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

[turbineseaplane]

Very nice bump in speed and responsiveness with a new SK Hynix Gold P31 2TB I installed yesterday



2015 15" MacBook Pro

Apple 512GB SSD

SK hynix Gold P31 2TB

 

[turbineseaplane]

I didn't really expect the responsiveness increase from this new 2TB P31 Gold, as the read speeds were reasonable on the Apple 512GB SSD

But I definitely notice it -- and I suspect the write speeds do matter also

Machine feels "a couple years newer" than it actually is as a result. I'm also getting absolutely no ancillary fan spin up, etc. I suspect that P31 being so darned efficient and cool is helping a lot.

This really is the best laptop NVMe I can imagine.

Even if one just goes for the 1TB for $70, it's hard to argue on the amazing value of this upgrade.

 

[Minipudding]

On Amazon I have seen a couple of customer reviews of the various NVMe adapters, which claim that they used them successfully with PNY CS1030 on MBA 2017. I've tested with a PNY CS1030 on MacBook Air 2017 and it does not work.

 

[slacktrace]

Sharing another successful upgrade with the WD 850X 1TB, original Sintech and the Mid 2014 15' macbook pro (macbookpro11,2 running Monterey, system firmware 478.0.0.0.0):

Speed is not at all impressive, but a huge improvement over the original 256GB Samsung SATA drive. The speed is surprisingly consistent. But far more importantly, everything seems rock stable after about 10 days, no crashes or hangs on resume from sleep so far.

I also tried the Crucial P2 1TB, but unfortunately, cannot recommend this because of hangs and crashes on resume.

 

[gramacior9x]

Hello Guys!
I decide to upgrade my old MBA 2015/8gb RAM/128SSD

Which of these nvme below would be the best option?

1) WD Blue SN570 500Gb or 1 TB
2) Kioxia Exceria G2 500GB or 1 TB
3) Samsung 980 500 GB or 1 TB

500 GB is enough space for me so in general I would have no reason to upgrade to 1 TB.

Thanks!

 

[winnywho]

Hi all,
First of all great job in summarizing the work and all the contribution around that topic.
I have a mbp retina 13" A1502 mid 2014. I switched to a samsung 980 with an adapter and I get the fans running at 100% I checked the temps and everything is fine same temperature on everything.
I also tried a cheap after market with some reviews stating it's working fine (Aliexpress KingSpec 512GB) same result, the fans start to spin at 100% as soon as I power on the computer.
When I switch back to the original SSD no issues with the fans.

Of course I tried clearing PRAM, SMC and nothing changed.

Anyone heard of a similar issue?
Thanks !
Cheers

 

[xboxbml]

Hello Guys!
I decide to upgrade my old MBA 2015/8gb RAM/128SSD

Which of these nvme below would be the best option?

1) WD Blue SN570 500Gb or 1 TB
2) Kioxia Exceria G2 500GB or 1 TB
3) Samsung 980 500 GB or 1 TB

500 GB is enough space for me so in general I would have no reason to upgrade to 1 TB.

Thanks!

Are you limited to those for some reason?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Hello Guys!
I decide to upgrade my old MBA 2015/8gb RAM/128SSD

Which of these nvme below would be the best option?

1) WD Blue SN570 500Gb or 1 TB
2) Kioxia Exceria G2 500GB or 1 TB
3) Samsung 980 500 GB or 1 TB

500 GB is enough space for me so in general I would have no reason to upgrade to 1 TB.

Thanks!

Hynix P31 Gold and don’t think twice

 

[gramacior9x]

Hynix P31 Gold and don’t think twice

I am from Poland and Hynix P31 Gold is not available on local market so that’s why I have to choose from the other options. What do you think?

Sabrent Rocket 4.0 is also possible option.

 

[gramacior9x]

I am from Poland and Hynix P31 Gold is not available on local market so that’s why I have to choose from the other options. What do you think?

Sabrent Rocket 4.0 is also possible option.

 

[thige]

Hi

I have a MacBook Pro 11.5 and bought a samsung ssd 970 EVO plus.
Every thing is running fine , except the power consumption who never go under 0.36 A.
I installer opencore patcher with nvmefix kext , (tried SsdPmEnabler too) but no change. What can I do to lower this power consumption ?

Thank you for your answers

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Hi

I have a MacBook Pro 11.5 and bought a samsung ssd 970 EVO plus.
Every thing is running fine , except the power consumption who never go under 0.36 A.
I installer opencore patcher with nvmefix kext , (tried SsdPmEnabler too) but no change. What can I do to lower this power consumption ?

Thank you for your answers

View attachment 2193728

If NVMeFix did not make consumption acceptable, I suggest you switch to a less power-hungry SSD. Samsung NVMe is known for its high use of power.

The Hynix P31 Gold is best one of the best in terms of power consumption and speed.

 

[jnzjonz]

Very nice bump in speed and responsiveness with a new SK Hynix Gold P31 2TB I installed yesterday



2015 15" MacBook Pro

Apple 512GB SSD

View attachment 2190795

SK hynix Gold P31 2TB

View attachment 2190796

which adapter are you using ? im using long sintech adapter and i couldnt reach that speed.

 

[Earl Urley]

Are you running the Mid 2015 15" MacBook Pro?

Only the 15-inch Mid 2015 rMBP can reach near 3000 MB/sec as it has PCIe 3.0 x4 channels, all other rMBPs before Mid-2015 can only get anywhere from 1500-1800 MB/sec as they only have PCIe 2.0. That includes 13-inch Early 2015 rMBP.

 

[jnzjonz]

Are you running the Mid 2015 15" MacBook Pro?

Only the 15-inch Mid 2015 rMBP can reach near 3000 MB/sec as it has PCIe 3.0 x4 channels, all other rMBPs before Mid-2015 can only get anywhere from 1500-1800 MB/sec as they only have PCIe 2.0. That includes 13-inch Early 2015 rMBP.

yes im running Mid 2015 15" MacBook Pro on monterey. Should i change the adapter into the short sintech or should i do something else ?

 

[turbineseaplane]

which adapter are you using ? im using long sintech adapter and i couldnt reach that speed.

Long Sintech - that was on Ventura with OCLP

 

[TwanaKez]

Hey guys, trying to read back through this thread, but it's it's a bit of an epic tome at this point.

I can see the Hynix P31 Gold recommended, just the current prices (at least to me in Australia) are also epic.
Brand that popular here to get locally at good rates is Silicon Power, though the only SSD I ever bought from them I had to RMA.

I can see them mentioned here (with some caveats and workarounds), but models and specs and changing all the time.

I'm looking at this (about 1/3 of the price of the Hynix Gold to me)

Silicon Power 2TB P34A60 Gen3x4 TLC R/W up to 2,200/1,600 MB/s PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD (SP002TBP34A60M28)

Tom's says it uses SM2263XT controller, and this model has SLC cache.

Could this be a decent choice?

I'm mostly concerned with storage size, heat/power/battery (and it actually working) than I am about performance.

Cheers!

 

[kocoman]

is there shorter 2260, 2242 smaller 128/250gb ok that works without this panic/nvme problem? thx

 

[GyurAlex]

Good day, everyone!

I have trouble installing Windows 10 on my MBR A1502 Late 2014 (MBR 11,1) Retina after replacing the old 256gb OEM SSD to Crucial P2 1gb. I've managed to install Big Sur but when I try to install Windows 10 I face troubles.
I tried different versions of Windows (22H2, 1909) to install via BootCamp but ended up facing the blue screen with an error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR.

This is adapter that I used attached

What is more interesting, right now I use Windows 10 (build 19045) on my MBR with OEM SSD and it works perfectly fine, so I understand that it is installable. The only thing looks like I do it wrong.

 

[ahmet94]

Hi i went with WD Blue SN570 1tn for MBP 2015 early model with the unrecommended adapter( didnt know). I cloned the mac and it works fine but when i turn it on isometimes it doesnt turn on right away.

is it because i didnt buy sintech adapter or the m2 ssd?

also how do you monitor the power use by nvme ssd?

also i replaced the battery but i dont think it is related. is there a way to do chkdsk on macs like windows?

thanks!

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Hi i went with WD Blue SN570 1tn for MBP 2015 early model with the unrecommended adapter( didnt know). I cloned the mac and it works fine but when i turn it on isometimes it doesnt turn on right away.

is it because i didnt buy sintech adapter or the m2 ssd?

Is there any error displayed on the screen? What do you have to do to turn it on?

This has nothing to do with the adapter.

also how do you monitor the power use by nvme ssd?

I use iStats Menu to monitor power use.

also i replaced the battery but i dont think it is related. is there a way to do chkdsk on macs like windows?

thanks!

No. You don't need to check the disk. If you suspect there is a hardware error, use the instructions on the link to run a diagnosis: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202731

 

[maciumpek]

Hi Guys I have upgraded the ssd drive on my MBP mid 2015 ( only igpu) for WD Blue SN570 1tb and I see that iGPU clock got stuck on 750 MHz ( measured on Intel Gadget). I tried SsdPmEnabler and it didn't help with this as on someone else case's on this forum. Funny thing is that on apples original drive iGPU it also stays at 750 MHz on idle.
I have also check it with Adata SX8200 Pro and Samsung 970 Evo Plus. Both 1 TB - and the same situation - bottom level of iGPU clock is 750 MHz. So my question is - are there any other fixes for that ?

 

[Rebel021]

Sabrent Rocket 4.0 is also possible option.

I have one very good ssd with no panics

 

[ahmet94]

Is there any error displayed on the screen? What do you have to do to turn it on?

This has nothing to do with the adapter.

I use iStats Menu to monitor power use.

No. You don't need to check the disk. If you suspect there is a hardware error, use the instructions on the link to run a diagnosis: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202731

Hi,

thanks for swift reply.

I did change the adapter because i already ordered it. It looked better. and it had a website info on the pcb. Anyways I reset the NVRAM and reseated battery. still the boot up was slow.

no instant apple logo and the boot up chime...

then i upgraded the laptop to Monetery OS and now it works perfect. immediately boots with chime and logo. maybe the OS files were corrupted. this happens in SSDs often(while cloning maybe..) thats why windows use chk dsk feature. (random shut downs corrupt data in SSD that cause issues later)

iStats is expensive lol. WD blue ended up working perfect. 1tb storage, renewed battery and MUCH BETTER THERMALS because i replaced the old crumpled thermal paste with something better than thermal paste.

PTM7950. yes thats the new orange. It is a two phase product. it comes as a very thin pad but once it heats up to 45C it turns into liquid. used by lenovo laptops and Nvidia 4090 FE card. made by honeywell. there is no pump out effect so your thermal cooling doesnt get worse after 3-6 months(thermal paste unfortunately woes bad because of pump out effect).

IF you never used PTM7950 i highly recommend it for laptops and any open die cooling.

I used it on my desktop 3090 and gain 10C cooler temps (and it stays that way..) use any paste initially temps are lower. 5 months later they are always worse...

I even used ptm on a desktop cpu and suprisingly it works just fine tho it was unnecessary.

 

[leviatemps]

Hello,

I want to upgrade my old macbook air in early 2014. I5 8go 128gb.

I admit to being a bit lost with these >400 pages of thread! With the issue of loss of autonomy, lack of hibernation, slowdown....

Anyone have a good SSD with an adapter to recommend? and what are the concessions I should make with it?

By the way if anyone also has a good replacement battery to recommend! I was thinking of getting a generic one on aliexpresss ± 40$ !


Thanks