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

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
If you have a Samsung SM951 SSD you could sell it, it appears to be one of the few SSDs that are close enough to Apple's design to facilitate firmware upgrades.

I upgraded to 149.0.0.0 with one installed, I was bumping the original Sierra on that drive up to Mojave on a Late 2013 rMBP.

But if you don't, then definitely keep the Apple one around for possible future updates.
 
Earl Urley said:
If you have a Samsung SM951 SSD you could sell it, it appears to be one of the few SSDs that are close enough to Apple's design to facilitate firmware upgrades.

I upgraded to 149.0.0.0 with one installed, I was bumping the original Sierra up to Mojave.

But if you don't, then definitely keep the Apple one around for possible future updates.
Click to expand...
This might be a silly question maybe, so i apologise in advance, but i have seen mentioned that samsung SM951 name previously. My question is: what samsung is that one? 970 Evo? 960?

And to finish the samsung questions; anyone tried already a samsung 970 Evo PLUS? Any difference with the regular 970 Evo?

Did a 970 evo for a 13" 2015 today. 1Tb. Updated to mojave and latest firmware first with the original apple ssd. With the small black adapter... No extra heat or excesive energy use percived at all. Black Magic speed disk test gave around 1500Mb/s both read and write, aprox. Shouldnt this ssd give over 2000mb/s? Is it perhaps because of not using the sintech green adapter instead? Sintech green adapter has a larger "bandwith" in terms of speed than the black small adapter when used on a 2015 retina?

Apple ssd always use lot of samsung chips on them, and i know by experience samsung ssd's play well on recent imac's, thermal sensor included. Maybe with samsung drives firmware updates are possible. Could not test that yet myself though. I used the same adapter in a macbook air, with 970 evo too, worked well.

Thanks again.
 
Kartii said:
i will bought and 512gb ssd.
My question is, should i sell my old apple ssd? Will i need it at future for update or anythings?
Click to expand...

If you have a 2015 MBP I don't see the point in keeping it since the NVMe support is there already, it's just an expensive piece of hardware that will depreciate in the future. I sold mine on eBay, got about $130 after fees and everything for a 256 GB unit. It dropped the cost of my upgrade to the SX8200 to ~$50.
 
mad cow disease said:
If you have a 2015 MBP I don't see the point in keeping it since the NVMe support is there already, it's just an expensive piece of hardware that will depreciate in the future. I sold mine on eBay, got about $130 after fees and everything for a 256 GB unit. It dropped the cost of my upgrade to the SX8200 to ~$50.
Click to expand...
One reason for keeping the drive would be to install bootrom updates that are sometimes included with os upgrades.
 
darkevil said:
Is there any chance you can post a detail upside and downside picture of the latest short adapter? Since sintech has responded to everyone asking on amazon that they are both the same function. Just the long one being more stable meaning the board is physically stable to keep single sided SSDs from flexing or moving. They didn’t mean it was more stable for computer function. My guess is they just took the long adapter and shortened it. I’m planning to order the short one as well to compare. I currently only have 2 long ones on the way express from amazon.
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Sorry, don't like the idea to open my MacBook Air again for taking photos. But I can assure you that the SSD is mounted very stable with this adapter. I have the long Sintech adapter in my MacBook Pro 15" (2015 model) and the short one in the MacBook Air 13" (2017 model). I upgraded the MacBook Pro first, but I didn't like the long adapter. There are many posts in this thread that show how it bends when tightened too much. There are no such issues with the short adapter.

For @Audit13: I use hibernate mode 3, but have shortened the hibernation delay to 600 seconds. This way I lose almost no battery power over night. I have not yet tested normal battery drain, but I decided on the intel 660p for its low idle power consumption and because the 2TB model was on sale for about $260 (incl. tax). In the MacBook Pro I use the intel 760p 2TB which was much more expensive last year when I did the upgrade. I see no big performance difference between the 2 models.
 
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Any another idea, i have macbook pro early 2015. Should i kepp it or sell it?My macbooks ssd is 128 gb samsung. it will be better if i sell it, because i don’t like to give much money for this update.
 
gilles_polysoft said:
Hi Rob JJ,

  • small black adapter (the one you linked to) doesn't have the correct wirings.
So in your case, please buy the rev. B adapter :
http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1143.html
Click to expand...

**** happens , right now I am using a JSER adapter, but I ordered the black version of short sintech.
btw just received the Matt Card, works perfect, now apple logo appears in one second.
have to test pmset values, right now I have restored everything to defaults in EnergySaver panel, but disable power nap. so standby is 1, hibernate mode is 3 , will see how battery drain goes overnight for next days and then try hibernate mode 25
 
Slezi said:
Like @Walee sad it works, I have EX900 installed on ma 2013 air. Works fine, you need that big sinetech adapter, for me and @Walee the small one doesn't worked. (Thanks @Walee for help :) !)
Click to expand...
Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I already ordered the small black Sintech but I'm waiting for it to arrive. If it doesn't work for me, I'll order the large adapter.

There was another person who used the small black adapter in their 2017 Air and it was fine. I will also be using the nvme in a 2017 Air.
 
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I would be very pleased If someone could help me with this ssd concern.
I have got a MacBook Air 11 2014. 4Gb. 128gb (toshiba) for the uiversity (law degree)
The battery is new

I haven seen the Trascend JetDrive 850 250Gb for 167€. After reading the threads I am confused.
Should I upgrade to Transcend 850 in order to get more speed to open apps, run faster and save battery (I saw something like 1.5W in the ssd). I know Hasswell and 15w. However I cannot afford to buy the Mac I would like to buy (macbook 12) and I have got some inner contradictions about butterfly keyboard.

Thanks a million!
A fan of macrumors here, in Spain. Macrumors is the best Mac community so far.
I apology for my English
 
I asked the amazon.ca sintech seller regarding the different wiring in the short black adapter as compared to the long one and they said both adapters are the same now. So I’ll order a short one now and compare lol.
 

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darkevil said:
I asked the amazon.ca sintech seller regarding the different wiring in the short black adapter as compared to the long one and they said both adapters are the same now. So I’ll order a short one now and compare lol.
Click to expand...
Apparently, the short black and short green are different.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...sd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-133#post-27082985
[doublepost=1549990746][/doublepost]
alejandro36 said:
I would be very pleased If someone could help me with this ssd concern.
I have got a MacBook Air 11 2014. 4Gb. 128gb (toshiba) for the uiversity (law degree)
The battery is new

I haven seen the Trascend JetDrive 850 250Gb for 167€. After reading the threads I am confused.
Should I upgrade to Transcend 850 in order to get more speed to open apps, run faster and save battery (I saw something like 1.5W in the ssd). I know Hasswell and 15w. However I cannot afford to buy the Mac I would like to buy (macbook 12) and I have got some inner contradictions about butterfly keyboard.

Thanks a million!
A fan of macrumors here, in Spain. Macrumors is the best Mac community so far.
I apology for my English
Click to expand...
I recommend getting an adapter to use a nvme drive in your air. The total cost should be cheaper.
 
Audit13 said:
Apparently, the short black and short green are different.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...sd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-133#post-27082985
[doublepost=1549990746][/doublepost]
I recommend getting an adapter to use a nvme drive in your air. The total cost should be cheaper.
Click to expand...


Yes but that information is based on previous feedback within this thread. I believe the green one isn’t being manufactured anymore and has now officially been replaced by the short black that I think is just the long version without the extra pcb board materials. If you check the sintech site it shows the “B” version having only 149 units left in stock however the long and short black adapters show around 8000+ units in stock which tells me that those units are obviously the current in production models. If you check both amazon.com and .ca sintech only lists those two version to purchase.
 
darkevil said:
Yes but that information is based on previous feedback within this thread. I believe the green one isn’t being manufactured anymore and has now officially been replaced by the short black that I think is just the long version without the extra pcb board materials. If you check the sintech site it shows the “B” version having only 149 units left in stock however the long and short black adapters show around 8000+ units in stock which tells me that those units are obviously the current in production models. If you check both amazon.com and .ca sintech only lists those two version to purchase.
Click to expand...
I understand your reasoning and I'm not saying you are incorrect.

The person that pointed out the wiring issue is a person with lots of experience and knowledge with respect to the use of different adapters and drives in several different Mac Pros and MacBook Pros.

I have the short green and it's been perfect for me in a few MacBooks. I ordered the short black directly from Sintech because I don't need the screwdrivers.
 
Alright, so today I have finally received a noname adapter that works, and therefore decided to make visual comparison of all three noname adapters present on eBay (Sintech excluded) side by side. The one that works I got here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/254072680721
Key difference can be seen on the back side - there are two additional traces with vias going from pin 8 on the the left side and pin 5 on the right hand side (no idea how these should be numbered correctly).
On the second picture I've drawn what key pins go where. All four are either not connected/grounded/shorted to 3.3V line in the non-working adapters. Essentially AIRNVME-N01 adapter is a copy of green sintech, but with a slightly different design.
Hope that helps.
 

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Audit13 said:
I understand your reasoning and I'm not saying you are incorrect.

The person that pointed out the wiring issue is a person with lots of experience and knowledge with respect to the use of different adapters and drives in several different Mac Pros and MacBook Pros.

I have the short green and it's been perfect for me in a few MacBooks. I ordered the short black directly from Sintech because I don't need the screwdrivers.
Click to expand...

Oh I totally agree that the other person is correct with their info but I’m also guessing he hasn’t ordered a short black one recently. I’m probably going to order a short black one and order the “B” version from sintech direct and see what I get and compare all 3 adapters if I actually end up getting the green one. I could just end up get two black ones with one set of screw drivers
 
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Audit13 said:
If it doesn't work for me, I'll order the large adapter.
Click to expand...

Don't worry just yet - it is possible Sintech changed design/wiring without changing color of PCB they are using. If you have multimeter what you can do is to check continuity between pins I mentioned in my previous message.
 
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Walee said:
Don't worry just yet - it is possible Sintech changed design/wiring without changing color of PCB they are using. If you have multimeter what you can do is to check continuity between pins I mentioned in my previous message.
Click to expand...

That’s exactly what I’m saying and thinking. I’m also going to take a look at my long black boards when they arrive and see if there is any wiring or anything on the rest of the length of pcb board material. If there isn’t I’m sure I could just cut it down to the length I need. But before I do that I’ll wait til I get the other sintech boards in so I can compare all 3.

Check out this attached image I’ve found showing the underside of the long black one next to the green adapter. You can clearly see a line where the main pcb ends. I’d be confident you could just cut off that part and convert a long black adapter to be a short one.
 

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Hi all,

my first post here

been following the thread for a few months.

I'm planning to swap on my 2015 13 rMBP stock apple 512GB ssd with an Adata SX8200 Pro 1TB

just wondering if the ST-NGFF2013-C adapter will fit since the it's double sided? i'm afraid the bottom case will not be able to close fully.

anyone here having the same setup?
 
so far so god
5 hours 30min 1% battery drain


2019-02-12 15:10:25 +0100 Sleep Entering Sleep state due to 'Clamshell Sleep': Using Batt (Charge:29%) 10819 secs
2019-02-12 15:10:43 +0100 PM Client Acks Delays to Sleep notifications: [com.apple.apsd is slow(17949 ms)]
2019-02-12 18:10:44 +0100 Kernel Client Acks Delays to Sleep notifications: [AppleIntelFramebuffer driver is slow(msg: SetState to 1)(406 ms)] [AppleIntelFramebuffer driver is slow(msg: SetState to 1)(417 ms)] [powerd is slow(17953 ms)] [AppleThunderboltNHIType2 driver is slow(msg: WillChangeState to 2)(351 ms)]
2019-02-12 18:10:44 +0100 Sleep Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep': Using Batt (Charge:28%) 9284 secs
2019-02-12 18:10:46 +0100 PM Client Acks Delays to Sleep notifications: [com.apple.apsd is slow(1785 ms)]
2019-02-12 20:45:27 +0100 Kernel Client Acks Delays to Sleep notifications: [RP03 driver is slow(msg: SetState to 1)(1276 ms)]
2019-02-12 20:45:28 +0100 Wake Wake from Standby [CDNVA] due to EC.LidOpen/Lid Open: Using BATT (Charge:28%)
 
fadille said:
Hi all,

my first post here

been following the thread for a few months.

I'm planning to swap on my 2015 13 rMBP stock apple 512GB ssd with an Adata SX8200 Pro 1TB

just wondering if the ST-NGFF2013-C adapter will fit since the it's double sided? i'm afraid the bottom case will not be able to close fully.

anyone here having the same setup?
Click to expand...

I think you’ll be fine. There’s a write up at this site. The guy has the same set up but he noted the long version causing the sx8200 to bow a bit so you’ll have to adjust the tightness of the screw to prevent that. Otherwise you can attempt to cut the board shorter possibly if you are stuck.
 
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I have a question about using a mattcard with a mid 2014 MBPr 13" to fix the hibernation issue. I'd like to use a mattcard to avoid bricking the EFI chip but don't I have to get a "normal" J6100 SPI adapter/converter as well to read out the "original" EFI ROM to modify it before flashing the modified version on the mattcard?
 
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