2015 13" MBAir SSD upgrade

[Giuanniello]

So far I have read a few threads where other people in my same situation did the upgrade through a regular SSD stick and an adapter.

My son's MBA has a mere 128GB storage, needless to say almost full, routes are either an expensive (for the size) Trascend JetDrive or an m.2 SSD and one of those adapters I read about.

At this moment in time which is the most reliable solution for such an upgrade? My son has to start his studies and need more room on the computer and it to be reliable, also, once removed the standard SSD is there a way to put it into an enclosure to use it for, say, backup or mobile storage?

Are Intel m.2 SSD reliable? I see they are quite cheap and might go straight away to a 512GB and be fine for a while, suggestions and comments very appreciated.

Grazie

 

[Audit13]

All SSDs are pretty reliable these days. The important thing is to always have a back up because an SSD can fail without warning and macOS does not support S.M.A.R.T. with non-Apple SSDs.

The Intel drive should be fine. Members of Macrumors have had good results with drives from Adata (SX8200 Pro, SX8200), Intel (660p, 760p), Crucial (P1), and Sabrent.

Samsung SSDs are known to have higher battery drain that other NVME drives. Also, the high read and write speeds of the SSDs are limited by the Air's PCIe bus.

Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

I think that Sabrent rocket has almost the lowest power consumption available. About your power consumption, you might want to check elsewhere. Been eyeing to switch from sabrent rocket myself. My 970 Pro (I wanted speed at the time) is consuming 0.3A minimum, 0.66A average, and 1.6A at load...

forums.macrumors.com

Enclosures for the Apple SSD are very expensive and not worth it in my opinion.

 

[TokMok3]

All SSDs are pretty reliable these days. The important thing is to always have a back up because an SSD can fail without warning and macOS does not support S.M.A.R.T. with non-Apple SSDs.

The Intel drive should be fine. Members of Macrumors have had good results with drives from Adata (SX8200 Pro, SX8200), Intel (660p, 760p), Crucial (P1), and Sabrent.

Samsung SSDs are known to have higher battery drain that other NVME drives. Also, the high read and write speeds of the SSDs are limited by the Air's PCIe bus.

Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

I think that Sabrent rocket has almost the lowest power consumption available. About your power consumption, you might want to check elsewhere. Been eyeing to switch from sabrent rocket myself. My 970 Pro (I wanted speed at the time) is consuming 0.3A minimum, 0.66A average, and 1.6A at load...

forums.macrumors.com

Enclosures for the Apple SSD are very expensive and not worth it in my opinion.

MacBook Pro mid 2015 running a Samsung EVO 970 was getting high temperatures and drain battery until I change the termal paste. The termal paste reduce the temperature from 60 - 70 just running Safari to 45 - 50 running Mojave. Disk speed reads at 3000 and writes at 2300. With Catalina the temperature at this moment running Safari fluctuates from 43 - 46 got better than Mojave.

 

[Audit13]

MacBook Pro mid 2015 running a Samsung EVO 970 was getting high temperatures and drain battery until I change the termal paste. The termal paste reduce the temperature from 60 - 70 just running Safari to 45 - 50 running Mojave. Disk speed reads at 3000 and writes at 2300. With Catalina the temperature at this moment running Safari fluctuates from 43 - 46 got better than Mojave.

Your Samsung speeds are excellent but these speeds can't be achieved in an air.