Hi guys,
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone that has contributed to this post thus far. It's definitely been helpful, which has made the upgrade of my 2014 256GB rMBP 13" a bliss. I have been waiting a few months to add yet another comment to this post, but I finally thought it was time to do a little review.
So I went out and bought the 2TB Sabrent Rocket, and everything has been working pretty well for the past half-year or so. I have bought a new battery and a long AliExpress adapter in advance and I got a CH341a programmer with J6100 cable too. The battery was a pain in the rear to install, but it's not impossible. This all ended up being quite expensive, the total being 363,19 euros all inclusive. I went over a few iterations of boot ROM, and I can confirm that it'll update with or without the original SSD.
I patched the boot ROM to address the hibernation issue with great success (kudos to CMD-Q), and it actually was pretty interesting to do so. After that, I set the hibernate mode to 25 to reduce power consumption during sleep. BootCamp hasn't been an issue for me either, but you have to take some extra precautions during the installation. I'd like to refer to an earlier comment for anyone who's having issues with the installation of Windows. I wasn't able to open up the BootCamp control panel in Windows, but this can be easily fixed by taking these steps. Apple has since updated the BootCamp drivers to resolve this issue, though.
I've almost had this setup for a year now, and it's been running pretty smoothly. The speeds are great with the x4 PCIe link! Up until this point I've only had maybe 2 kernel panics related to the NVMe drive, which means it's quite reliable considering I'm a pretty intensive user. The only thing I have run into is that the battery drain is horrible. I used to have about 5 to 6 hours of battery life during normal operation, which has now been reduced to 1 to 2 hours; which is very bad if you'd ask me.
If there is a comprehensive way of measuring and reducing battery drain I'd be glad to hear about it, so please let me know. I have heard of NVMeFix but have been unable to install the kernel extension (SIP is disabled). I'd be very happy to have a fix for this.
As a side note, there's an alternative to the OWC adapter for your original drive available on AliExpress which is pretty decent and has USB-C. Read and write speed weren't anything to write home about (250 Tx 300 Rx), but I thought I'd mention it anyway because of its convenience.
But anyway, big up to everyone and keep it going!
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone that has contributed to this post thus far. It's definitely been helpful, which has made the upgrade of my 2014 256GB rMBP 13" a bliss. I have been waiting a few months to add yet another comment to this post, but I finally thought it was time to do a little review.
So I went out and bought the 2TB Sabrent Rocket, and everything has been working pretty well for the past half-year or so. I have bought a new battery and a long AliExpress adapter in advance and I got a CH341a programmer with J6100 cable too. The battery was a pain in the rear to install, but it's not impossible. This all ended up being quite expensive, the total being 363,19 euros all inclusive. I went over a few iterations of boot ROM, and I can confirm that it'll update with or without the original SSD.
I patched the boot ROM to address the hibernation issue with great success (kudos to CMD-Q), and it actually was pretty interesting to do so. After that, I set the hibernate mode to 25 to reduce power consumption during sleep. BootCamp hasn't been an issue for me either, but you have to take some extra precautions during the installation. I'd like to refer to an earlier comment for anyone who's having issues with the installation of Windows. I wasn't able to open up the BootCamp control panel in Windows, but this can be easily fixed by taking these steps. Apple has since updated the BootCamp drivers to resolve this issue, though.
I've almost had this setup for a year now, and it's been running pretty smoothly. The speeds are great with the x4 PCIe link! Up until this point I've only had maybe 2 kernel panics related to the NVMe drive, which means it's quite reliable considering I'm a pretty intensive user. The only thing I have run into is that the battery drain is horrible. I used to have about 5 to 6 hours of battery life during normal operation, which has now been reduced to 1 to 2 hours; which is very bad if you'd ask me.
If there is a comprehensive way of measuring and reducing battery drain I'd be glad to hear about it, so please let me know. I have heard of NVMeFix but have been unable to install the kernel extension (SIP is disabled). I'd be very happy to have a fix for this.
As a side note, there's an alternative to the OWC adapter for your original drive available on AliExpress which is pretty decent and has USB-C. Read and write speed weren't anything to write home about (250 Tx 300 Rx), but I thought I'd mention it anyway because of its convenience.
But anyway, big up to everyone and keep it going!
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