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

[Bladiko]

SK Hynix P31 so your laptop won't drain your battery while idling.

Oh really, I saw that the 13” wouldn’t make use of all that extra IO speed due to logic board limitations

 

[xanderx007]

Currently installing Monterey via OCLP on a 2TB Kingston NV1 in an external enclosure (the same enclosure I used previously with the A2000). I tried doing this a week back, but got stuck on a startup loop so it's a good thing I did the installation on an external drive.

 

[oceanwater_13]

Hi, I am new here. I have macbook pro early 2015 13" retina display with 128gb. I bought it second hand from my cousin, and it still running perfectly. But I feel it's not enough to have 128gb SSD, so I want to upgrade it to 512 - 1tb SSD.
Which one is the best? I will use it to graphic designing, like illustrator, photoshop and light video editing with premiere.
I'm living in southeast asia (Indonesia). A lot of choices here in my country, and I'm eyeing:
- WD Black SN750
- Crucial P2
- Silicon Power A80/A60

which one is the best with no issues?

Thank u

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Currently installing Monterey via OCLP on a 2TB Kingston NV1 in an external enclosure (the same enclosure I used previously with the A2000). I tried doing this a week back, but got stuck on a startup loop so it's a good thing I did the installation on an external drive.



View attachment 1972620

If you don't have to root patch the system after installation because of a dGPU, you can try my EFI from here:

Install macOS Monterey 12 MacBook Pro retina late 2013

If you followed the instructions in this thread, you should not have any issues!! Also, if you put a complete description of your Macbook Pro, people could give you more specific advice. I am attaching my EFI based on OpenCore 0.7.8 released today (Feb. 07) which uses a Virtual Machine approach...

forums.macrumors.com

Boot EFI and then Big Sur and try an OTA update to Monterey.

I saw your post in the other forum (Monterey & OCLP). When I was testing Monterey beta (from 12.0 beta) I also had a lot of issues installing it on an external SSD. When Apple released 12.0.1, I decided to put it into the internal SSD, which eliminated all of the problems I was having. Everything works perfectly now.

 

[MrAverigeUser]

Currently installing Monterey via OCLP on a 2TB Kingston NV1 in an external enclosure (the same enclosure I used previously with the A2000). I tried doing this a week back, but got stuck on a startup loop so it's a good thing I did the installation on an external drive.



View attachment 1972620

If you don't have to root patch the system after installation because of a dGPU, you can try my EFI from here:

Install macOS Monterey 12 MacBook Pro retina late 2013

If you followed the instructions in this thread, you should not have any issues!! Also, if you put a complete description of your Macbook Pro, people could give you more specific advice. I am attaching my EFI based on OpenCore 0.7.8 released today (Feb. 07) which uses a Virtual Machine approach...

forums.macrumors.com

Boot EFI and then Big Sur and try an OTA update to Monterey.

I saw your post in the other forum (Monterey & OCLP). When I was testing Monterey beta (from 12.0 beta) I also had a lot of issues installing it on an external SSD. When Apple released 12.0.1, I decided to put it into the internal SSD, which eliminated all of the problems I was having. Everything works perfectly now.

I am not sure, but IIRC someone in an very reputed apple service center in my home town told me two weeks ago that since Monterey apple has put some barriers for software-based cloning and also for starting regularly his own max from an external enclosure…

Seems that he was right?

 

[Brondi]

*Update*

The following is my current configuration:

MBP 15" mid 2015 (11,4) i7/16GB Ram
Boot ROM: 428.60.3.0.0
OS: macOS Catalina (10.15.7)
SSD: KINGSTON SA2000M81000G - Rev S5Z44106 + Sintech Adapter (NGFF M.2 PCIe SSD Card as 2013 2014 2015 MacBook SSD)

Up to now are almost two months that I installed the SSD and I never occured in kernel panic or strange behaviour of the system. Battery life is almost the same (I haven't experienced any battery drain), I had not installed any kernel extention for power tuning. In avrage during normal usage, iStat shows me power consuming for SSD around 250mA. All worked out of the box.

For my needed, I'm so satisfied to have bought an ssd to have more space, I'm not interested in have the fastest SSD. Power consuming and NAND durability is what I'm interested in.

In case of problems I will update you, otherwise another update should occured in an year.

 

[vince22]

Hi, I am new here. I have macbook pro early 2015 13" retina display with 128gb. I bought it second hand from my cousin, and it still running perfectly. But I feel it's not enough to have 128gb SSD, so I want to upgrade it to 512 - 1tb SSD.
Which one is the best? I will use it to graphic designing, like illustrator, photoshop and light video editing with premiere.
I'm living in southeast asia (Indonesia). A lot of choices here in my country, and I'm eyeing:
- WD Black SN750
- Crucial P2
- Silicon Power A80/A60

which one is the best with no issues?

Thank u

I have all these drives and tested with my early 13" 2015 MBP.

1. Hynix 1TB P31-gold (Fast, best lowest battery idle) if available at your country
2. WD Black 1TB SN750 (Fast, power hungry)
3. Sabrent rocket 1TB ( ok speed, good battery idle)

 

[oceanwater_13]

I have all these drives and tested with my early 13" 2015 MBP.

1. Hynix 1TB P31-gold (Fast, best lowest battery idle) if available at your country
2. WD Black 1TB SN750 (Fast, power hungry)
3. Sabrent rocket 1TB ( ok speed, good battery idle)

Thank u for ur reply.

sadly there's no hynix available in my country, and the sabrent rock they sell it too pricey.
Do you have another option?
What do you think about ADATA SX6000, Kingston A2000, Silicon Power A80/A60?
These are easy to find in my country

 

[xanderx007]

Thank u for ur reply.

sadly there's no hynix available in my country, and the sabrent rock they sell it too pricey.
Do you have another option?
What do you think about ADATA SX6000, Kingston A2000, Silicon Power A80/A60?
These are easy to find in my country

Your <best> best is the A2000, it's one of the <cheapest> amongst the lot, and so far, based on those who have used it, the most reliable with little to no issues.

 

[xanderx007]

If you don't have to root patch the system after installation because of a dGPU, you can try my EFI from here:

Install macOS Monterey 12 MacBook Pro retina late 2013

If you followed the instructions in this thread, you should not have any issues!! Also, if you put a complete description of your Macbook Pro, people could give you more specific advice. I am attaching my EFI based on OpenCore 0.7.8 released today (Feb. 07) which uses a Virtual Machine approach...

forums.macrumors.com

Boot EFI and then Big Sur and try an OTA update to Monterey.

I saw your post in the other forum (Monterey & OCLP). When I was testing Monterey beta (from 12.0 beta) I also had a lot of issues installing it on an external SSD. When Apple released 12.0.1, I decided to put it into the internal SSD, which eliminated all of the problems I was having. Everything works perfectly now.

I stopped the attempt since I was finalizing stuff for class this week, but I'll do another attempt this weekend. Suffice it to say, it didn't work, and I just lost a whole day just installing.

 

[HeadacheMonday]

Hi, I need help with constant kernel panics and inability to startup. I’m using Kingston A2000.

Below are the steps I’ve tried. If there are really nothing I can do instead of getting a new SSD, can someone recommend one that have the least problem? Energy consuming and read/ write speed doesn’t really matters.
MacOS version: Catalina 10.15.7 (Security Update 2022-002 Catalina)

Mac: MacBookAir7,2
Processor: 1.6 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
Boot ROM Version: 428.60.3.0.0
SSD: Kingston A2000 (firmware version: ECFM12.3) + short adapter
link to pmset -g output https://pastebin.com/iBj1zzsg
link to .panic file https://pastebin.com/2CYM9ceh

Problem:

• Upgraded NVMe SSD 1 year ago, had minor kernel panics, didn’t affect normal use. Huge problem appeared about 1 month.
• Constant kernel panics, both during use and wake up from sleep
• (when the problem started) folder with question mark when startup, able to login when restarted, but back into kernel panic when used.
• (now after i tried to fix it) folder with question mark, when restarted, stuck with apple logo and process bar. unable to proceed to login.
• Also Kernel Panic experienced when started up from external SSD

Steps Tried:

• upgraded boot ROM with security updates
• upgraded firmware of SSD with bootcamp on mac (while it could still startup)
• Cleaned the contacts of the SSD, motherboard and adapter using isopropyl alcohol, no corrosions, no over heating.
• bought two new adapters and all had the same problem (not adapter’s problem)
• tried the original ssd, no problem occurred (not other hardware problem)
• safe mode doesn’t work(not software problem)
• backed up with superduper on external drive, able to startup with external drive
• erased disk, reinstalled Catalina, restored Kingston with external disk (could not startup with Kingston, so the restore was done while started up on external disk)

 

[dcrosb123]

I have a MacBookPro12,1 with a Cruicial P2 installed running Big Sur with minimal issues (other than idle power drain).

Is there any good reason not to upgrade to Monterrey?

 

[macpro_mid2014]

I stopped the attempt since I was finalizing stuff for class this week, but I'll do another attempt this weekend. Suffice it to say, it didn't work, and I just lost a whole day just installing.

I have a MacBookPro12,1 with a Cruicial P2 installed running Big Sur with minimal issues (other than idle power drain).

Is there any good reason not to upgrade to Monterrey?

No reason at all! IMHO, Monterey runs better than Big Sur.

@xanderx007 Does your MBP use a dGPU or does it have only the Iris Pro 5200? Unless you have a good reason not to do so, why don't you install Monterey in the internal SSD?
I've been using it since 12.0.1 as my main OS on my MBP without any issues at all. As I explained above, I had a lot of issues while testing the betas on external drives but now, because I use this MBP for work, I only install released versions on the internal SSD. I keep a Thunderbolt SSD with Big Sur on it for firmware updates only.

Good luck!

 

[xanderx007]

No reason at all! IMHO, Monterey runs better than Big Sur.

@xanderx007 Does your MBP use a dGPU or does it have only the Iris Pro 5200? Unless you have a good reason not to do so, why don't you install Monterey in the internal SSD?
I've been using it since 12.0.1 as my main OS on my MBP without any issues at all. As I explained above, I had a lot of issues while testing the betas on external drives but now, because I use this MBP for work, I only install released versions on the internal SSD. I keep a Thunderbolt SSD with Big Sur on it for firmware updates only.

Good luck!

The only reason I'm holding back on installing Monterey on the Internal is because of the numerous incompatibilities with several Apps and bugs its still has, so I have to be able to test it externally like I did with Big Sur when I installed it on the A2000. As this is my only computer, I can't really risk it conking out or have those known Monterey issues while working, so I still need to test it.

The 2014 (11.3) does have dGPU (NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M), and, I haven't really had the time to read up on display issues. I might need to do this with at school another computer so I can check what I do online.

 

[oceanwater_13]

Hi, I am new here. I have macbook pro early 2015 13" retina display with 128gb. I bought it second hand from my cousin, and it still running perfectly. But I feel it's not enough to have 128gb SSD, so I want to upgrade it to 512 - 1tb SSD.
Which one is the best? I will use it to graphic designing, like illustrator, photoshop and light video editing with premiere.
I'm living in southeast asia (Indonesia). A lot of choices here in my country, and I'm eyeing:
- WD Black SN750
- Crucial P2
- Silicon Power A80/A60

which one is the best with no issues?

Thank u

UPDATE


I finally bought Corsair MP510 480gb, because I need it fast and this is the most affordable and available in my country.
I have some issue tho, I think the power consumption on sleep mode is a lot.
I tried sleep mode on 89% for 8 hours, it drained to 54%. Is it normal? Because I never count with apple ssd before.
Anw, I've install ssdPmEnabler.

I felt that the speed is okay, what do you think?

Lastly, these are the capture of istat, about the temperature. Is it normal? Or overheat?

Let me know what you all think about this Corsair MP510 480gb. If I still use this mac for 2 years maybe I will upgrade it to 1tb / 2tb

 

[MrAverigeUser]

UPDATE


I finally bought Corsair MP510 480gb, because I need it fast and this is the most affordable and available in my country.
I have some issue tho, I think the power consumption on sleep mode is a lot.
I tried sleep mode on 89% for 8 hours, it drained to 54%. Is it normal? Because I never count with apple ssd before.
Anw, I've install ssdPmEnabler.

I felt that the speed is okay, what do you think?
View attachment 1973668

Lastly, these are the capture of istat, about the temperature. Is it normal? Or overheat?

View attachment 1973670



Let me know what you all think about this Corsair MP510 480gb. If I still use this mac for 2 years maybe I will upgrade it to 1tb / 2tb

As for the speed, it is not overwhelming… but perhaps your MBP has just PCIe x3 , not x4?

As for temperatures:
apple has a long „tradition“ that means not only „function follows form“, but also „low noise priority whatever temp. Will cook the electronics“….

As someone who learned this by the hard way, I have installed MacFanControl to overcome this problem.

you can chose the bad default program from apple for cooking their electronics - or just select two of the sensor temp (free choice) and set the lower temp. Where you want the fans to start moth more rpm and set as well the max. Temp. You want.

maybe some people prefer a higher „low“ temperature than I do to saver some energy , but I prefer this low start of small increase of the fans rpm because up to 2.500 or 2.800 rpm the fans stay nearly silent and a little bit more cooling at the very beginning of more cooling by a higher rpm prevents that you need much higher (and more noisier) rpm if you start too late with more cooling.
If you look more regularly at the temperatures (just one click) you realize (and sometimes will be shocked) how bad apple‘s default cooling algorithm really is… („Thank you, dear Joni Ive!“)

IMHO it is much better for the mainboard to adapt your own personal fan algorhytm by using MacFanControl.

It depends surely a little bit of the way you use your MBP, but after all the years I chose CPU average 47/65 degree C. And about the same for the platform controller Since these two are those locations where the temp. Start to go up first.

I like also a second app a lot to block or activate my dGPU with https://gfx.io/ (gfxCardStatus) manually with just one click.

so you protect your GFX card if no need for the dGFX and the internal GPU is sufficiently enough (which is more often the case than many people think). Nice point: you save energy doing this.
And since the iGPU shares the 16GB RAM with the CPU in most cases the iGPU is really enough.

If you use often your dGPU you might chose its temp as one of the two sensors to set to low and high temp to protect the dGPU the best possible.

I use these two apps since at least 5-6 years now and appreciate them very much (thanks to their developers!).

It takes some time to adjust MacFanControl perfectly to your personal profile of use but it is worth it.
And since this app shows you with one click the temp. of all your sensors and you can also very fastly change the algorhytm to your special needs I highly recommend this app as well as GFXCardStatus.

 

[herb2k]

Thank you for your update.

With the Kexts installed, can you still get the delta update or does it download the full update (~12GB)?

I'm asking because when you root patch the system in OCLP, it messes up with the volume seal and you need to download the full update always. OCLP installs Lilu+NVMeFix automatically for me but, because I don't have any unsupported devices, I always get rid of all Kext OCLP wants to install.

Thanks again.

Following up - I have OC running and am prompted for the 12.3 update it is 4.38gb and not close to the full ~12gb+ size of a Monterey download.

 

[maily.spamy]

So I did put in the SK Hynix P31 on my 2014 Macbook Pro with the black short Sintech adapter.
SsdPmEnabler enabled. Everything is running well except when I try to install bootcamp. I run into the bluescreen that is documented in front page. I cannot even hit shift+f10 because it bootloops so fast after reaching the blue screen. I was able to get into regedit one time but the directory I was supposed to navigate into does not exist. It only went up to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup"

The full directory should've been "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion" but i'm missing the Status folder for some reason.

Anyone know what to do? I've tried to reinstall Windows 10 via Bootcamp Assistant three times already. Do I just use Parallels from now on? I've tried everything I could. I'm not sure if I'm missing something. All drives are formatted correctly.

EDIT: Bootcamp is not possible with the SK Hynix P31, At least not right now.

Hi, I also have 2014 mid macbook pro and bootcamp is working without issues. SSD WD SN750 and some cheap short adapter. But now I found an issue with 2.4GHz wifi on macos. On windows 10 is working without issue. Can you tell me if you can connect to 2.4GHz wifi? To your issue, I would try to disable the ssdpmenabler as first try.

 

[oceanwater_13]

As for the speed, it is not overwhelming… but perhaps your MBP has just PCIe x3 , not x4?

As for temperatures:
apple has a long „tradition“ that means not only „function follows form“, but also „low noise priority whatever temp. Will cook the electronics“….

As someone who learned this by the hard way, I have installed MacFanControl to overcome this problem.

you can chose the bad default program from apple for cooking their electronics - or just select two of the sensor temp (free choice) and set the lower temp. Where you want the fans to start moth more rpm and set as well the max. Temp. You want.

It depends surely a little bit of the way you use your MBP, but after all the years I chose CPU average 47/65 degree C. And about the same for the platform controller Since these two are those locations where the temp. Start to go up first.

I like a second app a lot to block or activate my dGPU with https://gfx.io/ (gfxCardStatus) manually with just one click.

so you protect your GFX card if no need for the dGFX and the internal GPU is enough (which is more often the case than many people think). Nice point: you save energy doing this.

If you use often your dGPU you might chose its temp as one of the two sensors to set to low and high temp to protect the dGPU the best possible.

I use these two apps since at least 5-6 years now and appreciate them very much (thanks to their developers!).

It takes some time to adjust MacFanControl perfectly to your personal profile of use but it is worth it.
And since this app shows you with one click the temp. of all your sensors and you can also very fastly change the algorhytm to your special needs I highly recommend this app as well as GFXCardStatus.

Thank you for your reply, I'll consider it your tips.
This macbook works flawlessly right now after installing the kexts.
But I still have a problem, I tried to put on sleep last night for 10 hours and the battery drains almost 40% overnight.
I tried my GF macbook with the same type (MBP early 2015 13") with 256 apple ssd and her battery was bad, her macbook only drains 7% compare with me. My battery condition is very healthy.

Does anyone has solution?

 

[MrAverigeUser]

Thank you for your reply, I'll consider it your tips.
This macbook works flawlessly right now after installing the kexts.
But I still have a problem, I tried to put on sleep last night for 10 hours and the battery drains almost 40% overnight.
I tried my GF macbook with the same type (MBP early 2015 13") with 256 apple ssd and her battery was bad, her macbook only drains 7% compare with me. My battery condition is very healthy.

Does anyone has solution?

since the 2015 MBP with newer OS and fast SSD need only 10-20 sec to start it seems useless for me to let them „sleep“… just shut the MBP down.
This is the easiest way to save battery „life“…

 

[oceanwater_13]

since the 2015 MBP with newer OS and fast SSD need only 10-20 sec to start it seems useless for me to let them „sleep“… just shut the MBP down.
This is the easiest way to save battery „life“…

Totally agree!
I've tried it for 3 days. Kexts installed but still not helping, only reduce 5-10% overnight. While shutting it down and turn it on 0-1%

 

[xanderx007]

I've been monitoring the A2000's idle current (still on Big Sur, still no other kexts) the past few days, and it has gone down to as low as 1mA (0.01A). The only thing I did was install OCLP (on my 3rd attempt to install Monterey this weekend/next few days). I suppose the NVMefix is working as it should, a welcome side effect to Monterey failing to install.

March 16

March 19 (just a few minutes ago)

 

[MrAverigeUser]

I've been monitoring the A2000's idle current (still on Big Sur, still no other kexts) the past few days, and it has gone down to as low as 1mA (0.01A). The only thing I did was install OCLP (on my 3rd attempt to install Monterey this weekend/next few days). I suppose the NVMefix is working as it should, a welcome side effect to Monterey failing to install.

March 16

View attachment 1976359 View attachment 1976360

March 19 (just a few minutes ago)

View attachment 1976361 View attachment 1976362

I think it is much more energy-saving to instal gfxCardStatus for MBP with discret GPU and use it Instead of trying to reduce idle power consumption from 0.03 to 0.01 W. Idle consumption of modern SSD is perhaps much overrated. The Samsung 970 EVO plus I use has a idle-consumption of 0.03 W.
I cannot believe that modern SSD are an important problem while on idle….

using GFXCardStatus you can activate or deactivate your dGPU with just one click in a second.

I use this app since many years now and as long as you don’t do postproduction in photography or play Videogames my personal experience is that the internal GPU is more than enough.

If one tries to save the most energy possible, this should be to reduce brightness of your screen, or set the screen-saver to „off“, choose dark-mode whenever possible, and set the time to sleep-Mode of the screen itself as short as useful, and deactivate „true tone“ because the screen itself is the most consuming part by far under most condition As this is also the case for iPad and iPhone.

Nearly 99% of the time my dGPU was deactivated and my MBP with dGPU didn’t perform even one second less fast. You just don’t need the dGPU for YT videos, nor Films, nor for just regarding photography or simple work with it, even not speaking about emails, office work or all the simple things we do…

Even when you see action of your dGPU while NOT deactivated this means NOT AT ALL that this is necessary!

Believe me what I write after many years of use and just give it a try.
I can nothing but recommend this app, and as a big plus this protects the dGPU in critical MBP from 2008-2012 from being destroyed - a big plus that cannot be overestimated for these badly constructed Macs…

cheers

 

[xanderx007]

I think it is much more energy-saving to instal gfxCardStatus for MBP with discret GPU and use it Instead of trying to reduce idle power consumption from 0.03 to 0.01 W. Idle consumption of modern SSD is perhaps much overrated. The Samsung 970 EVO plus I use has a idle-consumption of 0.03 W.
I cannot believe that modern SSD are an important problem while on idle….

using GFXCardStatus you can activate or deactivate your dGPU with just one click in a second.

I use this app since many years now and as long as you don’t do postproduction in photography or play Videogames my personal experience is that the internal GPU is more than enough.

If one tries to save the most energy possible, this should be to reduce brightness of your screen, or set the screen-saver to „off“, choose dark-mode whenever possible, and set the time to sleep-Mode of the screen itself as short as useful, and deactivate „true tone“ because the screen itself is the most consuming part by far under most condition As this is also the case for iPad and iPhone.

Nearly 99% of the time my dGPU was deactivated and my MBP with dGPU didn’t perform even one second less fast. You just don’t need the dGPU for YT videos, nor Films, nor for just regarding photography or simple work with it, even not speaking about emails, office work or all the simple things we do…

Even when you see action of your dGPU while NOT deactivated this means NOT AT ALL that this is necessary!

Believe me what I write after many years of use and just give it a try.
I can nothing but recommend this app, and as a big plus this protects the dGPU in critical MBP from 2008-2012 from being destroyed - a big plus that cannot be overestimated for these badly constructed Macs…

cheers

0.01A is lower than 0.03A. I don't need to deactivate my dGPU, since I have a 2014, the dGPU is working fine with most other applications that need it. The only unit that really ever needed the dGPU deactivated is the 2011 MBP (which was what I had previously).

Since I work mostly with graphics, there is a clear advantage of having the dGPU on in most cases. I only deactivate the dGPU with Adobe Illustrator (through Illustrator's preferences) because of the screen glitches, but other that that, it's fine. Also, my post has nothing to do with the dGPU, but the SSD's power consumption, which is actually what matters when the Mac goes to sleep..

 

[Dazza27]

I took the plunge and gave my 13" MacBook mid-2014 a makeover today.

New battery, new ssd, new screws ,footpads and installed Monterey 12.3.

I can't believe it all worked 1st time so if I can do it anyone can.

I got everything I needed from :