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Macbook air 2017 SSD Compatibility with Samsung SSD

gilles_polysoft

gilles_polysoft

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2017
244
671
Tours (France)
djsick2000 said:
Hi!

I am planning to upgrade a MBA 2017 for a 500gb SSD. I read most for the posts on this forum and it seems that :

  • Samsung makes the best SSD BUT it always need the Sintech Adapter to fit it in.
  • The Samsung 950PRO seems to work but the 960 is not recommended (heat, etc) and 970 does not seem to work.
Click to expand...

Hi,
I can confirm that Samsungs 970 Evo SSD do work without any issue - if used with the rev B or rev C Sintech adapter of course.
Few others forum members have reported good this result too :
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/26105229/
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/26075628/


djsick2000 said:
On the net, I found the MCE SSD... it is more expensive but it seems it does not need any adapter. What do you think ?

https://store.mcetech.com/mm/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=MBASSD2015_17

I suppose the issue is that nobody knows how it performs and Samsung is probably the best anyway.

Can someone confirm me that the above is correct.
Click to expand...

MCE does a pretty good job and yes, theirs SSD work without Sintech adapter, they are not M.2 drives but specific drives for the Apple platform and "12+16" PCie "gumstick" connector.
They are approximatively 2x to 3x times more expensive that "PC" NVMe M.2 drives like the Samsung 970 Evo which do require the $10 Sintech adapter.

With the same price levels, you can found three other brands of NVMe SSD with the Apple 12+16 connectors :
- genuine Apple NVMe SSDs, which are always expensive, used, or "black market" (without any warranty)
- OWC Aura pro v2 NVMe SSDs. I don't trust OWC since having really high failure rates (more than 100% in fact) in all the blade SSD I bought from theim...
- Transcend 850 NVMe SSDs

I would trust MCE far more than OWC. MCE claim to build their SSDs on the same OEM factory that manufacture SSD for Apple.
Don't know if this is true but at least this is consistent with the appearance of their SSDs.
Neither Transcend not OWC seem to handle correctly the hibernation problem on 2013-2014 macs (which is related to the NVMe DXE driver in the BootRom). At those price levels, I found it quite abnormal.
At least, MCE does correctly and honestly stand that theirs NVMe SSD don't work with 2013-2014 macs (in fact they should work but not handle hibernation).

Maybe, at least, with all those NVMe SSDs manufacturers on the Mac upgrade market, one day Apple will update the BootRom of the 2013-2014 macs to handle hibernation..

djsick2000 said:
-----------

Also practically, I am planning to do a clean install (no need to back up anything) and install High-Sierra with the wifi (because it is easy). Would it be OK ?

Some people talk about formatted it in APFS, what does it mean ? I suppose that it would not work otherwise. How do you do format in APFS and when ?
Is it :
1) Put the new SSD in
2) Run Disk Utility and format it in APFS (I am not sure I will be able to do it, it is easy and straightforward?)
3) then do the clean install with the fresh High-Sierra (and all updates)

Is that correct ? I am bit worried about the APFS thing...

Thank you !
Click to expand...
 
D

djsick2000

macrumors newbie
Feb 7, 2015
18
15
Thank you Gilles ! It helps me a lot !

What would you recommend (apart from the price difference). As far as I understand, all the ones (SSD) you mentioned are NVMe (Samsung, MCE, OWC, Transcend). Can someone confirm that the M.2 is actually the connector type. (that is why Samsung is M.2 and not the others) ?

Or is it all about having to buy an adapter for the Samsung or not ?

The Samsung 960 seem to consume more power and the Samsung 970 too... so maybe the Samsung 950 is probably the best choice. it is not easy choosing without know how they all actually perform... mmmh.
 
Last edited:
U

uehithneu

Suspended
May 19, 2018
74
37
Thank you, djsick2000, for the MCE link and thank you, Gilles, for these comments.

Seems to TransIntl Super Blade products relevant too?

http://www.transintl.com/super-blade-flash-storage-ssd.html
http://barefeats.com/hard219.html

I have Macbook Air (Y2013) and so the MCE-for-Y2013 product catches my eye. https://store.mcetech.com/mm/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=512GBPCIESSD-L13M14

Two sets of questions:

(a) The MCE-for-Y2015 page, linked by djsick2000, mentions NVMe but the MCE-for-Y2013 page does not mention NVMe. Does this discrepancy suggest the MCE-for-Y2013 product does not have NVMe technology? If so then does that mean it makes use of AHCI (á la SSUBX)?

(b) Whereas power/energy is a common concern I wonder about infrequent/uncommon stuff -- e.g., firmware updates and Boot Camp. Do we know whether or not the MCE-for-Y2013 product can accept firmware updates (thus leaving the user no need to swap out the MCE product when installing a macOS point update)? In general: Do we know whether or not the MCE-for-Y2013 product is recognized, at boot, as internal storage?

Thanks for reading!
 
D

djsick2000

macrumors newbie
Feb 7, 2015
18
15
Hi !

I have just installed the latest Samsung 970Pro on my MBA 2017 and it works fine so far !

However when I want to see if "Trim support" is activated, If I go to "System information" then in "SATA / SATA Express", I can not any information about it... and the system says : “This computer doesn’t contain any serial ATA devices. If you installed Serial ATA devices, make sure they are connected properly and powered on”.

How could I check if Trim support is "On" ? And why do I get this message ?

I refer with this video on youtube from someone who install a Samsung 850 in a MBA (see at 6:00minutes in the video... a good video by the way) :

Any idea ?

Thanks !
 
caraconejo

caraconejo

macrumors newbie
Aug 2, 2018
5
0
The JetDrive 820 is AHCI Link width x2
While the EVO 9xx NVMe is x4 in MBP 2013, 2014, 2015

Another case is the JetDrive 85x that supports NVMe

If it is to gain speed, the JD82x does not offer advantages, the JD85x if it is a speed improvement

The fastest NVMe are and still are Samsung EVO the last 970 "updated" from Windows is the best trick, cheaper, faster

The bottleneck is in AHCI Advanced Host Controller Interface

SATA M.2 SSDs use the same driver as their 2.5 "SSD siblings, while M.2 PCI SSDs are happy to be compatible with this type of connection, this should be taken into account because it is very important.

M.2 SSDs only support one of these connection protocols, although some sockets or insertion banks in which they are punctured may be compatible with both protocols. That is, each disk has only one controller and therefore is a SATA III or PCIe disk.

In MacBook Pro and Air except models from 2013 to 2015, and with the latest OS support NVMe with APFS (supports 64bits, allowing a system to go from managing about 4 billion data to 9 trillion data.) To get the idea , it is about moving from a 4 followed by nine zeros to a 9 followed by 18 zeros.) Optimization for devices with SSD memory. In other words, almost all current Apple devices have memory of this type, in one way or another. Now they have a file system designed for flash memories, instead of disk

MacBooks that have sata 3 connections, no matter how much adapter they have, will have the bottleneck on the board
 
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bezzeb

macrumors newbie
Aug 11, 2018
8
0
Macdctr said:
I would order this...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/M2-M-Key-S...863013?hash=item33d50f0365:g:41sAAOSweZJaSPrL

26877717468_70ce28c052.jpg


40038842214_347544c30f.jpg


40038842264_f8562a02ed.jpg


26877717348_2038aa1fcf.jpg

The adapter looks like this and comes with tools to allow you to install the new drive.

The link that I got my adapter from : https://www.ebay.com/itm/112615200702?ul_noapp=true&afsrc=1&rmvSB=true


Glad to help! :)
Click to expand...
Hello.
I have macbook air 6.2 2014 year without original ssd
I also bought such an adapter
The disk is visible in the disk utility, but I can not boot from it.
at boot from "alt" it is not visible in the menu
Please help me, what should I do to boot the system from it?
 
Audit13

Audit13

macrumors 604
Apr 19, 2017
6,906
1,845
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
bezzeb said:
Hello.
I have macbook air 6.2 2014 year without original ssd
I also bought such an adapter
The disk is visible in the disk utility, but I can not boot from it.
at boot from "alt" it is not visible in the menu
Please help me, what should I do to boot the system from it?
Click to expand...
Which nvme drive are you using?

Are you booting from a High Sierra installer?
 
  • Like
Reactions: bezzeb
B

bezzeb

macrumors newbie
Aug 11, 2018
8
0
Audit13 said:
Which nvme drive are you using?

Are you booting from a High Sierra installer?
Click to expand...
Adata SX6000 M.2 NVMe PCIe 128GB
I read that this ssd has worked with macbook air

I'm using High Sierra,installed on an external SD card through the Higra Sierra patcher.
because the clean installation caused an error "An error occurred while verifying firmware"

the disk is visible in the system,also visible in the disk utility when installing the system,but not visible in the boot menu

Tell me please what to do in this situation
Thank you for your reply
 

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bezzeb

macrumors newbie
Aug 11, 2018
8
0
Audit13 said:
That is a problem because you need to be running the latest firmware on the Air.

Do you have access to an original Apple SSD? You need it to install High Sierra. The Air's firmware will be installed when installing 10.13.15.
Click to expand...
unfortunately I do not have access to the original disk

are there any other options to update the firmware?
 
B

bezzeb

macrumors newbie
Aug 11, 2018
8
0
Audit13 said:
Unfortunately, the original SSD is needed to update the firmware when installing High Sierra.

Do you know anyone who can loan you an Apple SSD?
Click to expand...

there are no options where I could take the original disc.
but there are no other ways to update the firmware?
 
D

deadsoul

macrumors regular
Sep 10, 2015
127
121
Hi guys I currently own a Macbook Air 13'' 2014 with the latest High Sierra version, I've been reading lots of threads regarding the incompatibility with the 2013/2014 models, i would like to know if anyone has experience on this matter I've found a SM961 which is an OEM 960 Evo as far as i know, anyone has and advice or experience with this model in particular? or any oher model?
 
Audit13

Audit13

macrumors 604
Apr 19, 2017
6,906
1,845
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
deadsoul said:
Hi guys I currently own a Macbook Air 13'' 2014 with the latest High Sierra version, I've been reading lots of threads regarding the incompatibility with the 2013/2014 models, i would like to know if anyone has experience on this matter I've found a SM961 which is an OEM 960 Evo as far as i know, anyone has and advice or experience with this model in particular? or any oher model?
Click to expand...
The SSD has issues for some people using a 2014 Macbook pro: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-46#post-25970034

I'm using an Intel 600p on an early 2015 13" Air with no problems except a bit of battery drain.
 
Audit13

Audit13

macrumors 604
Apr 19, 2017
6,906
1,845
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I believe it is the 2015 and newer models that don't have the sleep or kernel panic problem.

I'm very pleased with the Intel 600p in comparison to the costly original apple SSD.

Be sure to install high Sierra onto the air using the apple SSD before swapping drives.
 
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