Press

Other World Computing (OWC), the world's leading destination for cutting-edge Mac and PC upgrades and accessories, announced expert upgrade recommendations for Mac users anticipating the new hardware and software Apple announced at this year's WWDC in San Francisco. As Apple enthusiasts begin to take ownership of the latest MacBook Air models, and prepare for the forthcoming OS X Mavericks release and the much-anticipated 2013 Mac Pro refresh, OWC is formulating support solutions for current Mac owners and those planning to purchase a new Mac.

New MacBook Air offers much faster flash storage
Testing in the OWC Labs revealed that while the form factor has not changed, internal hardware has been given a major upgrade. Apple is the first to adopt and incorporate high-performance storage that has completely replaced the use of SATA storage in the new MacBook Air models. In addition, OWC testing is already showing performance of over 700MB/s. The OWC engineering team is already busy exploring both internal and external upgrades geared for the MacBook Air. Furthermore, OWC expects to see PCIe (PCI Express) storage to be implemented in all future Mac models, with the Retina MacBook Pro models to be next in line to receive this upgrade.

OWC upgrade recommendations:

• The Envoy Pro EX is the perfect complement for any of Apple's current laptops and notebooks. Its sophisticated industrial design houses either a 240GB or 480GB SSD that delivers up to 500MB/s over USB 3.0.

Preparing for the 2013 Mac Pro
The upcoming Mac Pro, scheduled for release later this year, is a complete makeover of the current Mac Pro line-up. Meanwhile, OS X Mavericks, which will likely be released before the 2013 Mac Pro is available, provides support for up to 128GB of RAM — up from the 96GB limit of the current Mac operating system. OWC anticipates offering memory upgrade kits of up to 128GB for the new Mac Pro, consisting of memory modules of up to 32GB for each the 2013 Mac Pro’s four RAM slots.

OWC upgrade recommendations:

• OWC plans to make available a range of RAM upgrade options of up to 32GB per slot in time for the Mac Pro launch.
• For current Mac Pro users, or those who are considering buying a current Mac Pro model before the 2013 unit ships, OWC can provide RAM upgrades that maximize available memory for OSX versions 10.6 through 10.8.
• OWC offers a wide range of memory upgrades for the entire Mac Pro line, 2006 to current, providing up to double the amount of memory as was factory available / configurable.
• Also, after users have migrated to OS X Mavericks, those users who currently have 96GB installed in their Mac Pro 2009 and 2010 systems will be able to purchase and add an OWC 32GB upgrade kit to take their system up to 128GB, thereby deriving the maximum processing power from their machines for those memory-hungry applications that can use every Gigabyte and more.

"The announcements made by Apple at this year's WWDC will encourage many Mac users to plan for new machines, and to consider how they might upgrade their current hardware to take advantage of what OSX Mavericks will offer," said Larry O'Connor, founder and CEO of Other World Computing. "OWC has always been the first provider—outside of Apple—to offer the right configurations and upgrades of memory to the market since the first Mac Pro shipped in 2006. We look forward to providing a selection of proven, quality upgrades for all the Mac products that were previewed at the event."