Transcend Debuts JetDrive SSD Upgrade Kits Up to 960GB for MacBook Air, Retina Macbook Pro

Friday April 25, 2014 10:56 am PDT by Juli Clover

Transcend has introduced new JetDrive SSD upgrade kits designed for the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro with Retina display. The upgrade kits offer up to 960GB of internal storage capacity and come with both installation tools and instructions.

JetDrive kits also ship with an aluminum USB 3.0 enclosure, which allows upgraders to reuse their original SSD, and all kits include a five year warranty.

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Stop shuffling around your files and fretting about storage space. Transcend's JetDrive SSD upgrade kits offer up to 960GB of storage capacity. Upgrading your Mac to a JetDrive SSD ensures you'll have plenty of space for all your favorite music, videos, and photos.

The JetDrive SSDs are able to take advantage of JetDrive Toolbox monitoring software, which keeps track of the health of the drive and enables TRIM support for optimum write speeds and SSD life. JetDrive SSDs also have maximum read speeds of 495MB/s and maximum write speeds of 495MB/s.

The company has three separate products for early MacBook Airs, mid–2012 MacBook Airs, and mid-2012 Retina Macbook Pros, in multiple capacities. While mid–2012 MacBook Airs and Retina MacBook Pros can be upgraded with 240, 480, or 960 GB of storage space, earlier MacBook Airs (late 2010 and mid–2011) are limited to 240 or 480 GB. Transcend's JetDrive kits are not PCIe and are not compatible with the most recently released 2013 MacBook Airs and Retina MacBook Pros.

Transcend's JetDrives can be found on Amazon.com, with prices ranging from $190 for the lower end upgrade to $600 for the higher end upgrade. Ordering information and specific links can be accessed on Transcend's website, but the 960 GB SSDs have yet to make their way to Amazon.

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Top Rated Comments

TranscendInfo

164 months ago

Hello Everyone!
This is Transcend's Official MacRumors account. We'd love to answer any questions you might have!

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

TranscendInfo

164 months ago

“ JetDrive SSDs deliver the performance you need.”

They're not PCIe and the don't really deliver performance...

Hi treichert,
You'll be pleasantly surprised that our JetDrive SSDs are significantly faster than OEM Apple SSDs. For example, our 480GB JetDrive 520 installed in a 128GB Mid 2012 MacBook Air boosted sequential read speeds from 403 MB/s to 490 MB/s and sequential write speeds from 150 MB/s to 422 MB/s*. We'll be providing samples to various media for third party testing to substantiate our claims as well.

*Tested with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

maflynn

164 months ago

JetDrive SSDs deliver the performance you need.

They're not PCIe and the don't really deliver performance...

My SATAIII SSDs is quite fast so while you may not be pleased with that. I'd say a SATA SSD is going to be faster then a SATA HD. So in a sense they are delivering performance. Just not to your liking.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Binarymix

164 months ago

So NOT for the 2013 Macbook Air :(

They need to get 3rd party SSD's for the 2013 models!!!

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

TranscendInfo

163 months ago

Everything has been tried. It was inserted properly and retried several times. If you look at the stock Apple drive, there's plenty of room for it to fit. That is not the case with your drive, as is quite evident in the side-by-side shot.

I've already requested the return to Amazon. Shipping back tomorrow. Don't see the point of discussing this matter further. This was the first time I've purchased a product made by Transcend. "One chance to make the right impression." G'luck with that.

Hello endlessct9a,
Thank you for your feedback on this issue. Again, we would like to apologize for the inconvenience we have caused you. We take such matters very seriously here at Transcend, and we’d like to take some time to explain our findings after thoroughly investigating this issue.

What we’ve found:

1. 13” Retina MacBook Pros are not affected by this issue since the SSD is located in it’s own plastic tray beneath the trackpad. Transcend’s JetDrive 720 is fully compatible with the 13” MacBook Pro with Retina display.

2. JetDrive 500 and 520 are not affected by this issue.

3. We have found that on some 15” Retina MacBook Pros, Apple’s assembly tolerances may allow for the motherboard to be shifted slightly to the right, decreasing the clearance between the speaker and the back of the SSD. The reduced clearance caused by the shifted motherboard will prevent our JetDrive 720 from seating correctly since it is 0.5mm longer than the stock SSD. We are therefore announcing that our JetDrive 720 is currently incompatible with the 15” MacBook Pro with Retina display.

Our next steps:
1. We will change all Amazon listings and our own website to reflect this issue.
2. We will redesign our JetDrive 720 PCB to be the exact length as the stock SSD, making it fully compatible with both the 13” and 15” MacBook Pro with Retina display.

We have attached a few photos to illustrate the above issues. (imgur link (http://transcendinfo.imgur.com/all/))

13" MacBook Pro with Retina display

Stock SSD
MacRumors content image