01-26-2011, 12:57 PM

Hello everyone, I just purchased an 11" Macbook Air (bran new in the packaging, off E-bay). I got a great deal on it. Problem is, I really wanted to 128 GB hard drive with 4 GIGS of Ram. Can the hard drive and RAM be upgraded at the Apple store after purchase or can it only be purchased from Apple with the upgrades?

Thanks in advance for any help.

01-26-2011, 12:59 PM

No. The Air is not upgradeable, what you purchased is what you will have to live with. Memory and the flash drive are integrated on to the logic board. Be sure you purchase Apple care for that machine since there is nothing you can do yourself if it should ever need to be repaired.

01-26-2011, 01:17 PM

The SSD is removable, but finding a retail replacement will be the hard part. They are made by Toshiba, so it is possible. The memory however is onboard, so that you are stuck with.

01-26-2011, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

No. The Air is not upgradeable, what you purchased is what you will have to live with. Memory and the flash drive are integrated on to the logic board. Be sure you purchase Apple care for that machine since there is nothing you can do yourself if it should ever need to be repaired.

Originally Posted by JohnCL

The SSD is removable, but finding a retail replacement will be the hard part. They are made by Toshiba, so it is possible. The memory however is onboard, so that you are stuck with.

Thanks for the info fellas, just as I thought. I appreciate it!

01-26-2011, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by JohnCL

The SSD is removable, but finding a retail replacement will be the hard part. They are made by Toshiba, so it is possible.

That's interesting. From what I read previously (MacWorld Mag) I was under the impression that the flash drive unit was somehow part of the logic board assembly and soldered. Although, now that I think about it, that wouldn't make sense since there would have to be a way to change it out if it should ever fail.

Have you taken your Air apart and looked inside?

01-26-2011, 02:52 PM

I have not had mine apart (and don't plan to ) I am just basing on what I have read and I saw something about the possibility of option coming to upgrade the Air SSD. Here is a link to a picture that I got from iFixit with the SSD shown.

Air SSD

01-26-2011, 05:50 PM

thats a pretty cool pick Johncl. it does look like if you took it to a mac store they could upgrade the ssd drive. sucks about the memory though. i was considering an air but not sure id pull the trigger on 2 gigs only.


*edit i just looked at the tear down. the cpu gpu heatsink is one piece and its scary scary scary small. i know the 1.4 is a cool chip but the 320m. thats nuts. any hardcore game would put some serious stress on that thing. now i definitely would want applecare after seeing that.

01-27-2011, 01:33 AM

Originally Posted by JohnCL

I have not had mine apart (and don't plan to ) I am just basing on what I have read and I saw something about the possibility of option coming to upgrade the Air SSD. Here is a link to a picture that I got from iFixit with the SSD shown.

Air SSD

I believe that's what MacWorld was referring to. Those are Toshiba flash modules (not really an SSD). They must plug in, although from the ifixit photo it's hard to tell. Now you really have my interest up... If those modules can be replaced with larger capacity ones it should be a simple matter of unplugging them and replacing. Maybe??

01-27-2011, 02:07 AM

Originally Posted by chscag

I believe that's what MacWorld was referring to. Those are Toshiba flash modules (not really an SSD). They must plug in, although from the ifixit photo it's hard to tell. Now you really have my interest up... If those modules can be replaced with larger capacity ones it should be a simple matter of unplugging them and replacing. Maybe??

I remember there was a post about some Taiwan or Chinese company that had the flash memory at larger capacities and for cheaper than what Apple was offering. >_>" Of course they got busted...