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

[Lem120]

Yes it does !
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-6#post-25123534
And natively with 4K formatted NVMe SSDs

As for Apple NVMe SSD (SM2048L etc) , they are supported natively from 10.10.2 on all Mac from 2015
(and with BootRom update on late 2013-2014 macs)
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Hi Gilles,
thank you so much for your posts, you saved me from Apple's original expensive parts...
I can't understand your "Yes it does"... can my MBPr late 2013 with a 960EVO support Yosemite?
Because a bunch of problems for software and hardware compatibility in my work.
I installed it with the CHENYANG adapter, but now I'm waiting for the Sintech one, and I'm stuck in HS.

 

[User9]

Could someone tell me why people say to avoid PM951 and go for Sm series like the Sm961? Compatibility issues?

 

[ghifar]

Thank you Earl,


Awesome, are you using the new APFS filing system? Also, could you give an in depth tutorial on how to install MacOS High Sierra onto the SM951 NVME drive with terminal because I don't wanna mess it up, and we also have the same model rMBP and SSD model (and capacity)? And lastly, do you notice any differences even slight differences between the SM951 NVME and the OEM SSD? Thank You for all your help @ghifar

1. Yes, i'm using APFS right now.
2. i only follow the tutorial from someone posted in here. i forgot the username .
i assume that you already update your bootrom and create your own osx installer with usb stick or what ever method you use and already plug in your SM951 ssd into your macbook. method that I use :

- boot your macbook with osx installer that you've created earlier (hold option key to choose your osx installer)
- at this step you should see installer page for installing high sierra.
- choose or open terminal from the installer page and type this:

- diskutil list (to make sure and check where your SM951 at. example, my SM951 is located at: /dev/disk0)
- diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "MacintoshHD" /dev/disk0
- exit​

- go install High sierra into your new SM951 SSD that you've already formatted.​

3. yes we have the same macbook pro model which is MBPr 13" 2015 (A1502) and same SSD model SM951 NVMe 512GB. my boot rom right now is : MBP121.0171.B00.
4. do i notice any differences between the orginal ssd and SM951 NVMe? not much. i only notice the differences when i tested it with disk speed test your perspective might be different. you can see my screenshot from my earlier post. from speed that i tested, i can tell that this SSD is the second best after SAMSUNG 960 pro

 

[User9]

Could someone tell me why people say to avoid PM951 and go for Sm series like the Sm961? Compatibility issues?

Got the answer. Apparently these have heat issues and need heatsink.

 

[khalidahusain]

1. Yes, i'm using APFS right now.
2. i only follow the tutorial from someone posted in here. i forgot the username .
i assume that you already update your bootrom and create your own osx installer with usb stick or what ever method you use and already plug in your SM951 ssd into your macbook. method that I use :

- boot your macbook with osx installer that you've created earlier (hold option key to choose your osx installer)
- at this step you should see installer page for installing high sierra.
- choose or open terminal from the installer page and type this:

- diskutil list (to make sure and check where your SM951 at. example, my SM951 is located at: /dev/disk0)
- diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "MacintoshHD" /dev/disk0
- exit​

- go install High sierra into your new SM951 SSD that you've already formatted.​

3. yes we have the same macbook pro model which is MBPr 13" 2015 (A1502) and same SSD model SM951 NVMe 512GB. my boot rom right now is : MBP121.0171.B00.
4. do i notice any differences between the orginal ssd and SM951 NVMe? not much. i only notice the differences when i tested it with disk speed test your perspective might be different. you can see my screenshot from my earlier post. from speed that i tested, i can tell that this SSD is the second best after SAMSUNG 960 pro

Thanks Man I really appreciate it, and fyi my boot loader is updated because I'm on High Sierra, and I'm just waiting for the sintech adapter, I bought it because I heard its the best and people have had the best outcome with it on this forum. but just another question: "diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "MacintoshHD" /dev/disk0" is this line right here configuring the SSD to use the JHFS+ system? I was just confused about that. Thank You!

 

[burnthefires]

Guys, I don't think the kapton tape is really a necessity, at least with the Sintech adapter.
I've been using a KC1000 formatted in 512b in my '15 MBPr with 10.13.1 for a month now without any issues whatsoever with hibernation or rebooting and intentionally omitted this step, just put a 3mm foam under the adapter. I'm moving the computer rather frequently and using it in high vibration and RF heavy environments so i'd say the interference is not at fault here.
Once again, this is a 2015 13-inch Retina, can't speak about other models.

 

[ghifar]

Thanks Man I really appreciate it, and fyi my boot loader is updated because I'm on High Sierra, and I'm just waiting for the sintech adapter, I bought it because I heard its the best and people have had the best outcome with it on this forum. but just another question: "diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "MacintoshHD" /dev/disk0" is this line right here configuring the SSD to use the JHFS+ system? I was just confused about that. Thank You!

ohyeah sorry, i think the right format is "APFS". as i remember i'm using "JHFS+" format and i looked into my diskutil.app that my ssd is formatted with "APFS". or you can try it with "apfs" first.
oh yeah pls let me know how fast is your SSD with some disk test. i want to know because my SSD write speed right now is decrease like 200Mb/s down. but i'm sure it's because i turn the encryption on. just wondering

 

[User9]

Guys, I don't think the kapton tape is really a necessity, at least with the Sintech adapter.
I've been using a KC1000 formatted in 512b in my '15 MBPr with 10.13.1 for a month now without any issues whatsoever with hibernation or rebooting and intentionally omitted this step, just put a 3mm foam under the adapter. I'm moving the computer rather frequently and using it in high vibration and RF heavy environments so i'd say the interference is not at fault here.
Once again, this is a 2015 13-inch Retina, can't speak about other models.

For me same macbook model as yours the CY adapter worked better and more reliable than Sintech. This must mean the issues are due to different batches within the Macbook models in hardware...

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Many thanks, gilles_polysoft. I meant the other side of the APPLE SSD SM2048L 2TB blade stick. Could you please share that as well? On the other hand, do you have also the benchmarking of Samsung 960 EVO and Samsung 960 Pro for comparison with APPLE SSD SM2048L 2TB? Thanks again.

Ok here it is :

I can't understand your "Yes it does"... can my MBPr late 2013 with a 960EVO support Yosemite?
Because a bunch of problems for software and hardware compatibility in my work.
I installed it with the CHENYANG adapter, but now I'm waiting for the Sintech one, and I'm stuck in HS.

Hi,
Sorry but no : the rMBP Late 2013 won't be able to support Yosemite on a 960 Evo.
The 960 Evo as all Samsung NVMe SSD only supports 512B bloc size.

As for NVMe drives :
- 10.10 Yosemite only supports Apple genuine NVMe SSDs
- 10.11 El capitan supports Apple NVMe SSDs, and may support tiers NVMe SSDs with patching IONVMeFamily.kext (didn't succed thought...)
- 10.12 Sierra supports natively both Apple and tiers 4K formatted NVMe SSDs without patching IONVMeFamily
- 10.13 High Sierra supports natively both Apple and tiers 4K formatted NVMe SSDs, and supports natively 512B formatted SSDs (but there are still random crashes as of IONVMeFamily.kext v. 2.1.0

 

[Marx55]

Ok here it is :

Awesome. Many thanks! BTW, I thought that Samsung 960 Pro, officially rated as "sequential R/W (read/write) speeds up to 3,500/2,100 MB/s and random R/W speeds up to 440/360K IOPS, respectively", as shown at
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/960pro.html
was that much faster than APPLE SSD SM2048L.

 

[Earl Urley]

As for NVMe drives :
- 10.10 Yosemite only supports Apple genuine NVMe SSDs

Just to put a fine point on it, according to this on Wikipedia, NVMe support was introduced in OS X 10.10.3, and is the hardware used on Retina MacBooks, 2016 (and presumably 2017?) MacBook Pros.

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Awesome. Many thanks! BTW, I thought that Samsung 960 Pro, officially rated as "sequential R/W (read/write) speeds up to 3,500/2,100 MB/s and random R/W speeds up to 440/360K IOPS, respectively", as shown at
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/960pro.html
was that much faster than APPLE SSD SM2048L.

Basically, the Apple SM2048L is a SM961 customised for Apple... and the SM961 is nothing else than the OEM version of the 960 Pro (you can also say that the 960 Pro is the end customer version of the PM961).

At this point, I don't know at all if and when Apple would update the IONVMeFamily.kext that sometimes badly handle 512B drives (Samsung 96x family...).

It would be the best thing that would happen so that we could use Samsungs 960 Evo / Pro without any problem...
Otherwise It may be a stupid idea, but I thought I could somewhat write the firmware of the SM2048L to a 2TB 960 Pro so that the 960 Pro have 4K sectors, and other settings making it more compatible with 2013-2015 MBPr...
I frankly do not know at this point if it's a stupid idea or not...
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Just to put a fine point on it, according to this on Wikipedia, NVMe support was introduced in OS X 10.10.3, and is the hardware used on Retina MacBooks, 2016 (and presumably 2017?) MacBook Pros.

Yes I didn't precised 10.10.3 but it is implicit...
And I've already tested in the past and can confirm that with Yosemite 10.10.3 a rMBP 2015 boots fine and works well on both Apple NVMe drives that I have in hands : SM2048L and AP0032H

You have other Macs which have NVMe SSD :
- all 2015-2017 iMacs with 1TB Fusion Drives : the 24GB SSD part of the fusionDrive is a AP0032H which is a NVMe drive with 64 GB of MLC configured in SLC... (see http://www.journaldulapin.com/2016/03/15/nvme-imac-ssd-fusion-drive/ in french, sorry)
- 5k retina 2017 iMacs with SSDs have also NVMe SSDs... (like the SM2048L)

 

[Marx55]

Basically, the Apple SM2048L is a SM961 customised for Apple... and the SM961 is nothing else than the OEM version of the 960 Pro (you can also say that the 960 Pro is the end customer version of the PM961).

Thanks. The APPLE SSD SM2048L that you benchmarked above is 2TB. Are Samsung 960 EVO and Samsung 960 PRO also 2TB each and benchmarked under the same conditions (Mac model, etc)? I ask just in case that makes a difference. As you know, SSD with larger capacities may have higher speeds, due to higher paralelism.

On the other hand, do you have IOPS benchmarking for such three SSD models? Is there a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to benchmark IOPS on Mac? I have not found any way to benchmark IOPS on Mac. Thanks again for all.

 

[Lem120]

Thank you so much for your answer and your support!!!

 

[Earl Urley]

Micro Center is selling Samsung 960 EVO 500 GB units for $199.00 as part of their Black Friday sale, but it looks like it's in-store only (you have to go to an actual local branch.)

 

[Alpengroove]

I tried a 969 EVO wirh a short Sintech? adapter in a MBP 13 2015.
The SSD was not recognized (also with diskutil).
I sent it back and hope, there will be a plug&play solution in next time.
Following this thread...

 

[lebrao]

Hi guys, recently I bought an Western Digital SSD M.2 512GB BLACK SATA3 WDS512G1X0C and a MBP 13" Early 2015 A1502.

WD SSD is an NVME drive and I can't use it right from the box, I'm looking for an adapter.
My MBP is an MF839LL/A A1502 13" Early 2015.

My MBP came with OSX Sierra on 128GB SSD original drive and now it's running OSX High Sierra after update. My Boot Rom is MBP 121.0171.B00
I made an Bootable USB Drive to do a fresh start on this SSD, so, i'd like to boot from this drive using an adapter.
Is there an option to use this Western Digital drive?

Thanks!
Ricardo

 

[burnthefires]

Hi guys, recently I bought an Western Digital SSD M.2 512GB BLACK SATA3 WDS512G1X0C and a MBP 13" Early 2015 A1502.

WD SSD is an NVME drive and I can't use it right from the box, I'm looking for an adapter.
My MBP is an MF839LL/A A1502 13" Early 2015.

My MBP came with OSX Sierra on 128GB SSD original drive and now it's running OSX High Sierra after update. My Boot Rom is MBP 121.0171.B00
I made an Bootable USB Drive to do a fresh start on this SSD, so, i'd like to boot from this drive using an adapter.
Is there an option to use this Western Digital drive?

Thanks!
Ricardo

Yes it should work perfectly fine with your MacBook Pro, just order this adapter: http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1139.html
Also read this whole thread for additional tips on installing it (kapton tape, foam pad under the adapter, running diskutil to initialize).

 

[User9]

Hi guys, recently I bought an Western Digital SSD M.2 512GB BLACK SATA3 WDS512G1X0C and a MBP 13" Early 2015 A1502.

WD SSD is an NVME drive and I can't use it right from the box, I'm looking for an adapter.
My MBP is an MF839LL/A A1502 13" Early 2015.

My MBP came with OSX Sierra on 128GB SSD original drive and now it's running OSX High Sierra after update. My Boot Rom is MBP 121.0171.B00
I made an Bootable USB Drive to do a fresh start on this SSD, so, i'd like to boot from this drive using an adapter.
Is there an option to use this Western Digital drive?

Thanks!
Ricardo

High Sierra should work out of the box with WD Black. Certainly worked on mine if you have the latest bootrom.

 

[lebrao]

Yes it should work perfectly fine with your MacBook Pro, just order this adapter: http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1139.html
Also read this whole thread for additional tips on installing it (kapton tape, foam pad under the adapter, running diskutil to initialize).

High Sierra should work out of the box with WD Black. Certainly worked on mine if you have the latest bootrom.

Thank you guys, my Boot Rom is MBP121.0171.B00, but i'm still scared about some things that I read at this topic, so, with my SSD WD Black, is there any issues like Sleep/Hibernate/Restart?

I'd like to use an stable system, I know that Apple's SSD are more expensive than M.2 but they're more reliable, should I expect an unstable system using WD Black M.2 + adapter or will it run smooth and reliable as Apple's SSD?

Thanks!

 

[User9]

Thank you guys, my Boot Rom is MBP121.0171.B00, but i'm still scared about some things that I read at this topic, so, with my SSD WD Black, is there any issues like Sleep/Hibernate/Restart?

I'd like to use an stable system, I know that Apple's SSD are more expensive than M.2 but they're more reliable, should I expect an unstable system using WD Black M.2 + adapter or will it run smooth and reliable as Apple's SSD?

Thanks!

You may have those issues but can be disabled. WD Black does have longer lifespan cycle.

 

[burnthefires]

Thank you guys, my Boot Rom is MBP121.0171.B00, but i'm still scared about some things that I read at this topic, so, with my SSD WD Black, is there any issues like Sleep/Hibernate/Restart?

I'd like to use an stable system, I know that Apple's SSD are more expensive than M.2 but they're more reliable, should I expect an unstable system using WD Black M.2 + adapter or will it run smooth and reliable as Apple's SSD?

Thanks!

Those issues are mostly happening with 2013-2014 MBPr and Samsung SSD's. As I said in an earlier post, my 2015 13" Retina with a Kingston KC1000 is running super-smooth since the upgrade.

 

[User9]

Those issues are mostly happening with 2013-2014 MBPr and Samsung SSD's. As I said in an earlier post, my 2015 13" Retina with a Kingston KC1000 is running super-smooth since the upgrade.

Mind me ask what's your battery life is like mine is like 5hrs. But yes can confirm after some tinkering and testing with the adapter both my WD Black and XG3(RD400 version OEM) can run, reboot, sleep and hibernate without errors and at full speed.

 

[burnthefires]

Mind me ask what's your battery life is like mine is like 5hrs. But yes can confirm after some tinkering and testing with the adapter both my WD Black and XG3(RD400 version OEM) can run, reboot, sleep and hibernate without errors and at full speed.

I'd say 6-7h depending on usage, but it's still far less then before the upgrade (ca.10hrs) :/
Worth it anyway.

 

[Akhura]

Hi,

I know that this thread is dedicated to the 2013/2014 MBPs (and I apologize) but I would like to get some recommendations about a MBP 13" Retina Late 2012 SSD upgrade.

For my model (running on Sierra at the moment ; planning to upgrade to HS soon) and in order to avoid any hardware/software issues (standby/sleep mode and OS instability):
- What would be the best adapter?
- What SSD would you recommend, especially in the 256 GB range (or 512 GB depending on the price)?
- Are there any other operations that I have to perform regarding the upgrade?

Lastly, my plan would be to do a clean install (with HS) and restore all my data with a Time Machine backup (that I run regularly).

In advance, thank you for your help!