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

[pullman]

Yes it might actually. I'll see how it goes when the adapter arrives. I actually had no idea about that stick but only wanted to try a cheap one for an enclosure.

If that is the case it appears the MP44 should be more than sufficient for your usage case, you may not need to buy the P41 unnecessarily..

Teamgroup MP44 512 GB Specs

512 GB, TLC, PCIe 4.0 x4, M.2 2280

www.techpowerup.com

Teamgroup MP44 SSD Review: A Competent, Efficient Contender

Another excellent value SSD to tempt your wallet

www.tomshardware.com

 

[pullman]

I didn't know of the Lexar actually. But it's being sold with heatsink sometimes I see.

That drive is very similar to the Lexar NM790. Fast and relatively cool, with Chinese NAND and Chinese controller, but no DRAM.

 

[EugW]

I didn't know of the Lexar actually. But it's being sold with heatsink sometimes I see.

Don't get the one with a heatsink since it won't fit inside a USB 4 enclosure.

BTW, Lexar is now a completely Chinese brand.

 

[natus.w]

That drive is very similar to the Lexar NM790. Fast and relatively cool, with Chinese NAND and Chinese controller, but no DRAM.

Any “DRAM-less” design will have a small HMB cache (not that large, only about 32MB or so)

Lexar NM790 2 TB Review

The Lexar NM790 2 TB offers fantastic performance at outstanding pricing. The 2 TB model sells for just $110, which makes it the most affordable high-end SSD available. Real-life performance results are even better than the 4 TB version, which helps make up ground against the PCIe 5.0 competition.

www.techpowerup.com

DRAM largely isn’t a worry unless your usage cases depend on extended R/W workflows anyway (if he just needs the space anything is going to work here..)

 

[EugW]

Any “DRAM-less” design will have a small HMB cache (not that large, only about 32MB or so)

Lexar NM790 2 TB Review

The Lexar NM790 2 TB offers fantastic performance at outstanding pricing. The 2 TB model sells for just $110, which makes it the most affordable high-end SSD available. Real-life performance results are even better than the 4 TB version, which helps make up ground against the PCIe 5.0 competition.

www.techpowerup.com

DRAM largely isn’t a worry unless your usage cases depend on extended R/W workflows anyway (if he just needs the space anything is going to work here..)

Not in an enclosure. There is no HMB support. And AFAIK, HMB isn't supported on Macs internally either.

 

[pullman]

Good point, thank you.

Don't get the one with a heatsink since it won't fit inside a USB 4 enclosure.

 

[pullman]

I'm thinking long-term reliability more than performance to be honest given how I use this machine. I was under the impression that DRAM is recommended for OS drives but perhaps that's not right?

Any “DRAM-less” design will have a small HMB cache (not that large, only about 32MB or so)

Lexar NM790 2 TB Review

The Lexar NM790 2 TB offers fantastic performance at outstanding pricing. The 2 TB model sells for just $110, which makes it the most affordable high-end SSD available. Real-life performance results are even better than the 4 TB version, which helps make up ground against the PCIe 5.0 competition.

www.techpowerup.com

DRAM largely isn’t a worry unless your usage cases depend on extended R/W workflows anyway (if he just needs the space anything is going to work here..)

 

[pullman]

I have received the tiny Sintech adapter and installed the Teamgroup SSD (which actually is the MP33, not the MP44).

I booted off a Monterey USB installer and the installation went without hitch and slightly faster than it normally does on my 11" MBA (2015). I haven't had the chance to test if battery life is affected but sleep seems to work normally. Startup is ever so slightly faster.

I then ran Amorphous Disk Mark to check performance...and it never completed the 4KQD32 test. I waited two hours without change. The same happened when I ran the test on the original SSD which Etrecheck claims is failing.

This makes me wonder if that SSD is actually OK and it is the logic board that's causing the errors. Any thoughts on that?

When I re-ran Amorphous just now it – of course – completed. I first ran the quick 50MiB test and then the 1GiB. This is the result from the latter test:

I have no idea why the program does not recognise the name of the SSD ("macOS" not "Macintosh HD") but how are these numbers, ok or strange?

Cheers
Philip

 

[xanderx007]

Hi everyone.

I posted here a while back, when I upgraded my MBP15mid2014's stock 512 SSD with a Kingston A2000 running on Big Sur. I tested a 2TB Kingston NV1 mounted in an Orico external enclosure earlier on running on Monterey and it worked just fine, but did not install it since the NV1 is DRAM-less and I was concerned about its overall speed over time. I didn't need the upgrade back then, so I decided against it.

But recently, I find the need to upgrade from Big Sur more and more urgent. With Adobe CC 2025 apps out, I will have to upgrade to a more recent MacOS version since CC2025 does not support Big Sur.

I started shopping around for a replacement to my aging A2000 (now at 84% lifetime, but based on DriveDX, is still very healthy after 2 years of constant heavy use and abuse), and I was considering getting another A2000, Samsung, WD, Crucial, Teamgroup and even a few others. I wanted to get a 2TB SSD, but I'm currently on a very tight budget, so it's just the 1TB for now. After a few days of consideration, I decided on 1TB ADATA SX8200, which I got cheap at only about $60, way below its original price point of $219.

As usual, I ended up choosing the SX8200 primarily because of the price. It was dirt cheap, a lot cheaper than the A2000 when I got it 2 years ago. Seeing the other choices, R/W was irrelevant, since it won't go beyond 2k speeds anyway, though there's a slight improvement in the speeds. Since I do graphics, having a DRAM was also a very important.

I was still a bit apprehensive if it's going to actually work (even though it was listed to work), but, if it doesn't, I'll just relegate it as backup storage. If I get enough funds, I'll spring for a 2TB KC3000, Kingston Fury Renegade or Crucial P3, but seeing here that Crucial has a few issues, I might opt for either the KC3k or the Renegade, unless I find something better that my MBP can handle.

The current versions of OCLP (2.1.2 - 2.2.0) have become a lot easier to use compared to the earlier versions a couple of years back. I made 2 USB installers, one for Ventura and another for Sequioa. I've tried Ventura earlier last week on one of my External NV1s and it worked. Last night, I was able to install Ventura into the SX82000 quite easily though it took a while since I thought it was cycling on restart. I won't be touching the A2000 afterward, I'll keep it around as a backup.

After realizing I had to start on the <new> installation drive during start up, everything else was okay, though I haven't migrated my data or have installed it internally as I have classes and stuff to do. I'll do that over the weekend, letting it run overnight and while I am out since it requires 16 hours to transfer the entire thing.

I had at least one minor issue: my generic multimode BT mouse won't work (it works fine on Big Sur), until I saw an article somewhere to <pair> the mouse again with the new system.

I'll update this later when I've installed the SSD internally and have migrated my data.

UPDATE I:

Migration took about 4~ hours (from the rated 16 with the NV1, and later on 10 hours for the SX8200). It ran into a boot issue (stuck on start up progress bar), but, after a little bit of googling, solved it with the bless fix from the OCLP guide. It's now installed internally and running smoothly, with slightly better R/W speeds as the A2000, testing some of the regular apps I use.

No hibernation issues, and power consumption goes as low as 0.01A and 0.0A on idle.

I will replace the older stick adapter with a short one later, since the SX8200 is slightly thicker, it's slightly bent when mounted on the adapter.

Update II:

I've purchased another SX8200 and will install Sequioa on it, for testing. I'll keep the A2000 drive system and Data intact, for back up, just in case. It pretty much has been cloned into the current SX8200/Ventura.

 

[pullman]

I have received the tiny Sintech adapter and installed the Teamgroup SSD (which actually is the MP33, not the MP44).

I booted off a Monterey USB installer and the installation went without hitch and slightly faster than it normally does on my 11" MBA (2015). I haven't had the chance to test if battery life is affected but sleep seems to work normally. Startup is ever so slightly faster.

I then ran Amorphous Disk Mark to check performance...and it never completed the 4KQD32 test. I waited two hours without change. The same happened when I ran the test on the original SSD which Etrecheck claims is failing.

This makes me wonder if that SSD is actually OK and it is the logic board that's causing the errors. Any thoughts on that?

When I re-ran Amorphous just now it – of course – completed. I first ran the quick 50MiB test and then the 1GiB. This is the result from the latter test:

View attachment 2461637

I have no idea why the program does not recognise the name of the SSD ("macOS" not "Macintosh HD") but how are these numbers, ok or strange?

Cheers
Philip

I think I may have found the reason for the slow random results at 4K, see this TechPowerUp review.

They note that the Teamgroup MP33 probably has "some kind of small, fixed-sized buffer is used (in the controller) that gets overwhelmed" by random writes (Tom's Hardware wrote that it uses a 150GB write cache).

I suppose such heavy random writes won't be common in ordinary use but it's worth noting the effect. There are better drives out there, methinks. But for a test of the machine this is still OK.

Btw, over-night the MBA had lost 1% in battery which was a positive discovery.

 

[fnir]

Thanks for the input. I ordered a Kioxia Exceria Pro 2 TB today, for the DRAM and two efficient cores out of a total of 5 from the PS5018-E18-41 Phison controller.

will see how it goes..

Hi guys, anyone ever tried the Kioxia/toshiba Exceria plus G3 for the upgrade ?
I am upgrading my rmbp (mid-2015, 15 inch) with a 2T nvme. Given the information from this thread and the initial guide, it seems that the Hynix P31 gold is a safe choice, however, the Kioxia Exceria plug G3 has a much better price.

Hi,
Did you test Kioxia Exceria plus G3 on Mbp (mid-2015, 15 inch) or know if it works?

 

[RumorChaser]

During installation of Windows 10 via BootCamp, a blue screen may occur.
This was resolved by user ohnggni in post #1685, thanks to him.

Here are the two recommendations to Install BootComp with success on a MacBook Air / Pro with a NVMe SSD :

• leave the MagSafe charger plugged in during the whole installation process (don't run on battery)
• When you see the error pop-up, "The Computer restarted unexpectedly....", please do the following :

1. Press Shift + F10 keys.
2. Launch "regedit".
3. Find this directory, "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion"
4. Once you can see "setup.exe" in the right section, double-click it and modify the value to 3.
5. Close the regedit.
6. Reboot

A video of the process is available here (zh-CN).

This instruction didn't work for me (Windows 10 22H2 + Crucial P2). Even after changing the value to 3, it keeps blue screening ("CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED") after reboot. I suspect it is very specific to the version of Windows and the model of the drive being used.

I upgraded my MacBookPro11,1 (MacBook Pro Mid 2014) with an SK Hynix Gold P31, but this seems to cause problems with Boot Camp or Windows 10 installs. This seems to be different from the blue screen described in the first post. When installing, after the first reboot Windows will show a WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR for a split second before rebooting and doing the same thing (and entering a recovery mode after a few times), and there is no opportunity to do the Shift + F10 trick. Since I've spent several days on this issue (and saw some other people with this issue or at least a similar one), I thought I'd leave my findings and solution here.


Essentially, the solution is to set the power plan to "high performance," which stops the BSoD. The challenge is how to change the power plan, since you can't boot Windows normally to change it. The method I used involves changing the install.wim in my Windows USB installer directly to force the OS to use the high performance power plan immediately. This does require access to a working Windows PC, which can be a computer other than the Mac. If you don't have one, you might be able to use a VM instead.

In my case, there was no BSoD at all during the install process, not even the one described on page 1. Be careful not to change the power plan after the install (read the third note below before doing so to ensure the new power plan is safe). If you stop using the high performance power plan, you may start getting bluescreens again unless you follow the step below.

Notes:

• It seems like the installer will be corrupted if the USB doesn't have enough free space while you do this leading to an error during install about being unable to find the license terms, so make sure you have enough (I had about 1 GB free and it worked, but it failed with ~300 MB)
• Also make sure you have enough free space on your C: drive when mounting the wim file (about 15 GB free should work)
• The above registry key locks certain settings such as display power off timeout. If you want to change these, you can remove the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Power\PowerSettings\ActivePowerScheme and reboot your computer, but make sure to first go to the advanced settings for all other power plans (namely the "Balanced" one) and ensure PCIe Link State Power Management is off before deleting it. (Moderate power savings might work; it didn't crash immediately when I tried it, but I also didn't try it for very long.)

---

As an alternative, you could install a version of Windows without this issue (1703 worked on my end, but I did have to refer back to the registry tweak in the first post), set the high performance power plan, and then update to 22H2 with Windows Update. However, that takes significantly more time.

The precise problem with the blue screen is that some (if not all) NVMe drives do not like being put on low power state through the adapter in Windows. Once it is put in low power it goes offline. The system suddenly finds its boot drive gone, and panics because it expects the drive to the online as long as the system is up.

For Windows the power setting "PCI Express - Link State Power Management" has to be set to off. The reason why "High Performance" power plan works is because that link state setting is off in that plan, whereas it is on maximum saving for the default "Balance" power plan.

Same with the drive not showing up during Windows setup unless you keep your computer plugged in. The setup system (WinPE) wants to put the drive on a low power state on battery power. The drive fails to keep itself online with so little power. Except since WinPE is completely in RAM once loaded, it doesn't panic like in a normal Windows environment.

Instead of modifying install.wim, this is the alternative I used:

1. Boot from USB.
2. Select your install destination and wait for the reboot to happen.
3. Upon the very first reboot, you have to keep trying SHIFT + F10.
4. Once the commandline prompt is up, enter the following to change your power plan to "High Performance":
   

   powercfg /s 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

5. The previous step is a race against time. Once you miss your chance and see a blue screen, you have to redo the Windows setup from USB again. You have about 1 minute in my experience on the MacBook Pro 2013-14

Windows is surprisingly stable once this setting is changed. Sleep/wake, use on battery is perfectly fine.

Some people claim moderate saving is fine. I have to test it out. But I recommend sticking to off for the first few weeks to rule out any problems related to this.

 

[xboxbml]

Hi everyone.

I posted here a while back, when I upgraded my MBP15mid2014's stock 512 SSD with a Kingston A2000 running on Big Sur. I tested a 2TB Kingston NV1 mounted in an Orico external enclosure earlier on running on Monterey and it worked just fine, but did not install it since the NV1 is DRAM-less and I was concerned about its overall speed over time. I didn't need the upgrade back then, so I decided against it.

But recently, I find the need to upgrade from Big Sur more and more urgent. With Adobe CC 2025 apps out, I will have to upgrade to a more recent MacOS version since CC2025 does not support Big Sur.

I started shopping around for a replacement to my aging A2000 (now at 84% lifetime, but based on DriveDX, is still very healthy after 2 years of constant heavy use and abuse), and I was considering getting another A2000, Samsung, WD, Crucial, Teamgroup and even a few others. I wanted to get a 2TB SSD, but I'm currently on a very tight budget, so it's just the 1TB for now. After a few days of consideration, I decided on 1TB ADATA SX8200, which I got cheap at only about $60, way below its original price point of $219.

As usual, I ended up choosing the SX8200 primarily because of the price. It was dirt cheap, a lot cheaper than the A2000 when I got it 2 years ago. Seeing the other choices, R/W was irrelevant, since it won't go beyond 2k speeds anyway, though there's a slight improvement in the speeds. Since I do graphics, having a DRAM was also a very important.

I was still a bit apprehensive if it's going to actually work (even though it was listed to work), but, if it doesn't, I'll just relegate it as backup storage. If I get enough funds, I'll spring for a 2TB KC3000, Kingston Fury Renegade or Crucial P3, but seeing here that Crucial has a few issues, I might opt for either the KC3k or the Renegade, unless I find something better that my MBP can handle.

The current versions of OCLP (2.1.2 - 2.2.0) have become a lot easier to use compared to the earlier versions a couple of years back. I made 2 USB installers, one for Ventura and another for Sequioa. I've tried Ventura earlier last week on one of my External NV1s and it worked. Last night, I was able to install Ventura into the SX82000 quite easily though it took a while since I thought it was cycling on restart. I won't be touching the A2000 afterward, I'll keep it around as a backup.

After realizing I had to start on the <new> installation drive during start up, everything else was okay, though I haven't migrated my data or have installed it internally as I have classes and stuff to do. I'll do that over the weekend, letting it run overnight and while I am out since it requires 16 hours to transfer the entire thing.

I had at least one minor issue: my generic multimode BT mouse won't work (it works fine on Big Sur), until I saw an article somewhere to <pair> the mouse again with the new system.

I'll update this later when I've installed the SSD internally and have migrated my data.

UPDATE I:

Migration took about 4~ hours (from the rated 16 with the NV1, and later on 10 hours for the SX8200). It ran into a boot issue (stuck on start up progress bar), but, after a little bit of googling, solved it with the bless fix from the OCLP guide. It's now installed internally and running smoothly, with slightly better R/W speeds as the A2000, testing some of the regular apps I use.

No hibernation issues, and power consumption goes as low as 0.01A and 0.0A on idle.

I will replace the older stick adapter with a short one later, since the SX8200 is slightly thicker, it's slightly bent when mounted on the adapter.

View attachment 2462464

View attachment 2463489

Update II:

I've purchased another SX8200 and will install Sequioa on it, for testing. I'll keep the A2000 drive system and Data intact, for back up, just in case. It pretty much has been cloned into the current SX8200/Ventura.

I've got the SX8200Pro in my 2015 MBA. Been working fine for over 6 years. NO issues. And yes, you HAVE to use the short adapter. I had originally ordered the long one when I embarked on that journey, and discovered the same issue. The adapter was bending a bit and the case bottom was pressing down on the drive. It worked, but all that stress over time would break it. Got the short adapter and no issues. I kept the long one and this summer bought the 2015MBP and used it in this along with the Crucial P3 drive. No issues with that setup either.. I'm stuck on Monterey on both devices as OCLP/anyunsupportedOS does not allow viewing Apple purchased movies/HDCP content with any sort of external monitor attached. Deal breaker for me so I'm on Monterey indefinitely.. It works on the older 2012MBP I garbage picked and run Sonoma/Sequoia but not the newer...go figure..

 

[xanderx007]

I've got the SX8200Pro in my 2015 MBA. Been working fine for over 6 years. NO issues. And yes, you HAVE to use the short adapter. I had originally ordered the long one when I embarked on that journey, and discovered the same issue. The adapter was bending a bit and the case bottom was pressing down on the drive. It worked, but all that stress over time would break it. Got the short adapter and no issues. I kept the long one and this summer bought the 2015MBP and used it in this along with the Crucial P3 drive. No issues with that setup either.. I'm stuck on Monterey on both devices as OCLP/anyunsupportedOS does not allow viewing Apple purchased movies/HDCP content with any sort of external monitor attached. Deal breaker for me so I'm on Monterey indefinitely.. It works on the older 2012MBP I garbage picked and run Sonoma/Sequoia but not the newer...go figure..

The bend is not that much, and the MBP has more allowance for it, but still, I'd rather not risk the drive failing because of the slight bend. The short adapter has already arrived, and I will do the replacement over the weekend, but I suppose the stick adapter can be cut since there's really nothing on the pcb. I ordered an extra long adapter, and will order another short one later (they're cheap anyway), just in case of failure.