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I have been testing so many different NVMe drives in MacBook Air and Pro since OS X 10.13. I think I found the perfect drive now. Adata SX 8200 Pro . I have been configuring pmset, different adapters and sometimes this has been a real puzzle. I installed this drive a couple of weeks ago in a 2014 MacBook Pro. I get 5GT/s and X4 lanes. Hitting R/W speeds of 2300/1900 MB/s. I guess I would get even better speeds in a MBP 2015. (on my ThinkPad I got 2900 MB/s!) This time I did not touch pmset settings! I have had no problems with sleep and the performance is amazing. The SX8200 Pro is even cheaper than the non-Pro model but not as cheap as Samsung 970 EVO but I concluded that the MBP anyway does not utilize the 970s speed. The Adata inlcudes a simple heat sink. The Adata SX8200 runs much cooler than the 970 and on the spec sheet should use about half as much power. So I am impressed. I use the small green Sintech adapter. Tried the long black one but can't tell any difference.

Wow, I though that all pre 2015 models have standby/hibernate issues with NVME unless flashing with modified firmware that contains the DXE driver.
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On a side note, I'd like to know why NVMEs consume more battery power than stock OEM drives on 2013-2014 MBP, I looked at gilles_polysoft's chart and it seems like drives like sx8200 and 760p are far more efficient than the apple OEM drives with the exception of a 0.3W increase in idle power consumption, so if you get something that uses even less power on read/write/average like the Sabrent, then shouldn't we be getting better battery usage than with the OEM SSD? Or are the Apple SSDs in the chart not representative of what is in the 2013 and 2014 models?

I was wondering the same thing so they are definitely getting less battery life then OEM drives?
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I have an MF843LL, early 2015 13" Macbook Pro with stock Apple 512GB SSD. This SSD is very fast, reading & writing at 1500MByte/s according to benchmarks. Now I upgraded to a Samsung PM961 1TB NVME using the sintech adapter. To my dismay the read speed has not improved and the write speed is worse @ 1200MByte/s. In this thread there is mention of 4k sectors, will the performance improve using 4k sectors instead of 512 byte? I checked the performance both in Mac OS latest version and Bootcamp W10 x64 using the latest Samsung NVME driver. I understand this notebook has PCI Express 2.0 with 4 lanes so I am not expecting it to perform like the newer Macbook Pros with PCI Express 3.0 4x, but this was a bit of a surprise. Any hints?

Based on other reports and Gilles benchmarks it seems that 3rd party MVME drives run around that speed on PCIe 2x4 Macs. Don’t believe any Samsung drives can be formatted 4kn and don’t think it would make a difference.
[doublepost=1554149930][/doublepost]The benchmarks for PCIe 2x4 NVME don’t look much different than benchmarks runs on PC’s. Seems strange that your Apple OEM AHCI would put perform however.
 
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I'm going to reinstall the stock ACHI SSD and benchmark that tonight. Do you guys think I should RMA/return the Sabrent? Bootup times are significantly longer than the stock SSD and the white progress bar seems to hang before booting up. PCI 2.0 x 4 has a theoretical limit of 2000MB/s. Even with the 20% overhead loss, I should be reading at ~1600.
 
Looks like you are correct and I don’t believe system info would report x4 if it wasn’t negotiating at that speed.

Gilles has Sabrent benchmarks on his chart from his his MacBook Pro which is also PCIe 2x4. He benchmarked 100GB read at 1250 and write at 1550.

He tested a 512gb which should be slightly faster than yours. You could try testing again and make sure the drive isn’t indexing which would slow it down. Also test with 100GB. I believe the Black Magic tests defaults to a average of sizes.
[doublepost=1554057538][/doublepost]

You are correct PCIe 2 x 4 is basically the same speed as PCIe 3 x 2 but since that drive has two lanes then it will only work with two lanes. Using with PCIe 2 x2 will be slower than PCIe 3 x2.

@macgeek01 Thank you so much for clarifying this very basic yet crucial piece of information. So then it doesn't make any sense to use the Kingston A1000 (PCIe 3.0 x2) despite the cost savings because it will halve my potential speeds. I'm curious what NVMe drives you're using? I'm thinking of investing in a 2TB Samsung 970 Evo. Thank you!
 
I have been testing so many different NVMe drives in MacBook Air and Pro since OS X 10.13. I think I found the perfect drive now. Adata SX 8200 Pro . I have been configuring pmset, different adapters and sometimes this has been a real puzzle. I installed this drive a couple of weeks ago in a 2014 MacBook Pro. I get 5GT/s and X4 lanes. Hitting R/W speeds of 2300/1900 MB/s. I guess I would get even better speeds in a MBP 2015. (on my ThinkPad I got 2900 MB/s!) This time I did not touch pmset settings! I have had no problems with sleep and the performance is amazing. The SX8200 Pro is even cheaper than the non-Pro model but not as cheap as Samsung 970 EVO but I concluded that the MBP anyway does not utilize the 970s speed. The Adata inlcudes a simple heat sink. The Adata SX8200 runs much cooler than the 970 and on the spec sheet should use about half as much power. So I am impressed. I use the small green Sintech adapter. Tried the long black one but can't tell any difference.

That's awesome. I believe my 2014 Macbook Air has the same PCIe specs as your 2014 Pro. Maybe I should try the Adata.
 
Hello,
I meet some problems, briefly I bricked my macbook…
The Ch341A programmer detect my chip as “MX25L6405D”, which should be “MX25L6406E”, so i can't flash back to the backup rom.
This situation maybe caused by reading and writing the chip too many times as yhe wrong model“MX25L6405D”, which I considered about in the beginning. Now I know but the chip can't recognize itself.
I backup my rom with the wrong model, I know that. But someone give me the universal rom for the mainboard 820-3476-A, which I am trying to flash back.
Can someone give a help, thanks!

danis
03EA399C-199E-4A3E-A7A1-24CC6839CA95.jpeg 949290B5-0B83-48C2-BCA4-CA865912AD98.jpeg
 
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i have a hard time getting time machine backups getting finished via time capsule since updating the boot room on a 2014 MBP to 10.14.4.

anyone else? what could it be?
 
I believe at this point we're reach a point of diminishing returns after you get something better than the samsung 970.

First I bought an sx8200 non-pro which fried after 35 days, I got a replacement but switched it up for an Intel 760p, I didn't really notice a difference in power consumption between the two drives and the endurance is pretty much the same since we are not in QLC territory. I believe the pro model just performs better, I don't think it comes with a lower power rating than any other drive in this range. I don't know why but I feel like Intel has the more reliable drive even though it is one of them that can't achieve full write speed on mac because of some cache issue, it seems to be more steady and fits in the case without contact since its single sided. My ADATA drive created a slight bump with the long black sintech adapter.

I don't think the drive will wear out faster, its probably just a bug in the software, check if there are other SSD health monitors out there that can determine your TBW to date and compare.

On a side note, I'd like to know why NVMEs consume more battery power than stock OEM drives on 2013-2014 MBP, I looked at gilles_polysoft's chart and it seems like drives like sx8200 and 760p are far more efficient than the apple OEM drives with the exception of a 0.3W increase in idle power consumption, so if you get something that uses even less power on read/write/average like the Sabrent, then shouldn't we be getting better battery usage than with the OEM SSD? Or are the Apple SSDs in the chart not representative of what is in the 2013 and 2014 models?
I got some cheap (at the time) Intel 600p 512GB drives that I installed in MacBook Pro and Air. They had some sleep issues that seem to be gone with the latest OS X Mojave. At least those MacBooks I installed them on have no issues anymore. Then I heard good things about the Intel 760p. But I got terrible performance on MacBook and Air so I sent them back. The Adata SX8200 is my best experience until now. I love the Samsung Evo 970 but it runs too hot for a MacBook (and any PC laptop).

Btw. I see no reason to use the black Sintech adapter since I have no issues at all with the green small adapter.
 
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Hi,
somebody tried the new Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB with the 2015 MB Air? Is it working with 10.14.4? Is it true, that Mojave 10.14.4 now changes the Bootrom and EFI with external NVme SSD's?
 
Hi,
somebody tried the new Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB with the 2015 MB Air? Is it working with 10.14.4? Is it true, that Mojave 10.14.4 now changes the Bootrom and EFI with external NVme SSD's?
There are many experiences reported in this thread, and they are not good. Use the search function.
 
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I have a Late 2013 MBP with a Samsung 970 EVO 500GB - NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD (MZ-V7E500BW) running MacOS 10.14.1. I used the Sintech adapter for the install. Never a problem with sleeping or hibernating. Boots up fine and it is great to have that faster drive with double the storage. Installation was a bit of a trick, used a thumb drive with Mojave install to boot and install the OS and restored data via Time Capsule from my AirPort. Restore was seamless.

My issue is this. Apparently my MBP will not update any longer because it is not formatted as a APFS drive. MacOS is at 10.14.4 and when I attempt to install, I get the APFS message and the install stops.

Do I have recourse? What can I do?
 
I am curious there is some other ways maybe to jump thru hibernation error for owners of 2013-2014 mbp's or no?!
or only a way with programmer+specific cable?
how to do it if you don't have a 2 mbps as I understand you need to have yours mbp with hibernation trouble and another mbp near to it to dump needed files? is it possible to have for example mbp with hibernation trouble and other windows laptop for example?
 
I got some cheap (at the time) Intel 600p 512GB drives that I installed in MacBook Pro and Air. They had some sleep issues that seem to be gone with the latest OS X Mojave. At least those MacBooks I installed them on have no issues anymore. Then I heard good things about the Intel 760p. But I got terrible performance on MacBook and Air so I sent them back. The Adata SX8200 is my best experience until now. I love the Samsung Evo 970 but it runs too hot for a MacBook (and any PC laptop).

Btw. I see no reason to use the black Sintech adapter since I have no issues at all with the green small adapter.

Hi, @majonex. I hope that after we updated our bootrom by installing the latest macos Mojave 10.14.4, we do not need to flash modified bootrom for 3rd parties nvme hdd hibernate support. Anyone with the new version of Mojave please confirm for MBP 2013 - 2014.
 
I'm looking to upgrade my Mid 2014 MBP to a 1TB M2 SSD. Is Adata's XS8200 pro the best choice for my case? Is there a significant battery consumption difference between Sabrent and Adata XS8200 pro?
 
Hi, @majonex. I hope that after we updated our bootrom by installing the latest macos Mojave 10.14.4, we do not need to flash modified bootrom for 3rd parties nvme hdd hibernate support. Anyone with the new version of Mojave please confirm for MBP 2013 - 2014.
I am on latest Mojave 10.14.4 with this 2014 MBP 13". Maybe that is why everything works so well(?) What is the boot rom version number so I can check? I don't have the machine here.
[doublepost=1554219874][/doublepost]
I have a Late 2013 MBP with a Samsung 970 EVO 500GB - NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD (MZ-V7E500BW) running MacOS 10.14.1. I used the Sintech adapter for the install. Never a problem with sleeping or hibernating. Boots up fine and it is great to have that faster drive with double the storage. Installation was a bit of a trick, used a thumb drive with Mojave install to boot and install the OS and restored data via Time Capsule from my AirPort. Restore was seamless.

My issue is this. Apparently my MBP will not update any longer because it is not formatted as a APFS drive. MacOS is at 10.14.4 and when I attempt to install, I get the APFS message and the install stops.

Do I have recourse? What can I do?
Why don't you convert the drive to APFS? Can't see any drawbacks with that. Restart your Mac and press-hold Command + R to boot into recovery mode. Then, go to Disk Utility << click Edit << click Convert to APFS.
 
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Hi, @majonex. I hope that after we updated our bootrom by installing the latest macos Mojave 10.14.4, we do not need to flash modified bootrom for 3rd parties nvme hdd hibernate support. Anyone with the new version of Mojave please confirm for MBP 2013 - 2014.

I can can confirm: still crashes. Latest Mojave installed from scratch, MBP 15" late 2013. Crucial P1
 
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I'm looking to upgrade my Mid 2014 MBP to a 1TB M2 SSD. Is Adata's XS8200 pro the best choice for my case? Is there a significant battery consumption difference between Sabrent and Adata XS8200 pro?
I have no experience with the Sabrent but according to @gilles_polysoft chart the 760p and Adata SX8200 use less power. Since I got terrible performance with the 760p (maybe my mistake but then i have installed and tested for a year) I would go for the SX8200 PRO. "PRO" should be better right? I can't say I notice any difference in battery time compared to the stock Apple drive.
 
I have no experience with the Sabrent but according to @gilles_polysoft chart the 760p and Adata SX8200 use less power. Since I got terrible performance with the 760p (maybe my mistake but then i have installed and tested for a year) I would go for the SX8200 PRO. "PRO" should be better right? I can't say I notice any difference in battery time compared to the stock Apple drive.
You're right about the Intel 760p but if you look at the charts, each drive has their pros and cons. There are a few drives in that list that are rated for 1500mb/s + write speed but it has something to do with the drive itself. My 760p write speeds are consistent with the charts from gilles_polysoft but its still faster than the 2014 OEM SSD. Sabrent has its pros and cons as well, it has extremely low power usage but look at the write speeds, you're sacrificing 500 MB/s.

The sx8200 pro is definitely better but can't speak about power usage. Have you changed any of your pmset settings? Are you saying that with hibernate mode 25 it works and you don't have wakeup problems even without a modded bootrom? My 2014 MBP has a bootrom of 149 but the latest version of mojave updates it to 151, maybe you can check?

If you set standby=0 and hibernatemode = 25 and then write pmset sleepnow, when you wake up the Mac does it restore your session successfully?
[doublepost=1554225457][/doublepost]
I got some cheap (at the time) Intel 600p 512GB drives that I installed in MacBook Pro and Air. They had some sleep issues that seem to be gone with the latest OS X Mojave. At least those MacBooks I installed them on have no issues anymore. Then I heard good things about the Intel 760p. But I got terrible performance on MacBook and Air so I sent them back. The Adata SX8200 is my best experience until now. I love the Samsung Evo 970 but it runs too hot for a MacBook (and any PC laptop).

Btw. I see no reason to use the black Sintech adapter since I have no issues at all with the green small adapter.
Lol this intel 600p was such a bad drive, it had the worst power consumption for its performance. I have good performance with my 760p, 1650/600 read/write, its so much better than the 600p. I think for performance the sx8200 pro or 760p seems to be a good choice, and the intel 660p/sabrent seem to be the more power efficient ones if you're willing to get into QLC territory or sacrifice some speed.
[doublepost=1554226080][/doublepost]
I was wondering the same thing so they are definitely getting less battery life then OEM drives?
Well I don't even know anymore. In the charts the Apple SSDs specify that they are PCIe based with 1000mb/s + read write speeds which is definitely not the case with my 2014 128gb OEM MBP SSD, I was getting like 600mb/s read and 250 mb/s write depending on how full the drive was. The power ratings for this drive aren't specified in the charts, but when you compare lets say HP 920, 760p, sx8200, and Sabrent to the Apple SSDs in the charts, only the idle power consumption is higher with the NVME drive, the read/write/avg consumptions are all on par, or lower, somewhere within 0.2 watts of each other. In fact sometimes the read or write power could be significantly lower than the Apple SSD yet people are reporting a decrease in battery life. Could it be that MacBooks that came with the Apple SSDs listed in the chart will actually get better battery life with a more efficient aftermarket drive since they are already optimized for these types of drives? If this is true for the 2014 MBP then I have no idea why one would like 1-1.5 hours of battery life by switching to a sabrent, sx8200, or 760p.
 
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@macgeek01 Thank you so much for clarifying this very basic yet crucial piece of information. So then it doesn't make any sense to use the Kingston A1000 (PCIe 3.0 x2) despite the cost savings because it will halve my potential speeds. I'm curious what NVMe drives you're using? I'm thinking of investing in a 2TB Samsung 970 Evo. Thank you!

I have the Sabrent which is PCIe 3 x4 NVME which is very fast and get 2600MBps read and writes with my Late 2015 27” iMac which is also PCIe 3 x4.

The same Sabrent drive in my 15” Late 2013” MacBook Pro which is PCIe 2 x4 gets 1300MBps reads and 700MBps writes. The stock OEM (SSUAX) is PCIe 2 x2 AHCI gets 700MBps read and writes. An Apple OEM PCIe 3 x4 (SSUBX) gets 1250MBps reads and 1400MBps writes so it outperforms the Sabrent.

This sounds similar to some others experience with 3rd party NVME in PCIe 2 x4 Macs. You may be better of with a used Apple SSUBX from eBay for better speed and not worry about sleep issues and battery unless. Their prices on eBay seem to be lower than in the past.

I got some cheap (at the time) Intel 600p 512GB drives that I installed in MacBook Pro and Air. They had some sleep issues that seem to be gone with the latest OS X Mojave. At least those MacBooks I installed them on have no issues anymore. Then I heard good things about the Intel 760p. But I got terrible performance on MacBook and Air so I sent them back. The Adata SX8200 is my best experience until now. I love the Samsung Evo 970 but it runs too hot for a MacBook (and any PC laptop).

Btw. I see no reason to use the black Sintech adapter since I have no issues at all with the green small adapter.

I have a Late 2013 MBP with a Samsung 970 EVO 500GB - NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD (MZ-V7E500BW) running MacOS 10.14.1. I used the Sintech adapter for the install. Never a problem with sleeping or hibernating. Boots up fine and it is great to have that faster drive with double the storage. Installation was a bit of a trick, used a thumb drive with Mojave install to boot and install the OS and restored data via Time Capsule from my AirPort. Restore was seamless.

My issue is this. Apparently my MBP will not update any longer because it is not formatted as a APFS drive. MacOS is at 10.14.4 and when I attempt to install, I get the APFS message and the install stops.

Do I have recourse? What can I do?

Wonder how both of you manage to have no issues without modified firmware?

You're right about the Intel 760p but if you look at the charts, each drive has their pros and cons. There are a few drives in that list that are rated for 1500mb/s + write speed but it has something to do with the drive itself. My 760p write speeds are consistent with the charts from gilles_polysoft but its still faster than the 2014 OEM SSD. Sabrent has its pros and cons as well, it has extremely low power usage but look at the write speeds, you're sacrificing 500 MB/s.

The sx8200 pro is definitely better but can't speak about power usage. Have you changed any of your pmset settings? Are you saying that with hibernate mode 25 it works and you don't have wakeup problems even without a modded bootrom? My 2014 MBP has a bootrom of 149 but the latest version of mojave updates it to 151, maybe you can check?

If you set standby=0 and hibernatemode = 25 and then write pmset sleepnow, when you wake up the Mac does it restore your session successfully?
[doublepost=1554225457][/doublepost]
Lol this intel 600p was such a bad drive, it had the worst power consumption for its performance. I have good performance with my 760p, 1650/600 read/write, its so much better than the 600p. I think for performance the sx8200 pro or 760p seems to be a good choice, and the intel 660p/sabrent seem to be the more power efficient ones if you're willing to get into QLC territory or sacrifice some speed.
[doublepost=1554226080][/doublepost]
Well I don't even know anymore. In the charts the Apple SSDs specify that they are PCIe based with 1000mb/s + read write speeds which is definitely not the case with my 2014 128gb OEM MBP SSD, I was getting like 600mb/s read and 250 mb/s write depending on how full the drive was. The power ratings for this drive aren't specified in the charts, but when you compare lets say HP 920, 760p, sx8200, and Sabrent to the Apple SSDs in the charts, only the idle power consumption is higher with the NVME drive, the read/write/avg consumptions are all on par, or lower, somewhere within 0.2 watts of each other. In fact sometimes the read or write power could be significantly lower than the Apple SSD yet people are reporting a decrease in battery life. Could it be that MacBooks that came with the Apple SSDs listed in the chart will actually get better battery life with a more efficient aftermarket drive since they are already optimized for these types of drives? If this is true for the 2014 MBP then I have no idea why one would like 1-1.5 hours of battery life by switching to a sabrent, sx8200, or 760p.

You bring up a good point about idle power.
 
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Macbook Pro Retina 15 Late 2013(MacBookPro11,2) with Intel 660p 1tb, Running Mojave 10.14.4 & BootROM Version 151.0.0.0.0. Was able to patch the UEFI successfully using MacBookPro11,4 file with CH341A Mini Programmer and SPI to J6100 adapter and hibernation is working as expected =] (no kernel panic)

Just want to say thank you for all the information in this amazing thread!! Thanks again.
 
Macbook Pro Retina 15 Late 2013(MacBookPro11,2) with Intel 660p 1tb, Running Mojave 10.14.4 & BootROM Version 151.0.0.0.0. Was able to patch the UEFI successfully using MacBookPro11,4 file with CH341A Mini Programmer and SPI to J6100 adapter and hibernation is working as expected =] (no kernel panic)

Just want to say thank you for all the information in this amazing thread!! Thanks again.

What instructions did you follow? Thanks.
 
I have a Late 2013 MBP with a Samsung 970 EVO 500GB - NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD (MZ-V7E500BW) running MacOS 10.14.1. I used the Sintech adapter for the install. Never a problem with sleeping or hibernating. Boots up fine and it is great to have that faster drive with double the storage. Installation was a bit of a trick, used a thumb drive with Mojave install to boot and install the OS and restored data via Time Capsule from my AirPort. Restore was seamless.

My issue is this. Apparently my MBP will not update any longer because it is not formatted as a APFS drive. MacOS is at 10.14.4 and when I attempt to install, I get the APFS message and the install stops.

Do I have recourse? What can I do?
Is hibernatemode set to 25?
 
Wonder how both of you manage to have no issues without modified firmware?

Just that the way they use their Macbook never triggers the hibernate function (copy ram contents to ssd and complete poweroff). With stock parameters it will occur if they never leave their mac with the lid closed for too long, and/or the battery never goes too low (eg. they leave their mac plugged in most of the time and use it every day).

This way they effectively never trigger hibernate, if they do however, the mac will not wake. The problem for pre-2015 macbooks is not gone, latest bootrom update apparently brings no fix for that.
 
Just that the way they use their Macbook never triggers the hibernate function (copy ram contents to ssd and complete poweroff). With stock parameters it will occur if they never leave their mac with the lid closed for too long, and/or the battery never goes too low (eg. they leave their mac plugged in most of the time and use it every day).

This way they effectively never trigger hibernate, if they do however, the mac will not wake. The problem for pre-2015 macbooks is not gone, latest bootrom update apparently brings no fix for that.

I was thinking they were saying not issues without changing any settings. I have problems with even with standby vs hibernate.
 
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