Upgrading SSD in MacBook Early 2015

[Avinash Kumar]

Hi Folks!

Hope you all are staying safe and fine.

I have a MacBook Pro Early 2015 13.3" (i5, 2.7GHZ Processor) with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB Flash Storage.

Though I have cleaned up my Mac and installed Catalina, I still feel my device is slow in booting and slow in Read/Write and other performances.

Since we know that the RAM cannot be upgraded and have to manage with 8 GB, will there be any difference in performance when I upgrade the SSD to 1 TB (Possibly planning to install Crucial or WD).

Your suggestions will be of great help guys.

Thanks

 

[Audit13]

What are your current read/write speeds?

How full is the drive?

Do you have a lot of programs loading at start up?

 

[Avinash Kumar]

There are no start up programs in the mac.

The read write speed is 597MB/s and 666MB/s respectively.

The Geekbench5 score is 459 for Single core and 1691 for multi core score.
The mac runs mac os big sur 11.0.1

I somehow feel that the scores are below par for the macbook pro early 2015 with same configurations.

will upgrading my ssd to 1GB solve the purpose?

 

[Audit13]

Those speeds are way too slow.

Under system report, is the land width x4?

How full is the drive?

 

[Avinash Kumar]

205.9 GB available of 250.79 GB, I literally have no files in my mac except for basic applications.

The Land Width is x2, Link Speed is 5.0 GT/s

 

[Audit13]

The drive is a Samsung SSUAX which only supports x2. The Samsung SSUBX supports x4.

This is reason for the slow read/writes.

 

[holycowe]

You upgraded to the previous SSUAX model. Should get the SSUBX for x4 linkwidth (ori. equipped with 2015 model)

 

[Avinash Kumar]

I got this macbook pro purchased from another person. Not sure if he had replaced or it came with this version of ssd by default.

however, i am planning to replace the ssd to 1TB (crucial 1 TB NVMe using the M2 to apple ssd converter). Hope that will make some difference?

 

[Audit13]

It's unlikely the MacBook originally came with a SSUAX drive. I believe the last MacBooks to use the x2 Samsung was the 2014 Air and 2014 Pro.

 

[Avinash Kumar]

I somehow replaced the Stock SSD to Crucial 1 TB M2 NVMe using the apple ssd converter. After replacing and installing a clean Mac OS Big Sur, I could see that the Land Width is x4.

The Write Speed is 1223 and Read Speed is 1445 which is double the performance.

The Geekbench5 score is 748 for Single Core and 1680 for Multi Core.

 

[Pav75]

I somehow replaced the Stock SSD to Crucial 1 TB M2 NVMe using the apple ssd converter. After replacing and installing a clean Mac OS Big Sur, I could see that the Land Width is x4.

The Write Speed is 1223 and Read Speed is 1445 which is double the performance.

The Geekbench5 score is 748 for Single Core and 1680 for Multi Core.

Hi, do you have any overheating issues after the ssd upgrade? I read it can be a problem with the M2 NVMe

 

[nothingtoseehere]

I made this upgrade too (with another SSD brand), months ago, no overheating so far.

 

[ramur]

I propose to take a look at the "Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe" thread in the MacBook Pro forum.

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

Overheating does no seem to be a problem, I also switched to a 3rd party SSD (WD SN 550, 1TB) with NVMe adapter, no issues wrt overheating. In the very first beginning battery drain overnight was at approx. 5-10%, but adjusting pm settings helped to bring it down to 2%. Also take a look at the proposed *.kext-files which also bring down idle power of the ssd (and hence power consumption / heat).

 

[Pav75]

That's a great news about the guys, thank you.