Oct 27, 2010 08:54 GMT  ·  By

Although the second generation MacBook Air has just made its debut there are companies out there that already offer third party hardware for Apple's ultra compact notebook offering, Photo Fast just introducing a 256GB SSD that should offer a 30% performance increase compared to that of the original drive as well as increased storage capacity for 11.6” MBA owners.

This speed increase is possible since Photo Fast used a speedy SandForce controller, (the driving force behind most of the desktop enthusiast grade SSDs available out there) to build its drive, wich should provide up to 250MB/s sequential read and write speeds as well as 50MB/s when it comes down to random reads and 30MB/s for random disk writes.

Available also in smaller sizes (64GB and 128GB) the GM2 SFV1 Air will surely offer an important speed increase for 2010 MacBook Air owners as well as a much needed storage capacity upgrade for the 11.6" MBA, that is currently stuck at a 128GB maximum.

But wait there's more, since apart from building this as an MacBook Air update, Photo Fast took this thing one step further and bundles a USB 3.0 adapter together with its SSD, transforming it into a super-fast portable flash drive that can be used for easily cloning your operating system.

After the upgrade, the enclosure can also come in handy since this would allow you to transform that MacBook Air spare SSD that you have lying around into a really fast USB flash drive.

“The new MacBook Air has already been a successful product.

It's ultra portable, good performance and gorgeous industrial design.

But we have decided to offer even more,” said chief engineer Eddie Wang.

“An alternative SSD choice from PhotoFast where users would benefit more from its great performance and large capacity.

Now the 11.6" MacBook Air with 256GB SSD comes to your option list,” concluded the company's rep.

Unfortunately, the Japanese company hasn't provided us with any infos regarding pricing or availability, but I imagine this will set you back quite a bit.