Ssd MacBook Air 2015

[Troistof]

Good morning,

Could you advise me on replacing the ssd of a 2015 MacBook Air :

- either a 970 evo plus ssd with a syntech adapter

- or an OWC Aura Pro X2 2 TB SSD

thanks for your advices

 

[genexx]

Do not get a Samsung NVME for your Mac:

• Trim Problems as APFS Boot Drive in MacOS
• Does not use Power Save Modes and drains your Battery

since the OWC is expensive i would use a WD SN 570 and the Syntech Adapter.

 

[Troistof]

thank you for this feedback
too bad for the samsung 970 because I had it in stock
yes the difference between the owc and the wd + syntech is double
but what more will the owc ultimately bring?
better flow?
a more stable system?
less heating?

THANKS

 

[genexx]

You can use the Samsung but than live with Boot time increasing with Time of usage, possible Heat Problems and Power Drain on Battery......

The OWC is made for without Adapter but i would just go Adapter and 2TB WD SN 570 if needed, 1TB is also good and Cheap......

 

[Troistof]

THANKS
I will go for this solution by taking a syntech adapter

what do you think of: SK Hynix Gold P31, would that be a better choice ?

 

[genexx]

There is a Thread recomending with new Firmware as it was not working before but i have no experience with this Drive:

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

This thread is about upgrading MacBook Airs & Macbook Pros (2013-2015) with new high speed and/or high capacity NVMe SSDs. This thread was one of the first to talk about MacBook Pro NVMe SSD upgrades on Macrumors, and was started by user "maxthackray", which we can thank and give tribute for...

forums.macrumors.com

The WD SN 570 or WD SN 850 will work......

 

[Troistof]

Merci

 

[xboxbml]

OWC as previously stated is more expensive. I've also read about reliability issues. I have same machine you have and have been using my 2TB ADATA for over 3 years, no issues. It may use more power than other drives, but it's served me well so far. There are other drives listed in this thread that may be better. I've only had experience with this 2TB ADATA. See sig.

 

[Troistof]

Hello, thank you for your message.
I hesitate between taking an SK Hynix Gold P31 or a WD SN570
To read the comments the SK Hynix Gold P31 seems to heat up less
I have already ordered the adapter on amazon.

 

[Audit13]

The OWC is a NVMe drive with the proprietary Apple connector and is no different than a NVMe drive and Sintech adapter.

An NVMe drive can be easily re-purposed in another Mac, PC, or USB enclosure unlike the OWC.

The Air needs to be be running at least High Sierra firmware to work with a NVMe drive.

I recommend updating to the latest release of Monterey with the OEM drive installed so the Air gets the latest firmware release. An older OS can be run on the Air with the latest firmware.

Lots of good information here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/

 

[xboxbml]

Hello, thank you for your message.
I hesitate between taking an SK Hynix Gold P31 or a WD SN570
To read the comments the SK Hynix Gold P31 seems to heat up less
I have already ordered the adapter on amazon.

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!

 

[Troistof]

yes thank you, I took the short adapter from sintech
All that remains is to be sure between the 2 SSD models

 

[heydante]

I am using this

Kingston 1TB A2000 M.2 2280 Nvme Internal SSD PCIe Up to 2000MB/S (SA2000M8/1000G)
https://amzn.eu/d/784wBgp

 

[Macdctr]

I have used the Samsung 970EVO SSD on my 2015 Air and agree that the boot up times are much longer and does cause more battery drain than other solutions. For a long time I favored the use of this SSD, however the WD SN570 drives perform much faster, especially on boot up times, so I am in the process of changing out all my SSDs on my mac laptops (see sig) to the 2TB SN570 storage drives.

 

[genexx]

@Macdctr

There is a weird Problem with the Phoenix Controller of Samsung NVME ( the newer ones seem to have a different Controller but i do not now how they will work ) in combination with the APFS Filesystem of MacOS related to TRIM @ Boot what makes Boot Times longer and longer with Time using them as Boot Drive.

Additionally the PowerSave functions are also broken, what sometimes can be fixed with the NVMefix.kext when using OCLP or OpenCore for Hackintosh.

Also WD SN770 and SN 850 as the WD SN850X should work, but i have not tested these in older Hardware....
While the Crucial P5 worked well in Hackintosh these also had Broken Power Save Modes, even in external Enclosures.

There could be other NVME out there working, but to measure speed after first install does not tell you anything about broken Power Save modes or Trim Boot problems on the longer Term.

Also my external NVME enclosures @ MBA M2 have all WD NVME because they just work.