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

[juank_m10]

Yesterday, I've updated my MacBook Pro Retina 13", late 2013 from Catalina to Big Sur. Seems like hibernation is finally working with my Samsung MZ-V7E1T0BW 970 EVO 1 TB NVMe M.2 and a NGFF M.2 nvme SSD Adapter from Sintech.

Great. Anyone else has tried with the last Big Sur update? I Have a MacBook Air early 2014 and wanna jump to a NVME SSD

 

[Rx39]

I have a 12,1 too. You won't have any issues.

Bootrom 191.0.0.0 is the correct version for Catalina (released before Nov 2020) and will accept updates to newer BootROM versions without the original SSD installed. I have updated mine to Big Sur betas and 11.1 several times now with no issues.

You can re-install the old SSD anytime you'd like, all of your data will be intact.

Time machine works well, but can be slow. Make sure to install the same version of MacOS that you have to the new SSD before running Time Machine to restore and you're good to go.

Thank you! I’ve been doing further reading still, but I feel a little overwhelmed. I have some questions still, they may be a bit “entry level”. I hope it is not an inconvenience.

My machine is MacBook Pro 12,1, (early 2015) 256GB. Running Big Sur 11.1.
The SSD I want is this exact one: Sabrent 2TB Rocket

Questions

• Will this Sabrent Rocket more or less run as reliably as the stock SSD? I read so much about Kernel panics, upgrading the OS. Monitoring stats, amperes, battery, trim. It sounds like a handful. If I can just run a diagnostic after the installation to pinpoint a specific issue that’s OK, but I don’t want to do it all the time.
• Battery drain is important to me: is the Sabrent really that much more power hungry than the stock SSD? The first post says not, but it’s sometimes disputed. Do I need to run Nvmefix and kex after installing, to improve energy performance? I have Big Sur already.
• If I migrate the old drive’s data to the new with CCC/SuperDuper, can I still resume making backups with my usual TimeMachine external hdd?

Thank you for your time and effort

 

[terry.mac]

Hello,

This chain has great details on upgrading SSD. Thank you.

Given the information, I want to see if I get the instructions correct.

w/ MBP 2015
1. Upgrade it to BigSur so it has both the BootRom and OS update.
2. Get the sintech + NVME drive (planning to get the Sabrent Rocket, will this cause heating issue?)
3. Reinstall OS (will internet recovery works or I need to create a bootable USB)?

 

[saintmylife]

Quick question..

MBP 13" 2015
Mojave ( Bootroom 425 )

Want upgrade a 512 ssd..
I have this question before, but, i can afford it this month..

The adata xpg 8200 pro is likely rare on my country (on december).
I got a recomendation from seller, the Silicon Power P34A60 (SM2263XT).

What about that ? or any recomendation for 512 gb ssd ? Im need larger storage, speed isn't my priority

 

[kvic]

If there is interest from this thread, I'm happy to upload the binary and prepare a user guide in the coming days, and make them available for download on my github.

Thanks for the lack of skepticism, and thank you vm for the few brave souls (@vince22 @Stratus Fear @quaresma @Huberer @herb2k) who responded and/or reacted to show your interest. I've prepared a user guide, and uploaded the binary. Preparing for potentially a large crowd of users (given the popularity of this thread and MacRumors in general) takes more time than I would want to admit. Hopefully everyone will have a smooth ride.

I've updated post #7942. Please go there for details.

Would love to hear back how good or bad SsdPmEnabler do on your machines.

 

[MauriceG]

Hey @MauriceG, I didn't see more exchanges your issue on the last two pages. If you had a 2013-2014 MacBookPro, I could offer one explanation: The SSD from the 2015 MBA would be a reason for unsuccessful firmware update attempts. I am not 100% confident on all the details, but the SSD that came with my MacBook11,1 is a Samsung-based PCIe AHCI SSD, and the SSDs in the 2015 models, like the MacBookAir7,2, is a Samsung-based PCIe NVMe SSD (Apple SSUBX?). Firmware upgrades will not work with an NVMe drive present if you are not past the 162.0.0.0.0 or so firmware revision on the MacBookPro11,1. Anyway, fingers crossed you can solve your issue!

Thank you for your reply👍🏼. It didn’t work. I have to make an arrangement with my daughter, her MBA is running with my “old” 500 GB Apple SSD. It’s filled for about 70% 🥴. She visits us with Christmas. To be continued...

 

[herb2k]

Thanks for the lack of skepticism, and thank you vm for the few brave souls (@vince22 @Stratus Fear @quaresma @Huberer @herb2k) who responded and/or reacted to show your interest. I've prepared a user guide, and uploaded the binary. Preparing for potentially a large crowd of users (given the popularity of this thread and MacRumors in general) takes more time than I would want to admit. Hopefully everyone will have a smooth ride.

I've updated post #7942. Please go there for details.

Would love to hear back how good or bad SsdPmEnabler do on your machines.

Thanks @kvic ! Just installed, so far, an improvement... (Before, lowest my Seagate Barracuda 510 would do was 0.14A, now it's going as low as 0.05A on idle) Will keep an eye on the stats and battery duration and post back.

 

[kvic]

@herb2k very nice & thanks

0.05A! OMG. that's the territory of the original AppleSSD that came in MacBookPro12,1.

From 0.14A to 0.05A is like ~64% reduction in idle power. I've prepared myself for a range to expect. This is totally mind boggling.

 

[blackfang]

Hey guys,

I just upgraded my MBPR 15" 2014 to Sabrent NVME w/ Sintech adapter but I'm having troubles with the fans, on light use they just spin much higher than before.

I did PRAM + SMC reset many times.

I did a fresh install on mac os Big Sur on the new drive.

I never checked my temps before but now the fans would spin up sooner on opened just a mail, safari browser with 3-5 tabs and whatsapp desktop. In activity monitor idle cpu is 95-85% most of the time.

What I noticed odd is that Platform controller hub die stays between 65-69 degrees, I don't know where is this sensor? Its on the motherboard but I couldn't find on google its position...

second print screen you can see nvme ssd temps around 30 degrees while using the laptop lightly.

Any help? I'm desperate, and I don't wanna keep it to manually always at a fan speed because its not ok in case I'm using the CPU higher.

 

[oryan_dunn]

I wrote the KEXT from scratch, and don't plan to publish source code for the time being.

Out of curiosity, why don't you plan on releasing the source?

 

[Stratus Fear]

Like some of you in this thread, these new & modern SSDs not showing the low idle power as advertised have been bugging me since day one after putting a SN550 1TB inside my family's 2015 13-inch MBP a month or two ago. We tried some suggestions from the web and none worked in MacBook's.

Curiosity has me digging deeper on and off in the past weeks to a point I felt like I probably should write my own KEXT (SsdPmEnabler.kext) in attempt to solve the problem. It's a success! Our SN550 1TB previously has an idle current of 0.26A. Now it idles at 0.16A. See attached screenshot from a test session.

This KEXT will enable power saving on the SSD/PCIe socket inside MacBook's. At the moment it's tested only on 2015 13-inch MBP + SN550 1TB. The design is generic enough to work on other MacBooks and SSDs of concern to this thread. I believe all of them should see some drop in idle power though it's difficult to predict to what extent.

I wrote the KEXT from scratch, and don't plan to publish source code for the time being. If there is interest from this thread, I'm happy to upload the binary and prepare a user guide in the coming days, and make them available for download on my github.

Cheers

EDIT:

SsdPmEnabler.kext is uploaded to my GitHub. Please follow this User Guide for install/update/removal/troubleshooting. The actual binary for download is on this page.

So, I have the ADATA SX8200 Pro, for which NVMeFix doesn't usually appear to have much if any effect, unfortunately. Usually the lowest I see is .17A-.2A, but with your kext installed, it idles down to .1A, which is a definite improvement!

 

[otosan]

@herb2k very nice & thanks

0.05A! OMG. that's the territory of the original AppleSSD that came in MacBookPro12,1.

From 0.14A to 0.05A is like ~64% reduction in idle power. I've prepared myself for a range to expect. This is totally mind boggling.

You should have a nice seat in sillicon valley my man. Great works !

 

[VeganExplorer]

I'm looking at upgrading the 512GB to 2TB on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-Inch, Mid-2015).

I already have everything I need (Sintech adapter, tools, Big Sur on a bootable USB drive), but the nVME drive.

Based upon the OP, it seems the ADATA SX8200 Pro or Sabrent Rocket seem to be the way to go. Both are currently the same price (give or take) on Amazon, but which is the more ideal one to go with? Is there a nVME drive I should be looking at instead?

 

[edevmon]

Side note: since I already had the MacBook open, I took the time to change the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU dies. I used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut (beware of the Liquid Metal one, as it is corrosive and conductive) but I don't know at what temperature the CPU was running before, so it's hard for me to say if I put the paste right or how much a difference it makes. It's around 50ºC now on normal load (web browsing, telegram, mail, iTunes).
Could anyone post his reads please? I'm using iStats and I take the CPU Proximity sensor as a reference.

These are the readings I get from iStat Menus after a cold boot when idle on a rMBP 2014 13'' (i5 2.6Ghz, 8GB). What do you think about CPU temperature and SSD consumption?

 

[kvic]

Is there a nVME drive I should be looking at instead?

For all new buyers, you have to consider idle/read/write power consumptions in your pick. Idle power alone, the current best pick seems to be Seagate Barracuda 510. If you could wait, people perhaps will post more test data on different models in the coming days.

 

[VeganExplorer]

For all new buyers, you have to consider idle/read/write power consumptions in your pick. Idle power alone, the current best pick seems to be Seagate Barracuda 510. If you could wait, people perhaps will post more test data on different models in the coming days.

Yeah, I'm not in an immediate rush and I'm okay with waiting for more test data. Is there a post / link for more updated data than what's in OP, especially how it compares to "newer" models?

Looking into the 510, the only downside is that the maximum capacity is 1TB. Ideally, I'd like to upgrade to more than double the storage that's in my current model.

 

[quaresma]

Like some of you in this thread, these new & modern SSDs not showing the low idle power as advertised have been bugging me since day one after putting a SN550 1TB inside my family's 2015 13-inch MBP a month or two ago. We tried some suggestions from the web and none worked in MacBook's.

Curiosity has me digging deeper on and off in the past weeks to a point I felt like I probably should write my own KEXT (SsdPmEnabler.kext) in attempt to solve the problem. It's a success! Our SN550 1TB previously has an idle current of 0.26A. Now it idles at 0.16A. See attached screenshot from a test session.

This KEXT will enable power saving on the SSD/PCIe socket inside MacBook's. At the moment it's tested only on 2015 13-inch MBP + SN550 1TB. The design is generic enough to work on other MacBooks and SSDs of concern to this thread. I believe all of them should see some drop in idle power though it's difficult to predict to what extent.

I wrote the KEXT from scratch, and don't plan to publish source code for the time being. If there is interest from this thread, I'm happy to upload the binary and prepare a user guide in the coming days, and make them available for download on my github.

Cheers

EDIT:

SsdPmEnabler.kext is uploaded to my GitHub. Please follow this User Guide for install/update/removal/troubleshooting. The actual binary for download is on this page.

Just came here to say THANK YOU!! I just installed the kext with great results.

 

[vince22]

@herb2k very nice & thanks

0.05A! OMG. that's the territory of the original AppleSSD that came in MacBookPro12,1.

From 0.14A to 0.05A is like ~64% reduction in idle power. I've prepared myself for a range to expect. This is totally mind boggling.

Hi Kvic, my Sabrent rocket got some amazing results too as low as 0.03A, looks very promising indeed. thanks.

 

[spockers]

Are there any tutorials someone could link please for installing a new ssd for Big Sur? I understand there have been bootrom changes so an updated tutorial would be appreciated

 

[mdgm]

The main change is that the bootrom version you want to look for in System Information prior to doing the SSD swap is different.

You should plug your laptop into power and install the latest Big Sur with the existing SSD installed (latest security updates with Mojave and Catalina should also get the new boot rom updates so alternatively update to the latest security update on one of those OSes).

With the updated bootrom hibernation should work whether or not you use NVMeFix. You may wish to shorten the time from sleeping to hibernating to reduce battery usage.

If your boot rom is recent enough you should be able to update it even with a 3rd party SSD installed.

With the updated bootrom hibernation should work properly whether or not you use NVMeFix. You may wish to shorten the time from sleeping to hibernating to reduce battery usage.

 

[terrazoids]

For all new buyers, you have to consider idle/read/write power consumptions in your pick. Idle power alone, the current best pick seems to be Seagate Barracuda 510. If you could wait, people perhaps will post more test data on different models in the coming days.

Hi everyone, I'm new on here but have been lurking and studying this thread for some time. I'm excited about Kvic's kext so I'm trying it on my Macbook pro 11,5. Thats the 15in from mid-2015. I'm also running an Intel 660p 2TB with Big Sur. Unfortunately Terminal verification is telling me that your kext is failing to load on my system. I believe its installed correctly, and I've verified that.

With the 660p I've never seen it go below .17A in istats, thats with the NVMEfix as well, which I currently don't have installed.

So could it be to do with the fact that this Macbook had a slightly newer PCIe system than the other laptops pre 2015? Or is it that Intel 660p doesn't play nice? Anybody else got this running on a mid 2015 MBP?

Kvic, thanks for your effort on this, I think it could be a bit of a breakthrough on this issue that will make a lot of people happy.

 

[kvic]

@terrazoids Good to hear from ppl speaking up.

I don't have 2015 15-inch MBP hardware. So I'll never know without tests. As far as I checked, this MBP should be similar to others except with a faster bus.

You sound like quite proficient in tinkering. Just to rule it out..have you follow the User Guide carefully? Have you clicked the "Allow" button? Have you rebooted right after that? I assume all yes. Then could you post the output of "log show" as per the User Guide?

I assume you meant to say you didn't see "Enabled PCIe PM on SSD" as per the User Guide when you said the kext failed to load. If that's the case, then maybe it's possible not compatible with your hardware. It's very unlikely though. I run out of ideas for the moment.

EDIT:

When everything seems not looking right, perform the "Update" steps. Just pretend you're updating the same kext.

If this resolves the issue, then most likely people have messed up some steps by not following the User Guide..

 

[herb2k]

Hi everyone, I'm new on here but have been lurking and studying this thread for some time. I'm excited about Kvic's kext so I'm trying it on my Macbook pro 11,5. Thats the 15in from mid-2015. I'm also running an Intel 660p 2TB with Big Sur. Unfortunately Terminal verification is telling me that your kext is failing to load on my system. I believe its installed correctly, and I've verified that.

With the 660p I've never seen it go below .17A in istats, thats with the NVMEfix as well, which I currently don't have installed.

So could it be to do with the fact that this Macbook had a slightly newer PCIe system than the other laptops pre 2015? Or is it that Intel 660p doesn't play nice? Anybody else got this running on a mid 2015 MBP?

Kvic, thanks for your effort on this, I think it could be a bit of a breakthrough on this issue that will make a lot of people happy.

Might not apply in your case, but when I had an Intel 660p, it didn't reduce power consumption even with NVMeFix. Note, there is a firmware update for the Intel 660p SSD which may help though.

 

[chrickers]

With Bootrom 429 my Macbook Pro 11,1 seems to do fine regarding sleep/hibernation. I only ran into issues with mode 25. Is anybody else experiencing problems with that one?

 

[MauriceG]

Thank you for your reply👍🏼. It didn’t work. I have to make an arrangement with my daughter, her MBA is running with my “old” 500 GB Apple SSD. It’s filled for about 70% 🥴. She visits us with Christmas. To be continued...

Finally🥂🍾🤗. Took the original Apple (rMBP 2015, 13") 500GB SSD out of the MBA 2015 11" of my daughter. Placed it (after about 2 years of separation) back into my rMBP 2015 13", booted without significant problems. Upgraded from Big Sur 11.0.1 to Big Sur 11.1
The boot rom of the rMBP 2015 13" (model 12,1) was upgraded instantly from 186.0.0.0 to 425.0.0.0 (!)
Placed the 500 GB SSD back in the MBA of my daughter, all still worked well. Reinstalled my 2 TB Intel 660p NVMe SSD in my rMBP 2015 13" (with short Sintech adapter). Checked SSD power usage when running on battery. Enabled Intel Power Gadget first (only required for CPU readings). Booted. After some minutes the idle current for the SSD dropped to 0.00A. Measured with iStat Menus version 6.51 on battery power.
Conclusion: power managent now works, without nvmefix/lilu. Csrutil is now fully enabled.
p.s. I'm really relieved that I didn't first had to install lower versions of MacOS to move to the newer version of the boot rom. Because then I would have to wipe the (Big Sur 11.01) SSD of my daughter's MBA. Backup/restore isn't yet 100% OK with Big Sur (you cannot yet make a clone and restore the clone, it's not yet fully supported by SuperDuper and CCC).
P.s. (more): according to Intel data sheet the idle power usage is 0.04W. Devided by 3.3V that results in 0.01A (rounded). So it appears that iStat Menus has a measure error (because it shows 0.00A)