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

[Earl Urley]

macOS X 10.13.1 is out, doesn't look like it's updated the BootROM firmware (it's still MBP121.0171.B00) or SMC, will install on my 13-inch rMBP with 960 EVO and let you know.

Nah, it didn't do anything to BootROM or SMC on Late 2013 13-inch rMBP.

Noted on ghifar's post that he literally didn't need to do any mods other than the adapter itself.

I suspect that this is because the SM951 NVMe is probably electrically similar to the OEM Apple SSD, even down to the firmware; they seem a wee bit more pricey than the 960 EVO / PROs but it might actually be worth it to get one and test it.

Also, since Samsung manufactures many of Apple's OEM SSD's, I'd bet good money the SM951 NVMe might be the best replacement in terms of performance/dependability ratio..

 

[Transfusion]

I would like to report that the nightly builds of smartmontools support NVMe drives already: http://builds.smartmontools.org

 

[Audit13]

MBPr early 2015 13" 2.7/8GB
Kingston KC1000 480GB and Sintech adapter

It might be purely subjective since I've only seen the huge red battery logo maybe twice in the last two years, and since upgrading to HS already had it fully drained several times. But it may just be High Sierra's fault, many people reported higher temps and I see it too e.g. watching HTML5 video(CPU goes to 85*C sometimes), that would mean worse power saving.
Right now with only Wi-Fi, Safari, screen at low brightness I'm getting 1:06h left at 15% from Activity Monitor, that would mean 7 hours on full charge which is quite bad considering it lasted about 10 when new. I don't think the battery's dying also since it only has 200 cycles.

Thanks for the information.

I was going to get a 960 EVO but have a chance to get a used 256 GB sm951. I'll try for sm951 with the 960 EVO as my second choice.

 

[MacIsHard]

Hey guys
Im having problems with my 2014 pro 15", with the ChenYang Adapter and the evo 960 (+ lates br)
It simple won't recognise that it has been inserted in the Mac. It does not show up with the "diskutil List" command, nor even as an external drive when I tried that with another adaptor.

Any ideas what to do next? It is very frustrating that it won't read the SSD

 

[Audit13]

This may help with the 960 EVO: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-14#post-25295948

 

[posh]

Hello to everyone!
everything it's ok!
the old adapter was broken.

I have:
macbook pro 13" early 2015 with last bootrom
I buy SSD kingstone hyperx 960gb and the chenyang adapter.
I install high sierra from usb and restone by Time Machine.
I just only enable TRIM by terminal, but now everything work good (suspend, hibernation etc).
the cool boot as slow, but I read that it's high sierra/trim problem. Some user as disable the trim for have fast boot, but I think it's better to enable TRIM. I hope in future that this problem will be resolved.
thank you to everyone for the information in this tread.

ciao
Antonio

update!!!
when I close the cover and don't use the mac for a long time, when I open the cover the system freeze. black screen!
I must restart the system 2/3 times to start mac.
can someone help me please?
thank you in advance

Antonio

 

[MacIsHard]

This may help with the 960 EVO: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-14#post-25295948

This did sadly not help

 

[Earl Urley]

Was the machine already updated to OS X 10.13 before you put in the 960 EVO?

Because if it wasn't, you are missing the critical Boot ROM update that enables NVMe drives to be read reliably on rMBPs.

If you haven't, update the machine to 10.13 first with the original Apple SSD installed.

 

[MacIsHard]

Was the machine already updated to OS X 10.13 before you put in the 960 EVO?

Because if it wasn't, you are missing the critical Boot ROM update that enables NVMe drives to be read reliably on rMBPs.

If you haven't, update the machine to 10.13 first with the original Apple SSD installed.

Thanks for the reply Earl but yes I had already installed it before inserting the SSD

 

[Earl Urley]

Which adapter, Sintech, ChenYang, or unknown generic? I used to have one from MicroSATA that was garbage, didn't work.

 

[MacIsHard]

Which adapter, Sintech, ChenYang, or unknown generic? I used to have one from MicroSATA that was garbage, didn't work.

The ChenYang adaptor which is the only thing that I might see as the root of the problem

 

[wawon]

I would like to report that the nightly builds of smartmontools support NVMe drives already

Apple NVMe controller in 13.0 dose not support S.M.A.R.T., also it dose not in 13.1. I have checked Disk Util.app, Disk information dose not shows S.M.A.R.T. result.

 

[stewacide]

My late '13 rMBP original SSD (Samsung) died

Simply put: are there any adapter/SSD combos that Just Work™ as an alternative to the 240GB OWC Aura X?

The price of the Aura is steep, but what really makes me reluctant is that the drive will be useless when this Macbook eventually dies (whereas a standard M2 can be put into a cheap enclosure, so seems like the much better investment considering it's a ~4 year old laptop already).

 

[@t0mX]

EDIT : I just noticed it's using pcie 2.0 x2 limiting the speed to 700 Mb in reading. Shouldn't it be pcie 2.0 x4 in Mbpr mid 2014 ?
I don't really mind about the speed anyway but just wondering if this is normal?

Yes. PCIe 2.0 X4 on my 2014 rMBP with Samsung 1tb PM961 (EVO OEM).

 

[Earl Urley]

It's a nice news. Apple NVMe controller in 13.0 dose not support S.M.A.R.T., but it dose in 13.1. I have checked Disk Util.app, Disk information shows S.M.A.R.T. result.

I only see SMART support in my original Apple SSD, not my 960 EVO, it says SMART not supported there.

 

[stewacide]

OK, I read through this whole thread, but am still unsure what to get for my Late-2013 13” rMBP.

If I understood everyone, all NVMe drives on 2013-2014 rMBPs (even the Apple ones?) are mounted as ‘external’ for unknown reasons, which means long boot time without holding ‘option’ (meh), but I suspect that also means they’ll never be able to update firmware (since this is apparently only possible from a recognized-as-internal disk). If some of these issues get sorted out in later firmwares, but it's impossible to update, that would really really suck.

All NVMe drives also have sleep issues: this can be remedied but at the expense of battery life by disabling system deep-sleep and drive-sleep (I’m unclear if that extra drain is only from not-fully-sleeping - meh - or if it also happens at idle).

I’m really curious whether the new OWC Aura X drives (which are NVMe afaik) have these same issues.

If there’s any rhyme-or-reason to do with kernel panics it’s either a heat, adapter, or 512 vs. 4k issue (4k blocks being preferable: are there any drives that can’t be formatted to 4k blocks?). I’m not sure if there’s any pattern to reboot issues.

AHCI drives sound like they’re trouble-free with a good / well installed adapter (?), but all AHCI drives are expensive and rare at this point.

Thanks in advance for any help / advice.

 

[Earl Urley]

Just buy a cheap 128 GB SM951 AHCI or used Apple OEM if you want to insure you can always do firmware updates.

I updated my 13-inch Late 2013 rMBP's BootROM using the Samsung SM951 AHCI just to see if I could do it, I still have my well-worn Apple OEM lying around as backup.

IMHO sticking to a Samsung SSD / Sintech combo will likely prove the least buggy; I use wawon's settings, close my rMBP and leave it sitting overnight, shut down and reboot with no hangups. Still gonna work on getting an SM 951 NVMe as I suspect between that and the AHCI version, that's the closest to Apple's OEM that you can get. If I were proficient enough to lift the firmware off the OEM Apple version and stick it on a 951/960..

 

[gilles_polysoft]

OK, I read through this whole thread, but am still unsure what to get for my Late-2013 13” rMBP.

If I understood everyone, all NVMe drives on 2013-2014 rMBPs (even the Apple ones?) are mounted as ‘external’ for unknown reasons, which means long boot time without holding ‘option’ (meh), but I suspect that also means they’ll never be able to update firmware (since this is apparently only possible from a recognized-as-internal disk). If some of these issues get sorted out in later firmwares, but it's impossible to update, that would really really suck.

They are not mounted as external once booted, only at EFI level.
But it means effectively they may not receive future firmware updates.

All NVMe drives also have sleep issues: this can be remedied but at the expense of battery life by disabling system deep-sleep and drive-sleep (I’m unclear if that extra drain is only from not-fully-sleeping - meh - or if it also happens at idle).

To my knowledge, once the bad adapters problems removed, no there isn't any issue with disk sleep and NVMe drives.
There are issues with hibernation on 2013-2014 Macs and NVMe drives, yes (and not on 2015 rMBP).

You can use a 2013-2014 mac with disk sleep enabled. You "only" have to turn off hibernation.

I’m really curious whether the new OWC Aura X drives (which are NVMe afaik) have these same issues.

New OWC Aura X drives can't be NVMe... They are clearly the same assembly of 2x sata SSD (maybe Marvel) in RAID0, which is not a good technical solution. MCE and transcend drives are clearly preferable.

If there’s any rhyme-or-reason to do with kernel panics it’s either a heat, adapter, or 512 vs. 4k issue (4k blocks being preferable: are there any drives that can’t be formatted to 4k blocks?). I’m not sure if there’s any pattern to reboot issues.

AHCI drives sound like they’re trouble-free with a good / well installed adapter (?), but all AHCI drives are expensive and rare at this point.

Yes they are trouble-free. And yes they are expensive.

Rare, I wouldn't say : the AHCI M.2 drives like the Kingston Hyper-X predator is less and less available :
https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-Predator-SHPM2280P2-240G/dp/B00V01C5O2

But you can also buy a AHCI PCIe SSD with the Apple 12+16 connector like the Transcend 820
https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-960GB-JetDrive-Solid-TS960GJDM820/dp/B075H9QLJC
or the MCE :
http://store.mcetech.com/mm/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=SSD

On 2015 Macs, 4K formatted NVMe drives are also trouble-free. 512B still have kernel panics on big transfers..
On 2013-2014 Macs, same thing plus you have to disable hibernation (pmset standby 0).
It only drains the battery more on long sleeps (more than 4hours).

 

[ghifar]

hello everyone. I Just fresh install High Sierra with 512GB SM951 NVME on my MBPr 13" 2015 with chenyang adapter (I'm not sure is it chenyang adapter or something else but I'm pretty sure it's not sintech adapter, I attached the image. pls someone correct me)

i bought this ssd with used condition and it comes with ntfs formatted the first time i plugged it in to my macbook with chenyang adapter.
at first i formatted my SM951 NVMe with diskutil.app but when i choose where to install my high sierra, my ssd that i formatted with diskutil.app it's grayed out and it said (this disk doesn't have GUID partition yada yada..) so, i reboot it and format my SM951 with terminal. and boom. now i can choose my SM951 NVMe to install High Sierra.

no kapton tape, no smc reset, no nvram reset.

i'll update the post later.

i attached speed test of my orginal 128GB ssd from mbpr 2015 13" and SM951 NVMe with chenyang adapter.

so far no issue with my ssd, no reboot issue,no sleep issue for hours...
[edited] i can confirm that sm951 NVMe has no issue at all.. thanks to all fellows in this thread and this great forum!! .

i just updating to 10.3.1 HS and the write/ speed of my ssd decrease about 300-400MB.
does anyone got this issue too after updating to 10.3.1 HS ?
or
is it because i turn the fileVault encrypt on ?

 

[oscarxvita]

The ChenYang adaptor which is the only thing that I might see as the root of the problem

Yes. Chenyang(CableCC as well) is the root cause.
I've just got a New Version of Sintech Adapter and my reboot problem was resolved.(It has been a huge problem when using Chenyang/CableCC)

Now using my rmbp 15 with Samsung 960pro 512GB happily without any problem
[doublepost=1509680545][/doublepost]

ok, can you provide the link to buy the adapter you received?
[doublepost=1509299325][/doublepost]

normal boot time for high Sierra with apfs. there are a lot of threads speaking about it. it's related to trim but, we cannot disable trim on pci express ssd. only in sata ssd.
maybe they are going to fix this in next revisions (10.13.1) or others.

regarding reboot, same behavior with MacBook Pro 15 2015
I'm using the chenyang adapter

Try sintech bro, the reboot problem is gone when I switched to Sintech!

 

[User9]

Yes. Chenyang(CableCC as well) is the root cause.
I've just got a New Version of Sintech Adapter and my reboot problem was resolved.(It has been a huge problem when using Chenyang/CableCC)

Now using my rmbp 15 with Samsung 960pro 512GB happily without any problem
[doublepost=1509680545][/doublepost]
Try sintech bro, the reboot problem is gone when I switched to Sintech!

Could you please confirm again for me that yours is rMBP 2015 with NVM Samsung 960 Pro!? No reboot or sleep problems? So the problem that people were experiencing were due to adapter pins not mapped correctly to Apple format...

 

[xelanaiznac]

Yes. Chenyang(CableCC as well) is the root cause.
I've just got a New Version of Sintech Adapter and my reboot problem was resolved.(It has been a huge problem when using Chenyang/CableCC)

Now using my rmbp 15 with Samsung 960pro 512GB happily without any problem
[doublepost=1509680545][/doublepost]
Try sintech bro, the reboot problem is gone when I switched to Sintech!

are you speaking about the new version? the big one, yes?
I already bought it but I think I will receive it near the end of November

 

[xabi]

Hi there:

I have good news!

- MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015)
- Sintech 1 x NGFF M.2 PCIe SSD Card as 2013 2014 2015 MacBook SSD (ST-NGFF2013)
http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1139.html
- 1Tb Samsung 960 Evo

Working like a charm. No issues, just takes a little (10-15 seconds) more to start from shutdown state.
No issues with sleep mode.

Thanks to all for this amazing thread!

xabi

 

[oscarxvita]

are you speaking about the new version? the big one, yes?
I already bought it but I think I will receive it near the end of November

Yes, it is the new version. (The big one).
Before sintech, I even cannot reset PRAM with Chenyang/CableCC, and sintech save my life on this reboot issue.
Still, if you don't tape, you will get Kernel panic, after taping, it works great!
[doublepost=1509712845][/doublepost]

Could you please confirm again for me that yours is rMBP 2015 with NVM Samsung 960 Pro!? No reboot or sleep problems? So the problem that people were experiencing were due to adapter pins not mapped correctly to Apple format...

Yes, my MacBook is rmbp2015 Mid 15 inch.(A1398)
No reboot problem until now with sintech.
You still have to tape the adapter for avoiding Kernel panic.
[doublepost=1509713550][/doublepost]

MacBook Air 13 Early 2015 with 960 EVO 250GB MZ-V6E250: small adapter with NF-941A on the back
Upgraded from 10.13, installed as APFS, to 10.13.1 5 minutes ago through "Updates" in the App Store (i.e. delta update), download was between 1 and 2 GB; the first reboot in the install resulted in a blinking folder icon, had to manually hold power button and reboot, otherwise install proceeded smoothly and quickly. BootRom has not changed, it is still
MBA71.0171.B00. This is indeed the first time I have come across the reboot problem on a 2015 Air...



I disabled "Put hard disks to sleep whenever possible" in Energy Saver, because as we have seen there are some issues with power states and have lots of windows open and am afraid of losing my data... I'll try again with that enabled.

With that disabled, battery life is definitely a lot worse, worst case it went from 34% to 28% in the span of 20 minutes when I unplugged it to use it at dinner yesterday. That would mean a battery life of around 6 hours, being optimistic, when fully charged... This is really the biggest detractor for me. (normal web browsing, note taking, had an IDE open in the background but not doing anything overly intensive)

You are using the Chenyang Adapter which most people get problem with, consider using sintech, it helped solving my rmbp2015-mid reboot problem

 

[Earl Urley]

On 2015 Macs, 4K formatted NVMe drives are also trouble-free. 512B still have kernel panics on big transfers..
On 2013-2014 Macs, same thing plus you have to disable hibernation (pmset standby 0).
It only drains the battery more on long sleeps (more than 4hours).

How big do those transfers have to be? I'm constantly moving ripped mkv's and VM images of anywhere from 2 GB to 7 GB to a simple 3 TB USB 3.0 drive and haven't seen any KPs.

I think we can all agree by now that Sintech's adapters are the ones to get, they seem to have the least amount of issues.

Still can't get any SMART-related software to recognize my 960, though.