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

[Eugene28]

Hi, I am choosing a new SSD with a capacity of 2TB for my MBP 15.4 Mid 2014. I have selected this Does anyone have experience with https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandisk-extreme-pro-m.2-nvme-3d-ssd,5538.html it in MBP? What else can you recommend me? Thank you.

It is a late response to the question. It would be good to know for people considering to buy this ssd.
While sharing exactly same hardware to WD BLACK 750 drives it seems Sandisk do not bother to update its firmware. So SanDisk Extreme Pro 500GB NVME with fw 101200RL is found to be buggy in MacOS hibernatemode 3. No newer firmware available to fix this bug.
I found no issues with WD BLACK 750 1TB version with fw. 111110WD in both hibernatemode 3 and 25.
Tested on my Macbook 2015 13" MacOS Catalina with bootrom 428.40.10.0.0.

 

[EugW]

It is a late response to the question. It would be good to know for people considering to buy this ssd.
While sharing exactly same hardware to WD BLACK 750 drives it seems Sandisk do not bother to update its firmware. So SanDisk Extreme Pro 500GB NVME with fw 101200RL is found to be buggy in MacOS hibernatemode 3. No newer firmware available to fix this bug.
I found no issues with WD BLACK 750 1TB version with fw. 111110WD in both hibernatemode 3 and 25.
Tested on my Macbook 2015 13" MacOS Catalina with bootrom 428.40.10.0.0.

Are you using a kext, and how is your battery life with these two models?

 

[Eugene28]

Are you using a kext, and how is your battery life with these two models?

I did not test battery life, but ssdpmenabler and nvmefix seems make no difference to power consumption. Idle current is 0.14A.

 

[Eugene28]

What does Ssdpmenabler.kext do exactly? Does it enable ASPM on NVME?

 

[enplaned]

I tried to summarize everything I've learned about adapters to allow third party SSDs to be used in Apple products in the post below.

It includes a reference back to this thread, but it has an overview of other machines too - earlier and later rMBP and MBA as well as iMacs and Mac Pros. I'm trying to be as comprehensive as possible, so comments welcomed.

Mac SSD adapters - hopefully comprehensive view

CORRECTIONS WELCOMED, ALL ERRORS ARE MINE, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK... etc. (links to Amazon, etc, are for information purposes only - none of them is an affiliate link) I started looking at this when considering a non-Apple SSD upgrade for my rMPB 11,1 and 11,4 - and went down the rabbit hole. I...

forums.macrumors.com

Thank you!

 

[olfo]

What does Ssdpmenabler.kext do exactly? Does it enable ASPM on NVME?

I haven't found anything specific regarding ASPM, but you may want to check the website for NVMeFix, which in turn has overwhelming information:

GitHub - acidanthera/NVMeFix

Contribute to acidanthera/NVMeFix development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

On the NVMe power states I have found this website:

NVMe™ Technology Power Features

NVMe™ Technology Power Management Features NVM Express (NVMe) architecture contains various features to manage the power of SSDs. In the data center, this can be used to throttle an SSD to a specific TDP (thermal design power) to manage platform thermals and total power draw. Max power is...

nvmexpress.org

You can read out the supported power states of your SSD by using Smartmontools.
I found SMARTReporter offers a nice GUI for free to show this info.
There is a FAQ however, which addresses the SIP concerns:

FAQ

Contribute to kvic-z/SsdPmEnabler development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[enplaned]

There kind of is - it's in this same thread:

Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

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...

forums.macrumors.com

What I did was use the advanced search, look in MacBook Pro forum for SsdPmEnabler and order results by date, looking for the earliest. And... voila...

 

[enplaned]

Uh, it has a link to this on Github -

GitHub - kvic-z/SsdPmEnabler

Contribute to kvic-z/SsdPmEnabler development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Between the post and the github material, that seems reasonably comprehensive.

 

[herb2k]

What does Ssdpmenabler.kext do exactly? Does it enable ASPM on NVME?

NVMeFix enables ASPM for 3rd party NVMe SSDs on macos.

SsdPmEnabler enables lower Power Management States over the PCIe bus port/socket which the NVMe SSD connects on, as macos does not do this natively.

All of these are pretty low-level (technical) concepts that were researched and contributed as solutions by their respective authors.

 

[olfo]

NVMeFix enables ASPM for 3rd party NVMe SSDs on macos.

SsdPmEnabler enables lower Power Management States over the PCIe bus port/socket which the NVMe SSD connects on, as macos does not do this natively.

All of these are pretty low-level (technical) concepts that were researched and contributed as solutions by their respective authors.

Interesting time travel reading the posts from exactly a year ago. Most of all has been said already.
@herb2k - I'm curious, how do you know about this distinction?

 

[Earl Urley]

Thinking about ordering a SK Hynix P31 Gold 2TB to upgrade the Inland Premium 1 TB I've currently got.. should one I get now have the Mac compatible firmware preloaded?

Was also thinking about picking up a Gold 1 TB for an older 2013 rMBP..

 

[enplaned]

Thinking about ordering a SK Hynix P31 Gold 2TB to upgrade the Inland Premium 1 TB I've currently got.. should one I get now have the Mac compatible firmware preloaded?

Was also thinking about picking up a Gold 1 TB for an older 2013 rMBP..

If you look at SK Hynix's page for the P31, you'll see that no firmware update is offered for the 2TB. You'll need to scroll down the following page to see that:

Gold P31 SSD – SK hynix SSD

ssd.skhynix.com

Comments in the Amazon page for this device (customer reviews) show that the P31 2TB ships with latest firmware and needs no update to work with Mac.

I have a 1TB P31 and updated firmware using my PC. Well, actually, it seems that I already had the new firmware, because the firmware number did not change and then I found that the firmware I had on my device was what was needed (search the following for SK Hynix - second reference):

GitHub - dhckdgjs/GIGABYTE-Z590-VISION-G-HACKINTOSH-OPENCORE-iGPU-with-dGPU-UHD630-RX580: Opencore Hackintosh settings for Gigabyte Z590 Vision-G

Opencore Hackintosh settings for Gigabyte Z590 Vision-G - dhckdgjs/GIGABYTE-Z590-VISION-G-HACKINTOSH-OPENCORE-iGPU-with-dGPU-UHD630-RX580

github.com

SK Hynix makes this harder than it need be - it doesn't show the original or new firmware revision number anywhere on their website, that I can tell. Also, some say that the firmware revision is on the bottom of the box - I was unable to find it. Bottom line, I went through an unnecessary process because SK isn't as transparent as it could be - and because their firmware updating software is clunky as heck.

Anyway, all that's to say that, so long as you're not buying through some obscure channel, you ought to be OK, for sure on the 2TB and probably also on the 1TB.

 

[nigelbb]

What does Ssdpmenabler.kext do exactly? Does it enable ASPM on NVME?

Nobody knows. The author refuses to provide the source so people are expected to disable SIP & install a piece of software just on the say so of the author that it's safe & doesn't do anything malicious like grabbing passwords or credit card details. I stopped using it when I realised that I couldn't find the source.

 

[Eugene28]

Uh, it has a link to this on Github -

GitHub - kvic-z/SsdPmEnabler

Contribute to kvic-z/SsdPmEnabler development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Between the post and the github material, that seems reasonably comprehensive.

It says what it does, but does not explain what it does exactly. It seems NVMEFix does the same.

I haven't found anything specific regarding ASPM, but you may want to check the website for NVMeFix, which in turn has overwhelming information:

GitHub - acidanthera/NVMeFix

Contribute to acidanthera/NVMeFix development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

On the NVMe power states I have found this website:

NVMe™ Technology Power Features

NVMe™ Technology Power Management Features NVM Express (NVMe) architecture contains various features to manage the power of SSDs. In the data center, this can be used to throttle an SSD to a specific TDP (thermal design power) to manage platform thermals and total power draw. Max power is...

nvmexpress.org

You can read out the supported power states of your SSD by using Smartmontools.
I found SMARTReporter offers a nice GUI for free to show this info.
There is a FAQ however, which addresses the SIP concerns:

FAQ

Contribute to kvic-z/SsdPmEnabler development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

It was a good read about power states. It seems we need L1, L1.1, L1.2 states activated to further reduce power consumption. But when MacOS activates these?

NVMeFix enables ASPM for 3rd party NVMe SSDs on macos.

SsdPmEnabler enables lower Power Management States over the PCIe bus port/socket which the NVMe SSD connects on, as macos does not do this natively.

All of these are pretty low-level (technical) concepts that were researched and contributed as solutions by their respective authors.

Yeah. Again. NVMEFix can force ASPM L1 on all devices. Can also activate APST. SSDpmenabler author does not explain what his kext exactly does. Why some users need both kext to get results? I have ASPM set to L1 with Opencore device properties so I don't need to activate ASPM with these kexts. L1 not set by default on NVME ssd when you take out original ssd.

If you look at SK Hynix's page for the P31, you'll see that no firmware update is offered for the 2TB. You'll need to scroll down the following page to see that:

Gold P31 SSD – SK hynix SSD

ssd.skhynix.com

Comments in the Amazon page for this device (customer reviews) show that the P31 2TB ships with latest firmware and needs no update to work with Mac.

I have a 1TB P31 and updated firmware using my PC. Well, actually, it seems that I already had the new firmware, because the firmware number did not change and then I found that the firmware I had on my device was what was needed (search the following for SK Hynix - second reference):

GitHub - dhckdgjs/GIGABYTE-Z590-VISION-G-HACKINTOSH-OPENCORE-iGPU-with-dGPU-UHD630-RX580: Opencore Hackintosh settings for Gigabyte Z590 Vision-G

Opencore Hackintosh settings for Gigabyte Z590 Vision-G - dhckdgjs/GIGABYTE-Z590-VISION-G-HACKINTOSH-OPENCORE-iGPU-with-dGPU-UHD630-RX580

github.com

SK Hynix makes this harder than it need be - it doesn't show the original or new firmware revision number anywhere on their website, that I can tell. Also, some say that the firmware revision is on the bottom of the box - I was unable to find it. Bottom line, I went through an unnecessary process because SK isn't as transparent as it could be - and because their firmware updating software is clunky as heck.

Anyway, all that's to say that, so long as you're not buying through some obscure channel, you ought to be OK, for sure on the 2TB and probably also on the 1TB.

Bad choice. You never experienced any problem with your 1TB version? Hackintosh users are reporting incompatibility with IONVMeFamily driver. Check here

 

[olfo]

I have checked my Crucial P2 with IORegistryexplorer and found out that Power State 3 is supported.
In Smartmontools I can see that the P2 can get as low as 0.0700W (~0.02 A), which comes close to the 0.04 A that iStat shows with Ssdpmenabler.

Hackintool however reveals that ASPM is disabled.

Strangely, in IORegistryexplorer the SSD0@0 entry is showing under IOPowermanagement:
MaxPowerState 0x3
– while it shows only 0x2 under IONVMEcontroller. But the lower power comsumption speaks for 0x3.

Supported Power States
St Op     Max   Active     Idle   RL RT WL WT  Ent_Lat  Ex_Lat
 0 +     3.50W       -        -    0  0  0  0        0       0
 1 +     1.90W       -        -    1  1  1  1        0       0
 2 +     1.50W       -        -    2  2  2  2        0       0
 3 -   0.0700W       -        -    3  3  3  3     5000    1900
 4 -   0.0020W       -        -    4  4  4  4    13000  100000

I'll probably try NVMEfix when I have time.

These were the forum posts that brought me there.

Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

You are looking for the wrong entry. You want to look for 'apst' in IOReg, I had to ask the developer to confirm - NVMePMProxy is only used for Active PM management, and not for APST. This kext enables APST on MacBooks and not Active PM Management. What you can also do is install istatmenu to...

forums.macrumors.com

Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

Would you be interested to download this app (Hackintool: https://github.com/headkaze/Hackintool/releases/download/3.4.4/Hackintool.zip) and share what the ASPM column under PCIe says for your SSD? Example from my system (Intel 660p)

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Eugene28]

Strangely, in IORegistryexplorer the SSD0@0 entry is showing under IOPowermanagement:
MaxPowerState 0x3
– while it shows only 0x2 under IONVMEcontroller. But the lower power comsumption speaks for 0x3.



I'll probably try NVMEfix when I have time.

These were the forum posts that brought me there.

Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

You are looking for the wrong entry. You want to look for 'apst' in IOReg, I had to ask the developer to confirm - NVMePMProxy is only used for Active PM management, and not for APST. This kext enables APST on MacBooks and not Active PM Management. What you can also do is install istatmenu to...

forums.macrumors.com

Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

Would you be interested to download this app (Hackintool: https://github.com/headkaze/Hackintool/releases/download/3.4.4/Hackintool.zip) and share what the ASPM column under PCIe says for your SSD? Example from my system (Intel 660p)

forums.macrumors.com

You mean for pcie bus you have 3 states available, but for ssd only 2. You should get L1 activated with NVMEfix.

 

[herb2k]

Interesting time travel reading the posts from exactly a year ago. Most of all has been said already.
@herb2k - I'm curious, how do you know about this distinction?

A bunch of research last year on my own and a discussion thread with the author of NVMeFix on his respective github.

@kvic explains what SsdPmEnabler does (not how, nor is source code provided) on his github for the kext as well.

 

[nigelbb]

A bunch of research last year on my own and a discussion thread with the author of NVMeFix on his respective github.

@kvic explains what SsdPmEnabler does (not how, nor is source code provided) on his github for the kext as well.

I'm astonished given this that people are happy to use SsdPmEnabler.

 

[iKalamaZoo]

I'm astonished given this that people are happy to use SsdPmEnabler.

Me, either. To use this, I would need to:

1. disable S.I.P. while I'm using the kext (which is a big and unnecessary risk for me), it's like forever disabled since you'll need the kext to keep low power state in your ssd;
2. take the risk on my own since the author won't take any responsibility for any data loss due how my ssd operates in low power state;
3. accept that I can't get access to the source code;
4. accept that I can't get to know about how exactly it works;
5. accept to use it without any warranty;

So, no. I think A2000 is performing amazing out of the box. For my needs, that's one of the best choices.

 

[olfo]

A bunch of research last year on my own and a discussion thread with the author of NVMeFix on his respective github.

Would you mind posting the link? I couldn't find that discussion.

I'm astonished given this that people are happy to use SsdPmEnabler.

I'm not more or less happy than with using Apple's software, which is not entirely open source either.
And if NVMeFix is even better, then I may switch.
I'm not too excited about saving as much power as possible anyway, but some people surely are.

Me, either. To use this, I would need to:

1. disable S.I.P. while I'm using the kext (which is a big and unnecessary risk for me), it's like forever disabled since you'll need the kext to keep low power state in your ssd;

Not exactly as you describe it. As kvic says, SIP is only disabled partly for kexts. And in my understanding, MacOS 11 and 12 even go futher, as they can load only individual unsigned kexts. Developers are not getting their kexts signed anyway:

Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

Apple has deprecated KEXT support and is proactively moving 3rd-parties to DriverKit. I seriously doubt that Apple would sign any 3rd-party KEXTs in 2020s. Bigger players like Belkin, OWC.. may have some bargaining power but in this case I doubt they won't be able to get it signed. Thanks to...

forums.macrumors.com

But let's leave him be. The risks and benefits are well known and everybody can decide for himself.

As it looks, Apple has other plans anyway. Kext will be deprecated with one of the next MacOS releases.

Apple deprecating macOS kernel extensions (KEXTs) is a great win for security

Apple kernel extension APIs to be deprecated in macOS 10.15.4.

www.zdnet.com

I can't tell if it is good. To put it short, there is a trend of locking out people from repairs and hardware upgrades alongside raising security concerns. Just some humble thoughts.

 

[EugW]

As it looks, Apple has other plans anyway. Kext will be deprecated with one of the next MacOS releases.

Apple deprecating macOS kernel extensions (KEXTs) is a great win for security

Apple kernel extension APIs to be deprecated in macOS 10.15.4.

www.zdnet.com

I can't tell if it is good. To put it short, there is a trend of locking out people from repairs and hardware upgrades alongside raising security concerns. Just some humble thoughts.

Being deprecated is one thing, but when will those kexts be completely locked out?

This may not affect those with the 2015 MacBook Pros, since those MacBook Pros likely won't be getting a lot of macOS support going forward, aside from security updates. There is a chance for the 2015 MBP to get macOS 13, but I'd be shocked if it got macOS 14.

OTOH, it could affect some later machines since many still have upgradable storage, eg. 2017 MacBook Air, non-Touch Bar MacBook Pros... speaking of which, this is by far the worst SSD upgrade I've seen so far:

The guy stuck a 2280 sized WD SN550 in a 2017 nTB MacBook Pro. It doesn't fit of course, so he just taped it down to keep it from falling out.

BTW, I'm thinking of getting a 2 TB NVMe M.2 SSD for use in an external enclosure. However, I will keep in mind the compatibility for use in Macs should I ever decide to use it in a Mac. There is a sale locally on the XPG Gammix S11 Pro but I think I'll avoid that one. I suspect its integrated heatsink will make it too big for some Macs. It has the Silicon Motion SM2262EN controller too which is OK but not great for power utilization without the kexts.

 

[Eugene28]

Me, either. To use this, I would need to:

1. disable S.I.P. while I'm using the kext (which is a big and unnecessary risk for me), it's like forever disabled since you'll need the kext to keep low power state in your ssd;
2. take the risk on my own since the author won't take any responsibility for any data loss due how my ssd operates in low power state;
3. accept that I can't get access to the source code;
4. accept that I can't get to know about how exactly it works;
5. accept to use it without any warranty;

So, no. I think A2000 is performing amazing out of the box. For my needs, that's one of the best choices.

By using command in recovery "csrutil enable --without kext" you enabling SIP with exception of using unsigned 3rd
party kexts (drivers) leaving the rest security intact.

Spoiler: SIP

$ csrutil status
System Integrity Protection status: unknown (Custom Configuration).

Configuration:
Apple Internal: disabled
Kext Signing: disabled
Filesystem Protections: enabled
Debugging Restrictions: enabled
DTrace Restrictions: enabled
NVRAM Protections: enabled
BaseSystem Verification: enabled

If you have 3rd party NVME drive you better activate L1 ASPM state for ssd drive with NVMEfix.kext and Lilu.kext or just using Opencore bootloader with added device properties.
If you use nvme drive with Phison or Silicon Motion chip ssdpmenabler.kext drops consumption from 0.16A to wee 0.016A during idle. This is a huge difference.
In my case with WD BLACK 1TB it is just drop from 0.17 to 0.14 what is not that much.

 

[xanderx007]

Nobody knows. The author refuses to provide the source so people are expected to disable SIP & install a piece of software just on the say so of the author that it's safe & doesn't do anything malicious like grabbing passwords or credit card details. I stopped using it when I realised that I couldn't find the source.

Yet, he has a disclaimer that he's not responsible for any possible damage to the system.

I understand how kext works. I have done SIP disabling with my previous MBP 2011 because I really had no other choice, but to disable the the dGPU. I got at least 2 more years from my MBP, with the second year entirely on Ubuntu since I got tired and frustrated of the having to fix the kext getting corrupted because of heavy use, and I could no longer make the hack work with Mac OS.

Right now, I don't really need (nor want) to take any risk disabling the SIP when I don't really have to, even if the author claims it only needs part of the SIP to be disabled. I also do not need to save power on idle, because my laptop is hardly idle. I don't really leave it unattended for longer than 5 minutes, if only to grab a cup of coffee. When I'm not working, I'm watching or browsing, and, when not in use, I shut it down instead of leaving it on sleep. I've only done so to test the A2000 for any sleep or hibernation issues, and, guess what? Even asleep for 5 hours, it barely lost 1% charge (which leads me to believe that it really goes down to using 0.0A during sleep, hence not really consuming any power at all despite the author claims).

So, for me, low idle power is trivial. If the kext were to lower power during heavy use, that is true power saving, and, like I told the author, I would definitely use and even pay for.

I also cannot get his reason for not revealing how it works (or his source code) beyond his claim that it's safe, that it doesn't disable anything else, and his disclaimer that he's not responsible for it if it damages your system.

The A2000, like in @iKalamaZoo's case, works out of the box without the kext. A power saving of 0.07A is barely a blip for me, as I have cited above.

 

[xanderx007]

In my case with WD BLACK 1TB it is just drop from 0.17 to 0.14 what is not that much.

Then, you don't really need it, do you?

Also, even with just the kext signing disabled, any rampant kext you may download unwittingly can damage your system.

 

[xanderx007]

I'm astonished given this that people are happy to use SsdPmEnabler.

In fairness, if it works for them...