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

[tripmusic]

Good price on a 2TB WD SN570 $84.99. Long delivery time though, even with Prime.

It's also gone down in price at Microcenter $92.99, which is what the going price has been on Amazon.

 

[osxfr33k]

I've decided to upgrade my SSD to a WD Black SN770 2TB but unsure if it'll work. Has anybody done something similar? I have the long Sintech adapter.

Actually disregard, I just read from the 1st page that it doesn't work. :-(

It’s my opinion that I think it’s a mistake whoever put the SN770 it works perfectly fine and there is another post another forum just read now says SN770 is in the list without any trim or boot time issues. I have one in my Mac mini and mbp11,3

 

[Uddername]

Hey guys,

I sold a MacBook Pro 13" i7 3.1GHz 2015 model with an upgraded 2TB SSD (Frustratingly I can't remember which SSD I installed as I sell a lot of these, most likely Crucial or Lexar), but the buyer has reported the following issue:

"The battery however loses over 60% of power in just 24 hrs, in sleeping mode, with the wify and bluetooth off."

Now I've sold probably around 300 upgraded 2015 MacBooks over the past few years, 95% of them being 15" models rather than 13" models. However, the only other time somebody mentioned this issue was with a 13" model too so I don't know if they're mor susceptible to this or whether the battery is not as good.

Have you got any advice on how I can help out my customer? I saw online something about 'SSDPmEnabler' but discoveries around these upgrades happens quite quickly, so I'm curious if I've missed anything. Can somebody explain a method to improve the battery situation like I'm a simpleton?

 

[goodfidelity]

Hey guys,

I sold a MacBook Pro 13" i7 3.1GHz 2015 model with an upgraded 2TB SSD (Frustratingly I can't remember which SSD I installed as I sell a lot of these, most likely Crucial or Lexar), but the buyer has reported the following issue:

"The battery however loses over 60% of power in just 24 hrs, in sleeping mode, with the wify and bluetooth off."

Now I've sold probably around 300 upgraded 2015 MacBooks over the past few years, 95% of them being 15" models rather than 13" models. However, the only other time somebody mentioned this issue was with a 13" model too so I don't know if they're mor susceptible to this or whether the battery is not as good.

Have you got any advice on how I can help out my customer? I saw online something about 'SSDPmEnabler' but discoveries around these upgrades happens quite quickly, so I'm curious if I've missed anything. Can somebody explain a method to improve the battery situation like I'm a simpleton?

Read first post spoiler in this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-pro-13-2015-ventura-drains-battery.2396215/

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Hey guys,

I sold a MacBook Pro 13" i7 3.1GHz 2015 model with an upgraded 2TB SSD (Frustratingly I can't remember which SSD I installed as I sell a lot of these, most likely Crucial or Lexar), but the buyer has reported the following issue:

"The battery however loses over 60% of power in just 24 hrs, in sleeping mode, with the wify and bluetooth off."

Now I've sold probably around 300 upgraded 2015 MacBooks over the past few years, 95% of them being 15" models rather than 13" models. However, the only other time somebody mentioned this issue was with a 13" model too so I don't know if they're mor susceptible to this or whether the battery is not as good.

Have you got any advice on how I can help out my customer? I saw online something about 'SSDPmEnabler' but discoveries around these upgrades happens quite quickly, so I'm curious if I've missed anything. Can somebody explain a method to improve the battery situation like I'm a simpleton?

I suggest you try this (from 'man pmset'):
hibernatemode = 25 is only settable via pmset. The system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the disk), and will remove power to memory. The system will restore from disk image. If you want "hibernation" - slower sleeps, slower wakes, and better battery life, you should use this setting.

 

[goodfidelity]

I would like to ask something.

Does the 2013-2014 models accept NVME just as good as the 2015 models now if they have latest firmware upgrade?
Is there any reason to choose 2015 model and not 2013 or 2014 model?

 

[tripmusic]

I would like to ask something.

Does the 2013-2014 models accept NVME just as good as the 2015 models now if they have latest firmware upgrade?
Is there any reason to choose 2015 model and not 2013 or 2014 model?

I believe the 2013/14 models will just have slower SSD speeds due to the PCIe 2.0 bus with up to 4x lanes with the updated firmware, where-as the 2015 models use PCIe 3.0. I wish I knew this fact before getting a 2014 model. I read somewhere that there wasn't much difference between the 2014/2015 models with their hardware, but the PCIe bus speed is something they failed to mention.

If you can swing a 2015, I say go for it. The dGPU is also better than it's predecessors and it has the force touch trackpad.

 

[goodfidelity]

I believe the 2013/14 models will just have slower SSD speeds due to the PCIe 2.0 bus with up to 4x lanes with the updated firmware, where-as the 2015 models use PCIe 3.0. I wish I knew this fact before getting a 2014 model. I read somewhere that there wasn't much difference between the 2014/2015 models with their hardware, but the PCIe bus speed is something they failed to mention.

If you can swing a 2015, I say go for it. The dGPU is also better than it's predecessors and it has the force touch trackpad.

Ok, thanks for reply.

I have som 2015 machines, none of them in perfect condition but still what you are saying makes me understand i should keep a 2015 machine.

About the NVME speed i dont bother, i think it is very rare to need peak speeds. More important is low latency.
I have Mac Pro Workstations running old SATA SSDs and that works perfect.

Thanks for the info regarding touchpad and GPU, that probabaly gives more noticable difference in user experience.

 

[khanhnd]

Hello everyone,

To upgrade the Mac Mini 2014 version with the adapter NFHK, which model SSD should I choose? I have three options. Kioxia Exceria Plus G2, Crucial P3, and WD Blue SN570
I also read on a couple of pages before that a lot of people were successful with SN570, but close to where I live, Kioxia and Crucial P3 are available; is there anyone successful with Crucial P3?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ItsHal]

Hello everyone,

To upgrade the Mac Mini 2014 version with the adapter NFHK, which model SSD should I choose? I have three options. Kioxia Exceria Plus G2, Crucial P3, and WD Blue SN570
I also read on a couple of pages before that a lot of people were successful with SN570, but close to where I live, Kioxia and Crucial P3 are available; is there anyone successful with Crucial P3?

Thanks in advance.

Do not get the the Crucial P3 it has been very hit and miss the WD Blue SN570 has been tried by many and is A know working drive.

 

[ItsHal]

I would like to ask something.

Does the 2013-2014 models accept NVME just as good as the 2015 models now if they have latest firmware upgrade?
Is there any reason to choose 2015 model and not 2013 or 2014 model?

2015 has PCIe 3.0 so faster NVMe speeds

 

[lucky1_3]

Hi I have early 2015 MacBook Pro 13-inch.
I just purchased the Sintech adaptor. But SSDs suggestion made me confused.

I just need ssd that is efficient and does not drain battery with reasonable speeds. I would appreciate the help thanks!

 

[ItsHal]

Hi I have early 2015 MacBook Pro 13-inch.
I just purchased the Sintech adaptor. But SSDs suggestion made me confused.

I just need ssd that is efficient and does not drain battery with reasonable speeds. I would appreciate the help thanks!

Battery will take a hit witch ever one you use.
Most people now days seems to be using
WD Blue SN570
SH Hynix p31 gold
Myself i'm using A Samsung 980 can't tell you about battery as my battery needs to be replaced.

 

[tripmusic]

I finally did the deed and got the WD Blue SN570 2TB, using the short Sintech adapter for my mid-2014 15" rMBP. I had to do it the long way by installing Monterey first from a USB installer and then migrating over, but diskutil recognized the drive and I was able to install Monterey with no issues. I'm happy with the read/write speeds.

I also made a Mojave container for my legacy music apps and I have one more container that I hope I'll be able to install Bootcamp/Win10.

I'm glad I went with the 2TB NVMe because I've got plenty of room to grow. Now I just need to upgrade CCC to v6 so I can make bootable Monterey BU's.

 

[htcmda]

I also made a Mojave container for my legacy music apps and I have one more container that I hope I'll be able to install Bootcamp/Win10.

What does this mean? Can you use old 32 bit apps in the 64 bit macos now natively?

 

[ItsHal]

I finally did the deed and got the WD Blue SN570 2TB, using the short Sintech adapter for my mid-2014 15" rMBP. I had to do it the long way by installing Monterey first from a USB installer and then migrating over, but diskutil recognized the drive and I was able to install Monterey with no issues. I'm happy with the read/write speeds.

I also made a Mojave container for my legacy music apps and I have one more container that I hope I'll be able to install Bootcamp/Win10.

I'm glad I went with the 2TB NVMe because I've got plenty of room to grow. Now I just need to upgrade CCC to v6 so I can make bootable Monterey BU's.

View attachment 2237758
View attachment 2237759

Crazy how people are getting speeds like this on mid 2014 when my mid 2014 is only getting like 800 write lol.

 

[splifingate]

I would like to ask something.

Does the 2013-2014 models accept NVME just as good as the 2015 models now if they have latest firmware upgrade?
Is there any reason to choose 2015 model and not 2013 or 2014 model?

So that you know, the 2014/15 13" MBP both use a PCIe 2.0 interface for their storage interface.

However . . . the 2015 13" uses a PCIe 2.0 4-lane interface, while the '14 uses a PCIe 2.0 2-lane interface.

The 2015 15" MBP utilises a PCIe 3.0 4-lane interface.

I usually achieve 1400/1400 r/w speeds on my 2015 13" MBP.

As that's the only MBP I have ever owned/used, I can't speak for other models on compatibility issues

 

[tripmusic]

What does this mean? Can you use old 32 bit apps in the 64 bit macos now natively?

Yes, Mojave is the last OS to support 32bit apps. I need it for Avid Pro Tools mainly though. I'm stuck on the perpetual version I have and Mojave seems to be the sweet spot for it. But it's also handy to be able to run .exe's in Wine.

Crazy how people are getting speeds like this on mid 2014 when my mid 2014 is only getting like 800 write lol.

What drive are you using?

No complaints so far. Triple booting Monterey, Mojave and Windows 10 with no real issues. Though I think I had Win10 sleeping and the next day it didn't wake, but booted up. Must've shutdown, or I did and forgot. I'll have to pay attention to that. I installed a trackpad driver for Win10 and I've got 3 finger drag now, along with swiping gestures. Not perfect, but better than the Bootcamp driver.

Edit: Yeah, there's definitely something going on with Windows 10. I put it to sleep last night and today I noticed again that it had shut down. Any ideas what might be causing that?

 

[Andy1248]

I have 2 Macbook Airs. An early 2015 A1466 1.6ghz 13" and a early 2014 A1465 1.4ghz 11".

The 13" I upgraded with a Crucial P2 500gb M.2 NVMe without any issues.

On trying to upgrade the 11" I have tried a Kingston NV2 500gb without sucess. Also tried a Patriot P300 500gb without any sucess. On each occasion the drive was not visible in recovery mode.

Interestingly I tried the Crucial P2 drive in the 11" and it worked OK.

The two drives, Kingston and Patriot also are not visible on the 13". Cannot get another Crucial P2 for some reason.

I cannot keeping buying drives on the hope that they will work. Has anyone else had problems with the Kingston NV2 and Patriot P300 or advise why they do not work.

 

[osxfr33k]

I believe the 2013/14 models will just have slower SSD speeds due to the PCIe 2.0 bus with up to 4x lanes with the updated firmware, where-as the 2015 models use PCIe 3.0. I wish I knew this fact before getting a 2014 model. I read somewhere that there wasn't much difference between the 2014/2015 models with their hardware, but the PCIe bus speed is something they failed to mention.

If you can swing a 2015, I say go for it. The dGPU is also better than it's predecessors and it has the force touch trackpad.

Sorry I have to disagree I have both a MacBook Pro 2014 and 2015 and the 2014 is superior to the 2015, the graphics card is superior to the 2015 AMD card and its better supported with OCLP up to at least Ventura. The 2015 Gets Way more hot to over the 2014 with the Nvidia GT 750 graphics card. See my stats a couple posts above.

 

[osxfr33k]

Battery will take a hit witch ever one you use.
Most people now days seems to be using
WD Blue SN570
SH Hynix p31 gold
Myself i'm using A Samsung 980 can't tell you about battery as my battery needs to be replaced.

Why the SN570 over the SN770? I don’t have one single issue with SN770 1TB runs great completely compatible with sleep/wake and hibernation. See my post above.

 

[mwidjaya]

Battery will take a hit witch ever one you use.
Most people now days seems to be using
WD Blue SN570
SH Hynix p31 gold
Myself i'm using A Samsung 980 can't tell you about battery as my battery needs to be replaced.

Yes, battery takes a hit (I believe this has to do with third party nvme doesn't sleep like Apple ones, and still consumes higher power).

If you want to retain battery in sleep, you need to force standby (RAM gets written to SSD and whole laptop goes into standby (deeper sleep)).

Default pmset -g values for:
standbydelayhigh 86400 (default) 24 hours
standbydelaylow 10800 (default) 3 hours

You can change defaults using:
sudo pmset -a standbydelayhigh 1500
sudo pmset -a standbydelaylow 1500

1500 (25 mins) after sleep, it will go into standby (deeper sleep).
You decide if 25 mins is suitable. Anything between 20 mins to 3 hours would be appropriate.

 

[ItsHal]

Why the SN570 over the SN770? I don’t have one single issue with SN770 1TB runs great completely compatible with sleep/wake and hibernation. See my post above.Only reason

I

Why the SN570 over the SN770? I don’t have one single issue with SN770 1TB runs great completely compatible with sleep/wake and hibernation. See my post above.

Only the SN570 because when I was looking upgrade my Adata it was one of the drives I got told to get.

 

[tripmusic]

Sorry I have to disagree I have both a MacBook Pro 2014 and 2015 and the 2014 is superior to the 2015, the graphics card is superior to the 2015 AMD card and its better supported with OCLP up to at least Ventura. The 2015 Gets Way more hot to over the 2014 with the Nvidia GT 750 graphics card. See my stats a couple posts above.

Hmm... I couldn't find your post with the stats, but I'll take your word for it.

 

[piddys]

Hi everybody

I have read most pages here and have some questions I hope you can help me with. I'm placed in Denmark.

I have a MacBook Pro 15" 2014 with 16 Gb ram. Big Sur is installed, latest official version, and don't want to install later versions because of reliability, time used to make all things work etc.

So I want to upgrade the 256 Gb original SSD to either a 2 TB or 4 TB and keep staying in Big Sur.

1) What is the most proven to work SSD of 2/4 Tb in size?

2) What specific and best Sintech adapter should I buy?

3) Installation of Big Sur on the new SSD:

a) Take old SSD out and put in new SSD with adapter.

b) I have a bootable USB key with Big Sur. So boot into "recovery mode", format new SSD and install Big Sur from the USB key?

Would that be the way to do it? I also have a MacBook Pro 15 2012, 16 Gb ram and 1 Tb SSD and that's how I usually do it. That MacBook will go to my son after the upgrade on the 2014 version.

All help appreciated.