Upgrade SSD on Mid-2015 15" Retina. Which SSD?

[Bassmingo]

Hello!

First-time poster and I found this thread on a search and want to ask the same question as OP but I'm a little confused by the current crop of drives. I've just upgraded from a 2012 13" Pro 9,2 to a 15" retina 11,4 (mid-2015, but actually manufactured Jan 2016). I have 1 budget of about €150 ($175) to replace the stock 250GB SSD with a 1TB. This puts the Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 slap bang in my sights, but is it a good buy? I don't want to overspend on a drive and not see the benefits but I also don't want to underspend and only see an improvement in storage not speed.

If the above drive isn't suitable can anyone recommend a 1TB in my budget that does?

Thanks.

 

[pdxplm]

Hello!

First-time poster and I found this thread on a search and want to ask the same question as OP but I'm a little confused by the current crop of drives. I've just upgraded from a 2012 13" Pro 9,2 to a 15" retina 11,4 (mid-2015, but actually manufactured Jan 2016). I have 1 budget of about €150 ($175) to replace the stock 250GB SSD with a 1TB. This puts the Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 slap bang in my sights, but is it a good buy? I don't want to overspend on a drive and not see the benefits but I also don't want to underspend and only see an improvement in storage not speed.

If the above drive isn't suitable can anyone recommend a 1TB in my budget that does?

Thanks.

I just upgraded both a Late 2013 13" MBP and a Late 2013 15" MBP with Sabrents. They work flawlessly with the Snitch adapter. I am getting double + speeds on them. Even did bootcamp with my 15" and there were no issues with that...

Best of luck!

 

[Bassmingo]

I just upgraded both a Late 2013 13" MBP and a Late 2013 15" MBP with Sabrents. They work flawlessly with the Snitch adapter. I am getting double + speeds on them. Even did bootcamp with my 15" and there were no issues with that...

Best of luck!

Thanks for the reply, I assume I should have a similar experience but I think the 2015 15" has improved things re data transfers, so your experience bodes well. I'd be very interested if someone has used one in a 2015 though...

 

[Bassmingo]

Nobody using a Sabrent in a 2105 retina pro?

 

[Audit13]

Check this thread for Sabrent users: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/

 

[Bassmingo]

Check this thread for Sabrent users: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/

Thanks, posted there.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Nobody using a Sabrent in a 2105 retina pro?

I am. I'm using a 2TB Sabrent Rocket in mine. ZERO issues. Speeds are great (> 2700MB/s read AND write) and sleep/wake works correctly.

I used the cheap adapter and it looks like good quality. Obviously, it works great!

To make life easy, I bought a NVMe to USB 3.0 adapter so that I could use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my internal SSD to the new Sabrent, then shut down and replace the SSD. Easy.

Good luck!

 

[Bassmingo]

I am. I'm using a 2TB Sabrent Rocket in mine. ZERO issues. Speeds are great (> 2700MB/s read AND write) and sleep/wake works correctly.

I used the cheap adapter and it looks like good quality. Obviously, it works great!

To make life easy, I bought a NVMe to USB 3.0 adapter so that I could use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my internal SSD to the new Sabrent, then shut down and replace the SSD. Easy.

Good luck!

Thank you, your post is encouraging.

The final piece of the puzzle is reusing the original SSD as an external. I can't seem to find anyone other than OWC making an enclosure and they seem quite expensive.

 

[playtech1]

The final piece of the puzzle is reusing the original SSD as an external. I can't seem to find anyone other than OWC making an enclosure and they seem quite expensive.

I think the OWC enclosure is the only way of reusing the Apple drive externally. To be honest given the cost it probably makes more sense to grab a fresh external SSD and accept the Apple one is going in the vault or eBay!

 

[landfiles]

Nobody using a Sabrent in a 2105 retina pro?

I am!
on my 15 inch

goes super well, although didn't make much real life tests to compare the original SSD to the Sabrent, since I just swapped it after a week of having the computer. went from 256 apple ssd to 512.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I am!
on my 15 inch

goes super well, although didn't make much real life tests to compare the original SSD to the Sabrent, since I just swapped it after a week of having the computer. went from 256 apple ssd to 512.

FWIW, the lower capacity Sabrent SSD's (256/512) are slower than the higher capacity (1TB/2TB).

 

[Bassmingo]

FWIW, the lower capacity Sabrent SSD's (256/512) are slower than the higher capacity (1TB/2TB).

What improvements could you expect with a 1tb Sabrent over the 256gb original, speed-wise?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

What improvements could you expect with a 1tb Sabrent over the 256gb original, speed-wise?

I mentioned my speeds in my post above, which I think you read. Oddly, according to Sabrent, the 1TB is faster on writes than the 2TB, so you might see a bit faster than me on writes. Reads are the same. Overall, either is insanely fast.

 

[Bassmingo]

I mentioned my speeds in my post above, which I think you read. Oddly, according to Sabrent, the 1TB is faster on writes than the 2TB, so you might see a bit faster than me on writes. Reads are the same. Overall, either is insanely fast.

Thanks, yes I read your post and was hoping that a 1tb would be similar to your 2tb.

It's pretty much helped me make.my mind up on pulling the trigger on one.

 

[Prana Govinda]

I upgraded my Macbook Pro (Retina, 15", mid 2015) with a 2TB Intel 660p M.2 nVME SSD and a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME adapter. A High Sierra boot disk could not see the Intel SSD for partitioning, etc., but a Mojave boot disk had no trouble with it whatsoever. Install went perfectly, though restoring from my Time Machine backup proved problematic, as I had 2 HDDs in my old 2010 Macbook Pro. I had to use drive caddies to transfer the files.

Hi. I'm looking to upgrade the same as you [although probably with a 1TB Intel]. It will also be on Mojave. Im just writing to see if you had any issues, kernal panics etc or is it all good? Thanks in advance.

 

[Deliverat0r]

Hi. I'm looking to upgrade the same as you [although probably with a 1TB Intel]. It will also be on Mojave. Im just writing to see if you had any issues, kernal panics etc or is it all good? Thanks in advance.

It's been about 6 months of heavy use and I haven't had a single problem with the laptop at all, drive included.

 

[Prana Govinda]

It's been about 6 months of heavy use and I haven't had a single problem with the laptop at all, drive included.

Thanks for the quick reply. I had heard some reviews that the drive can slow down because it's a QLC, but seemingly only if your are continously writing large files. I use my computer mostly for music production. I"m guessing you would recommend it?

 

[Deliverat0r]

I would recommend it, yes.

 

[Prana Govinda]

I would recommend it, yes.

Thanks. Those speeds are definitely better than my apple ssd!!!

 

[joe42271]

I had very good luck upgrading my Windows laptop with a SAMSUNG 970 PRO M.2 2280 1TB PCIe Gen3. X4, NVMe 1.3 64L V-NAND 2-bit MLC.

Happy with speed, performance and service/warranty.

So now, looking to upgrade my Macbook Pro Retina 15" (Mid-2015, A1398) as I have to replace the battery. Figured I may as wll do the storage upgrade at the same time. I will be going from Apple factory 1 Terabyte to 2T.

Can anyone confirm the suitability and performance of the more recent SAMSUNG 980 PRO 2TB PCIe NVMe 4.0 M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V8P2T0B) in the above machine? I assume it needs an adapter. Any issues with OS or x4 lanes?
Will it work - or should I be looking at something else?

Currently running Big Sur.

 

[pathros81]

I upgraded my Macbook Pro (Retina, 15", mid 2015) with a 2TB Intel 660p M.2 nVME SSD and a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME adapter. A High Sierra boot disk could not see the Intel SSD for partitioning, etc., but a Mojave boot disk had no trouble with it whatsoever. Install went perfectly, though restoring from my Time Machine backup proved problematic, as I had 2 HDDs in my old 2010 Macbook Pro. I had to use drive caddies to transfer the files.

Currently I've got Big Sur 11.6 on a MacBook Pro mid 2015 15''. Do you think it'll still work?