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Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe
- Thread starter maxthackray
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So I got this ADATA SX8200 Pro, which was recommended in OP.
Is it me or the speeds are a bit low, particularly 4K. I was expecting those to be around 100.
Second pic is a google search for that exact drive. Could I have messed up installing it?
MacBookAir6,2 A1466
Boot ROM Version: 117.0.0.0.0
10.13.6
Is it me or the speeds are a bit low, particularly 4K. I was expecting those to be around 100.
Second pic is a google search for that exact drive. Could I have messed up installing it?
MacBookAir6,2 A1466
Boot ROM Version: 117.0.0.0.0
10.13.6
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Looks fine. Every AmorphousDiskMark result I've seen has had low 4k write results.
Your seq w/r is fine (limited by the hardware of the Air's 4x v2 pcie)
Since Sabrent Rocket is highly regarded here, but there have also been two recent reports of failed installations of 2TB drives due to overheating type issues, I would like to hear from more readers as to success or failure of installation of 2 TB Sabrents. And please indicate which you installed as there are three different m.2 Sabrent 2 TB drives:
1) https://www.sabrent.com/product/SB-...ernal-ssd-high-performance-solid-state-drive/
2) https://www.sabrent.com/product/SB-...ernal-ssd-high-performance-solid-state-drive/
(The two reported failures were on Option 2 as said above.)
3) https://www.sabrent.com/product/SB-...al-ssd-maximum-performance-solid-state-drive/
1) https://www.sabrent.com/product/SB-...ernal-ssd-high-performance-solid-state-drive/
2) https://www.sabrent.com/product/SB-...ernal-ssd-high-performance-solid-state-drive/
(The two reported failures were on Option 2 as said above.)
3) https://www.sabrent.com/product/SB-...al-ssd-maximum-performance-solid-state-drive/
To be fair, mine hasn’t failed yet, it just seems like thermal throttling, but I’m not certain.
We can check the power consumption of our own drives using the software iStatMenus available for free at https://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/. Since our chart at the top of this thread does not include 2TB drives, I am hoping that readers here who have 2TB drives can download and run this utility and tell us the power draw of their drive. We would need to look once with drive is idle, once while writing a large file and once while reading a large file.
Below is a screenshot showing the location of the power draw reading in the software.
Below is a screenshot showing the location of the power draw reading in the software.
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@markintosh13 Apparently updating to the Catalina Public Beta fixed this issue? Had no problems with it so far. Wakes up just fine without any crashes.
Hello, can anyone help me?
I have a Macbook air beginning 2014
Before reading this post I bought this adapter and this disk
After reading this post, I saw that better NVMe disk, so I changed it to this one:
The problem is that mac has never detected the disk in utility disk, it doesn't appear. (the old disk have catalina)
Now, also after reading the post I have requested this adapter, but it does not arrive until January 15:
The question is if someone can confirm if with that adapter and that disk, should it work?
According to what you tell me I am in time to change them if necessary
Thank you very much for your help.
I have a Macbook air beginning 2014
Before reading this post I bought this adapter and this disk
Cablecc Tarjeta de conversión de SSD AHCI de 12+16 pines 2014 2015 a M.2 NGFF M-Key AHCI SSD para A1493 A1502 A1465 A1466
12 + 16 pines 2014 2015 MacBook m.2 NGFF m-key SSD convertir para A1493 A1502 A1465 A1466 El adaptador puede NGFF Covert m-key SSD a la MacBook SSD de 12 + 16 pines 2014 2015. Nota: solo admite SSD AHCI de tecla M, SSD NVMe no compatible. compatibilidad. 2013 MacBook Pro A1493 A1502 (md864 md865 ...
www.amazon.es
Cablecc Tarjeta de conversión de SSD AHCI de 12+16 pines 2014 2015 a M.2 NGFF M-Key AHCI SSD para A1493 A1502 A1465 A1466
12 + 16 pines 2014 2015 MacBook m.2 NGFF m-key SSD convertir para A1493 A1502 A1465 A1466 El adaptador puede NGFF Covert m-key SSD a la MacBook SSD de 12 + 16 pines 2014 2015. Nota: solo admite SSD AHCI de tecla M, SSD NVMe no compatible. compatibilidad. 2013 MacBook Pro A1493 A1502 (md864 md865 ...
www.amazon.es
After reading this post, I saw that better NVMe disk, so I changed it to this one:
SABRENT SSD 1TB, M.2 SSD 1TB, NVMe 1TB PCIe M.2 2280, Velocidades internas de SSD de hasta 3400 MB/s, Rendimiento Extremo, 5 años de garantía (SB-ROCKET-1TB)
La unidad de estado sólido de alto rendimiento SSD interno PCIe M.2 2280 ROCKET NVMe de 1TB Sabrent (SB-ROCKET-1TB) ofrece todas las ventajas de la tecnología de disco flash con interfaz PCIe Gen3 x4 y es totalmente compatible con el factor de forma estándar de próxima generación ( NGFF), comúnme...
www.amazon.es
The problem is that mac has never detected the disk in utility disk, it doesn't appear. (the old disk have catalina)
Now, also after reading the post I have requested this adapter, but it does not arrive until January 15:
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME Tarjeta adaptadora SSD para Mac actualizadas 2013-2015 (no compatible con MacBook Pro de principios de 2013)
AVISO: debido a que muchos clientes pueden usarlo, le sugiero que lo intente nuevamente si su MAC no puede detectar nVME SSD. Pls note para insertar la tarjeta completamente en la ranura SSD y usted debe preparar el disco USB de arranque (ver tercer punto) con High Sierra para formatear M.2 SSD p...
www.amazon.com
The question is if someone can confirm if with that adapter and that disk, should it work?
According to what you tell me I am in time to change them if necessary
Thank you very much for your help.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Yes it will work ok. HOWEVER, if you later decide to upgrade to a 2tb NVMe drive which is dual sided you'll either have to get a short adapter or cut down the one you already have.
Mid 2015 15" 11,4 DG
34'c SSD idle temp
Adata SX8200 Pro 2tb:
Idle - 0.19A
5gb ISO compression - 0.27A average (0.31A 1 sec Peak)
5gb Zip decompression - 0.57A
Black Magic Speed test 5gb Write ( on loop ) - 1.42A
Black Magic Speed test 5gb Read ( on loop ) - 1.10A
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Hi TheKenny,
Sorry for you, but the OWC Aura Pro X2 2TB is "just" a plain regular NVMe SSD, strictly equivalent to any $250 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD with a SM2262 controller.
It has only the particularity of having an Apple 12+16 connector (instead of a M.2 connector) and... to be be twice as expensive as other equivalent 2TB drives
You buy this drive, you think everything will work perfectly... and no : hibernation will never work with this drive (unless you patch the BootRom with the same procedure described in this forum as for other regular M.2 NVMe drives).
I repeat, the OWC Aura Pro X2 is no other thing than a plain regular NVMe drive with a SM2262EN controller. As such, hibernation will never be supported with this drive on any 2013-2014 mac...
This is sadly advertised nowhere by OWC in any way :
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/S3DAPT4MB20/
The hibernation problem has however been at least fully acknowledged by OWC Larry 6 month ago in this forum :
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-and-macbook-pro-models.2178148/post-27295241
OWC promise they will be able to release a NVMe driver... but they simply can't and will never be able to.
Hibernation problem with any NVMe drive (being it an Apple Polaris, a regular M.2, a Transcend 850 or an OWC Aura) do occur because Apple never included to this date the full NVMe DXE driver in the BootRom of 2013-2014 mac.
It has been discovered, proved, and repeated hundreds of times in this thread.
Now your have many choices with the hibernation problem :
- if you can live without hibernation you can disable it : type "sudo pmset -g standby 0" in the terminal (you will loose a little battery life during sleep)
- if you need hibernation you can patch your BootRom or... you can ask Apple and wait from them to release a BootRom upgrade... (disclaimer : it will never happen)
- as for the Aura Pro X2 you can keep it or get a refund and get a cheaper M.2 NVMe drive, it will be the same...
Happy new year to you all
Seems this thread is about laptops only using nvme drive. is there one for imacs. some or newwe imac one cannot change the internal disk unless you rip it open, which i am not planning to do it... so need to check if external nvme ssd drive in an enclosure will work as a bootable ssd drive using usb 3 port.
Early 2015 MacBook Pro 13" (PCI-E 2.0 X4 so obviously bottlenecks the SX8200 Pro hence the lower numbers than a PCI-E 3.0 MacBook)
Bootrom 188.0.0.0.0 - Catalina 10.15.2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2TB ADATA "SX8200PNP" SX8200 Pro - Revision: SS0411BB
0.18A Idle. - 0.897A Read. - 0.898A Write.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
512GB Apple "SM0512G" - "MZ-JPV5120/0A6" - Revision: BXW5TA0Q
0.01A Idle. - 1.54A Read. - 1.62A Write.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tested with Amorphous Disk Mark with a 32GB size sequential test.
So 18X more power consumption at idle compared to the Apple drive, less flat out under load but that is not something that I do personally.
My MBP shipped with a 128GB SSD, I purchased the 2TB ADATA as it seemed to be the best option, was super unhappy with losing 2+ hours of battery life (felt closer to 3) and sleep not triggering hibernate so excessive power consumption while in sleep mode most of the time (sometimes it wasn't too bad sure, most of the time it was bad), sure I could disable standby and just force hibernate as a workaround, doesn't bring back the battery life loss in every other situation.
I ended up buying a 512GB Apple drive, should have just done that from the beginning.
Bootrom 188.0.0.0.0 - Catalina 10.15.2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2TB ADATA "SX8200PNP" SX8200 Pro - Revision: SS0411BB
0.18A Idle. - 0.897A Read. - 0.898A Write.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
512GB Apple "SM0512G" - "MZ-JPV5120/0A6" - Revision: BXW5TA0Q
0.01A Idle. - 1.54A Read. - 1.62A Write.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tested with Amorphous Disk Mark with a 32GB size sequential test.
So 18X more power consumption at idle compared to the Apple drive, less flat out under load but that is not something that I do personally.
My MBP shipped with a 128GB SSD, I purchased the 2TB ADATA as it seemed to be the best option, was super unhappy with losing 2+ hours of battery life (felt closer to 3) and sleep not triggering hibernate so excessive power consumption while in sleep mode most of the time (sometimes it wasn't too bad sure, most of the time it was bad), sure I could disable standby and just force hibernate as a workaround, doesn't bring back the battery life loss in every other situation.
I ended up buying a 512GB Apple drive, should have just done that from the beginning.
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That's exactly what I did myself, I ended buying a 256GB apple drive after seeing that batt life went down over 2 hours with Corsair MP510.
The point here is whatever third party drives you get batt life is gonna get hit hard because NVME apple drivers are not optimized for non apple drives.
How are the OWC drives on power consumption? Would they be any better than the drives we are discussing here?
Did you try this newer version Sintech adapter? I've read that if you plug the drive in and do a SMC reset with the battery cable disconnected, you shouldn't have any power drains or Sleep / Wake / Crash issues according to some reviews of it. I ordered a SX8200 Pro 2TB as well, it hasn't arrived yet, but I wanted to know more about its power performance in idle on my 2015 MBP 15". Apparently not all M.2 NVME adapters will deliver the same results so I was kind of confused reading people's messages.
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade 2013-2015 Year Macs(Not Fit Early 2013 MacBook Pro)
NOTICE:because too many customers can use it,I suggest you to try it again if your MAC can't detect nVME SSD. Pls notice to insert card fully into SSD slot and you must prepare bootable USB disk(see third point) with High Sierra to format M.2 SSD first, it can't support recover from internet. mai...
www.amazon.com
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As far as i know OWC drives are just normal medium quality third party drives with integrated adapter so I doubt there will be any power efficiency improvement. I may be wrong though
Oh... I tried to read a lot of what's written here, but my mind is still twisted
I need an SSD for 2015 15" model. The main points are:
No hibernation/sleep/panic problems;
LOW POWER CONSUMPTION, I need battery life to be not worse than with standard SSD;
Reasonable/low cost;
Adequate buffer size (when I tried Kingston A400 it was very a very bad idea).
Speeds: higher - better, but not for the proce of decreased lifetime or sleep issues!
I still roam around not sure what to get, M.2 SATA (such as Samsung 860), PCIe or NVMe. The budget is topped out to around 100$ so the risk is there.
Can you help me to get the best variant for my needs please?
I need an SSD for 2015 15" model. The main points are:
No hibernation/sleep/panic problems;
LOW POWER CONSUMPTION, I need battery life to be not worse than with standard SSD;
Reasonable/low cost;
Adequate buffer size (when I tried Kingston A400 it was very a very bad idea).
Speeds: higher - better, but not for the proce of decreased lifetime or sleep issues!
I still roam around not sure what to get, M.2 SATA (such as Samsung 860), PCIe or NVMe. The budget is topped out to around 100$ so the risk is there.
Can you help me to get the best variant for my needs please?
I am not experienced with these drives yet, just got a 2015 15" for xmas myself and am in the same situation. But I have read through this forum quite a bit.
First off, from what I've read around the internet, use this particular adapter.
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade 2013-2015 Year Macs(Not Fit Early 2013 MacBook Pro)
NOTICE:because too many customers can use it,I suggest you to try it again if your MAC can't detect nVME SSD. Pls notice to insert card fully into SSD slot and you must prepare bootable USB disk(see third point) with High Sierra to format M.2 SSD first, it can't support recover from internet. mai...
www.amazon.com
As for the drive, I am hearing good things so far about the ADATA SX8200 Pro and the Sabrent Rocket. Some say one is better than the other, I myself have no idea what it's actual power performance is with the preferred adapter. Also, after you install the drive, be sure to run a PRAM & SMC reset before formatting it with recovery mode. I guess the Intel SSD 760P is a good choice too, but its pricy as hell for a 2TB (which I myself am looking for). I got a 2TB SX8200 Pro on Bonanza but it never got shipped and now I'm debating between the 2TB Sabrent Rocket and the 2TB SX8200 Pro on Amazon.
If someone has better options for performance and power efficiency, please chime in. The Sabrent Rocket is like ~$50 cheaper than the ADATA SX8200 Pro, does anyone not experiencing sleep related issues using the updated Sintech adapter know how these two drives compare against one another?
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Hi, I'm afraid your expectations are very high, when you update apple drive to third party NVME you are going to trade battery life for storage capacity. There is no third party NVME which does not decrease your battery life. As I mentioned before apple drivers are only optimized for their own propietary drives so whatever third party drive you put inside your mac batt life is gonna get a pretty big hit. However, some are better than others but batt life will be reduced around 20% to 40% from my experience and also according this thread.
If you get SATA you will get lower read and write speeds than stock, NVME are faster but in your case you have to check your PCIe version, 2x or 4x.
i do have great battery life with Sabrent rocket 1TB MBP early 2015 13" (188.0.0.0) bootroom, my normal daily used just basically browsing and watch a few youtube videos (50% screen brightness), tested during my off day and got pretty close to 8 hrs.
Where did you read this (link please)?Did you try this newer version Sintech adapter? I've read that if you plug the drive in and do a SMC reset with the battery cable disconnected, you shouldn't have any power drains or Sleep / Wake / Crash issues according to some reviews of it.
Apparently not all M.2 NVME adapters will deliver the same results so I was kind of confused reading people's messages.
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade 2013-2015 Year Macs(Not Fit Early 2013 MacBook Pro)
NOTICE:because too many customers can use it,I suggest you to try it again if your MAC can't detect nVME SSD. Pls notice to insert card fully into SSD slot and you must prepare bootable USB disk(see third point) with High Sierra to format M.2 SSD first, it can't support recover from internet. mai...www.amazon.com
Would this also apply to the short version?
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade MacBook Air(2013-2016 Year) and MacBook PRO(Late 2013-2015 Year)
NOTICE:because too many customers can use it,I suggest you to try it again if your MAC can't detect nVME SSD. Pls notice to insert card fully into SSD slot and you must prepare bootable USB disk(see third point) with High Sierra to format M.2 SSD first, it can't support recover from internet. mai...
www.amazon.com
Please let us know how it goes for you, with the procedure you describe.
[automerge]1577981624[/automerge]
I am not sure what to think of the 2TB Rocket, based on discussion of it on pages 227-229 of this thread, with reports of overheating, the existence of three different models, a lack of response to my questions about them on these same 3 pages, and a lack of recent comments about success stories.
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As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Where did you read this (link please)?
Would this also apply to the short version?Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade MacBook Air(2013-2016 Year) and MacBook PRO(Late 2013-2015 Year)
NOTICE:because too many customers can use it,I suggest you to try it again if your MAC can't detect nVME SSD. Pls notice to insert card fully into SSD slot and you must prepare bootable USB disk(see third point) with High Sierra to format M.2 SSD first, it can't support recover from internet. mai...www.amazon.com
Please let us know how it goes for you, with the procedure you describe.
check out this guy's customer review on Amazon.
Check out this Amazon review of Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade 2013-2015 Year Macs(Not Fit Early 2013 MacBook Pro)
Working w/ 2013 MBA / 1tb 970 EVO / Mojave 10.14.1
www.amazon.com
I think that the Sabrent Rocket has better power performance than the SX8200 Pro according to the chart on the 1st page of this forum...? My order on Bonanza is in limbo and I really need a new drive, think I might just cancel my order, get my money back, and get the 2TB Sabrent Rocket instead at this point, but I'll give it until later today to finalize my decision.
edit: one guy on the previous page stated his results with the Rocket. 8 hours? That’s pretty impressive to me, be sure to use Safari instead of Chrome when on your battery to get the best results.
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