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

[gymboy]

Looking for some general advice - my main questions are 'what brand/type is most problem-free', and 'what are chances of success (i.e. should I pay the extra money for a larger drive)'?

Running an early 2014 Macbook Air, with 128g ssd; High Sierra and no need to run previous versions. My priority is bigger size - at least 500g, with as problem-free as possible. Losing hibernation would not be a big problem, but I do rely on the problem-free simple sleep (open and close many times a day). Speed would be nice but not top of the list; I can live with somewhat reduced battery life.

I'm looking first at the Intel 600p line, next the Kingston KC1000. Difference in price is roughly as in other markets. If I was confident it was all going to work and speed bump on the kingston is noticeable, I might pay the difference.

Going up to 1000g would be a nice bump and future-proof this computer for just about everything I use it for now (or would be likely to, it's never going to be fastest but that's okay).

However, I wouldn't like to spend the extra money to go to 1TB and then find it doesn't work. (I'm willing to take the chance on the 500gb). I'm unfortunately in a market where returning things that aren't defective is more miss than hit.

On installation: understand the points about Kapron tape. I understand with high sierra should not be necessary to use an ubuntu disk (can do if necessary), just format with disk utility (I have bootable recovery flash drives). As I understand, no need to disable the hibernation unless it causes problems. Other key steps?

I've also noted the various adapters. I've ordered one (cheap as chips that may be the sintech), will have access to buy the recommended sintech in due course.

Intel 600p would be the solid choice if you do not mind the slower read speeds. Initially I installed it in my Early 2015 MBA 13" with the Black Sintech Adapter and it worked without any issues. It is definitely one of the cheapest SSD around, easily found although not the quickest.

Toshiba XG3/XG4 seems to be a good choice based on what @gilles_polysoft has mentioned.

However, when using the Intel 600p, I found that it results in the draining of my battery excessively and which is why I switched out to the Samsung 960 Evo with the large green Sintech adapter and it now works without any problems too (no sleep, no restart, no deep sleep issues) after 2 weeks of usage.

But if you want something cheap (Especially for 1TB), and fast enough and easily accessible - Intel 600p would be your best bet I'd say. But with the new Intel 760p that would make things interesting, would be quite keen to see if the 760p would work as well, as it is much faster than the 600p (not as fast as Samsung 960 Evo) and with a great price as well.

 

[zazaki]

Hello. I am encountering a concern. I installed a Kingston KC1000 with the black Sintech adapter (delivered with a layer of Kapton).
I format it with Disk utility, in APFS. I started the fresh install of High Sierra from a USB key (in fact a Compact flash, but seems ok).
The 8min High Sierra window installer runs ; then the Macbook (late 2014) restart ; black window with Apple logo and progression bar ; it runs around 5% ; then it stops & restarts to the Utilities...

The SSD is not visible at this point ; I have to restart to have it visible in Disk Utility....

Any idea about the problem?

 

[Audit13]

@zazaki, not sure if it makes a difference but was the Macbook running High Sierra before switching to the KC1000?

 

[groobert]

Hi,

But with the new Intel 760p that would make things interesting, would be quite keen to see if the 760p would work as well, as it is much faster than the 600p (not as fast as Samsung 960 Evo) and with a great price as well.

Intel 760p indeed looks pretty cost-effective. The 512GB model is going for $199 on Newegg (1Tb and higher are not available yet). It is 3D TLC but reportedly better than the (more expensive, MLC) Toshiba RD400 in read speeds, although worse in write speeds.

Compared to the 600p, it uses 64 layers of TLC instead of 32, and a new controller (SM2262), which however has "carried over most of the IP from the previous-gen SM2260 controller"

Has anyone in the community had a chance to test it yet? Is there any reason why it shouldn't work as well as the 600p (no reboots, sleep issues etc), only faster?

 

[damex]

I think you'll need to wait until Samsung issues another firmware update which, hopefully, will resolve many problems that people have with the latest firmware.

4B6QCXP7 firmwares on 960 Pro fixes the kernel panic/reboot issues I had before on my early 2015 MacBook Pro.

 

[zazaki]

@zazaki, not sure if it makes a difference but was the Macbook running High Sierra before switching to the KC1000?

No it was on Sierra. I hesitate to update before switching. You would think I might update the system before installing the Kingston ?

 

[Audit13]

No it was on Sierra. I hesitate to update before switching. You would think I might update the system before installing the Kingston ?

The original ssd must be inside the machine when installing high Sierra in order to update the efi bios. After updating, you can put in the Kingston and try to install Sierra.

 

[zazaki]

The original ssd must be inside the machine when installing high Sierra in order to update the efi bios. After updating, you can put in the Kingston and try to install Sierra.

Thanks you so much for sharing this info. I will try.

 

[gilles_polysoft]

PERST используется для перезагрузки устройства судя по описанию Samsung.
Исправить пайкой там сложно, где-то под коннектором нужно прервать заземление иначе ничего не получится. Я просто заказал новый переходник. В приложении файлы с правильным подключением дорожек PERST и CLKREQ.

Hi to all,

I finished the wiring comparaison of sintech adapters : the large green (and good) one (photo courtesy of Rusgolder), and the new black one.

the new "black" adapter doesn't wire any signal except PCIe datas and clock.
Pins which are noticeably unconnected are, on M.2 side :
- 52 CLRREQ (nc)
- 50 PERST (blanked to 3V)
- 38 DEVSLP (nc)
from the Apple connector side :
- 24 SSD_CLKREQ (grounded)
- 8 SSD_RESET (nc)
- 49 SSD_DEVSLP
- 47 SSD_PWR_FET_EN (nc)

All those pins were wired on the large green sintech adapter, which works well !
And the black adapter, at least in 2013-2014 macbook pros, brings a lot of problems (reboot, etc)

Very strange that Sintech did those changes.
I've asked Sintech and mailed them 3 times but with absolutely no answer...

 

[Batmandc]

Well, I ordered both the ST-NGFF2013 and the ST-NGFF2013-B since I needed the pentalobe screwdriver and they were different in the pictures at least, small black and big green. I really hope at least one is a big green since I will use it in a mid-2014 MBP. Otherwise, anyone who has a big green adapter to sell?

 

[armoured]

As an experiment, I used an Intel 256 GB 600p, the large green Sintech adapter, and kapton tape on an early 2015 Macbook Air.

I booted the Air with a USB High Sierra installer, formatted the disk, and installed High Sierra. No Ubuntu/Linux disk was required.

There is a bit more battery drain with the 600p than the OEM Apple drive but not enough for me to worry about.

Thanks. How severe was the extra battery drain? Would it be worse with a larger drive?

Intel 600p would be the solid choice if you do not mind the slower read speeds. Initially I installed it in my Early 2015 MBA 13" with the Black Sintech Adapter and it worked without any issues. It is definitely one of the cheapest SSD around, easily found although not the quickest.
But if you want something cheap (Especially for 1TB), and fast enough and easily accessible - Intel 600p would be your best bet I'd say. But with the new Intel 760p that would make things interesting, would be quite keen to see if the 760p would work as well, as it is much faster than the 600p (not as fast as Samsung 960 Evo) and with a great price as well.

Unfortunately I don't see the 760p available in my market at all.

Any experiences with the Kingston? Battery drain? Speed looks a little bit better which would be nice but not critical.

Now I see other comments a bit worried about finding the green sintech adapter or equivalent.

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Well, I ordered both the ST-NGFF2013 and the ST-NGFF2013-B since I needed the pentalobe screwdriver and they were different in the pictures at least, small black and big green. I really hope at least one is a big green since I will use it in a mid-2014 MBP. Otherwise, anyone who has a big green adapter to sell?

To my knowledge, the only difference between ST-NGFF2013 and ST-NGFF2013-B is the screwdriver.

I always orderd ST-NGFF2013 at Sintech, and those I received in july and october (2017) were the large green, "good" ones, I made another order last month and they are the "bad" black ones..

I made all my test with the large green ones and kapton tape... that's why I always had good results.

I think we definitely need Sintech to sell again the "large green" with the proper wirings.
Maybe they will sell again the good adapter if anyone who has made an order and received black adapter send them back this faulty adapter and ask a refund or a replacement...

 

[ravic]

Hi to all,

I finished the wiring comparaison of sintech adapters : the large green (and good) one (photo courtesy of Rusgolder), and the new black one.

the new "black" adapter doesn't wire any signal except PCIe datas and clock.
Pins which are noticeably unconnected are, on M.2 side :
- 52 CLRREQ (nc)
- 50 PERST (blanked to 3V)
- 38 DEVSLP (nc)
from the Apple connector side :
- 24 SSD_CLKREQ (grounded)
- 8 SSD_RESET (nc)
- 49 SSD_DEVSLP
- 47 SSD_PWR_FET_EN (nc)

All those pins were wired on the large green sintech adapter, which works well !
And the black adapter, at least in 2013-2014 macbook pros, brings a lot of problems (reboot, etc)

Very strange that Sintech did those changes.
I've asked Sintech and mailed them 3 times but with absolutely no answer...

Thanks for this analysis Gilles.

I compared the black v3 adapter details you shared with the Chinese adapters on ebay and amazon.
They all share the same basic circuit. So i think we are screwed unless we find an adapter equivalent to the green one.

 

[Batmandc]

You are probably right that the only difference is the screwdrivers. But I usually order stuff from china in pairs, since I sometimes one is working and the other isn't. Saves me some time since it usually takes some time for a refund/replacement.

To my knowledge, the only difference between ST-NGFF2013 and ST-NGFF2013-B is the screwdriver.

I always orderd ST-NGFF2013 at Sintech, and those I received in july and october (2017) were the large green, "good" ones, I made another order last month and they are the "bad" black ones..

I made all my test with the large green ones and kapton tape... that's why I always had good results.

I think we definitely need Sintech to sell again the "large green" with the proper wirings.
Maybe they will sell again the good adapter if anyone who has made an order and received black adapter send them back this faulty adapter and ask a refund or a replacement...

It will be interesting to see which adapter that arrives in the mailbox. You are probably right in that there is no difference between the two. If it doesn't work I will ask for a refund or a new adapter.

 

[zazaki]

You are probably right that the only difference is the screwdrivers. But I usually order stuff from china in pairs, since I sometimes one is working and the other isn't. Saves me some time since it usually takes some time for a refund/replacement.


It will be interesting to see which adapter that arrives in the mailbox. You are probably right in that there is no difference between the two. If it doesn't work I will ask for a refund or a new adapter.

I ordered the green one recently and got the black version. I will make further test.

 

[kevllar]

I'll update the experience of my setup here:
WITH CableCC/Chenyang Adapter:
Overall Usability: Tolerable. Only have reboot issues.
Macbook Model: Macbook Pro Mid-2015(A1398)
Adapter: CableCC (Chenyang)
SSD Model: Samsung 960 Pro 512GB
BootRom Version: MBP114.0177.B00
BootCamp: Installed, with problem rebooting and error launching BootCamp Control Panel
Kernel Panics: Rare when taped(<2 times/month). Noticeable when untaped(1~2 times/day)

High Sierra cold boot time: >30s with APFS, ~10s using JHFS+(forced os installer to install using JHFS+)
Sleep issues: NO
Reboot issues: YES, showing nothing but black screen, have to force turn off and start.
Any hiberate policy modified?: NO(Factory Default)
P.S.
I'm trying to buy a Sintech Adapter, it seems CableCC is not the 'authentic' one? I'm in china, so it should not take long for the adapter to arrive.
---
Update:
I just received my Sintech Adapter(new version), and the reboot problem is gone!
WITH Sintech: Work like a charm!
Kernel Panics: Rare
Adapter version: New (bigger version)
Reboot Issue: No
Sleep Issue: No
Tape? : You still have to tape it.

Go sintech!
Yey!

Just tried this with a similar setup. I have a SAM 500GB EVO not the Pro. With bigger version of Sintech Adapter. And things seem to be working great! Thanks for your post.

Just curious if you are getting 4x or 2x NVMe speeds? Mine shows 2x.

Getting Write speeds at about 714MB/s and Read at 775MB/s.

Also, I didn't apply Kapton tape, yet. But so far no issues. Been running, sleeping, hibernating, rebooting for 24 hours now. No issues at all. Just thought the speeds should be a bit higher. Any ideas?

 

[gymboy]

Just tried this with a similar setup. I have a SAM 500GB EVO not the Pro. With bigger version of Sintech Adapter. And things seem to be working great! Thanks for your post.

Just curious if you are getting 4x or 2x NVMe speeds? Mine shows 2x.

Getting Write speeds at about 714MB/s and Read at 775MB/s.

Also, I didn't apply Kapton tape, yet. But so far no issues. Been running, sleeping, hibernating, rebooting for 24 hours now. No issues at all. Just thought the speeds should be a bit higher. Any ideas?

Think you'd have to do the Kapton taping to get the 4x speed

 

[kevllar]

Think you'd have to do the Kapton taping to get the 4x speed

Okay thought so. Guess I'll pull the trigger on a whole roll of tape. lol Any idea what else I can do with Kapton tape?

 

[Marno]

I think we definitely need Sintech to sell again the "large green" with the proper wirings.
Maybe they will sell again the good adapter if anyone who has made an order and received black adapter send them back this faulty adapter and ask a refund or a replacement...

This is exactly what I just did ! Hopefully they will either shift back to the old adapter or at least stop selling faulty ones.

For others :
I have a Macbook PRO 2015 13 inch which was on the newest bootROM even if I a under Sierra. I bought a Kingston KC1000 which is compatible with 4K format in order to stay on Sierra (and avoid high sierra for now).
I am initially using the black thin v3 adapter from Sintech and using Caption tape of course.
I installed the os with any problem tested the read/write speed and got PCIe 4x 2.0 compatible throughput.
BUT then on every single reboot or wake up from sleep the laptop would completely freeze and stop there. I was forced to push the off button for 4 sec for a hard off. Every closing of the lid does the same bug/freeze (but the laptop to sleep so impossible to wake up after that).
Note that every cold boot was working fine. I tried to clear SMC without any improvement.
Then I tried with a v2 large green and then those 2 bugs disappeared.
Based on the hardware setup I choosed, i wasn't expecting to have such problems and they were resolved but a green v2 adapter which tends to the conclusion that the Sintech black v3 adapter is faulty as gilles reported the changes in the wiring.

Conclusion: I would advise everybody to wait until Sintech sells back green v2 adapter or try elsewhere in another (online) shop.

 

[apemaia]

Hello to all,
I just registered because this thread is very interesting and I don't like not-upgradable macs.
My intent is to upgrade a rMBP 2015 to 2TB to store all my photos.
Because the adaptor is not expensive, I ordered one from Sintech, received end January. So I will tri the drive before buy... if I find one (I'm not searching for now
I was disappointed to not see green color but... my adaptor is different from those (black v3) I have see in this thread.
Here two photos:


Unfortunately I have no skill and instruments to test the connections nore a disk to test (now). I will follow the forum to see if someone have some infos about this (v4?) adapter hoping it will not be faulty too.

I'm not sure to have time to find a ssd and to test it but I will post my experiences when it will happen.

Thanks to all the persons searching hard a solution to upgrade apple laptops.

Andy
[doublepost=1517779809][/doublepost]... mmm, sorry, I did not see RUSGOLDER images posted by Gilles yesterday. My adapter is not same as large black adapter like images on post #540 and others but the circuit board is very similar to RUSGOLDER images. I fear I will not be lucky.

Andy

 

[buchacho]

However, when using the Intel 600p, I found that it results in the draining of my battery excessively and which is why I switched out to the Samsung 960 Evo with the large green Sintech adapter and it now works without any problems too (no sleep, no restart, no deep sleep issues) after 2 weeks of usage.

But if you want something cheap (Especially for 1TB), and fast enough and easily accessible - Intel 600p would be your best bet I'd say. But with the new Intel 760p that would make things interesting, would be quite keen to see if the 760p would work as well, as it is much faster than the 600p (not as fast as Samsung 960 Evo) and with a great price as well.

Would the Intel 760p become a bottleneck for an early 2015 MBA? I want a 1TB SSD, so I am wondering if it's worth waiting for it to come out or get the Samsung 960 EVO.

 

[macbookssd2013]

I've found this thread very useful and wanted to give back with my own mostly successful experience, and to ask folks for help with an issue.

Setup/results:

• Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13"
• Kingston KC1000 480 GB
• ST-NGFF2013B adapter (http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1143.html) with a single layer of Kapton tape on pins. Getting the Kapton tape right directly affected whether I got 2 PCIe lanes or 4 PCIe lanes
• High Sierra 10.13.3, regular clean install then restore using Time Machine. Disabled hibernate with pmset command.
• Windows 10, running in boot camp and in Parallels 13, used Clonezilla to back up and restore my existing Bootcamp/Parallels image.

Results:

• OS X pulls 1.3 GB/s read and 1.1 GB/s write, runs stable, no sleep or restart issues, no kernel panics.
• Windows 10 pulls 1.5 GB/s read and 1.5 GB/s write (!), but unfortunately it's only stable running in Parallels or natively in safe mode. When running Windows 10 natively in "normal" mode, I consistently get kernel panics (CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED) a few minutes into use, usually when opening the start menu.

Question: what would be causing the kernel panics when running Windows 10 natively, given that Windows 10 runs fine in Parallels and natively in safe mode, and given that OS X runs fine? Windows 10 and all drivers are up to date, as is the SSD firmware. Although this seems like a driver issue, according to boot logs the same drivers for the SSD run in safe mode and normal mode. I've also tried disabling every service not used in Safe Mode, but still have the issue.

 

[zazaki]

It was a real pain to install High Sierra on a Macbook Pro Retina late 2014, mainly because the installer crashed after few minutes — after restarting the computer — ; SSD wasn't recognize in Disk Utility. So this what I did before getting it works. Kind of miracle happened:
— I found the SSD was perfectly "mounted" in target mode, from a Mac Pro.
— VRAM & SMC initialization seems to have no effect.
— "Option" when power on ; "ctrl" (???!!!!) on the icon of the "OSX Installer" (an virtual image copied on the SSD by the High Sierra installer on a USB storage. The installation is launched with time lapse.
— However, after installation was the Macbook unable to boot. So again "option" ; I select the system drive (after checking on target mode the OSX system file was installed), and it runs perfectly.
— Now it seems to boot, sleep, & works fine. But I have to test it in real life, with real application...

Kind of strange things...

 

[ravic]

Of the four differences between the adapters, only one seem to matter the most. That is DEVSLP or devsleep.
Wonder if there is a way to disable triggering of this in macosx. Or connect it to SSD_PWR_FET_EN like on the large green adapter.

I cant find what SSD_PWR_FET_EN does in any of my searches

 

[daniele_zing]

Of the four differences between the adapters, only one seem to matter the most. That is DEVSLP or devsleep.
Wonder if there is a way to disable triggering of this in macosx. Or connect it to SSD_PWR_FET_EN like on the large green adapter.

I cant find what SSD_PWR_FET_EN does in any of my searches

At least on my MacBook Pro retina late 2013 the DEVSLP pin is NOT CONNECTED on the internal Apple connector (you can see this on the schematics), so there's no sense in trying to connect the pins on the adapter ...