My 2015 Core i7 2.2 GHz 8GB MacBook Air 11" still had the Apple SSD AP0128H card, which was getting very cramped. This otherwise maxed out machine natively runs Monterey (and will run Ventura under OCLP). As such, and with a 91% original capacity battery, it's still a pretty viable totable workstation, especially now that I’ve got it recharging via USB-C. So I decided to swap in a larger, newer storage module. Opted to go with the best bang for the buck:
(The other options were the OWC Aura N2 or Pro, but for this already 8
year old machine, I didn’t want to put much more than $60 into this
project.)
It’s been a few months since I’ve torn apart one of these 11"
MacBooks, but iFixIt reminds me it’s pretty straightforward. Removed the (8) pentalobe screws from the bottom plate with a PL4 driver from my Wiha set, and then removed the OEM SSD drive using a Wiha T4 Torx bit. Swapped in the new drive, booted the MacBook holding down ⌘⌥R to access the “latest supported operating system” recovery mode, used Disk Utility to erase the new Crucial drive, and installed Monterey. Easy.
System Information properly identifies it as x4 5.0 GT/s NVMe storage, and Blackmagic Disk Speed Test shows about 1300 MB/s read/write, which, given the constraints of this tiny form factor, 8 year old, laptop, I’m generally okay with. (NVMe in a 2010 Mac Pro isn’t a whole lot faster.)
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Blackmagic Disk Speed Test showing ~1300 MB/s performance
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The Sintech adapter is tiny!
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M.2 2280 SSD + Sintech adapter is almost exactly same length as OEM SSD
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M.2 2280 + adapter fits MacBook Air perfectly
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Disk Utility sees and erases the new drive
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Using the restore functionality to install macOS
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