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dtelena

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 25, 2012
49
8
Hi, I am planning to buy a brand new Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB SSD with a Sintech M.2 NVME adapter card. I have just read that Samsung released a firmware update for this drive a couple of months ago to make it 100% compatible with macOS (before this new firmware many people reported incompatibility issues and several kernel panics with the drive under macOS). So has anyone tried one of these drives with the new firmware applied and the Sintech adapter on a Mac Pro 2013 (trashcan) without any issues at all so far??? Thanks !
 

w1z

macrumors 6502a
Aug 20, 2013
692
481
I just bought the same NVMe ssd with a recent manufacturing date, 7/19, so that it already has the latest firmware. If you end up with one that has the incompatible firmware (with macos), you'll then need to run Samsung's Magician on Windows in Bootcamp to flash the latest firmware to the ssd.

Drives manufactured from June onwards have the updated firmware.
 

jclmavg

macrumors regular
Aug 2, 2014
173
105
Yes, bought the 2TB version for my trashcan recently, it works fine with the most recent firmware.
 
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Rad

macrumors regular
Aug 8, 2006
130
14
Regarding the actual Sintech ST-NGFF2013C adapter, did anyone get if from Amazon (which does not state it is the C variant) or directly from the company from Ebay or their website?
 

profinite

macrumors regular
May 1, 2009
107
33
On a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB SSD, where is the date of manufacture printed? Is it in plain English such as 10/01/19 or is it in code such as XNGETA? If I decide to buy a new Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB SSD from an eBay seller, I want to help the seller locate the date of manufacture.
 

Rad

macrumors regular
Aug 8, 2006
130
14
On a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB SSD, where is the date of manufacture printed? Is it in plain English such as 10/01/19 or is it in code such as XNGETA? If I decide to buy a new Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB SSD from an eBay seller, I want to help the seller locate the date of manufacture.


Right after the model number there is a date that corresponded to the firmware update - 2019.07


BTW the Sintech ST-NGFF2013 adapter listed on Amazon works great. Also ordered one through eBay directly from the manufacturer which shipped from China two weeks ago but not yet delivered.
 
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Rad

macrumors regular
Aug 8, 2006
130
14

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profinite

macrumors regular
May 1, 2009
107
33
Rad - Thanks for both information. If I have to flash it, how would I go about it in reality? Since my 2013 Mac Pro is running with macOS 10.14.6 and I have Windows 10 on Parallels, would I put the SSD in a case of sort, connect it to the Mac, and attempt to run the software by Samsung called "Magician" in Parallels?

(1) What kind of a temporary case should I get?
(2) Where can I find this "Magician" software for Windows 10?

Thanks for all of your help!!


Right after the model number there is a date that corresponded to the firmware update - 2019.07


BTW the Sintech ST-NGFF2013 adapter listed on Amazon works great. Also ordered one through eBay directly from the manufacturer which shipped from China two weeks ago but not yet delivered.
 

profinite

macrumors regular
May 1, 2009
107
33
Can anybody here tell me, by going from a stock 1TB SSD to a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB SSD on a 2013 Mac Pro (12-core, 64GB RAM), how much WRITE and READ speed gain that I should anticipate?
 
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vett93

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2014
279
40
California
Can anybody here tell me, by going from a stock 1TB SSD to a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB SSD on a 2013 Mac Pro (12-core, 64GB RAM), how much WRITE and READ speed gain that I should anticipate?
You should get similar performance as what Rad posted above. I upgraded my stock Apple SSD to Samsung 970 EVO 2TB SSD. It achieved similar performance as well.
 

profinite

macrumors regular
May 1, 2009
107
33
vett93 - As lazy as it may sound, I have not measured the Write and Read speeds of my stock Apple SSD inside my 2013 Mac Pro. This is because, in order for Blackmagic Disk Speed Test to run, I need to boot the system from a different bootable volume which I currently don't have.

So, I would like to know by what factor the Write and Read speeds improve. For example, the Write speed by a factor of 3, etc.
 

Tong Yangco

macrumors newbie
Apr 9, 2020
3
0
Hi guys.. doin some research and end up here
Was thinkin to buy this samsung evo plus 500 gb for my mid macbook pro 2014.
It works perfectly now right?
If i dont want to use os mojave coz of the softwares im mostly using is not stable yet in mojave..
Can iuse high sierra on this?? Thanks guys!! Blessed!
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,459
13,608
Hi guys.. doin some research and end up here
Was thinkin to buy this samsung evo plus 500 gb for my mid macbook pro 2014.
It works perfectly now right?
If i dont want to use os mojave coz of the softwares im mostly using is not stable yet in mojave..
Can iuse high sierra on this?? Thanks guys!! Blessed!
This is the Mac Pro forum, not the MacBook Pro forum, info here don't apply to MBP upgrades. You should go there and read the thread about SSD upgrades.
 

twicetrader

macrumors newbie
Feb 7, 2021
2
0
Hi All
I bought an EVO Plus 500 on Black Friday and this converter 2280 PCIe x4 M.2 AHCI NGFF.
The SSD already had updated firmware as you could see in the following KP.
That's the point! Unfortunately, I get KPs since swapping to Evo+ SSD.
This happen for my MP D300, 12 core, 64GB.
I read on your forums that latest FW from samsung has resolved the above issue thus there must be something else wrong (maybe the converter?!).
If you have a solution I am all ears. If you do not have solution, could you please advise me a similar item that is 100% tested and stable?
I see that Evo+ almost doubles OEM SSD and I like that improvement :cool:

Thanks in advance for your assistance
TT

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff8021b86d06): nvme: "Fatal error occurred. CSTS=0xffffffff US[1]=0x0 US[0]=0xc VID=0x144d DID=0xa808
. FW Revision=2B2QEXM7\n"@/AppleInternal/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/IONVMeFamily/IONVMeFamily-557.60.1/Common/IONVMeController.cpp:5472
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
 

profinite

macrumors regular
May 1, 2009
107
33
twicetrader,

I am sorry that you are having issues after the SSD upgrade. I am sure you had hoped the upgrade would go smoothly.

Even though I do not have a direct solution to your particular combination of items, I want to share with you my successful SSD conversion project in some detail because my situation falls into what you called “100% tested and stable.”

[Mac I have]
It is a 2013 Mac Pro with D500x2, 12-core, and 128GB of RAM with an OEM 1TB SSD.

[SSD selection]
I bought a “Samsung 970 EVO PLUS M.2 2280 2TB PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 V-NAND 3-bit MLC Int” from Newegg selling it on eBay. They are still selling it for $329.99, which I think is a very god price from a reputable company.

As you correctly pointed out, I was nervous about FW. The moment the SSD arrived, I looked at the box for “Date of Manufacture”. And, I recall I was happy to see a late 2020 date. At that moment, I was reasonably confident that this SSD swap would go well.

[SSD adapter]
I used a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card ($14.99) from Amazon.

[Heat Sink]
I used am EKWB EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink ($17.75) from Amazon.

So, after the SSD swap, I connected to my Mac Pro an external SSD that had cloned contents of the OEM SSD. Sure enough, my Mac booted into the external SSD. At that moment, the Samsung 970 EVO PLUS was recognized and I proceeded to format it for Mac use. I believe I did this swap in mid December. Ever since my Mac Pro sees to run snappier and definitely stably.

In terms of OS on the new SSD, I fresh-installed macOS Big Sur. And, it has been running flawlessly. So, overall, I am very glad that I did this SSD upgrade that I had thought about for many months.

And, I am now flirting with the idea of upgrading the SSD to a 4TB Sabrent Rocket SSD. It is quite expensive, however.

I am not certain if my story would be of any help in your KP situation. But, I truly hope that you will be able to get out of your current situation.

Best wishes!!
 

serran

macrumors newbie
Jun 30, 2021
1
0
Switzerland
[SSD adapter]
I used a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card ($14.99) from Amazon.

[Heat Sink]
I used am EKWB EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink ($17.75) from Amazon.

Hi,

That's the long adapter, right? How did you assemble the heatsink? Did you manage to include the adapter in the sandwich? If I leave it out I don't think the heatsink+SSD will fit in the Sintech anymore. If I include it I wonder if the clips will still fit, and more importantly if the heat transfer between the SSD and the sintech will be good enough.

I'm trying to upgrade an imac 27" 2017 SSD with a 970 Evo Plus.

Thanks!
 
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