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Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe
- Thread starter maxthackray
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So Samsung drives have an issue with Monterey or Ventura but if Air is running on Big Sur do they work fine??
Did you manage to solve the issue i also go the same issue but with the original 128 ssd and started few days after i installed open core it only got solved after the opencore patch was uninstalled but i still dont know whether it was an issue with opencore or my drive
Indeed. I'm guessing those speeds are from a 2015 model with PCIe 3.0 x4?
I should have added... in the case you will be using both native and patched systems on the same disk. In my case, Monterey and Mojave on an rMBP 2014. Maybe there aren't issues, but I thought I read somewhere to use separate containers in this scenario, so I just played it safe.
Nope. The 13" 2015 retina is pcie 2.0 x 4 lanes. It gets max 2000 MB/s. Stock Apple SSD is within those upper limit but pretty good as is.
The upgrade would be in larger storage size.
The 15" 2015 does have the pcie 3.0 lanes.
That's pretty nice stock performance for a low-end model for the time.
Hi, I read everything about this upgrade but I'm not 100% sure because I want it to work perfectly.
I am going to upgrade my Macbook Air 2017 (128gb, intel i5, 8gb ram) with Samsung 970 Evo Plus or Samsung 980. Both of them with 500GB version.
Will they be compatible with my Macbook?
I want to connect it with this adapter:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01CWWA...
Is this a good adapter? Will it be compatible with this SSDs?
How about functions in Macbook, will everything be working the same as before?
I am going to upgrade my Macbook Air 2017 (128gb, intel i5, 8gb ram) with Samsung 970 Evo Plus or Samsung 980. Both of them with 500GB version.
Will they be compatible with my Macbook?
I want to connect it with this adapter:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01CWWA...
Is this a good adapter? Will it be compatible with this SSDs?
How about functions in Macbook, will everything be working the same as before?
I think all adapters if of decent quality work without any issue i am using a generic adapter as Sintec over here is almost 30 to 40 dollars and it is working without any issue
So from my experience and what i have read on this post following are the updated checklist
Most SSD adapters work, u dont need to go for Sintech if they are not easily available, long adapters are better then short onces though short ones also work.
PCIE Gen 4 SSD's do not work atleast they dont work for my early 2014 MBA and they are anyways expensive compared to Gen3 apart from the Kingston one which anyways wont out perform decent Gen 3 SSD so its better to stick to GEN 3 SSD and remember most Gen 3 are TLC which is better
SSD's that are know to work and easily available in India as I am from India and I dont have info about other countries
SN570 -
500 GB - 32 $
1TB - 53$
2 TB - 120$
870 Plus
500 GB - 40$
1TB - 72$
2TB - 140$
SSD's that are not know to work
Crucial P3
Kingston NV2
Generic Adapters with decent amount of reviews are available for around 6$ the cheapest is around 5$ but i guess they all will be same quality
I would personally advice if you are from India stick to SN570 as they easily available and from my experience i have found they run almost 10 degree cooler compared to the stock SSD, please remember the faster the SSD the more power it will require to process data and the hotter it will run again that does mean there is anything wrong with them as SSD are expect to run upto 70 degree without any issue though idle temp is around 50.
Most SSD adapters work, u dont need to go for Sintech if they are not easily available, long adapters are better then short onces though short ones also work.
PCIE Gen 4 SSD's do not work atleast they dont work for my early 2014 MBA and they are anyways expensive compared to Gen3 apart from the Kingston one which anyways wont out perform decent Gen 3 SSD so its better to stick to GEN 3 SSD and remember most Gen 3 are TLC which is better
SSD's that are know to work and easily available in India as I am from India and I dont have info about other countries
SN570 -
500 GB - 32 $
1TB - 53$
2 TB - 120$
870 Plus
500 GB - 40$
1TB - 72$
2TB - 140$
SSD's that are not know to work
Crucial P3
Kingston NV2
Generic Adapters with decent amount of reviews are available for around 6$ the cheapest is around 5$ but i guess they all will be same quality
I would personally advice if you are from India stick to SN570 as they easily available and from my experience i have found they run almost 10 degree cooler compared to the stock SSD, please remember the faster the SSD the more power it will require to process data and the hotter it will run again that does mean there is anything wrong with them as SSD are expect to run upto 70 degree without any issue though idle temp is around 50.
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Sort of same speeds as my 500GB 980 35% fullAttached is the screenshot of speeds i am getting on my early 2104 MBA
hey guys, Ive got an 2015 15" MBP and ive decided to install ventura 13.5.1 and upgrade my 1TB SSUBX to 1TB 970 EVO PLUS using generic aliexpress adapter (sorry but there is no way I am paying SSD price for just a sintech adapter).
Just wanted to share what Ive got in terms of gains:
Here is my old SSUBX with 800GB used:
Here is my new 970 in windows 600gb used:
and in mbp with just fresh monterey installed:
and when it got all data back in (700gb used):
I have some questions left:
1. why I am not getting full 3500/3300mb speeds or at least same as I was getting in windows PC ? same pcie 3.0 x4. the read speed is even lower than writes. Could not find anyone posting same config but admit I was lazy reading through all of the 460 pages of this thread.
2. I also have samsung 980 1tb ssd, would be better if i used this one in terms of performance, stability, heat/battery life for 2015 15" MBP? windows benchmark shows a bit lower scores for 980 comparing with 970e+
thanks in advance
Just wanted to share what Ive got in terms of gains:
Here is my old SSUBX with 800GB used:
Here is my new 970 in windows 600gb used:
and in mbp with just fresh monterey installed:
and when it got all data back in (700gb used):
I have some questions left:
1. why I am not getting full 3500/3300mb speeds or at least same as I was getting in windows PC ? same pcie 3.0 x4. the read speed is even lower than writes. Could not find anyone posting same config but admit I was lazy reading through all of the 460 pages of this thread.
2. I also have samsung 980 1tb ssd, would be better if i used this one in terms of performance, stability, heat/battery life for 2015 15" MBP? windows benchmark shows a bit lower scores for 980 comparing with 970e+
thanks in advance
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The 970 Evo Plus is better then 980 as it has Dram cache.
I am not an expert on SSD but the performance of SSD depends also on the hardware you install it on the figure i would be more interested in in the test i the last one because it is nearest to the real life speed of hdd in daily use, i would not worry much on the speed test speed that much what you should be looking for in the adapter is stability rather then raw speed
I wound up playing it safe and going with an original 1TB Apple SSUBX SSD from a 2013 Mac Pro for my 15" 2014 MacBook Pro. I found one on eBay for $70. I need to triple boot with Monterey with OCLP, Windows, and El Capitan (the last macOS version that had the proper Core Audio drivers to use the digital audio interface with a Denon SN-X600 DJ mixer). El Capitan took the NVMe option off the table because you need at least High Sierra for that.
Looking around on eBay for 2014 MacBook Pro 1TB SSUBX SSDs, they were all going for $100 or more. But, I kept seeing 1TB 2013 Mac Pro SSDs that were cheaper. I had a hunch that they were compatible with my 2014 so I looked into it and it turns out they are; some just have a heat sink that keeps them from fitting in a MBP.
I had to carefully remove the heat sink from the SSD with a metal spudger and a hair dryer. That took 5 minutes, but it took another 15 minutes to remove the adhesive from the chips. Not a big deal, just tedious.
I'm really happy with the speeds I'm getting; much faster than my original 500GB SSUAX SSD.
Looking around on eBay for 2014 MacBook Pro 1TB SSUBX SSDs, they were all going for $100 or more. But, I kept seeing 1TB 2013 Mac Pro SSDs that were cheaper. I had a hunch that they were compatible with my 2014 so I looked into it and it turns out they are; some just have a heat sink that keeps them from fitting in a MBP.
I had to carefully remove the heat sink from the SSD with a metal spudger and a hair dryer. That took 5 minutes, but it took another 15 minutes to remove the adhesive from the chips. Not a big deal, just tedious.
I'm really happy with the speeds I'm getting; much faster than my original 500GB SSUAX SSD.
From what i have read and also have tested on my MBA early 2014 with Kingston PCIE4 NVME, Gen 4 NVME do not work also in India all adapters for my model also clearly mention this in their listing
However this may not be the case with your MB depending on your model
I can confirm that the Silicon Power UD90 works great with the Sintech adapter on my 2015 15" and I also noticed that my read/write speeds are close to 3 GB/s, not bad!
just tested my first SN580, 1tb size, working good so far with OCLP Monterey on a late 2013 2015"
Not really worth any premium over the sn570 probably, but since it's probably going to be a replacement on the market, better test now just in case i needed to store some...
Not really worth any premium over the sn570 probably, but since it's probably going to be a replacement on the market, better test now just in case i needed to store some...
As I stated in the other thread..Just make sure it's the SHORT adapter. I have the Syntech short one. Originally I had ordered the long one and discovered it made the bottom case cover press pretty significantly on the SSD. NOT good for long term! So I ordered the short one and had no issue!