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

[davibe]

Hi,

i have quickly skimmed through this thread (quite long). I have a mid 2015 macbook pro 15". I wanted to upgrade my ssd to 1Tb or 2Tb. I had my eyes on the samsung evo 960 and 970 models. The think that strikes me the most is that i have read in this tread that these ssd are power hungry and the overall battery life can go from 9 hours to 6 hours (30% less).

Is this true in the case of my mid 2015 macbook ? Can anyone confirm this ? If this is true is there any other ssd that does not affect the battery life significantly ?
I often work while travelling and I would like to keep doing so.

Thank you
[doublepost=1532807411][/doublepost]

Hello, finally I just installed 970 evo 2TB on my macbook pro mid 2015:
- upgraded to 10.13.6
- cloned system on external ssd with ccc
- open mbp, unplug battery
- replaced ssd with sintech green adapter and new drive (I did no magician upgrade)
- reassembled
- booted from external ssd
- formatted new drive
- cloned back my system to new drive
- booted from new drive and set it as new boot volume

No issues at all, ssd recognized and formatted apfs without problems.

I did a "normal use test" before and noted temperatures (ssd, cpu), battery % and battery lasting time. I need to do the test with the new drive but because I used Hardware Monitor 5.55 it don't recognize the new ssd sensors*.

Speed: before r1956/w1080, now r2240/w2520**.

I have 2 questions:
* I'm searching a ssd thermal sensor app who work with the new ssd. I found maybe iStat menu but I will not install an app so rich of features only for the ssd temperature (I try to keep my system "cleaner" as possible). Someone can suggest a light app only for monitor ssd temperature? Then I will post the comparison.
** Yes, it is what Black Magic Speed test show: write speed is bigger. Is this normal? In system profile I see x4 and 8.0 GT/s for the connection. Maybe a software bug...

This is exactly the update i'd love to do. Can you please comment on battery life ? did you notice any impact ?

 

[vk2fro]

Finally some real world usage reports on the toshiba XG5. Using 10.13.6 (I reverted) and 10.14 latest beta.

With regard to the beta I was compiling code to make mame go, so it was pegging the cpu and lots of I/O operations, after about 30 minutes of compiling the compile failed (something to do with the beta) and the battery was down to 75% from 84%. Compiling on battery is pretty hard on both the cpu and the battery, along with hitting the SSD pretty hard too.

Back on 10.13.6 I sucessfully compiled MAME, and loaded up double dragon for a game (with infinate lives on of course) and played to the end (defeating the boss man with the machine gun). This also took me around 30 minutes, dying several times in the process. Playing an emulator is pretty hard on the cpu, gpu, and sound system but not the disk, as its sitting idle (emulators load the roms into memory to run them). Battery was 90% on this test, and was down to 79% after I had finished playing and quit the emulator and put the machine to sleep.

So judging by these numbers, one could expect to get around 5-6 hours out of an i7 macbook with an XG5 with all the lights and sirens going, or quite a bit longer while just plodding along. Web surfing I've used the computer for ages and the battery looses about 5-6 percent every half hour.

 

[mastergrillo]

I have a MacBook Pro 13 Early-2015 and I'm using a 480GB ADATA XPG SX8200 and it works perfect I got it on sale for $100 free shipping and the adapter I got on eBay for $15 it close to the picture but it already had the pins covers with some black type of tape.

 

[buchacho]

Sometimes when I open my MBA (early 2015) the screen will briefly flash a horizontal line and then a black screen with text says to hit a key to restart the machine. It seems kind of random. Should I do something with pmset? The people mentioning this say it is for earlier models. I don't have any issues with restarting or starting up the laptop.

 

[Vaibhav S]

Hello, the green adapter is this:
http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1143.html
You will read in this thread that this adapter is same as the long black adapter, the new version, but the black adapter allow the ssd to be more safely fixed. I suggest to tri the black one:
http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1229.html

My order take 2 weeks to arrive to Switzerland.

good luck

Hi

Thank you for the reply. I just received my black full length adapter and Samsung 970 evo 1tb. While I'm trying to update there was some issue in the suggested process:
- The machine kept going to internet recovery mode or question mark

I finally booted using the recovery external drive and formatted the new drive using Disk Utility. Since the "Restore" option did not work I used Carbon Copy Cloner to restore.

Now everything is restored and all works well. No issues of any kind.

Couple of concerns left:
- I see a write speed of roughly 1500 Mbps, which is much less than what you've got?? Maybe the adapter is different, hence?
- No kapton tape was used with the black sintech adapter, is this a worry?
- What do I do with the existing 256GB disk - just keep aside or format and use an enclosure to make it an external SSD?


Thank you everyone for all the help.

 

[sandrvoxon]

Hey guys ! Have a choice to buy PM951 or Kingston ssd. Which one will be better to use on my MacBook Pro 13 (2015) ?

 

[monofase]

2 days without crashing:
21:28 up 2 days, 9:14, 2 users, load averages: 1,79 2,12 2,10

Apparently the machine crashes totally random...
I was just using chrome and whatsapp and it crashed. No heavy workload...

 

[apemaia]

Hi

Thank you for the reply. I just received my black full length adapter and Samsung 970 evo 1tb. While I'm trying to update there was some issue in the suggested process:
- The machine kept going to internet recovery mode or question mark

I finally booted using the recovery external drive and formatted the new drive using Disk Utility. Since the "Restore" option did not work I used Carbon Copy Cloner to restore.

Now everything is restored and all works well. No issues of any kind.

Couple of concerns left:
- I see a write speed of roughly 1500 Mbps, which is much less than what you've got?? Maybe the adapter is different, hence?
- No kapton tape was used with the black sintech adapter, is this a worry?
- What do I do with the existing 256GB disk - just keep aside or format and use an enclosure to make it an external SSD?


Thank you everyone for all the help.

Hello,

in the attached image you can see my very basic test on consumption. I tri to make a real use test but it is not wery scientific. In my opinion there is not a big difference between the two drives in term of consumption. In the 970 test you can see the lasting time is a bit less but at the beginning i had a couple of automated task that have run pushing the first minute the consumption at high levels (you see also the cpu temperature is higher because of this initial load) and this have reduced the estimated time even if the battery % at the end is a bit higher than the original test (90% cons 88%).

I could not do test of the temperature of the new ssd... but thouching the bottom of the mbp I have not the impression that it is more hot.

Finally I'm very happy with this upgrade. Thank to all the contributors to this forum and specially to Gilles.

Concerning your questions I think the missing kapton tape on your adapter is probably responsable of the lower performances. As you can read in other post this can cause interferences and the communications ssd-motherboard in this case can work only on 2 lanes instead of 4. Give a look in about this mac - system details - NVMExpress tab: link width should be 4x and maybe you have only 2x. In this case kapton tape is the solution.

I had also at the beginning the question mark about boot volume. For me this was due to a firmware password forcing to find original volume: I had simply to change the startup disk in system preferences.

Because of the need of the original ssd to upgrade the efi, maybe is a good idea to keep the original ssd (i will do so) with a partition with the OS installed.
There is external cases if you will use the original ssd as external drive: try the owc (https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU3ENPRPCIO/) but transcend should have an external case too.

Good luck

Andrea

PS: Apple, please make macbook pro again, wit standard and self upgradable ram and ssd! We all have lost a lot of time to find workaround to your monopoly. Thanks.

 

[alvindarkness]

Been almost a week since installing an Intel 1TB 760p with the long black (-C version) sintech adapter, on a 15" MBP mid-2015. No issues so far with heat, battery, sleep, etc.

Write speeds could be better, but read is good. Pretty pleased overall.

PS: Apple, please make macbook pro again, wit standard and self upgradable ram and ssd! We all have lost a lot of time to find workaround to your monopoly. Thanks.

I would love that, but I think you are asking Apple the wrong thing, cause it'll never happen. We should be begging them to never release a firmware update that will destroy our ability to use these third party SSD's. That's the more likely scenario.

.

 

[vk2fro]

I doubt apple would release an EFI update that will "close" the loophole that lets us use these drives - just look at how much pooh pooh they got into over the Error 53 fisaco with iphones that had their screens replaced by 3rd party repairers. Due to the massive backlash they had to release a replacement firmware that made the phones go again albeit with reduced functionality (I think touch ID stopped working on some models)

If apple did do such a thing, that could be classed as willful destruction of property (a computer that was working now isn't) or it could be classed as malicious code that damages hardware (well prevents it working). In Australia that would make the computer no longer fit for purpose (it no longer works properly) and ACL gives us the power to expect a machine of such cost to last a reasonable amount of time. This all started when we had phones that broke down in the middle of a contract, so ACL stepped in and said "The phone should reasonably be expected to work without defect for the life of the contract, and warranty should also be for the life of the contract. This is why over here we get 2 years warranty, which is the average length of a subsidised phone plan.

A 2015 macbook could be expected to last 5 years - its an damn expensive computer, so if apple screwed with its EFI to prevent the use of the alternative SSD (yes its user replaceable, since its not soldered down like the ram), Apple would need to make amends to their pig headedness, and guess what - they broke it, and the customer gets to choose: Repair, Refund or Replacement. An example of this is if you replace the SSD (and we all know its a doozy to replace one) and suddenly your sound stops working or the card reader stops working, which is nothing related to the SSD, apple would need to fix it. However if you put the original back in and the sound or SD card starts working again, you know that its the new SSD's fault, and apple doesn't have to lift a finger. Of course neither of these things would happen unless your totally rough with the system while is open and you zap it with static.

What changed is Apple wasn't happy with people like myself and you lot shoehorning SSD's into the optical bay of 2012 models, or getting twice the space in their macbook and apple doesn't see a dime of that upgrade money. If it can be proven that the SSD is not the culprit for causing the machine to no longer work, its up to apple (over here in AU anyway) to rectify it to the customers satisfaction.

Just like a car, your warranty isn't void if you decide you want dunlop tires or blue seat protectors, or fog lights. Nor is it void if you modify the ECU to give more performance, or better fuel economy.

 

[alvindarkness]

I doubt apple would release an EFI update that will "close" the loophole that lets us use these drives - just look at how much pooh pooh they got into over the Error 53 fisaco with iphones that had their screens replaced by 3rd party repairers. Due to the massive backlash they had to release a replacement firmware that made the phones go again albeit with reduced functionality (I think touch ID stopped working on some models)

If you dig through some older MacRumor threads (circa 2013), you'll find a situation where some of us were upgrading a WiFi/Bluetooth module in our MBP's to obtain hand-off/continuity compatibility (i.e. using a 2012 module in a 2011 MBP). This was back in the Yosemite beta days when hand-off/continuity was new. We aren't talking 3rd party parts here, but legitimate Apple parts that were physically and electrically identical to the modules we already had, but had a slightly updated Broadcom chip on them.

Apple got wind of the MacRumors thread, and went out of their way to change the IO80211Family kernel extension to cross check board id's and bluetooth cards pci id's to only allow combinations that officially shipped by Apple. This happened literally within a week of the thread starting (during the next Yosemite beta), and when you shift through the assembly code, was clearly targeted at stopping a handful of people doing a trivial upgrade.

Call me a pessimist, but I wouldn't discount Apple doing anything nasty in the future if it meant forcing peoples hand to buy new hardware.

 

[weckart]

I have a MacBook Pro 13 Early-2015 and I'm using a 480GB ADATA XPG SX8200 and it works perfect I got it on sale for $100 free shipping and the adapter I got on eBay for $15 it close to the picture but it already had the pins covers with some black type of tape.

Thanks for this as I was waiting for confirmation of this drive due to the new SI controller. The ADATA is significantly cheaper than the Samsung 970 EVO, which is known to work and the faster write speeds of the Samsung are wasted on the 13" rMBP 2015, which can't make use of them. Seems like the best value SSD for this Mac.

 

[liudayu]

Hello, finally I just installed 970 evo 2TB on my macbook pro mid 2015:
- upgraded to 10.13.6
- cloned system on external ssd with ccc
- open mbp, unplug battery
- replaced ssd with sintech green adapter and new drive (I did no magician upgrade)
- reassembled
- booted from external ssd
- formatted new drive
- cloned back my system to new drive
- booted from new drive and set it as new boot volume

No issues at all, ssd recognized and formatted apfs without problems.

I did a "normal use test" before and noted temperatures (ssd, cpu), battery % and battery lasting time. I need to do the test with the new drive but because I used Hardware Monitor 5.55 it don't recognize the new ssd sensors*.

Speed: before r1956/w1080, now r2240/w2520**.

I have 2 questions:
* I'm searching a ssd thermal sensor app who work with the new ssd. I found maybe iStat menu but I will not install an app so rich of features only for the ssd temperature (I try to keep my system "cleaner" as possible). Someone can suggest a light app only for monitor ssd temperature? Then I will post the comparison.
** Yes, it is what Black Magic Speed test show: write speed is bigger. Is this normal? In system profile I see x4 and 8.0 GT/s for the connection. Maybe a software bug...

Been almost a week since installing an Intel 1TB 760p with the long black (-C version) sintech adapter, on a 15" MBP mid-2015. No issues so far with heat, battery, sleep, etc.

Write speeds could be better, but read is good. Pretty pleased overall.





I would love that, but I think you are asking Apple the wrong thing, cause it'll never happen. We should be begging them to never release a firmware update that will destroy our ability to use these third party SSD's. That's the more likely scenario.

.

I have the same machine (15" MBP mid-2015), installed 760p 1TB, with the system information showing "x4 and 8.0 GT/s for the connection", however the disk speedtest is only showing 1500/1500 r/w speed which is only the speed of "x4 and 5.0GT/s", have I done anything wrong? If I had, what can I do to get the r/w speed up to your machines?

 

[vk2fro]

Did you put kapton tape on the adapter? if not that could be the cause of your slow read and write.

 

[pitsta]

Hi there

I want to first say thanks to all that have written up a post. I spent the weekend reading through most of it. Very helpful and informative.

I have a problem, well I think I do reading the forums averages.

i have a MBPr late 2013 13'' and a few months ago I upgraded the SSD to an EVO 960 1TB, using the Sintech small black adapter which I saw a dude use on a youtube video. Everything, including the high sierra install went well.

I problem is I was only getting about 650mb write/read speeds. I saw the advice about adding the kapton tape. So I added it, and now I am still only getting 740/780 write/read speeds. And it is only using x2 lanes. I am now stumped and looking for advice.

See below images.

Could it be the adapter? Should I go for the newer long black adapter from Sintech?

Or could it be the revision number?

thanks again.
Shaun

 

[vk2fro]

Yep everyone agrees that the long black adapter (model C) is the one to use

I shouldn't talk as I've just realised theres a long black C type in my parts "glass" so I must have a model B (big green) inside my macbook.

When I'm bored or when 1Tb SSD's come down in price for us aussies with out ripping a big hole in the mastercard, I'll swap it out.

However with the model B I am getting good read and write speeds and x4 link width etc.

so as they say, "if it aint broke..."

 

[pitsta]

Thanks vk2fro I think I will just give that a go and see what the results are. I will report it back to the forum.

In meanwhile if anyone else has some thought I'd be happy to read.

 

[vk2fro]

did you put kapton tape on your adapter? if not it can short against the shield on the computer logic board, and cause it to only run at x2 speed (or to not work at all)

 

[pitsta]

Yes I put it only on the top of the adapter, like in the photo attached. Should it be wrapped around the whole of the adapter?

 

[vk2fro]

I only put it on the top of my adapters to get x4 link speed.

 

[cweirup]

Thanks for the note! Yes, I did upgrade the original Apple SSD before this upgrade. "Sitting unused" means I leave it awake during the day plugged in. The only thing set to power down is the display (after 3 hours). I'm not sure if there is some other sleep or hibernate setting that is kicking in at some point. I'm starting to wonder if it's not related to sleep/hibernation but something else.

Here are my current power settings according to pmset:

standbydelay 10800
standby 1
womp 1
halfdim 1
hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage
powernap 0
gpuswitch 2
networkoversleep 0
disksleep 0
sleep 0
autopoweroffdelay 28800
hibernatemode 3
autopoweroff 1
ttyskeepawake 1
displaysleep 15
tcpkeepalive 1
acwake 0
lidwake 1

I've started to take a look at the logs based on the info you sent me. Without knowing when this is happening, it's a little difficult to find something in the log. Hopefully I'll find something soon, as the crashes/reboots are starting to happen with more frequency.

Thanks!
Chris

Well, I ended up doing some more digging, and it turns out my issue might be something else. I'm getting a WindowServer crash when connected to an external monitor if I leave it for an extended period of time. I've been researching this elsewhere. I'm still not ruling out that there is a coincidence that it started happening right when I installed the new SSD, but for now it appears to be a separate issue.

Thanks Cmd+Q for the notes on debugging! They definitely helped!

 

[liudayu]

Did you put kapton tape on the adapter? if not that could be the cause of your slow read and write.

I did, before I had only X2 link speed but after the tape it was X4, but the speed is still 1500/1500 r/w.

 

[wawon]

Please tell me if anyone knows of it. I examined various things, but there was little information.

When replacing the SSD of MacBook Pro (13, 15) / Air 2015 with NVMe SSD using sintech's adapter (-B or -C), normal operation (startup, sleep, restart) is not a problem at all. If it is genuine SSD (AHCI), as the version of macOS is updated (10.13.5, 10.13.6 etc) (new EFI firm is built in installer or updater), EFI firm is updated. Although the macOS version is updated, EFI firm is not updated for NVMe SSD. I tried to apply updater as much as possible, but EFI firm remained old. (Check with MacBook Pro 13 Early 2015)

Is this phenomenon not only for me but a common one? I thought that updating firm when updating from Sierra (10.12) to High Sierra (10.13) is a natural procedure to update with genuine SSD because old firm does not support NVMe SSD, If the subsequent firm update is not done if it is NVMe SSD, some response is required. In the worst it is necessary to return to the genuine SSD each time and update EFI firm.

Is this phenomenon the same in the case of Mojave (10.14)? Unfortunately, with MacBook Pro 13 Early 2015, I can not confirm because EFI firm is not updated at 10.13.6 -> 10.14 beta.

 

[Audit13]

Please tell me if anyone knows of it. I examined various things, but there was little information.

When replacing the SSD of MacBook Pro (13, 15) / Air 2015 with NVMe SSD using sintech's adapter (-B or -C), normal operation (startup, sleep, restart) is not a problem at all. If it is genuine SSD (AHCI), as the version of macOS is updated (10.13.5, 10.13.6 etc) (new EFI firm is built in installer or updater), EFI firm is updated. Although the macOS version is updated, EFI firm is not updated for NVMe SSD. I tried to apply updater as much as possible, but EFI firm remained old. (Check with MacBook Pro 13 Early 2015)

Is this phenomenon not only for me but a common one? I thought that updating firm when updating from Sierra (10.12) to High Sierra (10.13) is a natural procedure to update with genuine SSD because old firm does not support NVMe SSD, If the subsequent firm update is not done if it is NVMe SSD, some response is required. In the worst it is necessary to return to the genuine SSD each time and update EFI firm.

Is this phenomenon the same in the case of Mojave (10.14)? Unfortunately, with MacBook Pro 13 Early 2015, I can not confirm because EFI firm is not updated at 10.13.6 -> 10.14 beta.

This person updated from High Sierra to Mojave with a Samsung nvme drive on an Air and it did not update the bootrom: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...with-samsung-ssd.2099405/page-4#post-26132580

I updated my Air early 2015 13" to Mojave with the original Apple SSD and bootrom was updated from MBA71.0177.B00 to MBA71.0178.B00: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...with-samsung-ssd.2099405/page-5#post-26200791

 

[alvindarkness]

I have the same machine (15" MBP mid-2015), installed 760p 1TB, with the system information showing "x4 and 8.0 GT/s for the connection", however the disk speedtest is only showing 1500/1500 r/w speed which is only the speed of "x4 and 5.0GT/s", have I done anything wrong? If I had, what can I do to get the r/w speed up to your machines?

Dont think I did anything special. I just used the long back "-C" adapter, didnt even apply any tape. Could be some pins touching as others have mentioned? Out of interest what Boot ROM and SMC versions do you have? (MBP114.0184.B00 and 2.29f24 here).