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

[gilles_polysoft]

Hi everyone,

Just for info I received today the last Sintech adapters, and the new ones have exactly the same wiring diagrams as the large green ones... great news !
And they do work perfectly... Here are some photos...

 

[Earl Urley]

Looks like it would make putting on a thermal pad for heat sinking a little tighter, but the give and take would be that the long slab would cut down on interference from the SSD itself.

Guess I'll have to order one and see how it works out.. giles, did you order under the standard numbers? If I order the one with the two screwdrivers will I get this model?

Too bad they're not selling this on Amazon, I highly distrust sites in China to keep my CC info inviolate..

 

[miccos73]

Thanks for all the incredible work here. Finally received both a black and green adapter from sintech. With a 960 Evo made in January and without firmware updates, getting 1300 writes and 1400 reads with Black magic on my 'early '15 MBP 12,1. Black adapter has the occasional '? folder' on restarts, the green seems perfect thus far.

Once again, thanks to everyone, this thread has been invaluable.

 

[Esenbek]

Hi guys, I'm about to order this adapter http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1229.html and can't decide about the SSD, will this type of SSD work with MacBooks ? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TGIW1XG/ref=psdc_1292116011_t3_B015CWR4M2

 

[Earl Urley]

Hi guys, I'm about to order this adapter http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1229.html and can't decide about the SSD, will this type of SSD work with MacBooks ? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TGIW1XG/ref=psdc_1292116011_t3_B015CWR4M2

Nope you need an NVMe SSD, that's a SATA SSD and probably won't work.
[doublepost=1519342673][/doublepost]

Thanks for all the incredible work here. Finally received both a black and green adapter from sintech. With a 960 Evo made in January and without firmware updates, getting 1300 writes and 1400 reads with Black magic on my 'early '15 MBP 12,1. Black adapter has the occasional '? folder' on restarts, the green seems perfect thus far.

Hopefully the new 2013-2017(?!) long black adapters will become the standard.

The labelling on the new black adapter is unfortunately inaccurate.. only 2013-2015 MacBook Pros will be compatible.

On the non-TouchBar 2016 Retina MacBook Pro there is a detachable SSD but its slot design is totally different. The other 2016 rMBP's have the SSD on the logic board.

On the 2017 Retina MacBook Pros the SSD is part of the logic board as in most of the 2016 models.

 

[Dagoth Nik]

The labelling on the new black adapter is unfortunately inaccurate.. only 2013-2015 MacBook Pros will be compatible.

On the non-TouchBar 2016 Retina MacBook Pro there is a detachable SSD but its slot design is totally different. The other 2016 rMBP's have the SSD on the logic board.

On the 2017 Retina MacBook Pros the SSD is part of the logic board as in most of the 2016 models.

This adapter is suitable for MacBook Air 2017.

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Guess I'll have to order one and see how it works out.. giles, did you order under the standard numbers? If I order the one with the two screwdrivers will I get this model?

You can order the adapter without the screwdrivers and during the order there is a comment field where you can ask for a green adapter.

Too bad they're not selling this on Amazon, I highly distrust sites in China to keep my CC info inviolate..

Sintech seems to me to be very thrustfully, but nevertheless there is no need to give them credit card numbers anytime as they accept paypal payments, which I have use without any issue for all orders.

 

[flintjoris]

This adapter is suitable for MacBook Air 2017.

The long black adapter?

 

[wawon]

Hi everyone,

Just for info I received today the last Sintech adapters, and the new ones have exactly the same wiring diagrams as the large green ones... great news !
And they do work perfectly... Here are some photos...

great!, the small black 3 is for what?　thanks a lot.

 

[mrdoodle]

I am just reporting some success with my experiment and the steps I followed:

Final system configuration:

• 2013 Macbook Pro 13" (11,1)
• Green Sintech adapter (w/ Kapton tape)
• Samsung 960 EVO 1TB NVMe SSD
• High Sierra (macOS 10.3.3) (w/ APFS)

Initial configuration:

• High Sierra (macOS 10.3.3) (w/ APFS)
• bootROM MBP111.0142.B00
• Apple/Samsung 512GB AHCI SSD (MZ-JPU512T/0A6)
  
• Time machine backup of entire system.

Hardware Steps (as outlined in the past by @gilles_polysoft and others):

1. Ordered green sintech adapter (the one that comes with screwdrivers).
2. Applied kapton tape to exposed side of the adapter that would otherwise contact the metal bracket in the macbook
3. Opened laptop, disconnected battery, and removed existing SSD from Macbook port
4. Plugged adapter into Macbook SSD port (ensure it is plugged in all the way... may have to wiggle it in)
5. Plugged SSD into adapter and screwed it down

Software/OS configuration steps:

1. Started from internet recovery (⌘+⌥+R) at boot. This will load the latest macOS installer (High Sierra).
2. Disk Utility -> You should see your new drive
3. Erase the drive (I chose not to encrypt the drive yet... made installation much smoother). Format doesn't matter because High Sierra installation should format drive to APFS anyway
4. Once done, quit Disk Utility
5. Reinstall macOS (or Restore from Time Machine)
   1. If you do a clean reinstall you can use Migration Assistant afterward to restore your user profile and/or other parts of your system. I wanted to do this because I wanted a more clean installation
   2. Restore from Time Machine will probably save a lot of time
6. Optionally enable FileVault after successful reinstall

Speeds seem very good after encryption and I am clearly getting PCIe 2.0 x4 speeds.
I have noticed it takes a few seconds to register when the system boots, and I have noticed my computer randomly rebooting if I leave it unplugged for a while. I will probably need to do the pmset standby 0 fix at some point if that continues and hope that it fixes the issue.

 

[Dagoth Nik]

The long black adapter?

I did not check. But it should work.

 

[sKINNEEE]

I've been following this thread for some time and I'm currently waiting for the green adapter.

I've a Mid 2014 Macbook Pro 13' with a dead SSD so that's why I am replacing it. I'm inclined to buy the Intel 760p SSD and leave here my feedback. In my country the only versions available are the 128GB and 256GB, so I'll test the 256GB one.

Or do you guys think the Samsung 960 EVO would be a much a better choice?

 

[oscarxvita]

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?

Mine get 4x speed with kapton cape applied. Just curious are you using APFS or HFS filesystem?

 

[kpetros]

Mine get 4x speed with kapton cape applied. Just curious are you using APFS or HFS filesystem?

Have you a MBP 15" late 2013?

 

[ravic]

I just got the large green sintech adapter ordered via ebay. Installed in a 2015 MBPr 13" with a Samsung PM961. Everything works well except I now have a restart issue. Sintech black adapter did not have restart issues but has sleep issues.
I was able to address the sleep issues with black adapter by adjusting some sleep settings.
Scratching my head now on what to do.

I might go back to black and stay there.

 

[dickybow]

Hello

I also have issues with Restart - my 2013 MacPro will not restart (flashing folder icon) and I really need the ability to restart for my work.

Would anyone be so kind to advise ?

I have tried this with 1 x Samsung 960 EVO, 2 x Samsung PM961 but all encounter the same problem.

Sintech black adapter ST-NGFF2013

Is this an issue with the drive mounting ?

I had trouble getting the drives to appear in disk utility at installation, which required a PRAM reset.

Many Thanks

 

[Scumsung Hater]

Thanks to all for the information, I have finally replaced the 512GB on my mid 2015 15"MBP using the SinTech green adapter with a Toshiba XG4 1TB. I would actually prefer the XG3 but my supplier could only managed to get the XG4. I have asked him to try to get the newer XG5 on the next order. The speed on the XG4 isn't that great but still good enough, Using Black Magic Disk Speed Test, I'm averaging about 460MB write and 1400MB read. On my original Apple SSD, I used to get about 1400MB write and 2000MB read.
The installation went smoothly. Upon boot up, Disk Utility was able to detect the XG4. I proceeded to create the Partition in Terminal and High Sierra 10.3.3 was installed without any problem. I also installed Windows 10 on Boot Camp. Windows was also able to boot up (and reboot) without any problem. Perhaps the only hitch was when I tried to select the boot option in Windows (to boot back to HS), it says it cannot find the target disk. I guess it has something to do with APFS. In any case, I re-booted back to HS using the Option key. Once back in, I set it to boot to HS in the System Preference.
As I always use my MBP plugged in, I never take notice of the battery's depletion, so there is no reference point for me to differentiate how this XG4 will affect battery life.
There was no reboot problem. There was also no sleep problem. A 8GB file takes about 4mins to transfer into a thumb drive and about 1min to transfer back. I re-installed back all my applications and everything works fine. Couldn't be happier with the extra space. The only down side is the slower speed. Can't wait to try the XG5.

 

[ravic]

Another thing I noticed, green adapter is draining battery much faster than the black adapter while sleeping/standby.

With the black adapter, I went four days of not opening the MacBook and I was still only 1% down. Green adapter drained 9% overnight. With the same drive.

 

[dickybow]

Does anyone know of any UK stock for the newer Sintech adapters ?

It is Chinese new year for another week and I can't really wait

 

[zazaki]

After a Paypal dispute, Sintech gently offered to send a large black adapter for replacement. The good news it's perfect on a Macbook 15" retina late 2014, with Kingston SSD.

— No boot issue : it starts on the appropriate volume
— 4X PCIe ; same speed as the small black adapter
— No hibernate issue : all set to default
— No sleep issue when on battery

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Another thing I noticed, green adapter is draining battery much faster than the black adapter while sleeping/standby.

With the black adapter, I went four days of not opening the MacBook and I was still only 1% down. Green adapter drained 9% overnight. With the same drive.

Please can you post photos of your adapter and insulation ? And did you buy your adapter at Sintech ebay shop ?
There are a lot of "chenyang" adapters that presents' issues.
Green sintech adapters don't have issues with reboot nor with battery drain

 

[andi.radulescu]

You can order the adapter without the screwdrivers and during the order there is a comment field where you can ask for a green adapter.

Unfortunately I tried this already and they don't accept it (or maybe they don't accept it anymore).

Sintech cancelled the order (refunded) and replied with a link to order the green one (with screwdrivers).

 

[ravic]

Please can you post photos of your adapter and insulation ? And did you buy your adapter at Sintech ebay shop ?
There are a lot of "chenyang" adapters that presents' issues.
Green sintech adapters don't have issues with reboot nor with battery drain

Yes, I did purchase it from sintech eBay store. It is their original large green adapter. But I think it works ok now.
I had two kernel panics at restart after I swapped the black adapter with the large green one. But it never happened again after that. I booted into bootcamp once and back into Mac and now I have no issues with restart or sleep.

As far a battery drain is concerned, you are also correct there that there is no difference between the two adapters. I was comparing two different sleep settings.

I changed the standby delay to 5 seconds and the hibernate mode to 23. This gives basically no drain while in standby and just 1 to 2 second delay to wakeup.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Ben21]

I didn't have such problem at all, but it could be the same thing as the problem of wakeup from sleep, really...
Your problem may occur because of the SSD taking too long to be ready at startup...

For my information, did you protect the back of the sintech adapter with some tape ? (so that the pins at the back are not too close to the shield)


My word would not be to stay away from samsung drives. They definitely are the fastest, but there still are issues on 2013-2014 macs.

If you have a 2013-2014 mac and can't wait, take an WD, Intel, Kingston or Toshiba NVMe SSD. They are slower than Samsung SSD but they are still faster than OEM Apple drives, and way, way cheaper...
If you have a 2013-2014 mac and can wait a little, wait : there are still lots of tests being processed.
If you have a 2015 mac, go for 960 Evo or Pro...

Polaris Samsung drives did have some issues with PC motherboard in late 2016-early 2017, which were partly corrected with the 2B7QCXE7/2B6QCXP7 firmware update. Some PC users continue to have issues, maybe a firmware update will come ? I can't say...
[doublepost=1507052563][/doublepost]
Yes it is

[doublepost=1519783972][/doublepost]Hi I installed Samsung NVMe M.2 ssd on my MBP 2015. It is booting up well (from Shut Down) and I can see my new hard drive and everything (installed High Sierra). I bought the sintech adapter and taped it with kapton tape and still having issues when rebooting (from Restart). I get that blinking folder with "?". I also did disable sleep mode with "sudo pmset -a standby 0" and still getting that annoying blinking folder when trying to wake up. Is there anything else I should do? Please Help!!!

Thanks in advance

 

[flemmingdjensen]

[doublepost=1519783972][/doublepost]Hi I installed Samsung NVMe M.2 ssd on my MBP 2015. It is booting up well (from Shut Down) and I can see my new hard drive and everything (installed High Sierra). I bought the sintech adapter and taped it with kapton tape and still having issues when rebooting (from Restart). I get that blinking folder with "?". I also did disable sleep mode with "sudo pmset -a standby 0" and still getting that annoying blinking folder when trying to wake up. Is there anything else I should do? Please Help!!!

Thanks in advance

My experiences so far with the following setup:

MBP Mid2015 2.8Ghz DG 16GB
Samsung EVO 960 1TB - Firmware 3xxxxxxxxx

Currently I have restored all the power settings to their default values. I was using pmset sleep 0 on my 2014 MBP but since upgrading to the 2015 this seems not to be necessary anymore.

So I am using this MBP daily just waking from sleep without problems. The computer is fast using PCIe 3.0 4x lanes so around 2500Gb/s read and 2Gb/s write.

I have a 250GB bootcamp with windows 10 on it - and occationally i reboot into this and then when I reboot back into MAC OS it gives Kernel panics randomly.

I have also experienced that if you wait after successfull reboot it might crash with a KP.

But if it survives say 30 min then I see no more KPs and the computer can go to sleep and wake and so forth.

I am hoping Samsung releases a firmware version 4xxxxxx that resolves this boot issue - im currently running 3xxxxx firmware on the EVO 960.

I am using verbose mode on startup in order to follow the boot process - and it seems to help in the boot process - I do not know why.

sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

BR Flemming