亲测三星SM961 1TB完美升级early 2015 Macbook Pro retina NVME SSD

最近入手一根全新OEM的经典三星 SM961 1TB MLC NVME SSD. 现在SSD的市场格局已经很清楚了，MLC的日子应该不会太久了。因为看重MLC NVME SSD的超长PE (SM961 1TB 应该>10K PE和800TB的TBW)和强悍的持续写入性能，所以是拿来升级early 2015 Macbook Pro的最佳选择之一，升级过程很完美，其中没有任何Panic和休眠的问题，读写速度也非常令人满意，具体见下图.........................

根据目前可已升级NVME SSD的Macbook型号，大家可以查看下面的相关信息：

2015 early Macbook Pro retina是PCIe 2.0 x4的通道，理论读写的极限是1600MB/S 左右。



插上M.2的转换接头 （我用的是 Sintech）的SM961完美插入笔记本原装插槽，长度也是正好符合标准。

装完Mojave 10.14.5系统以后，测了一下速度，感觉不错。

然后又马不停蹄在bootcamp下安装了win10 1903专业版，也是完美驱动，没有任何休眠和运行的问题。连续大数据写入测试和运行大型软件近六小时，没有任何异常。

希望我的经验能给大家一点有用的参考和帮助。



从上图可以看到，对于MacBook Pro retina 13" early 2015 : works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)来说，我升级以后的读写速度已经接近PCIe 2.0 x4通道的极限值了。


下面虚线以内的内容转自国外的技术网站，大家如果有一定英文功底的话，应该能得到很多有用的信息！
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As for Apple NVMe drives:

• Mac Pro late 2013 : works from 10.10.2 (PCIe 3.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Air 11" & 13" mid 2013 : works from 10.10.2 (PCIe 2.0 speed 2x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 13" late 2013 :works from 10.10.2 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 15" late 2013 : works from 10.10.2 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Air 11" & 13" early 2014 :works from 10.10.2 (PCIe 2.0 speed 2x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 13" mid 2014 : works from 10.10.2 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 15" mid 2014 : works from 10.10.2 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Air 11" & 13" early 2015 :works from 10.10.2 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 13" early 2015 : works from 10.10.2 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 15" mid 2015 : works from 10.10.3 (PCIe 3.0 speed 4x lanes)

As for non-Apple NVMe drives, (Samsung 960 evo/pro etc) :

• Mac Pro late 2013 : works from 10.13 (PCIe 3.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Air 11" & 13" mid 2013 : works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 2x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 13" late 2013 :works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 15" late 2013 : works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Air 11" & 13" early 2014 :works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 2x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 13" mid 2014 : works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 15" mid 2014 : works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Air 11" & 13" early 2015 :works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 13" early 2015 : works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 4x lanes)
• MacBook Pro retina 15" mid 2015 : works from 10.13 (PCIe 3.0 speed 4x lanes)

[EDIT] : corrected some speeds

PCIe 2.0 speed is around 350 MB/sec by lane so :

• with 2x lanes of PCIe 2.0 expect up to 700 MB/sec
• with 4x lanes 1400 MB/sec

PCIe 3.0 speed is around 750 MB/sec by lane so :

• with 4x lanes of PCIe 3.0 expect nearly 3000MB/sec

1 - Which Mac laptops can be upgraded with a NVMe SSD ?

• all MacBook Air models from Mid 2013 to 2017 (MacBookAir6,1 to MacBookAir7,1)
• all MacBook Pro models from Late 2013 to Mid 2015 (MacBookPro11,1 to MacBookPro12,1)

In details :

1-1 MacBook Air

The 2013-2014 MacBook Air models originally shipped with 2x lanes PCIe 2.0 AHCI SSD (speed ~700MB/s).
They support up to 2TB NVMe SSDs if their BootRom is at least MBA61.0103.B00, and will make them run at PCIe 2.0 speed with up to 4x lanes.
They don't support natively hibernation on NVMe SSD, but workarounds exist.

• MacBook Air 11" Mid 2013 (MacBookAir6,1)
• MacBook Air 13" Mid 2013 (MacBookAir6,2)
• MacBook Air 11" early 2014 (MacBookAir6,1)
• MacBook Air 13" early 2014 (MacBookAir6,2)

The 2015-2017 MBA models either shipped with 2x or 4x lanes PCIe 2.0 AHCI SSD (speed ~700 to ~1500MB/s).
They support NVMe SSD if their BootRom is at least MBA71.0171.B00 and will make them run at PCIe 2.0 speed with up to 4x lanes.
They do support natively hibernation on NVMe SSD :

• MacBook Air 13" early 2015 (MacBookAir7,1)
• MacBook Air 13" 2017 (MacBookAir7,2)

1-2 MacBook Pro retina 13" and 15"

The 2013-2014 MacBookPro retina models originally shipped with 2x lanes PCIe 2.0 AHCI SSD (speed ~700MB/s).
They support up to 2TB NVMe SSDs if their BootRom is at least MBP111.0142.B00 (for 13" models) or MBP112.0142.B00 (for 15" models) and will make them run at PCIe 2.0 speed with up to 4x lanes.
They don't support natively hibernation on NVMe SSD, but workarounds exist.

• MacBook Pro Retina 13" late 2013 (MacBookPro11,1)
• MacBook Pro Retina 15" late 2013 (MacBookPro11,2 & MacBookPro11,3)
  
• MacBook Pro Retina 13" mid 2014 (MacBookPro11,1)
• MacBook Pro Retina 15" mid 2014 (MacBookPro11,2 & 11,3)

The 2015 MacBookPro retina 13" and 15" models originally shipped with 4x lanes PCIe 2.0 AHCI SSDs. (speed ~1400MB/s).
They both supports up to 2TB NVMe SSD if their BootRom is at least MBP121.0171.B00 (for the 13" models) or MBP114.0177.B00 (for the 15" models).
The Retina 15" mid 2015 supports 4x lanes PCIe 3.0 speed eg. up to 3000MB/s. The early 2015 Retina 13" supports 4x lanes PCIe 2.0 speed.
They do both natively support hibernation on NVMe SSD

• MacBook Pro Retina 13" early 2015 (MacBookPro12,1)
• MacBook Pro Retina 15" mid 2015 (MacBookPro11,4-11,5)

Which Mac laptops CANNOT be upgraded with NVMe SSDs?

EARLY MODEL LAPTOPS BEFORE 2013

• all non retina MacBook models (MacBook1,1 to MacBook7,1)
• all non retina MacBook Pro (MacBookPro1,1 to MacBookPro9,2)

These models above come with a 2.5" SATA slot and interface. You can upgrade them with any standard cheap 2,5" SATA AHCI SSD

• MacBook Air from Late 2010 to Mid 2012 (MacBookAir 3,1 to MacBookAir5,2)
• MacBook Pro Retina from mid 2012 to early 2013 (MacBookPro10,1 to MacBookPro11,2)

These two models above come with a M.2 AHCI SATA SSD and use a SATA interface. They are definitely not compatible with M.2 PCIe SSD. The PCIe M.2 format looks very similar to the SATA M.2 format but it won't work.

You can upgrade the storage of those models with any SATA M.2 AHCI SSDs - e.g Crucial MX500 sata M.2 - and M.2 to Apple 6+12 adapters. Transcend and OWC also sell upgrades.

LATE MODEL LAPTOPS AFTER 2015

• all MacBook Air since the Retina 2018 (MacBookAir8,1)
• all MacBook 12" Retina since the early 2015 (MacBook8,1)
• all MacBook Pro 13" Retina 4 TB ports since 2016 (MacBookPro13,2)
• all MacBook Pro 15" Retina since 2016 (MacBookPro13,3)

If you have one of those late models, sorry their storage cannot be upgraded. Their storage is BGA NAND Flash soldered onto the logic board. You can as a customer give feedback to Apple regarding this situation.

An exception is the MacBook Pro 13" Retina with 2TB (2016-2017) which has proprietary PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs. It might become possible at a future date to upgrade it with with adapters and small 2242 M.2 blades... stay tuned.. (Sintech is working on it).



Which NVMe SSDs are known to work?

You will need to buy a M.2 adaptor for all the below SSDs :

• Adata NVMe SSD : SX6000, SX7000, SX8200, SX8200 Pro etc.
• Corsair NVMe SSD : MP500, MP510
• Crucial NVMe SSD : P1
• HP NVMe SSD : ex920, ex950
• OCZ RD400 (and all Toshiba XG3-XG4-XG5-XG5p-XG6 line)
• Intel NVMe SSD : 600p, 660p, 760p etc.
• MyDigital NVMe SSDs : SBX - BPX
• Kingston NVMe SSD : A1000, A2000, KC1000
• Sabrent Rocket
• Samsungs Polaris NVMe SSD : 960 Evo, 960 Pro, 970 Evo, 970 Pro
• WD Black NVMe SSD v1, v2 and v3
• ?

NVMe SSD known not to work on MacBook Pro / Air. DO NOT BUY:

• Samsung PM981
• Samsung 950 Pro
• Samsung 970 Evo Plus

Compatibility issues with the 3 models above is mostly a firmware issue, but to this date, no update allows good compatibility.

OTHER OPTIONS

Those AHCI options work, but are expensive / come with no warranty / are over-priced / have flaws :

• Apple SSUAX and SSUBX OEM blades (expensive, only available used, without warranty)
• OWC Aura SSD : 2x lanes only, RAID0 of 2x slow controllers, no TRIM, no SMART
• Transcend Jetdrive 820 : 2x lanes only, not cheap

NVMe upgrades which have the native Apple 12+16 "gumstick connector" :

• Apple "Polaris" NVMe SSDs : very fast but definitively not cheap
• OWC Aura Pro X : not cheap for a NVMe drive, not fast for a NVMe drive
• Transcend JetDrive 850/855 : not cheap for a NVMe drive, not fast for a NVMe drive

A last thing :

• all NVMe M.2 drives do work with TRIM enabled and supported natively, without any patch
• NVMe drives with 512b sectors don't work on macOS older than 10.13
• NVMe drives with 4K sector size (ex. : Sabrent Rocket) do work natively with macOS 10.12, of course you need to have your BootRom up to date before installation

(see table below for 4K compatiblity)

The M.2 to Apple "gumstick" adapters - the good and the fake

Apple uses a proprietary "gumstick" 12+16 PCIe interface in its 2013-2017 MacBook Airs and Pro computers. The rest of the PC industry uses the "M.2" NGFF connector which is very common.

So, if you want to upgrade your Mac with a regular M.2 NVMe drive, you need an adapter.
Lot of adapters have been tested in this thread, but in one sentence :
always buy an Apple to M.2 adapter from Sintech

The "Chenyang" or "CableCC" adapters (and assimilates) are still sold today but they do not have the proper wiring letting NVMe SSD work well.. Using it will cause reboot issues, sleep issues.
DO NOT BUY THEM

Instead, buy the "Sintech" adapter. Previously, Sintech made 3 models (rev. A rev. B and rev. C).
There were problems with the rev. A adapters too, this was commented a lot in this thread.
But now, as of early 2019, I can confirm that every adapter shipped from Sintech have the proper wirings and works perfectly.

Fixing Hibernation issues on 2013-2014 laptops

MacBook Pro retina 13" and 15", and MacBook Air 11" and 13" from 2013 to 2014 have in their BootRom a DXE NVMe Driver which is incompleted or compressed.
This driver isn't properly loaded or decompressed at wake up from hibernation and this cause those 2013-2014 models to loose contact with any NVMe drive at wake from hibernation (only).

The problem exists with every NVMe SSD, being them OWC aura Pro X NVMe SSDs, Transcend 850 NVMe SSDs, Apple "Polaris" NVMe SSD or any regular M.2 SSD from Adata, Crucial, Samsung, Toshiba etc.
This problem is only related to the DXE driver in the bootrom

To prevend this problem you have two solutions :

1. 
   
   
   • disable hibernation by typing "sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 standby 0 autopoweroff 0" in the terminal
   • you can "patch" the BootRom

Disabling hibernation has the drawback that your mac will consume more power when sleeping for a longer time than if hibernation is enabled with the default settings.

The process of patching the BootRom gives perfect results with hibernation but is risky and complicated. You also need a SPI programmer and the proper wiring.
An excellent guide has been made

You can, as an alternative, buy a "MattCard" patched with the proper DXE driver.

You can also ask Apple to fix the problem with hibernation and NVMe drives... This problem occurs with 2013-2014 macs any NVMe SSD : all M.2 NVMe SSD but also OWC Aura Pro X, Transcend 850 SSDs, and also Apple "Polaris" NVMe SSD

BootCamp installation issues

During installation of Windows 10 via BootCamp, a blue screen may occur.
This was resolved

Here are the two recommandations to Install BootComp with success on a MacBook Air / Pro with a NVMe SSD :

• 
  
  
  • let the Magsafe charger plugged in during the whole installation process (don't run on battery)
  • When you see the error pop-up, "The Computer restarted unexpectedly....", please do the following :

1. press Shift + F10 keys.
2. launch "regedit".
3. find this directory, "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion"
4. once you can see "setup.exe" in the right section, double-click it and modify the value to 3.
5. close the regedit.
6. reboot

Comparison of tested NVME SSD models

Here you can find some excel charts which try to give you comparison of tested models - Speed - Power consumption - NAND types (MLC, TLC, QLC).
As a comparison, Apple original AHCI models and Transcend models were also included in the chards.
The recommended models are will depends on your need, but the SX8200 Pro and Sabrent Rocket clearly tops nearly all the charts...




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在此次升级笔记本硬盘的过程中得到了很多本论坛的资源和软件帮助，强烈建议大家如果有需要应该升级到VIP账户，从我个人的体会来说，原因如下：

1，只要你的网速允许，论坛自有服务器的下载速度是惊人的，我下载速率经常保持在>10Mbps以上，我用过的迅雷或者百度的付费服务也完全不及这样的下载速率。

2，很多最新的系统和应用软件，站长老牛和论坛大佬们做了相当巨大的工作，让我相当敬佩。

3，对于站长辛勤劳动，网站以及相关服务器的维护工作的支持，升级VIP需要支付的费用实在是算不上多。

4，每个需要的人都可以借助论坛的资源更迅速有效的解决问题，提高工作效率。

5，论坛的兴旺对于站友和网站来说绝对是双赢的局面

最后做为新人，以上是一点体会和感受，感激论坛提供的广袤有用资源，也预祝applex论坛人气越来旺，越办越红火！

如果大家有什么问题，欢迎一起相互学习和讨论。

 

市面上的三星PM981 NVME也不支持macbook 升级

 

还是WD的黑盘用料和读写数据好一点，EX950 1TB用的是白片不推荐。

如果接口是PCIe 2.0 x4，读写高了也是浪费啊

 

恭喜贺喜

 

我也想升级一下

 

mf841 1t
考虑中

 

供应商： Apple
产品： SSD Controller
物理互连： PCI
链接宽度： x4
链接速度： 5.0 GT/s
描述： AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

我这个是PCIE几的？

 

我用的sm951，昨天升级的，苹果没问题，双系统装win10ltsc蓝屏，今天回去试试1903