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

[xboxbml]

I thought I would be able to restore using that Wasmicro case, but I was wrong. Although my 15" 2012 MacBook Pro recognizes the OEM 512GB Apple (Samsung) SDD when installed in the Wasmicro case, the 13" 2017 MacBook Air did not recognize it when running Migration Assistant. Consequently, I just restored using the Time Machine backup stored on a 3TB Western Digital USB 3.0 portable HDD that was used to back up the 13" MBA. The restore seemed to go fine, and the first boot up was great. However, the next boot hung forever. In fact, I could not boot up using safe mode either. I suspected the problem was me activating either Sophos or, possibly, some old extension after the first boot following the restore. Consequently, I wiped the new Adata SSD, reinstalled Catalina, and one more time reinstalled from the Time Machine backup. This time, I immediately deleted Sophos rather than activating. From there on out, things went well. Yesterday, I migrated data from my 16" 2012 MacBook Pro, this time using Migration Assistant's feature that allows transfer of data from one machine to another (I connected both the MBA and the MBP to ethernet to ensure a solid connection). That migration went without a hitch. I again removed Sophos immediately following the migration. (To be clear, the the Time Machine backup had my mom's files from the MBA, which was her computer; the MBP is my computer.)

The only concerning thing I've noticed so far is that it seems like the MBA air boots a lot slower using the Adata SSD than it did with the OEM Apple/Samsung SSD. Any idea why this might be the case? In fact, it sees like the MBA actually boots slower than my 2012 MBP, which has an internal SATA SSD. I haven't done any timed comparisons, but I'll try to do so in the next few days to verify.

A few things you can do. Make sure of your startup disk like herb2k said. Also reset NVRAM and SMC. I did all 3 when I did this Air. I've had no issues.

 

[Spiros Poullos]

They both supports up to 4TB NVMe SSD if their BootRom is at least MBP121.0171.B00 (for the 13" models) or MBP114.0177.B00 (for the 15" models).
The Retina 15" mid 2015 supports 4x lanes PCIe 3.0 speed eg. up to 3000MB/s. The early 2015 Retina 13" supports 4x lanes PCIe 2.0 speed.
They do both natively support hibernation on NVMe SSD

• MacBook Pro Retina 13" early 2015 (MacBookPro12,1)
• MacBook Pro Retina 15" mid 2015 (MacBookPro11,4-11,5)

Hi guys! This is my first post here and I would appreciate your help!

I read carefully the first post.

It was all clear but maybe I have an issue with my boot rom version.

Is this boot rom ok: 162.0.0.0.0 ?

Has anyone tried this ssd?

My Specs are:

MacBookPro11,3 Retina 15" Late 2013 DG
16GB RAM
i7 @ 2.3Ghz
System Version: macOS 10.13.6 (17G14033)
Boot ROM Version: 162.0.0.0.0

Thank you in advance!

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Hi guys! This is my first post here and I would appreciate your help!

I read carefully the first post.

It was all clear but maybe I have an issue with my boot rom version.

Is this boot rom ok: 162.0.0.0.0 ?

Has anyone tried this ssd?

My Specs are:

MacBookPro11,3 Retina 15" Late 2013 DG
16GB RAM
i7 @ 2.3Ghz
System Version: macOS 10.13.6 (17G14033)
Boot ROM Version: 162.0.0.0.0

Thank you in advance!

Your BootRom is ok.

I personally use Silicon Power 512 and 1tb in two of my macs: Macbook Air Early 2015 and Macbook Pro Mid 2014 (1tb).
After 6 months, I had no issues so far.

Now, I am considering the Silicon Power 2TB myself to put in my Macbook Pro mid 2014 (and move the 1 tb to my Air). But, as no one reported back here about the Silicon Power, and many people are talking about the ADATA 2TB (just look at two or three tabs back), and because they are at the same price on Amazon.ca, I am still undecided.

If you buy the Silicon 2TB, please report back about the results.

Thanks

 

[saintmylife]

Hi, just found this thread
I need help with my rMBP 13" 2015.

After following this thread,
the recommanded upgrade for my mbp is Adata sx8200 pro,
but, what about Adata sx6000 lite ?

I think the speed will be ok for mbp bandwith,
i dont need upgraded speed, just want to upgrade my storage ( mine is 128gb)

How about that ? or just stick to sx8200 pro ?

Thanks for advice.

 

[Spiros Poullos]

Your BootRom is ok.

I personally use Silicon Power 512 and 1tb in two of my macs: Macbook Air Early 2015 and Macbook Pro Mid 2014 (1tb).
After 6 months, I had no issues so far.

Now, I am considering the Silicon Power 2TB myself to put in my Macbook Pro mid 2014 (and move the 1 tb to my Air). But, as no one reported back here about the Silicon Power, and many people are talking about the ADATA 2TB (just look at two or three tabs back), and because they are at the same price on Amazon.ca, I am still undecided.

If you buy the Silicon 2TB, please report back about the results.

Thanks

Ok thank you very much!

How about the Sintech Adapter?
Which one should I get?
The long one or the short one ?

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Hi, just found this thread
I need help with my rMBP 13" 2015.

After following this thread,
the recommanded upgrade for my mbp is Adata sx8200 pro,
but, what about Adata sx6000 lite ?

I think the speed will be ok for mbp bandwith,
i dont need upgraded speed, just want to upgrade my storage ( mine is 128gb)

How about that ? or just stick to sx8200 pro ?

Thanks for advice.

On Amazon.ca, the SX6000 1Tb Lite is around $30 less expensive than the SX8200 pro 1Tb.

I would buy the SX8200 pro:

1- price is almost the same;
2- speeds are doubled;
3- due to higher speeds, the possibility to use it for other computers purchased in the future;
4- When I updated, I got doubled speeds (I have the Silicon Power 1tb). Because doubled speeds are the theoretical limit on the SX6000 Lite, you will probably get less.

 

[otosan]

Hi, just found this thread
I need help with my rMBP 13" 2015.

After following this thread,
the recommanded upgrade for my mbp is Adata sx8200 pro,
but, what about Adata sx6000 lite ?

I think the speed will be ok for mbp bandwith,
i dont need upgraded speed, just want to upgrade my storage ( mine is 128gb)

How about that ? or just stick to sx8200 pro ?

Thanks for advice.

SX6000 lite is using realtek controller, which in my experience has lesser performance and consistency in write speed. And it's idle power usage is quite high as well.

SX8200 pro is jack of all trade. Not the fastest, but fastest you can get for the price. Not the coolest, but aint too hot as well.

With the price gap of those is two only $13 , unless you are really short in budget, SX8200 is a no brainer

 

[mo5214]

Thanks for trying.
What error was that. Is it command not found?

I'm also including the steps I took to install it:
(I just did to today on a MBA running Catalina.)

1. cd into folder you expanded after download.
2. sudo make
3. sudo make install
4. ln -s /usr/local/sbin/lspci /usr/local/bin/lspci

Weird thing is. somehow the terminal is not looking in /usr/local/sbin for executables by default. Weird.

So what I did (step 4) is add a symlink from there to to /usr/local/bin. (Note that if you want to use setpci, and update-pciids, you will have to repeat the process for those executables as well.

After that you should be able to call it no problem.

Note that I use -vvv argument for lspci (as in $ sudo lspci -vvv)

Technically you can edit your .bashrc (or .zshrc) add where shell look for executables. But I'm too lazy to look up how to do it atm. (Or just plain stupid moving them to /usr/local/bin, which is arguably a better solution in retrospect)

Please let me know if it works.

Fun fact: I can never make sense of ioreg output. Even when using ioregexplorer. It's sooo confusing to read.

@macpro_mid2014 did you get it to work?

 

[Audit13]

Ok thank you very much!

How about the Sintech Adapter?
Which one should I get?
The long one or the short one ?

I have always used the short adapter with no problems. Using the long adapter with a drive with memory chips on both sides may not fit properly.

 

[macpro_mid2014]

@macpro_mid2014 did you get it to work?

Nope:

% sudo nvram boot-args='debug=0x144'
Password:
nvram: Error setting variable - 'boot-args': (iokit/common) not permitted
%

I think I need to reboot in recovery mode (or something else). I will try during the weekend because I use the computer for work, and nothing can go wrong during weekdays.

 

[mo5214]

Nope:

% sudo nvram boot-args='debug=0x144'
Password:
nvram: Error setting variable - 'boot-args': (iokit/common) not permitted
%

I think I need to reboot in recovery mode (or something else). I will try during the weekend because I use the computer for work, and nothing can go wrong during weekdays.

Oh ok. I think I know why. I have SIP disabled on mine. Looking forward to your results. And thanks.

 

[MauriceG]

Can someone tell me what SSD m2 nvme will run in a 2015 Macbook Pro, and also which ones won't give sleep issues ?

Mbp pro 2015 13” : Intel 660p 2 GB. Looks like nvmefix is working. But only after a hibernate/sleep (the very low power mode). Very strange.

 

[herb2k]

Mbp pro 2015 13” : Intel 660p 2 GB. Looks like nvmefix is working. But only after a hibernate/sleep (the very low power mode). Very strange.

Intel 660p doesn't support APST properly (despite NVMeFix saying it's working). I had the 512gb model and same issue... power consumption often higher than expected.

 

[Maglalangfrancis]

What do you guys thinks of this one?
R-2000mb/s
W-1600mb/s

 

[Macbookprodude]

What do you guys thinks of this one?
R-2000mb/s
W-1600mb/s

Yes and Yes.. they all work in the 2015.

 

[Jedi82]

Hello! I have your exact same mbp and I would like to ask you if you can post here a speed benchmark and if have notice some hot temperatures on the keyboard I mean when you use the laptop the temp go very high. Also I never had problems when you close the lid and reopen it?
Is it then worth to upgrade? I did like one month ago but then return to my old original ssd because I was like not sure in the long run to stay with the new ssd due to temperatures and battery life.

These was my benchmarks at the time:

NEW SSD --> https://prnt.sc/u286q1
OLD MAC ORIGINAL SSD --> https://prnt.sc/u298z7

Howdy all. A hearty thanks to everyone who has posted in this thread! I recently replaced the 500Gb Apple SSD on my late 2013 15" MBP. Thanks to the bounteous information and comparison charts of maxthackray and others, I chose the Sabrent SB-Rocket-1TB SSD in conjunction with Sintech NGFF adapter.

Installation was easy and I was able to restore from backup without needing to update firmware. I've been running for a little over a month with success.

The Problem: There's one issue I'm experiencing - when the battery drains down and the MB goes dark, I connect the power cord, press the Power button, and get the black screen of death. To fix it, I hold down the Power button until the MB shuts off, press Power to turn it on, then hear two boot up chimes and the login screen presents.

I've reset PRAM/NVRAM and the SMC numerous times, yet the issue persists. Is this part of the hibernation issue? The MB sleeps all the time and wakes without issue. This never happened with the factory SSD - I'd connect the cord, press Power, and the machine simply woke right where it left off.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it, in fact, part of the hibernation issue? If not, is there a fix?

I eagerly await input!

Late 2013 15" MBP running High Sierra

 

[MauriceG]

Intel 660p doesn't support APST properly (despite NVMeFix saying it's working). I had the 512gb model and same issue... power consumption often higher than expected.

Ok, foolish me. I think I figured out why I assumed that NVMEfix didn’t function properly.
First of all I updated the firmware of my Intel 660p from version 002c to 004c. According to the release notes that shouldn’t have any impact on power management, so you don’t have to do that.
Next I realized that I unintentionally measured with battery power and with power adapter connected (!), that might explain my strange observations.
So I measured again with iStat menus. Power adapter connected: 0.18 Ampere (@3.3volts) when the SSD is idle. When operating on battery: 0.04 Ampere (about 132 milliWatts, thats peanuts). Conclusion: NVMEfix works (best?) with battery power. And that’s exactly what we need. So please make sure you verify the effectiveness of NVMEfix while running on battery power.

configuration:MBP 2015, 13” , macOS 10.15.7
Disclaimer: don’t know how reliable the measurements with iStat menus are.

 

[saintmylife]

On Amazon.ca, the SX6000 1Tb Lite is around $30 less expensive than the SX8200 pro 1Tb.

I would buy the SX8200 pro:

1- price is almost the same;
2- speeds are doubled;
3- due to higher speeds, the possibility to use it for other computers purchased in the future;
4- When I updated, I got doubled speeds (I have the Silicon Power 1tb). Because doubled speeds are the theoretical limit on the SX6000 Lite, you will probably get less.

SX6000 lite is using realtek controller, which in my experience has lesser performance and consistency in write speed. And it's idle power usage is quite high as well.

SX8200 pro is jack of all trade. Not the fastest, but fastest you can get for the price. Not the coolest, but aint too hot as well.

With the price gap of those is two only $13 , unless you are really short in budget, SX8200 is a no brainer

Allright then.
ill stick to the sx8200pro

Thanks for replying my question

 

[Audit13]

What do you guys thinks of this one?
R-2000mb/s
W-1600mb/s

I would still buy an NVMe drive and adapter. This way, the NVMe drive can easily be re-used in another Mac or Windows computer.

 

[Shrimply Pibbles]

Taking a closer look at my NVMe express device tree it looks like my Sabrent stick is already running the Phison 12.3 firmware. I guess it shipped like that.

Hiya frogfeet. How can you tell the firmware from the tree? I don't see anything regarding Phison or firmware.

 

[otosan]

Hello! I have your exact same mbp and I would like to ask you if you can post here a speed benchmark and if have notice some hot temperatures on the keyboard I mean when you use the laptop the temp go very high. Also I never had problems when you close the lid and reopen it?
Is it then worth to upgrade? I did like one month ago but then return to my old original ssd because I was like not sure in the long run to stay with the new ssd due to temperatures and battery life.

These was my benchmarks at the time:

NEW SSD --> https://prnt.sc/u286q1
OLD MAC ORIGINAL SSD --> https://prnt.sc/u298z7

I think big question is,

what SSD did you use ? Because that "new ssd" benchmark is terribly slow in term of write speed as well.

2013 retina should be able to pull a 1200-1300Mb/s write easily, been installing dozen of NVME ssd on that model, and all perform in that range of speed, and Read should be even higher.

as for temp, it would be normal to see 1-3° higher temp, since the throughput also much higher than original. (Your original ssd is terribly slow as well for a PCI, with only 560 Mb/s it barely better than SATA)

so i think something is wrong with your macbook overall performance. Have you consider to repaste your cpu thermal paste ? Or cleaning your fan ?

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Oh ok. I think I know why. I have SIP disabled on mine. Looking forward to your results. And thanks.

Hi,

It did not work:

- booted in Recovery Mode (Command+R)
- added boot-args=0x144
-disabled SIP (csrutil disable)
-rebooted
-tested lscpi
- got the same message as before

I'm sorry about that. The same post that suggested using ioreg mentioned that this method doesn't work anymore.

Are you using Catalina?

I'll try again.

EDITED:

It worked now:

 

[herb2k]

Ok, foolish me. I think I figured out why I assumed that NVMEfix didn’t function properly.
First of all I updated the firmware of my Intel 660p from version 002c to 004c. According to the release notes that shouldn’t have any impact on power management, so you don’t have to do that.
Next I realized that I unintentionally measured with battery power and with power adapter connected (!), that might explain my strange observations.
So I measured again with iStat menus. Power adapter connected: 0.18 Ampere (@3.3volts) when the SSD is idle. When operating on battery: 0.04 Ampere (about 132 milliWatts, thats peanuts). Conclusion: NVMEfix works (best?) with battery power. And that’s exactly what we need. So please make sure you verify the effectiveness of NVMEfix while running on battery power.

configuration:MBP 2015, 13” , macOS 10.15.7
Disclaimer: don’t know how reliable the measurements with iStat menus are.

Interesting. On my tests, the Intel 660p never went below 0.16A (using iStat menus). This was both with the 002c and 004c firmware versions.

I was reading on the PineBook wiki that the 512GB models of the Intel 660p (which mine was) didn't have functioning ASPT or power management - that may be why your 2TB model works well.

Glad it works for you!

 

[MauriceG]

Interesting. On my tests, the Intel 660p never went below 0.16A (using iStat menus). This was both with the 002c and 004c firmware versions.

I was reading on the PineBook wiki that the 512GB models of the Intel 660p (which mine was) didn't have functioning ASPT or power management - that may be why your 2TB model works well.

Glad it works for you!

Remarkeble. Neverless 0.16 is (compared to other brands) still low. I selected the 660p because of the low price and low energy usage long before NVMEfix became available. Did you disabled csrutil? And also installed lilu?

(added later)
You are referring to the Pine (64?)wiki pages. According to these pages my 2GB also wouldn’t support APTS (on a Pine). But there are many other SSD models that wouldn’t support power management on the Pine. Why are you referring to the Pine? Isn’t it a Pine64 issue? Isn’t the controller on the 512GB version equal to that the 2 GB version?

 

[Shrimply Pibbles]

I stumbled upon this thread earlier today and I’m very tempted to upgrade my late 2013 15” MacBook Pro. Before going through with this, I have two questions:

1. I understand that I’ll have to patch the EFI using the Korean J6100 adaptor. How do OS updates work after patching? From what I’ve read, I’ll be able to update as normal, but the only difference will be that I won’t receive EFI updates. I also found that you can install Mac OS to an external drive and update on there, which will update the EFI. But if I do this, will it then be necessary to re-flash the EFI to keep hibernation working?
2. It seems like the Sabrent Rocket is the best choice, so I will be going with this. There are apparently 2 versions of the Sintech adaptor: long and short. The long one seems more reliable to me, but is it physically compatible with the Sabrent, i.e. will it fit?

On a side note: I found a post by DutchGuy Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe. It doesn’t look like the steps worked on Mojave, but what about installing High Sierra on an external drive and then following the instructions in the StackExchange comment at

(https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...use-of-a-sintech-adapter#comment444229_333495)

Basically, just running
/usr/libexec/efiupdater -p /path/to/EFIPayloads --force-update
with the patched file in an installation of High Sierra on an external drive.


Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

Howdy le9508. I used the Sintech long adapter with a Sabrent Rocket 1Tb. It works just dandy. Currently running High Sierra on an 11,3 with EFI version 169.0.0.0.0. So far, I've had no issues except the hibernation black screen of death when the battery runs down. A little Terminal code will take care of that.