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

[kvic]

Time to contribute to this thread. Just upgraded my Late 2013 15" MBP 500GB SSD to the SanDisk Ultra 1TB SSD. Also upgraded to Big Sur at the same time. Relatively straightforward install and great upgrade for only a $100.

SanDisk Ultra 1TB is basically a WD SN550 1TB in markets where SanDisk brand still enjoys extreme popularity. After installing ssdpmEnabler, people could enjoy 40% reduction in idle power. See post #7942 and discussion started from there. This put you in the teritory of premium SSDs where I believe people in this thread have been enjoying in the past two years or so.

Thanks a lot ! I’ve tried your ssdpmEnabler and it just works. I’ve got even lower power consumption in comparison with nvmefix kext used on Catalina.
So there is no need anymore to have lilu and nvmefix installed ?
What’s the difference between ssdpmEnabler and nvmefix ?
btw: first post in this thread really needs to be updated.

My research on our 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro + WD SN550 1TB running Catalina 10.15.7 shows the following idle power consumptions:

• 0.26A stock
• 0.23A with Lilu & NvmeFix
• 0.16A with ssdpmEnabler
• 0.13A with ssdpmEnabler + Lilu & NvmeFix

So when NvmeFix is ready for Big Sur, some people might enjoy a bit more power saving. For those already very good with ssdpmEnabler perhaps need to prepare for the possible outcome of your SSDs starting to generate electricity.

I like the comment "It just works." Like Apple like Magic.

 

[otosan]

Hello everyone, I hope you had a good Christmas Day 😬
I had a special gift with a new Sn550 for my MBP mid 2014 with Big Sur. Unfortunately, after changing my SSD (and after saving with time machine) my Mac failed to recover my data’s.
I don’t know why but after changing my ssd my Mac turn on with catalina, and when I try to recover with time machine, I have a message with unrecoverable error and security agent.
do you have a solution pleeeeaese ?

What is your data recovery method ?

Best method is installing new OS to the new SSD,

Boot to new system, open Application folder, go to Utilities - Migration Assistant, and use it to restore from your Time Machine backup

 

[tenigmat]

Hi Everyone,

I do have late 2013 MacBook pro with current hard disk is completely damaged ; e.g I got question mark error.

With the unworking MacBook pro , what should I do differently to install a new SSD ?

Unfortunately, I do not have USB stick and not have a MacBook to download and prepare the Bootable USB drive

Can I handle without USB stick? After I plugged in the adapter and SSD can OS be downloaded? Currently, I do have 1-Samsung NVMe 970 EVO 1TB SSD
2-Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card

Thanks a million, Really appreciate for any help and advice
Best Regards,
Tenigmat

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Hi everyone,

hope everyone is in good health.


I just updated my SSD comparison tables with the Crucial P2 and P5.
The Crucial P2 seems very good to me for upgrading any MacBook Air or MacBook Pro retina, thanks to its good performances and low consumption (with Phison E13T and micron TLC)

Also I am very happy with the latests bootroms from Big Sur which officially brought us full NVMe efi support without patching.

 

[VeganExplorer]

Is there an external enclosure (that’s not made by OWC) to put my original 15” (Mid-2015) MBP SSD in? It looks like some files I needed didn’t sync to the cloud, but I’m really not in the mood to take apart the MBP to place the original drive back in.

 

[MauriceG]

Look at AliExpress...

 

[QCassidy352]

I'd just like to say thanks to all who created and contributed to this thread - I've ordered a Sabrent Rocket 512 GB drive and Sintech adapter for my 13" 2015 MBP based on the recommendations in this thread. It'll be replacing the 256 GB drive that came out of my old 13" 2013 MBP (the drive on the 2015 died). Looking forward to the extra space and speed. Thanks again, all.

 

[MauriceG]

Hi everyone,

hope everyone is in good health.


I just updated my SSD comparison tables with the Crucial P2 and P5.
The Crucial P2 seems very good to me for upgrading any MacBook Air or MacBook Pro retina, thanks to its good performances and low consumption (with Phison E13T and micron TLC)

Also I am very happy with the latests bootroms from Big Sur which officially brought us full NVMe efi support without patching.

View attachment 1702190View attachment 1702191View attachment 1702192

Thank you very much for upgrading the tables. Related to the recent boot rom upgrades (that seems to fix the hibernate problem) I have the following question: can anybody confirm or refute my observation that the new (Big Sur 11.1) boot rom now seems to support power management? (rMBP 2015 13” model 12,1 boot rom 425.0.0.0 SSD Intel 660p 2TB, Big Sur 11.1)

 

[terrazoids]

Thank you very much for upgrading the tables. Related to the recent boot rom upgrades (that seems to fix the hibernate problem) I have the following question: can anybody confirm or refute my observation that the new (Big Sur 11.1) boot rom now seems to support power management? (rMBP 2015 13” model 12,1 boot rom 425.0.0.0 SSD Intel 660p 2TB, Big Sur 11.1)

So I’ve been testing out ssdpmenabler by @kvic in the last days. Macbook pro 15 mid-2015 11’5 with the intel 660p ssd 2TB.

• Originally I was on Catalina with Bootrom (194) and saw 660p at .17A and greater.

• I upgraded to Big Sur but my bootrom remained the same. I saw no difference.

• Then I installed ssdpmenabler and the 660p now achieves .06A even on bootrom 194.

• I then reinstalled my original apple ssd and upgraded to Big Sur 11.1. Now my bootrom was updated to the latest (425) on my computer.

• Without any kext installed The 660p was back to .17A as a baseline. I never saw it go below, and my battery run time was about 5 hours, as it had been under catalina.

• Now reinstalling ssdpmenabler kext under 11.1 with the new bootrom, once again brought the 660p down to .06A as a base. Battery life increased from 5 to between 6.30 or 7!

• Since I’ve been using ssdpmenabler, I haven’t noticed any negative effects. Hibernation works, boot camp works, ect.

So what I can conclude, is that at least for my 15 mid 2015 macbook pro, the boot rom makes no difference to the 660p power management. mid-2015’s had no problem with hibernation so I can’t comment on any improvement there.

The only thing which makes a difference to the 660p is ssdpmenabler. And it has essentially restored the original battery life back to my mac. I’m back to almost 7 hours from 5.

• Note: I tried nvmefix and Lilu in catalina on the bootrom 195, and also that had no effect on the Intel 660p. Still a baseline of .17A.

I’d like to shout out a big thanks to @kvic for the ssdpmenabler. Awesome work!

 

[MauriceG]

So I’ve been testing out ssdpmenabler by @kvic in the last days. Macbook pro 15 mid-2015 11’5 with the intel 660p ssd 2TB.

• Originally I was on Catalina with Bootrom (194) and saw 660p at .17A and greater.

• I upgraded to Big Sur but my bootrom remained the same. I saw no difference.

• Then I installed ssdpmenabler and the 660p now achieves .06A even on bootrom 194.

• I then reinstalled my original apple ssd and upgraded to Big Sur 11.1. Now my bootrom was updated to the latest (425) on my computer.

• Without any kext installed The 660p was back to .17A as a baseline. I never saw it go below, and my battery run time was about 5 hours, as it had been under catalina.

• Now reinstalling ssdpmenabler kext under 11.1 with the new bootrom, once again brought the 660p down to .06A as a base. Battery life increased from 5 to between 6.30 or 7!

• Since I’ve been using ssdpmenabler, I haven’t noticed any negative effects. Hibernation works, boot camp works, ect.

So what I can conclude, is that at least for my 15 mid 2015 macbook pro, the boot rom makes no difference to the 660p power management. mid-2015’s had no problem with hibernation so I can’t comment on any improvement there.

The only thing which makes a difference to the 660p is ssdpmenabler. And it has essentially restored the original battery life back to my mac. I’m back to almost 7 hours from 5.

• Note: I tried nvmefix and Lilu in catalina on the bootrom 195, and also that had no effect on the Intel 660p. Still a baseline of .17A.

I’d like to shout out a big thanks to @kvic for the ssdpmenabler. Awesome work!

Thank you for your detailed reply 👍🏼Really weird. I managed to activate PM with rom 186 on Catalina with nvmefix. And without any additional tool on Big Sur with rom 425. Glad you found a solution.

I did upgrade the firmware of the SSD to version 4c . But I remember you did that to. And the update should not affect the Power Management. Mystery remains...

I cannot understand the difference in runtime that you mention. 0.17x3.3=0.561Watt. Let’s assume it’s 0.5 W reduction for idle and the SSD is idle all the time. Than the SSD would, without PM, use 5h x 0.5W = 2.5 Wh more than with PM. The capacity of your MBP (if new) = 74.9 Wh. That’s about 3.3%. Your battery isn’t new, and there will be some minor losses due to lowering the voltage down to 3.3 volt. So let’s round it to 5%. How can this result in a runtime difference of about 90 minutes? I would expect half an hour at most. Another mystery 🥴

 

[Earl Urley]

SsdPmEnabler is very nice, I just installed it over Lilu and NVMeFix.

Before: lowest idle is 0.11A
After: lowest idle is 0.01A

That's a big reduction in idle power!

BTW, that's with an Inland Premium 1 TB SSD, running Phison 12.3 firmware.

Edit: after shutdown and cold reboot, idle draw went from 0.06A to 0.01A.

 

[terrazoids]

Thank you for your detailed reply 👍🏼Really weird. I managed to activate PM with rom 186 on Catalina with nvmefix. And without any additional text file on Big Sur with rom 425. Glad you found a solution. It could be that Intel (silently) made modifications to the 660p. We know that other brands did that....

I did upgrade the firmware of the SSD to version 4c . But I remember you did that to. And the update should not affect the Power Management. Mystery remains...

I cannot understand the difference in runtime that you mention. 0.17x3.3=0.561Watt. Let’s assume it’s 0.5 W reduction for idle and the SSD is idle all the time. Than the SSD would, without PM, use 5h x 0.5W = 2.5 Wh more than with PM. The capacity of your MBP (if new) = 74.9 Wh. That’s about 3.3%. Your battery isn’t new, and there will be some minor losses due to lowering the voltage down to 3.3 volt. So let’s round it to 5%. How can this result in a runtime difference of about 90 minutes? (With PM enabled the MBP uses about 10% of the battery’s capacity per hour). Another mystery 🥴

Yes there are some anomalies here! First of all, under ideal conditions I probably got 5.30 under catalina, now with this combination its most likely 6.30. Turn brightness down a lot, maybe 7. Maybe thats why I got that figure. I was amazed to see it. So lets estimate that the difference is realistically around an hour.

Secondly this mac had a 99.5 wh battery when new. Its over over 500 cycles now so its less than 70 percent of that now. Istats measurements are a little suspicious. The controversy over 0.00A is interesting, because as I said I don't see that reported on my mac ever. Another thing is that Istats reports 'ssd 3.3v' for you. On my mac it merely reports 'ssd', so how can we be sure the ssd voltage is not different for these models? Maybe someone can chime in here who knows for sure.

My only idea for the discrepancy is this. Its possible that Big Sur and its new boot rom are also contributing to better battery life than I was seeing on the Catalina combination. Its highly possible that the intel 660p was a lot 'busier' under catalina regarding power states. It never lowered past .17A, but any disk activity would bring it into the .25-.40A range quite quickly. Now I'm seeing that even with light disk usage the disk remains at .06-.09A. It can write while sipping .06A. It could be that in the activation of power management, the intel 660p becomes efficient for moderate tasks.

While I'm typing this to you now, My mac reports 50% battery and 3.20 left... so looks strong!

Theres a lot of variables here and then theres Istats and its measurements, the intel 660p with hidden manufacturer differences as you suggested. Without detailed knowledge of these computers, the ssd schematics, we're just never going to know for sure.

Consider Clarke's 3rd law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

This computer is just pure magic to me!

 

[MauriceG]

Yes there are some anomalies here! First of all, under ideal conditions I probably got 5.30 under catalina, now with this combination its most likely 6.30. Turn brightness down a lot, maybe 7. Maybe thats why I got that figure. I was amazed to see it. So lets estimate that the difference is realistically around an hour.

Secondly this mac had a 99.5 wh battery when new. Its over over 500 cycles now so its less than 70 percent of that now. Istats measurements are a little suspicious. The controversy over 0.00A is interesting, because as I said I don't see that reported on my mac ever. Another thing is that Istats reports 'ssd 3.3v' for you. On my mac it merely reports 'ssd', so how can we be sure the ssd voltage is not different for these models? Maybe someone can chime in here who knows for sure.

My only idea for the discrepancy is this. Its possible that Big Sur and its new boot rom are also contributing to better battery life than I was seeing on the Catalina combination. Its highly possible that the intel 660p was a lot 'busier' under catalina regarding power states. It never lowered past .17A, but any disk activity would bring it into the .25-.40A range quite quickly. Now I'm seeing that even with light disk usage the disk remains at .06-.09A. It can write while sipping .06A. It could be that in the activation of power management, the intel 660p becomes efficient for moderate tasks.

While I'm typing this to you now, My mac reports 50% battery and 3.20 left... so looks strong!

Theres a lot of variables here and then theres Istats and its measurements, the intel 660p with hidden manufacturer differences as you suggested. Without detailed knowledge of these computers, the ssd schematics, we're just never going to know for sure.

Consider Clarke's 3rd law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

This computer is just pure magic to me!

I overlooked that you are using the 15” model. You have found an effective improvement. That’s what counts! Well done, thank you for sharing this.

You can set the measure rate in iStats. If you set it to the highest, iStat readings will react more responsive to changes in workload (but I think you did enough measuring🤗).

I also noticed less power usage than expected during writes. Might have to do with the special (hughe) cache design with Q models (fast write to cache, slow write from cache to Q cells).
I also wonder what happens if Blackmagic finishes a write cycle and deletes the data. Is (most of) the content removed from the cache (before it is written to the Q cells)? That would mess up our interpretation of speed and dissipation figures.

Added: the 15” 2015 model has different hardware (pci 3.0) and therefore the Apple driver might be different from the 13” model (pci 2.0). So more questions than answers.

 

[crystalwonders]

Is there a way to fix or lessen the battery drain from my MacBook Air after replacing the SSD?

 

[dsduarte]

Hi... does anyone solved the boot loop windows on boot camp?
For me the workaround doesn’t work... I tried Shift + F10 but nothing happen... even with an USB keyboard plugged on. After 3 or 4 restarts windows shows some options but none of them I have access... Windows show a message that I need administrator privilege and there is no administrator account created.
I have a MBA,13 Early 2014 and a NVME HP EX920.

Hi everyone.... can anybody please help me with this?
windowns install crashes and Shift F10 doesn’t work.

 

[Nandmp]

Hi, just wanted to know what’s the best option at the moment. The discussion and the table chart have different results.
I am based in germany so some of the brands have different pricing here.
I am mainly interested in power consumption and performance, Price on all of those is more or less the same here.
I am looking for a 1tb model for my mbp late 2013 retina.
Is a phison e12 still the way to go? Is e12s worse? Is the crucial p2 phison e13t good?

i am a but overwhelmed.
Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Nandmp]

Is there an external enclosure (that’s not made by OWC) to put my original 15” (Mid-2015) MBP SSD in? It looks like some files I needed didn’t sync to the cloud, but I’m really not in the mood to take apart the MBP to place the original drive back in.

Also this?

Inateck mSATA USB 3.0 Aluminium SSD Gehäuse Adapter Case mit USB 3.0 Datenkabel für M50 mSATA SSD

Inateck mSATA USB 3.0 Aluminium SSD Gehäuse Adapter Case mit USB 3.0 Datenkabel für M50 mSATA SSD Unterstützt M50 mSATA SSD (50 * 30 * 4mm); mSATA Schnittstelle, nutzen Sie Ihre mSATA Fesplatten voll aus. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 unterstützt Transferraten bis zu 5GB/S. Die tatsächliche Geschwindigkeit ...

www.amazon.de

 

[Nikoz86]

Hi everyone,

hope everyone is in good health.


I just updated my SSD comparison tables with the Crucial P2 and P5.
The Crucial P2 seems very good to me for upgrading any MacBook Air or MacBook Pro retina, thanks to its good performances and low consumption (with Phison E13T and micron TLC)

Also I am very happy with the latests bootroms from Big Sur which officially brought us full NVMe efi support without patching.

View attachment 1702190View attachment 1702191View attachment 1702192

Hi guys I have a question regarding the Crucial P2. In Manufacturing reference the model is CT500P2SSD8, where I live the model they're selling is CT1000P2SSD8. It is safe to buy or I might run into some compatibility issues? ( I want to install it in a early 2015 macbook pro with Big Sur)

Thanks!

 

[MauriceG]

Also this?

Inateck mSATA USB 3.0 Aluminium SSD Gehäuse Adapter Case mit USB 3.0 Datenkabel für M50 mSATA SSD

Inateck mSATA USB 3.0 Aluminium SSD Gehäuse Adapter Case mit USB 3.0 Datenkabel für M50 mSATA SSD Unterstützt M50 mSATA SSD (50 * 30 * 4mm); mSATA Schnittstelle, nutzen Sie Ihre mSATA Fesplatten voll aus. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 unterstützt Transferraten bis zu 5GB/S. Die tatsächliche Geschwindigkeit ...

www.amazon.de

No, this is a mini SATA drive.

 

[Spiros Poullos]

My NVME's performance after upgrading my Late 2013 Macbook Pro!

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Hi guys I have a question regarding the Crucial P2. In Manufacturing reference the model is CT500P2SSD8, where I live the model they're selling is CT1000P2SSD8. It is safe to buy or I might run into some compatibility issues? ( I want to install it in a early 2015 macbook pro with Big Sur)

Thanks!

I am guessing that the CT1000 is the 1Tb while the CT500 is the 500Gb.

Cheers.

 

[RocknRolla]

SanDisk Ultra 1TB is basically a WD SN550 1TB in markets where SanDisk brand still enjoys extreme popularity. After installing ssdpmEnabler, people could enjoy 40% reduction in idle power. See post #7942 and discussion started from there. This put you in the teritory of premium SSDs where I believe people in this thread have been enjoying in the past two years or so.

Sorry for the ignorance, but do I leave ssdpmEnabler in my downloads? Or can I clear it after?

 

[QCassidy352]

I completed the upgrade to the Sabrent Rocket 512 GB SSD today. So far, performance has actually been worse, but I am hoping that's because indexing is still going on (I set the computer up as new rather than restore from backup, so as to not carry over a bunch of crud accumulated during the last 7 years). If not, it's probably going to go back because so far it's not the performance boost I expected.

edit: with indexing done and FileVault turned on, I'm getting around 1150 for both read and write, which is about twice as fast as the drive I'd been using, pulled from a 2013 13". I was hoping for a little more, but given that the drive and the adapter together were under $100, I'll take it.

 

[edevmon]

Hello @kvic
Just tried to install SsdPmEnabler on my MacBook but an error occurred and I had to delete it. My setup is:
- rMBP 13'' mid-2014 (i5 2.6, 8Gb)
- Sillicon Power A80 2Tb NVMe
- MacOS 11.1 (20C69) and BootRom 429.0.0.0.0
More details in post #7,553
Maybe this Mac is not compatible with this kernel extension?

 

[MauriceG]

Hello @kvic
Just tried to install SsdPmEnabler on my MacBook but an error occurred and I had to delete it. My setup is:
- rMBP 13'' mid-2014 (i5 2.6, 8Gb)
- Sillicon Power A80 2Tb NVMe
- MacOS 11.1 (20C69) and BootRom 429.0.0.0.0
More details in post #7,553
Maybe this Mac is not compatible with this kernel extension?

You have to be more specific to get an usable answer. What was the error? Did you disabled SIP? What procedure or program did you used....
The devil is in the detail.