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

[Earl Urley]

BTW, the Sabrent Rocket and Corsair Force MP510, MyDigital BPX Pro, along with the Silicon Power P34A80 are all based on the same Phison E12 controller chip that provides tremendous speeds, typically 3200K reads and 3000K writes, you can't go wrong with any of these.

The Silicon Power 34A80 is only $165 for 1 TB on Amazon, possibly less elsewhere
[doublepost=1553533339][/doublepost]

1TB code is not working for me on amazon.com

please see corrected post

 

[DJDO]

[doublepost=1553533339][/doublepost]
please see corrected post

Still not working unfortunately. Is it possible that the code is only valid to US?

 

[Earl Urley]

Sorry I just tested it and works for me.. and I'm in US

 

[maenpaa24]

BTW, the Sabrent Rocket and Corsair Force MP510, MyDigital BPX Pro, along with the Silicon Power P34A80 are all based on the same Phison E12 controller chip that provides tremendous speeds, typically 3200K reads and 3000K writes, you can't go wrong with any of these.

The Silicon Power 34A80 is only $165 for 1 TB on Amazon, possibly less elsewhere

Ey do you know if they are all tcg opal compliant? Because the mydigitalssd bpx pro is and as you have just said they share the same chip. Could you confirm?

Thanks.

 

[macgeek01]

Ey do you know if they are all tcg opal compliant? Because the mydigitalssd bpx pro is and as you have just said they share the same chip. Could you confirm?

Thanks.

Even when Opal compliant it seems people have trouble actually enabling it on NVME drives. Do you know if anyone that has been successful? Of course Opal is to be used with Windows PC’s with TPM chips.

 

[maenpaa24]

Even when Opal compliant it seems people have trouble actually enabling it on NVME drives. Do you know if anyone that has been successful? Of course Opal is to be used with Windows PC’s with TPM chips.

I don't know about anyone that has succeeded on that. However, I think that if they are opal compliant there should not be any problem, should there?. Can you post the link to where people found problems enabling it?

 

[Earl Urley]

Ey do you know if they are all tcg opal compliant? Because the mydigitalssd bpx pro is and as you have just said they share the same chip. Could you confirm?

Thanks.

Sorry pal, this is as far as I will go:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13338/phison-ps5012e12-controller-in-mass-production

Search for your keywords in that article.

All I care is that it seems to be working with FileVault ok.

 

[stantheman2013]

Hey guys:

Does anyone know of an NVMe adapter that will allow the bottom cover of a Macbook Pro to close fully?

 

[tigerintank]

Hi everyone,

First : I've updated the first post of this thread with a sort of mix of important informations. Hope this will help.

​

Hey Gilles firstly thanks vm for your efforts - I've not yet bought my NVME drive as I was holding off due to the W10 issues I'd seen mentioned. I've shortlisted the ADATA 8200 and 8200 Pro and of course will now move the Sabrent Rocket up there too.

A quick check re this line from the newly edited first post -
------------
The recommended models are will depends on your need, but the SX8200 Pro and Sabrent Rocket clearly tops nearly all the charts...
--------------
I think that's new text, though not sure if it's your edit, but I don't think its correct to say the sx8200 Pro tops the charts - I think your testing was the non pro version?

Both are available on Amazon UK, but the non pro is 3rd party only - so I suspect at some point that it'll become tougher to source.

 

[turbineseaplane]

BTW, the Sabrent Rocket and Corsair Force MP510, MyDigital BPX Pro, along with the Silicon Power P34A80 are all based on the same Phison E12 controller chip that provides tremendous speeds, typically 3200K reads and 3000K writes, you can't go wrong with any of these.

The Silicon Power 34A80 is only $165 for 1 TB on Amazon, possibly less elsewhere
[doublepost=1553533339][/doublepost]
please see corrected post

Speaking of this...
GREAT deal right now from Corsair direct on the MP510

1920GB: $320
960GB: $150
480GB: $80
240GB: $50

All free shipping & no taxes (as far as I can tell)

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...2-SSDs/Force-Series-MP510/p/CSSD-F1920GBMP510


I just bought two 2TB models for my Hack (one for Windows, one for High Sierra)

 

[Skypalace]

Has anyone successfully installed one of the 1920GB or 2TB parts? Any additional heat vs 1TB? Any other issues or concerns?

Will be Mojave on late 2013 MacBook Pro 15.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Has anyone successfully installed one of the 1920GB or 2TB parts? Any additional heat vs 1TB? Any other issues or concerns?

Will be Mojave on late 2013 MacBook Pro 15.

HP EX950 is very good, cool and fast..

That said, in a 2013 Mac model, I think the speed of the top top end NVMe drives is wasted (not attainable).

 

[macgeek01]

Hi everyone,

First : I've updated the first post of this thread with a sort of mix of important informations. Hope this will help.

Secondly, thanks to the advice of user macgeek01, I've bought, tested and added to my comparison tables a Sabrent Rocket 512 GB SSD.
And this baby is very impressive : cheap, fast, and very low power consumption. I highly recommend it, as much as the SX8200.

It is 4K sectors native so it also runs from Sierra (with an updated BootRom of course)​

Do you have temperature measurements?
Is this ever an issue? Thanks again.


​

[doublepost=1553568586][/doublepost]

Hey guys:

Does anyone know of an NVMe adapter that will allow the bottom cover of a Macbook Pro to close fully?

I’ve heard some people mention this. Not sure if the issue is the adapter the physical size of some of the SSDs.

 

[jackqueenking]

MacOS 10.14.4 came out, any Bootrom updates?

 

[Jilly Bowman]

MacOS 10.14.4 came out, any Bootrom updates?

not on the 2015 MBP still 182.0.0.0.0

 

[Cmd+Q]

MacOS 10.14.4 came out, any Bootrom updates?

Yes, for my MBP111, I can see the included version is F000/revision 151 in macOS 10.14.4. Unfortunately, the EFI driver for NVMe drives has not been updated from 0146.

 

[stassk8]

mbp 2014 update boot room 151.0.0.0.0

 

[BTopbas]

I have Macbook Air Mid 2013 with Stock Apple SSD
My boot room version:
Before Update(MacOS Mojave 10.14.3) -> 110.0.0.0.0
After Update(MacOS Mojave 10.14.4) -> 112.0.0.0.0

But i don't know this is effect to nvme driver.

 

[owbp]

Updated ROM on 15" 2015 MBP with Apple SSD - have yet to decide what to put in it.



It would be great if all of you could write in the post what SSD do you have, what Mac and if you got the Boot ROM update. Just for easier reference and to see if there is any particular combination of Mac and ssd that allows for future updates.

 

[liberace]

i measure my mbp13 2014 with stock 128gb apple ssd and sx8200pro 256gb that i bought 1 week ago
with sx8200 pro i have 4 hours from battery (~250 cycles) all this time was playing youtube and about 40 min on background i was writing a usb stick for bootcamp + installing some apps
by the same way with stock apple drive still on 20% after 5 hours, btw very noticeable difference..
so i especially me i am not satisfied with this upgrade coz its bring me a trouble with hibernation, as well if i leave it for a half day its gonna cost me about 15% less battery then if you decide just to switch off you mbp and after switch on you gonna get bored as well, coz of very long time to boot from nvme drive (if you have apfs filesystem type like me and most of the users) and really maybe because of higher speeds of ssd my CPU always a bit hotter (65-80) and during this discharge circle 4-5 times was runing a fans (after 90 degrees) and just 1 one time during the same circle on apple ssd
and all this time it was just a videos, browsing, a bit of file transfering in 1-3 lines about 40 min totally
if you trying to do more read/write process on sx8200pro you gonna run yours fans all this time, so battery will die faster
all this could become to a small problem if you could have a typical mac sleep with hibernation and/or could install lower version of macOS
so nvme its very good for 2015 year model, but for 2013-2014 better to buy apple ssd for this extra 60$ that you gonna spend for some complicated matt cards or programmers and this stuff
p.s.
sx8200pro
speed - very fast, noticeable difference (1000 write/1500+ read)
battery drain - a bit bigger, noticeable if you gonna decide to put your mbp to sleep and after continue your usage (4 hours total in my daily usage)
temperature - especially SSD was always cold 34-38, maximum 42 degrees, but CPU was always more that 75-80 degress and this was switching on fans
apple stock ssd
speed - really a lot slower (300 write/600 read)
battery drain - good (5 and a half+ hours) but every time you need from this 5 hours you put you mac in a proper sleep and after continue without battery drain during mac was sleeping
temperature (all time lower 60 degrees CPU, ssd 39-48)

 

[gilles_polysoft]

i measure my mbp13 2014 with stock 128gb apple ssd and sx8200pro 256gb that i bought 1 week ago
with sx8200 pro i have 4 hours from battery (~250 cycles) all this time was playing youtube and about 40 min on background i was writing a usb stick for bootcamp + installing some apps
by the same way with stock apple drive still on 20% after 5 hours, btw very noticeable difference.

Sorry but you seem to maybe miss some points :

• a fresh install on any new SSD consumes more lot power because of spotlight indexing, caches rebuilding, etc. This is normal and this is EXPECTED. If you want to compare battery life (eg. power consumption) between two SSD you need to compare the EXACT same OS version with the EXACT same softwares and launchagents / launchdaemons
• a faster SSD doesn't at all makes a CPU run hotter, this is the opposite. A faster SSD takes less time to handle file copy so when you make a file copy, your CPU can return to idle state in much less time. If you don't believe me you can still boot on a 5400/min hdd on a USB 2.0 bus to see if you will have more battery life...

If you install a new NVMe SSD, you can make an exact clone of your previous system on AHCI, let the full spotlight indexing be made, and only then you can compare battery life.
If you don't clone your previous system and make a clean install, you need to let the system stabilize to make comparisons.

You can also check for your "Activity monitor" in the Utility folder (be sure to show "all operations" not only yours) to check your CPU usage. It should be "inactive" at more than 95% when you do nothing. If not, check for software that use CPU by sorting by CPU usage.

Also be sure to use sintech adapters which are the only one to have the "devsleep" and other signals properly wired.

I got ~5 to 6 hours of battery life on a rMBP 2013" with the Bootrom patch applied and a SX8200.
I got nearly ~7 hours on the same computer with TurboBoost Switcher and a Mydigital SBX (my battery has 460cyles and only 83% of FCC)

PS : on a 2013 boot time on NVMe is not at all slower than with AHCI with proper sintech adapter and boot disk properly selected in the "startup" control panel.

 

[DanteXXL]

Apologies if this question was asked before, I've tried searching but no luck.

Can you update MacOS with the new SSD or should I put the Apple one back in to do the update?

Thanks.

 

[Audit13]

Apologies if this question was asked before, I've tried searching but no luck.

Can you update MacOS with the new SSD or should I put the Apple one back in to do the update?

Thanks.

You can update the os but the bootrom may not update without the original Apple SSD.

Early 2015 13" MacBook Air 7,2:

Bootrom with 10.14.3: 182.0.0.0.0
Bootrom with 10.14.4: 184.0.0.0.0

The good part is that the bootrom was updated by installing the 10.14.4 update over 10.14.3 with my green Sintech adapter and Intel 600p inside the MacBook.

Late 2013 MacBook Pro 13" (with original Apple SSD, I don't have a nvme drive inside this MacBook):

Bootrom with 10.14.3: 149.0.0.0.0
Bootrom with 10.14.4: 151.0.0.0.0

2017 13" MacBook Air 7,2:

Bootrom with 10.14.3: 182.0.0.0.0
Bootrom with 10.14.4: 184.0.0.0.0

The good part is that the bootrom was updated by installing the 10.14.4 update over 10.14.3 with my small black Sintech adapter and HP ex900 inside the MacBook.

 

[liberace]

Sorry but you seem to maybe miss some points :

• a fresh install on any new SSD consumes more lot power because of spotlight indexing, caches rebuilding, etc. This is normal and this is EXPECTED. If you want to compare battery life (eg. power consumption) between two SSD you need to compare the EXACT same OS version with the EXACT same softwares and launchagents / launchdaemons
• a faster SSD doesn't at all makes a CPU run hotter, this is the opposite. A faster SSD takes less time to handle file copy so when you make a file copy, your CPU can return to idle state in much less time. If you don't believe me you can still boot on a 5400/min hdd on a USB 2.0 bus to see if you will have more battery life...

If you install a new NVMe SSD, you can make an exact clone of your previous system on AHCI, let the full spotlight indexing be made, and only then you can compare battery life.
If you don't clone your previous system and make a clean install, you need to let the system stabilize to make comparisons.

You can also check for your "Activity monitor" in the Utility folder (be sure to show "all operations" not only yours) to check your CPU usage. It should be "inactive" at more than 95% when you do nothing. If not, check for software that use CPU by sorting by CPU usage.

Also be sure to use sintech adapters which are the only one to have the "devsleep" and other signals properly wired.

I got ~5 to 6 hours of battery life on a rMBP 2013" with the Bootrom patch applied and a SX8200.
I got nearly ~7 hours on the same computer with TurboBoost Switcher and a Mydigital SBX (my battery has 460cyles and only 83% of FCC)

PS : on a 2013 boot time on NVMe is not at all slower than with AHCI with proper sintech adapter and boot disk properly selected in the "startup" control panel.

so my CPU even must be more cold after replacing ahci ssd by nvme? and all my troubles on top coz of wrong adapter (i have exactly one that is NOT recommended) and if i replace it i gonna get rid of this?
before i mean that if ssd drive thru adapter is recognized by OS and giving the right speed everything is good?! can you give me some information around this things with adapter
and i was running this tests 4 days after installing OSX on nvme ssd, and CPU wasnt all the time hot (that means something running in background like indexing of spotlight etc), just everytime i do something (open new tab or put video fullscreen or making 2 file transfers in the same time) straight away it goes after 75-80 every idle time after a while it drops on 45-50
p.s. as well is it difficult to bring some stats to your picture with usefull info about ssd's i mean to measure idle, read, write drain of sx8200pro? could you give me that tool etc?
because its interesting is a 8200 or 8200pro more battery friendly or not, i could provide some feedback if you can share a way how you measure
as well could sx8200pro be formatted in 4k sector size?

 

[macgeek01]

Some people have noted the bottom case not seating properly after install. Does this only affect certain Macs or is it from the size some of the SSDs? Maybe a combination of both?