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

[htcmda]

Do you use bootcamp at all? And were there any issues getting it working on your 2tb sabrent rocket?
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MacBook Pro Mid-2015 2.5ghz (MacBookPro11,5) - Just got it back from Apple with the firebomb battery replaced.
Boot Rom: 194.0.0.0.0
Sabrent Rocket 2TB
Sintech short adapter, came with tape.
Reporting in System Information:

• Revision: RKT303.1
• Link Width: x4
• Link Speed: 8.0 GT/s

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Nice!
Do you use bootcamp at all and if so, were there any issues getting it working on your 2tb sabrent rocket?
How's the battery life thus far with the new battery and this ssd?

 

[xabibal]

Hola . Esta vez compré un Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 para mi macbook pro retina 15 "a finales de 2013.
Compre el adaptador sintech pero el mac no reconoce el disco. Anteriormente tenía highSierra pero el disco original se descompuso. ¿Qué puedo hacer para reconocer el nuevo disco?
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Hi . This time I bought a Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 for my macbook pro retina 15 "end 2013.
Buy sintech adapter but the mac does not recognize the disk. I previously had highSierra but the original disk broke down. What can I do to recognize the new disck?

 

[dimickh]

Recently installed an NVME SSD (Kingston a2000) and noticed that IstatMenus reports SSD current staying at 0 mA after mac wakes from a long sleep.

When opening files it shows little spikes after which current goes back to 0. At some point, (I haven't figured exactly what the trigger is, could be a heavy I/O operation or some kind of timer) current jumps to default idle level (~160-170mA for this disk).

I have seen the same behavior with the stock Apple SSD, when running on battery. Could this mean that macOS is capable of setting the disk into one of the low-power states but does this only when sleeping?

 

[Kraizelburg]

Recently installed an NVME SSD (Kingston a2000) and noticed that IstatMenus reports SSD current staying at 0 mA after mac wakes from a long sleep.

When opening files it shows little spikes after which current goes back to 0. At some point, (I haven't figured exactly what the trigger is, could be a heavy I/O operation or some kind of timer) current jumps to default idle level (~160-170mA for this disk).

I have seen the same behavior with the stock Apple SSD, when running on battery. Could this mean that macOS is capable of setting the disk into one of the low-power states but does this only when sleeping?

View attachment 874685
View attachment 874704

I noticed the same but I believe is more like the sensor is catching up with readings rather than deep sleep.
I u pay attention to the chart as soon as the sensor and istats wake up the reading is steady however with apple stock drive sometimes goes to almost 0 mA even way after waking up. So at this point I doubt any NVME drives other than apple are capable of deep sleep feature.

 

[hardax]

Hi . This time I bought a Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 for my macbook pro retina 15 "end 2013.
Buy sintech adapter but the mac does not recognize the disk. I previously had highSierra but the original disk broke down. What can I do to recognize the new disck?

Try using a Mojave or Catalina start up usb stick. I had issues with my Mac seeing the newly installed SSD when I used a Hight Sierra boot disk. I created a Mojave boot disk and it was recognized. If that doesn’t work you may need to format the drive using a Linux boot disk first.

 

[juan985_Spain]

Hi Everyone,

I have recently updated my 256 ssd drive in my macbook pro 15" mid 2015. I went for the Sabrent Rocket SSD 1TB based on the amazon reviews and this thread opinions. I think is the best cost/performance option so far.

I havent had any issues during instalation.

Steps:

Created a time machine back up.
Replaced the ssd
Installed fresh copy of Mojave and the used Migration Assistant to recover my info.

So far no kernel panic or any other fail whatsoever.

Sorry for my english and thank you all for sharing

Here are some speed test:

Its been a while since I upgraded my Macbook Pro 15" 2015 (5 months). I have installed macOS Catalina a few weeks ago. I have just ran a speedtest and speeds are now much slower (M.2 Sabrent Rocket 1TB)

¿Why are read and write speeds slower?

¿Anyone in the same situation?

Besides the speed issues no kernel panics or any other issues whatsoever.

Thanks.

 

[Hiter]

Does anyone have experience with adding a thermal pad to the top of the SSD? Mine is super toasty just on standby/sleep and I feel like it would have a better life span if I use a thermal pad to let it cool off using the bottom panel.

I am just a little hesitant as I don't want to buy a too thick of a pad and bend the nvme connection or too thin of a pad and make it act as a thermal insulator.

 

[xabibal]

Try using a Mojave or Catalina start up usb stick. I had issues with my Mac seeing the newly installed SSD when I used a Hight Sierra boot disk. I created a Mojave boot disk and it was recognized. If that doesn’t work you may need to format the drive using a Linux boot disk first.

[/CITAR]

I tried to look with linux but it does not recognize the disc, it does not show the Samsung 970 evo disc nor the Sabrent Rocket disc. Just recognize the usb to boot linux. Can the problem be the adapter? maybe it is broken? Or maybe these 2 discs are not compatible? I do not know what else to do...

 

[dimickh]

I noticed the same but I believe is more like the sensor is catching up with readings rather than deep sleep.

If it's catching up why then if I open some file from the SSD chart immediately shows small increase in current? Restarting iStats changes nothing, it may be a bug or some kind of restraint of their measuring method, however.

I'm unaware of how it collects data so I can't check these measurements in another way (i.e. from ). It would be cool if someone shared a terminal command to get it directly from OS.

 

[Kraizelburg]

If it's catching up why then if I open some file from the SSD chart immediately shows small increase in current? Restarting iStats changes nothing, it may be a bug or some kind of restraint of their measuring method, however.

I'm unaware of how it collects data so I can't check these measurements in another way (i.e. from ). It would be cool if someone shared a terminal command to get it directly from OS.

A non scientific method I tried was to playback a 1080p YouTube video in the background while paying close attention to iStats and expected battery left.
With apple stock drive iStats showed like 10 hours whereas with the corsair MP510 drive showed 6-7 hours playing same video and battery charged to 100%, so clearly non apple NVME drives drain much more battery.

Well, at least this was my experience.
I'd be nice if people would start to share their battery life before and after the upgrade with whichever drive they have installed.

 

[MriX]

A non scientific method I tried was to playback a 1080p YouTube video in the background while paying close attention to iStats and expected battery left.
With apple stock drive iStats showed like 10 hours whereas with the corsair MP510 drive showed 6-7 hours playing same video and battery charged to 100%, so clearly non apple NVME drives drain much more battery.

Well, at least this was my experience.
I'd be nice if people would start to share their battery life before and after the upgrade with whichever drive they have installed.

Which MacBook are you using?

 

[Kraizelburg]

Which MacBook are you using?

Sorry I forgot to mention, MBP 13" early 2015

 

[Juttersbitter]

Recently installed an NVME SSD (Kingston a2000) and noticed that IstatMenus reports SSD current staying at 0 mA after mac wakes from a long sleep.

When opening files it shows little spikes after which current goes back to 0. At some point, (I haven't figured exactly what the trigger is, could be a heavy I/O operation or some kind of timer) current jumps to default idle level (~160-170mA for this disk).

I have seen the same behavior with the stock Apple SSD, when running on battery. Could this mean that macOS is capable of setting the disk into one of the low-power states but does this only when sleeping?

View attachment 874685
View attachment 874704

Looks good! What Macbook are you using? How is battery life with the new Kingston A2000 compared to the stock apple ssd? I'm planning to upgrade my 13" early 2015 with a Kingston a2000 1TB. Would greatly appreciated it if you could share your knowledge!

 

[a-maxime]

Didn’t do any particular scientific test myself, but noticed a huge drop in battery life since I installed Sabrent 2 TB in my Late 2013 Pro 15’

Used to have like six hours of battery life in a daily basis. Now four seems unreachable, it’s around three hours (I kinda lost the point of having a Macbook). But zero loss in sleep mode. Obviously I did the driver patch for my Mac.

 

[Kraizelburg]

Didn’t do any particular scientific test myself, but noticed a huge drop in battery life since I installed Sabrent 2 TB in my Late 2013 Pro 15’

Used to have like six hours of battery life in a daily basis. Now four seems unreachable, it’s around three hours (I kinda lost the point of having a Macbook). But zero loss in sleep mode. Obviously I did the driver patch for my Mac.

Same happened to me, battery life halved or even less.

Clearly apple tweaks its drivers by not letting third party drives manage energy consumption efficiently.

I am so disappointed I ended with my stock apple drive.

I guess some people can cope with a few hours of battery life but others like me it's a deal breaker.

 

[bruceypoo]

Its been a while since I upgraded my Macbook Pro 15" 2015 (5 months). I have installed macOS Catalina a few weeks ago. I have just ran a speedtest and speeds are now much slower (M.2 Sabrent Rocket 1TB)

¿Why are read and write speeds slower?

¿Anyone in the same situation?

Besides the speed issues no kernel panics or any other issues whatsoever.

Thanks.

I am experiencing slower speeds as well. Mine was at around 1400MB/s for both read and write speeds.

I’ve noticed a larger drop in the battery as well. Went from 100 to 60 in around 8 hours or so.

 

[AlGardner]

Just a quick update, been using the Samsung 970 Evo Plus for about two weeks and have had zero issues. I ended up replacing the long Sintech adapter with the short one as I wasn't comfortable with the tight clearance in my MBA.

To reiterate, I updated the firmware of the Samsung SSD using the bootable linux ISO that's available on their website before I installed it in my laptop, this seems to eliminate the stability issues people were experiencing with this particular model. Battery life is terrible as it's pretty power hungry and doesn't have proper sleep support but honestly, I'm never without my adapter and I don't need much more than 5 hours to begin with.

I'll eventually get around to hacking the boot rom as detailed in some of the other posts, once that's done I'll report back with my results.

Hi.
I have 970evo installed in my Mac. I'm wondering: have you perform update from macbook or from PC?

 

[ykokosh]

hi
have mbp 13 2013 and this adapter
i want use it with Toshiba XG5 or Samsung PM981
my question is - will i have full read speed or 1400mb\s?

Spoiler: adapter

 

[dimickh]

Looks good! What Macbook are you using? How is battery life with the new Kingston A2000 compared to the stock apple ssd? I'm planning to upgrade my 13" early 2015 with a Kingston a2000 1TB. Would greatly appreciated it if you could share your knowledge!

I'm using 13" 2015 mac

I measured my common daily usage scenario with chrome/movie playback.
First impressions are disappointing - battery lasts 1 hour less. The last result with apple SSD is actually 20% of battery while asleep, but it's not recorded by the app because it turned off before even waking up

SSD drains around 160-170mA when idle, that's only 0.5W
Maximum write power consumption - 3.1W, read - 2.8W, but only under heavy load, most of the time it is below 0.4A


About performance:
Write speeds amorphousDiskMark shows ~1gb/s write speeds for 35gb (the maximum possible size) file. Writing 100-gigabyte file with 'dd' reports write speeds ~600mb/s test which is strange, according to reviews on the internet drive has fast (up to 2200mbs/s) SLC cache ~70gb and after that speed drops to 500-600 mb/s, so I was expecting better results. Reads speed is 1.4gb/s (maximum possible for pci 2.0 x4)


I'll do more testing with standby 0 hibernatemode 25 and nvmram and smc reset

 

[markintosh13]

hi
have mbp 13 2013 and this adapter
i want use it with Toshiba XG5 or Samsung PM981
my question is - will i have full read speed or 1400mb\s?

13" MBP late 2013 runs PCIe v2 at a max of x4 lanes, so prob 1300-1500 r/w speeds

no idea what adapter that is, so no comments on that.

 

[ykokosh]

13" MBP late 2013 runs PCIe v2 at a max of x4 lanes, so prob 1300-1500 r/w speeds

no idea what adapter that is, so no comments on that.

thanks
is there a big difference between stock 670 mb\s read speed and 1300 mb\s ?

 

[MriX]

I'm using 13" 2015 mac

I measured my common daily usage scenario with chrome/movie playback.
First impressions are disappointing - battery lasts 1 hour less. The last result with apple SSD is actually 20% of battery while asleep, but it's not recorded by the app because it turned off before even waking up
View attachment 874967

View attachment 874976

SSD drains around 160-170mA when idle, that's only 0.5W
Maximum write power consumption - 3.1W, read - 2.8W, but only under heavy load, most of the time it is below 0.4A


About performance:
Write speeds amorphousDiskMark shows ~1gb/s write speeds for 35gb (the maximum possible size) file. Writing 100-gigabyte file with 'dd' reports write speeds ~600mb/s test which is strange, according to reviews on the internet drive has fast (up to 2200mbs/s) SLC cache ~70gb and after that speed drops to 500-600 mb/s, so I was expecting better results. Reads speed is 1.4gb/s (maximum possible for pci 2.0 x4)


I'll do more testing with standby 0 hibernatemode 25 and nvmram and smc reset

Which App have you used to get the sleep and running time?

 

[juan985_Spain]

I am experiencing slower speeds as well. Mine was at around 1400MB/s for both read and write speeds.

I’ve noticed a larger drop in the battery as well. Went from 100 to 60 in around 8 hours or so.

I just put back the original Apple SSD (256GB). I have suffered a kernel panic yesterday and looking into settings the Sabrent SSD was only using x2 lines instead of x4.

Now that I swapped to the Apple SSD I was expecting to improve the 6 hours I was getting with the Sabrent and this is the case. I am getting about the 8,30 hours in my Macbook Pro 15" 2015 now with Apple SSD. But still more important than battery life is the lack of reliability with the Sabrent SSD I have experienced.

Anyway, for now I will just use the Sabrent 1TB ssd with an external NVME enclosure I just ordered in Aliexpress.

Maybe if this solution becomes more reliable I will give it a try again someday.

Best Regards.

 

[macpro_mid2014]

One idea:

once you have the NVMe external enclosure, try to boot your mac with it. I run several Parallels VMs on an external Samsung T5 (USB 3.0) and I do not feel any performance issues with the fact the VM is running on an external USB 3.0 disk.
Maybe, your mac will perform (in terms of read/write speeds) as if you were using a stock Apple disk. I know there is the drawback of having a dongle around all the time, but I would give it a try to see how it goes.

 

[dimickh]

Which App have you used to get the sleep and running time?

Battery truth from app store