{"id":23738,"date":"2014-08-18T08:20:47","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T07:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/?p=23738"},"modified":"2020-04-15T21:53:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T20:53:34","slug":"review-transcend-jetdrive-725-upgrades-our-retina-macbook-ssd-to-960gb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/apple\/review-transcend-jetdrive-725-upgrades-our-retina-macbook-ssd-to-960gb.html","title":{"rendered":"Review: Transcend JetDrive 725 Upgrades Our Retina MacBook SSD to 960GB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the summer of 2012 I\u00a0reviewed<\/a>\u00a0the new 15″ Retina MacBook Pro. \u00a0It was an upgrade from my previous MacBook that had been modified<\/a> to take a 1TB\u00a0hard drive as well as an SSD, so while the move to an even faster SSD was great, I\u00a0had to use\u00a0an external USB hard drive to deal with the lack of space.<\/p>\n

While the RAM is soldered onto the rMBP motherboard (the reason I cancelled my order for the 8GB unit and re-ordered a 16GB instead), the SSD is socketed and can<\/em> be upgraded. On the subject of the flash storage\u00a0I\u00a0wrote in my\u00a02012 review<\/p>\n

“Perhaps in two years time there might even be a 1TB SSD that won\u2019t be the price of a small family hatchback!?<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

Well, two years have passed and now the new Transcend JetDrive<\/a> range of replacement SSDs are available\u00a0for the\u00a0MacBook Pro and McBook Air. In a range of models (including the 420, 500 and 520), it was the 720 that was originally intended for my\u00a0mid 2012 machine. \u00a0But shortly after release some MacBooks\u00a0where found to have very slightly different internals so\u00a0Transcend set about re-designing a shorter board and the 725 was born.<\/p>\n

\"Transcend<\/a>

The Transcend JetDrive 725 Installed in Our MacBook<\/p><\/div>\n

Available in 240GB, 480GB and 960GB versions, the JetDrive kit\u00a0includes the SSD itself, a metal USB 3.0 to SATA enclosure, screwdrivers (T5 & P5), USB cable and travel pouch. The enclosure allows you to clone your existing drive to new the new SSD. You then swap them around putting the bigger SSD in your MacBook and your old board in the enclosure (giving you a useful, fast external drive).<\/p>\n

\"Transcend<\/a>There’s an excellent video of the installation (below) to guide you through the upgrade process. You boot your Mac to the recovery partition (note: hold down ‘cmd R’ not the ‘Option’ key as it says in the video) and restore your existing drive onto the new one (which took around 15 minutes). The task of opening the\u00a0MacBook, disconnecting the battery and swapping the boards is very simple and only took around 10\u00a0minutes. After the installation you download and install the JetDrive ToolBox to enable Trim.<\/p>\n

As well as almost quadrupling the 256GB SSD there’s also a slight performance gain too. \u00a0Below are the before and after speed tests using the\u00a0Blackmagic app.<\/p>\n

\"Transcend<\/a><\/p>\n

Prices for the 725 SSD (check the correct model for your MacBook from the table above) are currently around \u00a3125 for the 240GB, \u00a3235 for the 480GB and \u00a3430 for the 960GB.<\/p>\n