MCE Technologies (MCE) is now shipping a new lineup of SSD upgrade solutions for pre-retina MacBook Pro, MacBook, and Mac mini named Lightspeed.
The Lightspeed solution replaces the Mac’s original internal drive with a high-performance 2.5-inch SATA-III solid state drive (SSD) and is available in 2TB, 1TB, 500GB, 250GB, and 128GB capacities. The Lightspeed upgrade kit includes a portable USB 3.0 enclosure, cloning software, install guide and tools. Prices range from US$99 for 128GB to $799 for 2TB.
The MCE Lightspeed SSD Upgrade Kits feature SATA-III solid state drives with read and write specifications up to 540MB/sec and 520MB/sec, respectively, says Arnold Ramirez, president of MCE. The drives support TRIM if enabled in Mac OS X and have their own built-in garbage collection function to increase longevity.
S.M.A.R.T. status monitoring is also supported and can warn of possible or impending failure long before one actually occurs allowing the user to take early action to keep their data safe. The drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status can be verified using Apple’s Disk Utility or System Profiler program.
The included portable, external USB 3.0 enclosure is bootable on all Intel Macs and is provided in order to facilitate easy data transfer to the new Lightspeed SSD as well as to allow continued usage of the original drive for general data storage or backup. The USB 3.0 enclosure provides for data transfer from the original drive to the new one using the included cloning software. An illustrated installation manual and all tools for performing the upgrade are also included.