Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

[rtdarling1]

Hi everyone,
just a little update to the BootRom modification on my late 2013 rMBP.

It has been 2 days I use my 13" late 2013 rMBP with the modded BootRom and so far everything is excellent :
- deepsleep works perfectly
- battery life is excellent (around 8 hours on use, and less than 1% loss on 20h hibernation)
- cold boot is very fast (20s)

I've done the tests with on a rMBP which battery has only 89% of factory capacity, and with a MyDigital SBX ssd, which has only 2x lanes (so only 700MB/s on a PCIe 2.0 mac) but has a very low power requirements (3W max).

So as for boot time, battery life and hibernation, I'm very satisfied with those results...

I'm trying now to post more instructions on how to mod the BootRom, and how to flash it (I'll try to find a way without the SPI programmer).

[doublepost=1547881092][/doublepost]Hello everyone (especially Giles_Polysoft) - I have a 2013 MacBook Air, which I insist upon running Mac OS 10.11 "El Capitan" in/on (but, would like the option to have the ability to upgrade to 10.12, 10.13, or 10.14, at a later time, if at all possible). What are my best (& cheapest/least expensive) options (if there are any ?) for both:
A) An adapter(s) [Is the Sintech adapter my best/only choice ?),
B) A 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD(s), which will not consume my battery (either/both when the Air is asleep, or when I am utilizing it [primarily to watch movies]) any quicker/faster (& hopefully/possibly offer even better/longer battery life, but ?) than the original/genuine Apple SSD (which came installed/from the factory in the machine) ?

Notes:
#1) If anyone is able to assist me/offers a response, please be as specific as possible in your reply (i.e: exact model #'s of SSDs, etc., if at all possible).
#2) If there are several choices/SSDs which will work in my 2013 Air (running 10.11 "El Capitan"), then please give me the top 3-4 qty (or more) choices/options, if at all possible.

Thank you (in advance) for your time/assistance, it is very much appreciated.

 

[09872738]

The pentalobe screw drivers are even cheaper on eBay. You forgot the step to disconnect the battery, which granted, isn't absolutely necessary but is always a good idea.

Yup, sorry. Was intended as a quick outline of the steps.

It is always a good idea to follow ifixits guides; including electric discharge-straps, for example

 

[Audit13]

Hello everyone (especially Giles_Polysoft) - I have a 2013 MacBook Air, which I insist upon running Mac OS 10.11 "El Capitan" in/on (but, would like the option to have the ability to upgrade to 10.12, 10.13, or 10.14, at a later time, ...

If you want to run El Capitan, you will need a drive that can be formatted in 4k rather than 512 and, even then, it may not work as I don't think El Capitan has the necessary nvme kext files.

You will not get battery life equivalent to an original Apple SSD. You can expect to lose 10% to 30% of the original battery life. Hibernation will not work properly on a 2013 Air and will have to be disabled.

 

[picturepal]

I just got a 970 EVO 1TB. How drastic does the battery drain? That's a big worry of mine. I code and move around quite a bit so I would like a decent lasting battery. Does it last only a few hours?

Just ran it for the first time until battery drained completely. Got for Netflix video and web browsing pretty much exactly 4 hrs, screen about 60% brightness.

 

[chango-]

Just ran it for the first time until battery drained completely. Got for Netflix video and web browsing pretty much exactly 4 hrs, screen about 60% brightness.

Gotcha, that's not too bad actually. Did you go through any other issues after the upgrade, and do you use Mojave? I'm really nervous of ****ing it up, I've read some bad stories although someone mentioned that the MBP 2015 Retina has an advantage that it can enter deep sleep and wake from deep sleep without kernel panics.

 

[Tomb01]

Sanity Check:

OK, I have been following this thread for a long time, debating on doing this upgrade or not. Currently have an 11,3 late 2013 MBP with a 1TB drive. I would like to stop carrying some of my external drives, with some of my virtual machines, so am looking at upgrading to the Samsung EVO 2TB drive. I think the downside is losing the 'hibernate' capability, which I don't generally use (do let it 'sleep'). The upside is more storage, and faster speed.

And the general process is relatively straight forward:

1) verify bootrom version (currently at 149.0.0.0.0)
2) Create installable USB drive to install O/S (currently on Mojave 10.14.2)
3) Purchase Sintech M.2 nVME SSD adapter card (currently $18.99 on Amazon)
4) acquire appropriate Torx screwdrivers for opening case and uninstalling existing SSD
5) Make backup of existing image (I use SuperDuper, but also have Time Machine backups)
5) open case, swap SSD's
6) use USB drive to install MacOS
7) use migration assistant to capture info from SuperDuper image, or use Time Machine to restore
8) Optionally disable 'migration'

Has been a fascinating thread, but almost longer than the 'waiting for 2018 MBP' thread! (heading for a new record? <grin>)

Again, just verifying I have the process and details right. Still internally debating it...

Thanks in advance for any corrections...

 

[chango-]

What about getting an OEM SSD? Would that card be a safer choice to avoid possible kernel panics and battery drainage on a MBP Retina Early 2015?

 

[Audit13]

What about getting an OEM SSD? Would that card be a safer choice to avoid possible kernel panics and battery drainage on a MBP Retina Early 2015?

An OEM SSD can't be purchased from Apple and used units are expensive from places like eBay. There would be no SSD warranty of any type from Apple too.

 

[mad cow disease]

Here are some of the posts I have seen that led me to believe that battery life should be at least close to the same as the original SSD. Also, when you say the power management is completely different do you mean any NVME drive or specifically non-apple NVMEs? because according to my system report, my original drive is also NVME.

The first post doesn't talk about battery life. The second post is anecdote, and the third one is talking about battery drain during sleep. NVMe is more power hungry, and it makes perfect sense to me that there would be changes to how the system interacts with an upgrade SSD vs an OEM one. Of course, everybody's experience is different - but I find it difficult in any event to believe that there would be no change to power consumption.

 

[Jstan497]

The first post doesn't talk about battery life. The second post is anecdote, and the third one is talking about battery drain during sleep. NVMe is more power hungry, and it makes perfect sense to me that there would be changes to how the system interacts with an upgrade SSD vs an OEM one. Of course, everybody's experience is different - but I find it difficult in any event to believe that there would be no change to power consumption.

Thanks for the info

 

[chango-]

An OEM SSD can't be purchased from Apple and used units are expensive from places like eBay. There would be no SSD warranty of any type from Apple too.

If it saves my battery life consumption, I’d be willing to fork over extra and get an OEM SSD from eBay. If there’s no difference and there’s no way to save the battery life, then yeah, might as well go for an EVO. I’m still not sure if it’s worth it.

 

[Flow91]

If it saves my battery life consumption, I’d be willing to fork over extra and get an OEM SSD from eBay. If there’s no difference and there’s no way to save the battery life, then yeah, might as well go for an EVO. I’m still not sure if it’s worth it.

Check the charts that were posted on page 109 in this thread by gilles_polysoft about the power consumption of different NVMe-SSDs. There you can see which SSDs will affect your battery life less drastically. The Evo 970 might be a good choice for speed, but it‘s very „hungry“ and runs relatively hot.

For pre-2015 models: because of the connection you won‘t reach a higher speed than around 1400 MB/s anyhow, so I looked for a drive that runs cooler after having installed a 970 Evo in my MBP 2014 because it ran too hot and affected battery life heavily.

 

[Audit13]

If it saves my battery life consumption, I’d be willing to fork over extra and get an OEM SSD from eBay. If there’s no difference and there’s no way to save the battery life, then yeah, might as well go for an EVO. I’m still not sure if it’s worth it.

What drive size are you looking for? I'm not sure where your are located but the price difference between a 1 TB Apple and 1 TB nvme can be quite significant.

For some, the heat and battery drain were too high with a Samsung and they switched to a different nvme drive or to an apple drive.

 

[mendex]

Can I ask something here.

Why exactly is necessary a OEM Apple SSD to push a update in the bootrom (high sierra)? Why this cant be done using a usb external storage for example?

This happens because the OEM Apple SSD have something on it or because the bootrom can only be updated via Internal Drivers?

 

[terraphantm]

Can I ask something here.

Why exactly is necessary a OEM Apple SSD to push a update in the bootrom (high sierra)? Why this cant be done using a usb external storage for example?

This happens because the OEM Apple SSD have something on it or because the bootrom can only be updated via Internal Drivers?

Bootrom seems to have a whitelist for what devices are allowed to update it.

Eventually I plan to modify the bootrom to try to disable the signature checks and allow any drive to update, but that would still require the initial flash to be done via programmer.

 

[chango-]

What drive size are you looking for? I'm not sure where your are located but the price difference between a 1 TB Apple and 1 TB nvme can be quite significant.

For some, the heat and battery drain were too high with a Samsung and they switched to a different nvme drive or to an apple drive.

I'm based in New York.

I'm looking for a 1TB, I have seen some OEM SSD's on eBay at around $400 but... it's eBay so I'm not sure. I think I have to come to term that if I go with the EVO then I will experience more battery drainage, there's no way around it. I'm still thinking though.

The ADATA SX8200 seems to drain less battery, I haven't been able to find posts with people discussing the OEM though.

 

[Audit13]

I'm based in New York.

I'm looking for a 1TB, I have seen some OEM SSD's on eBay at around $400 but... it's eBay so I'm not sure. I think I have to come to term that if I go with the EVO then I will experience more battery drainage, there's no way around it. I'm still thinking though.

The ADATA SX8200 seems to drain less battery, I haven't been able to find posts with people discussing the OEM though.

$400 USD is a lot of money to me for a drive that is possibly used with no Apple warranty.

The Evo drives are popular due to their high read/write speeds but they do seem to run warmer and use more energy than other drives.

Not too many users spend a lot of time reading and writing to their SSD so using a slower drive may not be noticeable in daily use.

 

[chango-]

$400 USD is a lot of money to me for a drive that is possibly used with no Apple warranty.

The Evo drives are popular due to their high read/write speeds but they do seem to run warmer and use more energy than other drives.

Not too many users spend a lot of time reading and writing to their SSD so using a slower drive may not be noticeable in daily use.

Gotcha, yeah I honestly would use it to store large amount of music files and video files. I do some light video editing for work and those videos rack up.

Might go with a less power demanding SSD, ADATA is a possibility. Thanks for all the advice btw.

 

[Audit13]

Gotcha, yeah I honestly would use it to store large amount of music files and video files. I do some light video editing for work and those videos rack up.

Might go with a less power demanding SSD, ADATA is a possibility. Thanks for all the advice btw.

You are welcome.

Yup, I would go with an sx8200 or sx8200 pro based on posts in this thread.

If something were to happen to your MacBook, the drive could easily be re-used in another MacBook or Windows computer too.

 

[chango-]

Reposting the image from page 109 regar

So I randomly decided to upgrade to the new ADATA SX8200 Pro 1TB NVME that was just released, which is their new top of the line SSD, which is supposed to slot above the SX8200 that I'm seeing people use here. It's using the updated new SSD controller. I'm seeing faster write speeds, but the read speeds seem lower that what people are posting for their SX8200. Any ideas on this? I'm using the long Sintech adapter, latest revision C.

I've just installed yesterday, so still need time to test out. But the temps seem fantastic, hovering at 23 degrees C.

How's the macbook running a month after the upgrade? Anything to note on?

 

[Tomb01]

Samsung EVO 860 vs 970?

On the verge of doing this upgrade, and trying to understand the difference between the 860 and the 970. I have seen some posts on this thread that indicates that my late 2013 MBP cannot attain the speeds of the 970? If that is the case, there is no point in spending the extra few dollars for the 970 (looking at the 2TB version). Can anyone confirm the performance advantage or difference? Am leaning to the 860, as I have seen that the 970 is a bit hotter and my MBP won't get the full benefit of the speed from the 970 anyway...

I expect that either one will be faster than my Apple OEM 1TB drive, but.... Thanks in advance for anyone with info on this.

 

[Audit13]

Samsung EVO 860 vs 970?

On the verge of doing this upgrade, and trying to understand the difference between the 860 and the 970. I have seen some posts on this thread that indicates that my late 2013 MBP cannot attain the speeds of the 970? If that is the case, there is no point in spending the extra few dollars for the 970 (looking at the 2TB version). Can anyone confirm the performance advantage or difference? Am leaning to the 860, as I have seen that the 970 is a bit hotter and my MBP won't get the full benefit of the speed from the 970 anyway...

I expect that either one will be faster than my Apple OEM 1TB drive, but.... Thanks in advance for anyone with info on this.

The 860 is not a nvme drive and will not work as an internal drive in any 2013 to 2015 MacBook.

 

[Tomb01]

The 860 is not a nvme drive and will not work as an internal drive in any 2013 to 2015 MacBook.

Duh, thanks...

 

[chango-]

There should be some sort of FAQ about SSD upgrade options and their cons, would be great to sticky it.

 

[mendex]

Bootrom seems to have a whitelist for what devices are allowed to update it.

Eventually I plan to modify the bootrom to try to disable the signature checks and allow any drive to update, but that would still require the initial flash to be done via programmer.

I hope someday we have a fix like that.

To people outside US is really, really hard get a OEM SSD and even find people with other macbooks to ask for "help"

To me is worst, because after I open my macbook yesterday, I discovered they changed the board of my SSD (a 128GB one) to a 256GB and put the controller and the flash chips of my original SSD in this 256 gb board , when they repair my screen 2 years ago (I dont know if they changed the flash, maybe yes, beside all the data stay the same). I have no idea why they do that, but the SSD is clearly modified. This happened in a Apple Authorized Repair but only now I discover that.