in my Air, as I use it inly for work and I still have 10GB free on the hard disk.

Best regards
Ricardo

 

[AIRniloc]

awesome!

is there anyway i could persuade you to download xBench and give us your scores with the MOBI installed?

 

[kikote]

X-Bench scores

awesome!

is there anyway i could persuade you to download xBench and give us your scores with the MOBI installed?

As you wish, here they are:

 

[italiansauce88]

Good numbers.... how is the performance on youtube, flash, streaming HD video, etc...

and the behavior of the fan??

 

[raghad]

Thanks to all for the replys, I will post the "resolution" of my problem as soon as i know something from Mtron...


One more thing, Mac jones: where did u get the RUNCORE 64 GB ssd?

Poteck

Hey Poteck,

I am in the same boat as you. Ordered MSD-PATA3018-032-ZIF2 and it's not being detected by my Macbook Air. Very frustrating!!!

Did you hear anything from MTRON?

Does anyone think it could have anything to do with ZIF1 and ZIF2 connectors? I hope there's a solution soon for this, my 250 dollar ssd is just collecting dust now, and if I sell it, I'm gonna lose a lot of it's value.

 

[kikote]

Hello italiansauce88,

I can´t really see any difference in the performance with youtube, flash, HD-streaming... The graphic-chip is still the same, so I still have the same lame performance in the tasks you have asked for.
I also didn´t notice a difference with the fan. It has the same behaviour than before changing the disk...

I still have to see, if the MTRON really consumes as much power as I have read... I think I will check it in the next days, after I update the firmware...

 

[kikote]

Hey mac_jones,

did you try to update the firmware? The new firmware 019R1 resolves the following problems:

ㆍSupporting write cache Enable/Disable.
ㆍTo solve Drive Reject problem in a particular system.
ㆍAdding Set Max Command of Host Protected Area Feature set security extension.
- Set Max Set Password
- Set Max Lock
- Set Max Freeze Lock
- Set Max Unlock
ㆍResolve boot delay problem on 7500 series and 3500 series.

You can download the firmware from http://www.mtron.net

The Mtron in my AIR is working perfectly.

 

[raghad]

Hey mac_jones,

did you try to update the firmware? The new firmware 019R1 resolves the following problems:

ㆍSupporting write cache Enable/Disable.
ㆍTo solve Drive Reject problem in a particular system.
ㆍAdding Set Max Command of Host Protected Area Feature set security extension.
- Set Max Set Password
- Set Max Lock
- Set Max Freeze Lock
- Set Max Unlock
ㆍResolve boot delay problem on 7500 series and 3500 series.

You can download the firmware from http://www.mtron.net

The Mtron in my AIR is working perfectly.

Hey kikote,

Which SSD are you using? MSD-PATA3018-032-ZIF1 or MSD-PATA3018-032-ZIF2?

And are you able to upgrade firmware using a mac? Do you need special interface adapters?

Cheers!

 

[kikote]

Hello mac_jones,

I am using a MSD-PATA3018-032-ZIF2. To update the firmware you have to create a dos boot disk, and boot from it... I haven´t tried it yet, so I can´t confirm if it will work. At the moment I am trying to download the firmware, but I always get an error. I have written the Mtron-support, I hope I get the firmware soon

Regards
Ricardo

 

[raghad]

Hello mac_jones,

I am using a MSD-PATA3018-032-ZIF2. To update the firmware you have to create a dos boot disk, and boot from it... I haven´t tried it yet, so I can´t confirm if it will work. At the moment I am trying to download the firmware, but I always get an error. I have written the Mtron-support, I hope I get the firmware soon

Regards
Ricardo

Ok, thanks for clearing that up... I'm trying to narrow down the possibilities as to why my ssd isn't working... This may sound stupid, but does the mtron sit face up or face down? I.e. If the original samsung hdd and the mtron ssd are both face up, is pin 1 on the same end of each connector?

Thank again! You have no idea how frustrating it is having the ssd back in it's box! haha...

 

[kikote]

Hello Raghad,

the connector is faced to the mainboard. Exactly the same as the Samsung disk was. A good walkthrough from anandtech on how to swap the drive with exact photo on how to plug the cable:
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3226&p=13
I wish you a lot of luck with your drive!

 

[raghad]

So when the ssd is plugged in, do you see the mtron label, or the brown back of the disk?

 

[kikote]

I see the MTRON label. Here you have a photo:

 

[fteoath64]

Great contribution, Kikote!. I see the Xbench results shows Read @ 66MB/s and write at ~ 37MB/s, this is not bad considering the price. Actually, a bit faster than the SSD in Rev A, as I recall its read is about 60MB/s.

Lets hope Toshiba comes up with an ASIC version of the Mtron controller as the current one implemented in FPGA chip that sucks a lot of power. Tosh actually invested a lot of money into Mtron some months ago for their technology.

The day when a 128GB SSD with 5mm thickness and pata/ZIF running at 200MB/s read and 160MB/s write at $400, will certainly cause a stampede in demand from Rev A users. This would make Rev A upgrade to be faster than Rev B SSD!!. Except in graphics benchmarks, of course but who cares in an AIR right ?.