2013 MBA Upgrade

[wstrohm]

I may be accused here of putting lipstick on a pig, or wallpapering an outhouse. But we have a Mid-2013 MBA that was bought new, and repaired after the logic board was destroyed by bath water. Upgrades were made later, and recently I had a "spare" Samsung 970 PRO 1TB NVMe SSD sitting in a box. So I installed it in the MBA and after running some "before" and "after" tests, thought I would post the results. The computer is running Big Sur 11.7.10 and has the 1.3 GHz CPU.

1. Boot time from power-on button pressed to desktop before was 55 seconds, after is 48 seconds.
2. Storage space before was 480 GB, after is 1.02 TB. Previous SSD was a Kingston SA 2000 500GB NVMe.
3. Black Magic disk speed tests before and after are shown below. Left is before, right is after installing the 970 PRO. It took a day, but I do like to upgrade things.
Now it's back in its carrying case and will probably not be used for at least a month.

 

[JacCarson]

I had 11 inch 2013 MBA and it is a little very capable machine indeed with a new SSD should feel much faster. I think it is perfect for a light office job.

 

[wstrohm]

I had 11 inch 2013 MBA and it is a little very capable machine indeed with a new SSD should feel much faster. I think it is perfect for a light office job.

If you intend to replace the 128 GB SSD, be aware that the current M.2 SSD standard connector interface is different from the original Apple. You would need an adapter such as the one below (the one I used).

https://www.amazon.com/Sintech-Adapter-Upgrade-2013-2015-MacBook/dp/B01CWWAENG?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Also, FYI, Big Sur is the latest version of the MacOS that will run correctly on the 2013 MacBook Air. We are using version 11.7.10. You can get a full installer here, if you are interested.

 

[JacCarson]

If you intend to replace the 128 GB SSD, be aware that the current M.2 SSD standard connector interface is different from the original Apple. You would need an adapter such as the one below (the one I used).

https://www.amazon.com/Sintech-Adapter-Upgrade-2013-2015-MacBook/dp/B01CWWAENG?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Also, FYI, Big Sur is the latest version of the MacOS that will run correctly on the 2013 MacBook Air. We are using version 11.7.10.

thanks for heads up, I no longer have the machine, but thats good tip! I know one needs an adaptor (sometimes I watch Japanese YT channel Macaron, which fixes old MBAs).

 

[frontgear]

If you intend to replace the 128 GB SSD, be aware that the current M.2 SSD standard connector interface is different from the original Apple. You would need an adapter such as the one below (the one I used).

https://www.amazon.com/Sintech-Adapter-Upgrade-2013-2015-MacBook/dp/B01CWWAENG?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Also, FYI, Big Sur is the latest version of the MacOS that will run correctly on the 2013 MacBook Air. We are using version 11.7.10. You can get a full installer here, if you are interested.

That's the same adapter I got to upgrade my 2014 MBA 13.3" to a SK Hynix Gold P31 NvMe SSD. Boosts up and runs faster than the original Apple SSD.