What ssd to put in macbook pro. Replacing and installing SSD on MacBook Air, Pro, Retina, iMac. What is PCIe

The MacBook Air was not meant to be expanded or upgraded, but it turns out that with a little effort, you can replace an SSD yourself. This will dramatically increase the size of your laptop's storage and often its performance. Another common reason a new solid state drive needs to be installed is that it breaks down. Either way, replacing an SSD with a MacBook Air is easy and the procedure remains the same.

Preparation

Installing a new SSD requires a few things:

new removable solid state drive compatible with the existing laptop model;
special screwdrivers (Torkh 5T and Pentalobe);
2-3 small containers for temporary storage of screws.

The process of replacing an SSD on a MacBook Air is fairly straightforward, although it does involve disassembling and reassembling the Mac. Please note that this method is only applicable to laptops that have already expired. Replacing hardware can void your warranty, so if it's still valid, you should contact support or the Apple Store for professional help.

Step 1: check compatibility

First of all, you need to make sure that the SSD is compatible with your specific MacBook Air. This usually depends on the year the device was manufactured, so it is important to know it. This information can be found in the "About This Mac" menu item. Something like “MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2012)” or similar message will appear on the screen.

Once the exact model name and year of manufacture have been determined, a compatible SSD can be found on online retailers such as Amazon.

Step 2: choosing an SSD

The choice of brands and types of solid state drives is large and the user can follow their preferences. An example is Transcend's 240GB Upgrade Kit. Users love it for a couple of reasons: the price is great, the speed is great, the reviews are great, the warranty is good, and the complete upgrade kit is available, which includes an old SSD case and a screwdriver to complete the job. Other brands offer similar package solutions as well.

Of course, it's completely free to buy another compatible SSD that is not part of the kit. You just need to get the right screwdrivers and ensure that the drive and Mac are compatible.

Other drives can be connected using an SSD adapter. The MacBook Air, however, should be released no later than 2012, because since then Apple has introduced encryption of data streams between the solid state drive and the motherboard.

Step 3: backup

Before replacing an SSD with a Macbook Air, you need to create a copy of the drive. Experts recommend setting up a Time Machine backup as a minimum, and some more sophisticated users combine this measure with SuperDuper's direct disk cloning tools or Carbon Copy Cloner. The only exception is when the disk is completely out of order or missing - obviously there is nothing to copy here.

Having connected an external drive, you need to go to the system settings menu, select the Time Mashine option and specify the location for recording the backup.

This step should not be skipped. If the backup is not created, there will be nothing to restore, and the new disk will not contain the necessary data. This is not the case that I would like to experience for myself. Using Time Machine also has the advantage that you can do a clean install of the operating system on a new SSD and then restore your Mac from a backup.

Step 4: replacing the drive

Now comes the fun part - opening the case and replacing the MacBook Air SSD with a new one. This will require screw boxes as you have to deal with fasteners of different sizes and types. It is best to sort the mounts by size and location.

This part of the process requires some skill. Users with experience in electronics are likely to feel at ease, but others will want to read a manual that details the procedure. Rather than reinventing the wheel, experts recommend reading the detailed instructions on the iFixIt site, as they are well-explained, detailed and comprehensive.

The main thing to do is to disconnect the laptop from the power source, unscrew the bottom panel and remove it, disconnect the internal battery, and then change the SSD. According to iFixIt, the 13 ”MacBook Air SSD is rated medium difficulty to replace, but according to experts, anyone with the patience and the ability to follow instructions can easily get the job done, even if they are a beginner.

SSD Replacement Instructions

To replace a solid state drive, you must:

Remove the screws on the bottom of the MacBook Air 13 and place in separate boxes according to their size, type, and location.
Remove the bottom panel. Discharge static electricity before touching internal parts.
Disconnect the internal battery. To do this, take the plastic holder attached to the battery connectors and pull it towards the front edge of the laptop. Do not forget about this, as well as the fact that it will need to be reconnected after the installation is complete.
Remove the SSD by first unscrewing the screw holding it. The device is in the center, just above the battery.
Install the new SSD, secure it with the screw, and then connect the internal battery.
Put on the bottom cover and secure it.

Once everything is in place, you can start installing the software.

Step 5: X and data recovery

The procedure described here is slightly different from the procedure described in some other technical manuals. In this case, an empty solid state drive is installed, which then requires OS installation and data recovery. Others advise copying the contents of the disk before replacing the SSD in the MacBook Air. Cloning ahead of time is often the best approach, but in the event of a drive failure, this is not possible as it becomes completely inoperative, as evidenced by a question mark when booting and testing Apple hardware.

Fortunately, having a Time Machine backup allows you to install and restore in a different way. If cloning is preferred, Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper are the apps that do a great job.

Data recovery procedure

The first option involves two steps: performing a clean installation of the operating system using a bootable flash drive, and then restoring the Time Machine backup during installation. It works great. Please be aware that you can start recovering a MacBook Air SSD backup right after a clean install of Mac OS X.

To do this, connect the disk with the data backup and turn on the laptop while holding the Command + R buttons. On the utilities screen, select "Restore backup" and click "Continue". Having indicated the disk with the copy, you need to select its date and time. The laptop will reboot after the copying process is complete.

You can also try using Time Machine directly. But this means that you have to re-create the recovery partition manually and you might encounter EFI partition errors. These problems can be avoided by performing a clean install of Mac OS X first.

After the operating system and data have been restored, the laptop is ready for normal use with the new SSD.

If you have a MacBook or iMac with a regular HDD (hard disk drive) and you do not have enough speed of your MacBook or iMac - our service center knows the solution. We provide a service for installing and replacing SSD drives on MacBook Air, Pro, Retina, iMac. SSD Advantage:

The speed of work. SSD drives provide incomparably higher system performance, unlike HDD hard drives. The speed of loading, performing tasks, opening an application will be many times higher when installing an SSD disk.
Data processing on MacBook and iMac. The speed of copying from an SSD disk is ten times yours than from an HDD. All data will be instantly copied from the SSD to external storage media, the copying speed will be limited only by the speed of the external media.
SSD replacement speed. Our service center will replace the SSD within an hour, if you wish, we can also install Windows on Macbook and iMac. Installation and replacement of SSD is carried out by highly qualified specialists, you can be sure of the quality of work.

When is it worth changing HDD to SSD disk

MacBook iMac is running slowly. If you are not satisfied with the speed of your MacBook, iMac, installing an SSD drive will help solve this problem.
Slows down games and applications on MacBook and iMac. Most often, installing an SSD drive solves this problem. If you have a powerful graphics card, if you have enough RAM, but games and applications still slow down, an SSD drive will solve this problem.
The SSD on the MacBook is out of order, broke. Obviously, in this case, you need to replace the SSD disk with a new one, our service center will help solve this problem, install the SSD disk on the MacBook iMac and give a guarantee for all components and the work done to install the disk.

Price list for replacement and installation of SSD on iMac

Vehicle model	SSD name	Price	Installation time
	SSD 128 GB	RUB 7200	4 hours
iMac 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014	SSD 256 GB	12,700 RUB	4 hours
iMac 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014	SSD 512 GB	RUB 20,300	4 hours
iMac 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014	SSD 960 GB	RUB 31200	4 hours

Price list for replacement and installation of SSD on MacBook Air

Vehicle model	SSD name	Price	Installation time
MacBook Air A1370 A1369	SSD 128 GB	RUB 14,300	30 minutes
MacBook Air A1370 A1369	SSD 256 GB	RUB 18,700	30 minutes
MacBook Air A1370 A1369	SSD 512 GB	25600 RUB	30 minutes
MacBook Air A1465 A1466	SSD 128 GB	RUB 15,100	30 minutes
MacBook Air A1465 A1466	SSD 256 GB	19800 RUB	30 minutes
MacBook Air A1465 A1466	SSD 512 GB	RUB 27,200	30 minutes

Price list for replacement and installation of SSD on MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Unibody

Vehicle model	SSD name	Price	Installation time
	SSD 128 GB	RUB 7200	30 minutes
MacBook White, MacBook Unibody, MacBook Pro	SSD 256 GB	12,700 RUB	30 minutes
MacBook White, MacBook Unibody, MacBook Pro	SSD 512 GB	RUB 20,300	30 minutes
MacBook White, MacBook Unibody, MacBook Pro	SSD 960 GB	RUB 31200	30 minutes

Price list for replacement and installation of SSD on MacBook Pro Retina

Vehicle model	SSD name	Price	Installation time
MacBook Pro Retina A1398	SSD 512 GB	RUB 35,600	30 minutes
MacBook Pro Retina A1398	SSD 768 GB	RUB 44,900	30 minutes

Dear customers, the table shows approximate prices, prices are constantly decreasing, check the exact price with the operator by phone.

More details on faults:

Knowledge base. Ask a question about Apple repair to Mac Pro specialists.

Answer: Good afternoon, Ivan. Perhaps, but we will be able to say for sure after the free diagnostics. Come and see what you are doing.

29.02.2016, 18:50

Answer: Good evening Pavel. If the SSD drive is out of order, repair is not possible, only replacement. You can install a SSD with a large volume. Come to us at ss, our managers will guide you on the timing and cost of repairs. We will be glad to see you.

Answer: You can boot the system from external media, having previously installed Mac OS on it and clean the disk from files you do not need, the problem with disk fullness will be eliminated.

Answer: The SSD must have a temperature sensor, if there is no sensor, the iMac fans will run at maximum RPM. The temperature sensor is only present in original Apple discs. If you are installing an SSD instead of a regular drive, you will not need anything other than the SSD itself and a standard SSD mount.

Remember the good old days when you changed the battery in a couple of minutes, added RAM and installed additional storage? If you're an Apple user, all of this is a thing of the past for you, but upgrading your hard drive is still possible, and Apple's developers allow us to do so for now. In 2010, Apple introduced its proprietary solid state drives, the "blade" SSD. The company touts their read and write speed and reliability, but rarely elaborates on the technology used in SSDs, since these drives are only intended for Apple computers.

After many questions, the specialists of the Eptibey service center decided to conduct their own research on the equipment. They had to become "apple detectives" to uncover the secrets of these discs, because the deeper they looked, the more surprises they discovered. Details and results are below.

Every hard drive or solid state drive you have used in the past 10 years has probably used a SATA interface, and more recently, PCI Express has become common. If you are using an old computer and think that many minutes of loading and a long wait for a program's response is the norm, then you may still be using a SATA disk. Time to speed up!

What is SATA?

SATA is a technology standard for connecting hard drives, solid state drives, and optical drives to the motherboard. The SATA standard has been in use for many years and is the most common interface for connecting internal storage devices. The SATA standard has undergone three major changes, resulting in identical connectors (for backward compatibility) with double the bandwidth.

This can cause some confusion when connecting a SATA III hard drive to a SATA II connector, as the second generation interface will limit the potential bandwidth of the drive. And in the case of SSDs, using SATA II means depriving yourself of more than 200 additional MB / s for reading. But even when connected to SATA III, the memory capabilities of solid state drives are not fully revealed.

What is PCIe?

Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is a very high bandwidth computer bus standard and is the fastest bus available to most computers. Unsurprisingly, manufacturers have switched to PCIe technology for SSDs.

Like the SATA standard, PCIe has undergone a ton of changes over the years and is still evolving at breakneck speed. PCIe 2.0 (probably the most widespread PCIe version) reaches a maximum speed of ~ 500MB / s with a single bandwidth channel. This speed is slightly slower than SATA III, but PCIe has the advantage of using multiple lanes to run connected peripherals.

Lacking 2 channels of bandwidth (~ 1 GB / s)? Double the number of channels to 4, and if the connected device allows you to use them, you get twice the data transfer rate. PCIe bandwidth can be increased to 16 and even 32 lanes for a single device, but this is rarely seen in SSDs as it is primarily used for graphics cards. Most PCIe drives will have 2 or 4 lanes of bandwidth.

In 2011, PCIe 3.0 was released, in which the speed was increased not only by adding additional channels. PCIe 1.0 and 2.0 use 8b / 10b encoding for data transfers (just like SATA), which means that every 8 bits of data sent is sent in a 10-bit line code. In other words, 2 out of 10 bits are just overhead data needed to transfer the rest of the data. These 20% of "idle" costs eat up the real bandwidth of the interface, as a result of which it decreases by the same 20%.

PCIe 3.0 introduced a much more efficient 128b / 130b encoding, bringing the efficiency closer to 100% - the cost of potential bandwidth is only 1.5%.

AHCI vs NVMe

The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) was created for SATA HDDs. This mechanism allows built-in command queuing and hot swapping. AHCI became a versatile enough interface to work with SSDs when they were just getting started, but for several years now it has hampered data transfer rates.

Now about NVMe or Non-Volatile Memory Express. NVMe was created specifically to work with SSDs, reducing latency and allowing large amounts of data to be transferred per unit of time, allowing for more efficient use of modern multi-core processors. By the time PCIe 3.0 was released, the NVMe specification had become necessary to exploit the full potential of storage bandwidth.

Original Apple Connectors

When Apple released its first slim solid state drive in the MacBook Air in late 2010, it was still using traditional SATA interface technology, while Apple ditched traditional form factors SATA and mSATA, which were in most laptops of the time, choosing instead their own connector, which was never used by other developers, neither before nor after. With the release of the MacBook Air in 2010, Apple ushered in a new trend in proprietary connectors and form factors which eventually took over the entire Apple lineup and ushered in an era of storage that, along with easy replacement, was difficult to buy.

Many people mistakenly think that connectors are one of the M.2 variants found in many PCs, but in fact Apple never used it. And unlike the pinout called M.2, Apple did not give names to its connectors, so from now on we will simply refer to the connectors by their pins, as shown in the figure below.

Apple SSD release history

1st generation Apple SSD: MacBook Air (Late 2010 - Mid 2011)

For MacBook Air 11 ″ (model A1370) and MacBook Air 13 ″ (model A1369) late 2010 - mid 2011 editions. Apple's desire to reduce the thickness of the already thin MacBook Air necessitated a move to a thinner drive. Instead of using a 2.5-inch SATA SSD like the rest of Apple's product lines, or even a 1.8-inch SSD like the MacBook Air Original, Apple started using an even thinner drive. This Gen 1 drive used a proprietary 6 + 12-pin connector, redesigned mSATA III, limited to 6 Gb / s.

The first generation SSDs were made by Samsung and Toshiba, but Samsung drives were found to be significantly faster. Both drives worked according to Apple's stated specifications, but MacBook Air customers were in the SSD lottery, as owners of notebooks with Samsung drives were about 1.5 to 2 times faster than Air owners with Toshiba drives. Apple seems to have learned from this, and subsequent generations of SSDs have never had such a big difference between drives from different manufacturers.
In MacBook Air of these years, it is possible to install third-party SATA drives with an M.2 connector and a size of 2280 - for example, the Samsung 860 EVO, through a special adapter.

2nd generation Apple SSD

The second generation of Apple SSDs began to be used in iMac laptops and desktops. The second generation drives were faster than the previous generation, but still used the mSATA III interface - very close to its maximum bandwidth.

The discs were characterized by the use of two completely different shapes; the shorter and wider Gen 2A drive used in MacBook Pros and iMacs; and the longer and thinner Gen 2B drive used in the MacBook Air. Both 2A and 2B drives use the same mSATA 3 interface and the same type of 7 + 17 connector pins. Despite using the same connectors and interfaces, the drives are not fully compatible because the space allocated for the drive on each computer is simply not designed for different types of drives.

MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 - Early 2013)

With the release of the first MacBook Pro with a "Retina" display, Apple has included the SSD standard in the MacBook Pro lineup and is now effectively the only storage device with a 7 + 17-pin drive. The Gen 2A SSDs used in these MacBook Pros came in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 768GB capacities from Samsung and SanDisk.

Both 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops use the same drives, and any of the four SSDs can be installed on either laptop.

iMac (Late 2012)

With the iMac Late 2012, things were a little different. The SSDs were only bundled with the Fusion Drive and were bundled into the same array with the traditional 3.5 "and 2.5" standard SATA III hard drives. Apple's Fusion Drive optimizes file storage so that more frequently accessed files and system files are stored on the SSD, while most of the rest is stored on the hard drive.

Physically, this system is implemented using a standard SATA connector and a proprietary 7 + 17-pin. Fusion Drive can be disassembled software and used individually, or in hardware - the SSD connector can use any of the Gen 2A options (128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 768GB), while the SATA connector can accommodate any SATA hard drive, or SSD 2.5 ", and iMac 27" and 3.5 ".

Important clarification: The 27-inch iMac always has a 7 + 17-pin header on board, and the 21.5 ″ model is guaranteed to have this connector only if the iMac originally came with Fusion Drive. Otherwise, you will only find an empty space instead of the proprietary mSATA connector. However, iMac 21.5 '', which are sold in Russia without Fusion Drive, often come with an SSD slot.

In such iMac and Macbook Pro Retina 2012 - Early 2013, you can install a third-party SSD drive - for example, the Samsung 860 series with an mSATA connector through such an adapter or M.2 drives of 2260 size through this.

MacBook Air (Mid 2012)

As stated above, Gen 2B drives have a different shape, but use the same interface and connector as their Gen 2A counterparts. The 2B read / write speed is noticeably slower, probably due to technical limitations and the smaller disk space of 2B drives.

Another result of technical limitations is the inability to install a 768 GB drive. Samsung and Toshiba made Gen 2B drives in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB variants, all of which are interchangeable in the Mid 2012 MacBook Air 11 ″ (model A1465) and MacBook Air 13 ″ (model A1466) models.

Here you can also use an adapter and install at least 2TB SATA M.2.

3rd generation PCI-e Apple SSD

With the second generation drives, it became clear that the 600MB / s limit for mSATA would not allow for faster speeds, so in the next generation of drives, Apple began to use the PCIe 2.0 × 2 interface, which led to a very significant increase in performance. Performance varies greatly between devices and drives, but the fastest third-generation configurations can run more than twice as fast as the fastest second-generation drives.

The third generation also saw the consolidation of drive types: virtually all drives are compatible with all Apple computer models from mid-2013 to mid-2015.

SSDs are not only compatible between different devices; in fact, different computers have the same disks. The SSDs were manufactured by Samsung, SanDisk, and Toshiba, and the same manufacturer part numbers were found on the drives received from all computers. Samsung added unique endings (/ 0A2, / 0A4, / 0A6, etc.) to the drives used in different devices, but all drives use the same flash memory controller, and testing showed no differences in performance.

Solid state third generation drives have the same form factor(let's call it 3A), with the exception of the 1TB SSD (generation 3B), which is about twice the width for the same length. All 3G drives use the same 12 + 16-pin connector and share a common PCIe 2.0 × 2 interface, with the exception of a 1TB SSD with PCIe 2.0 × 4 interface, which is most likely due to the large physical size of the drive. which allows for fewer engineering constraints.

All third-generation drives use AHCI technology, but computers themselves shipped with third-generation drives also support NVMe SSDs, which allows you to upgrade to later generation NVMe drives.

MacBook Air (Mid 2013 - Early 2014)

These MacBook Airs, both 11 ″ and 13 ″, use the same storage capacities of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB, except for the 64GB option found in earlier MacBook Airs.

Interestingly, although all drives are PCIe 2.0 × 2 limited, all MacBook Air motherboards support PCIe 2.0 × 4, making it possible to upgrade to faster 4-lane Gen 4 drives.

Mac Pro (Late 2013)

The Mac Pro in late 2013 was the first desktop model from Apple to have a PCIe SSD and, to the dismay of many users, the first model to support only one internal storage device.

Mac Pro supports all drives (128GB - 1TB) Gen 3 SSDs, but in stock it came with drives with radiators attached with an extremely strong heat-conducting adhesive. Apparently, if Apple engineers decided that it is necessary, then it is necessary. If you are of the same opinion, you can stick a heatsink on the SSD. But it's worth mentioning that everything works fine even without it, and internal tests showed absolutely no difference in SSD temperature when using a drive with and without a heatsink, even under extremely tough test conditions.

The SSD interface on the Mac Pro motherboard is similar to the MacBook Air - supporting PCIe 2.0 × 4 connectivity, which improves performance with later 4-channel drives. The Black Cylinder also supports NVMe SSDs and can be upgraded to Gen 5 drives when running macOS 10.13 or later.

MacBook Pro (Late 2013 - Mid 2014)

MacBook Pro Late 2013 - Mid 2014 Supports all Gen 3 drive options, as does the MacBook Air, and while PCIe 2.0 × 2 drives are included, all LUNs support 4-lane PCIe connections.

The MacBook Pro also supports the NVMe protocol and, like the Mac Pro, requires macOS 10.13 or later.

iMac (Late 2013 - Late 2015)

In stock versions, the 21.5-inch iMac came with either a 1TB SATA hard drive, a 1TB Fusion Drive (128GB PCIe SSD + 1TB SATA III HDD), or a standalone 256GB SSD. The 27-inch iMac offered the same options, plus a 3TB Fusion Drive (128GB SSD and 3TB SATA HDD) and a separate 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD.

Since the iMac has more free space than other Apple computers, you can easily fit a wider 1TB SSD from 27 "to 21". As with the previous generation, the 27-inch iMac always has a PCIe slot on the motherboard, regardless of version. And its younger 21.5-inch sibling is not so lucky. A 100% PCIe slot is only available if it was originally configured with a Fusion Drive or standalone SSD. If there is no connector on the motherboard, you won't be able to solder it just like that. There were attempts to solder the connector in the iMac 21.5 '' in 2014, but not everything is so simple, there are not enough electronic components on the board to start the disk, and there are no circuits, you need a donor. Or change the entire motherboard.

iMac 21.5 ″ and 27 ″ from late 2013 to 2014 support NVMe drives, provided macOS 10.13 or later is installed, but the PCIe 2.0 × 2 connection width negates all the speed advantages over ACHI.

Mac mini (late 2014)

At the end of 2014, the first Mac mini appeared with a PCIe SSD from Apple, but its internal design did not allow direct connection of the drive to the motherboard. The Mac mini found storage space on the back of the plastic hard drive casing, on top of the motherboard, which required a flex cable to connect the SSD.

The ribbon cable has a 12 + 16-pin female connector on one side and a 40-pin connector that attaches to the motherboard. This was the first and last time that Apple used such a PCIe connector in its computers.

The connector is present on the board regardless of the storage configuration originally ordered, so PCIe SSD can be added for all Late 2014 Mac mini computers, including through a PCI-e adapter for third-party SSDs. The only thing is that in a complete set without Fusion Drive, the flex cable must be purchased separately.

Mac mini 2014 allows you to install NVMe drives starting from Mac OS High Sierra, but like the 21.5 ”iMac, the PCIe 2.0 × 2 interface will not allow them to overclock at full speed. The speed increase is a modest 10-15%.

4th Generation PCIe Apple SSD

With the release of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops in early 2015, Apple introduced its 4th generation of SSD blades with the same 12 + 16-pin connector as the 3rd generation. So these discs can slightly overclock the previous generation Macs.

All 4th generation SSDs used the PCIe 3.0 × 4 interface, with the exception of the drive in the MacBook Air 11 ″, which was installed with PCIe 2.0 × 2 (let's call it 4C) from the previous generation. You can refer to Gen 4 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB drives as Gen 4A, and the larger 1TB drive as Gen 4B.

Gen 4 has roughly doubled read and write speeds over Gen 3 models. In general, the fourth generation of drives has become the next qualitative stage in the evolution of the Apple SSD.

This time the SSDs were exclusively manufactured by Samsung, with the exception of the 4C Gen for the 11 ″ MacBook Air, which was manufactured by Toshiba. Samsung drives are usually referenced by their flash controller ID, UBX, or SSUBX as indicated on the drive. This is a quick and easy way to distinguish Gen 4 drives from Gen 3 Samsung drives that are marked with the SSUAX ID.

MacBook Air (Early 2015 - Mid 2017)

The latest release of the 11 ″ MacBook Air in early 2015 brought minor upgrades to some components with little or no change to the SSD. These drives were the only ones in Apple's 2015 product line to retain the PCIe 2.0 × 2 interface from the previous generation. The new drives were now identified by the system as "Apple," although the flash memory chips on the SSD indicate that the manufacturers were Toshiba and SanDisk. Despite the 2-lane storage, the motherboard of the 11 ″ MacBook Air 2015 supports 4-lane PCIe 2.0 connections. can be upgraded with Gen 4A drives from other devices in this year's line. The exception is MacBook Air 11 ”with 512 GB SSD from the factory. It has the 4A SSD generation.

The 13 "MacBook Air used generation 4A drives, but the motherboard, like the 11" sibling, used a PCIe 2.0 × 4 interface. Despite this, the read / write speed was 90-120% faster than the 2013/2014 models.
These laptops don't have enough space for 1TB and are limited to 128GB, 256GB and 512GB options.

MacBook Pro (Early 2015 - Mid 2015)

MacBook Pro laptops in 2015 also had relatively minor upgrades, but still SSDs led to a significant increase in speed, especially for the 15 ″ model A1398, where PCIe 3.0 × 4 is up to 8 GB / s.

Both the 13 ″ and 15 ″ MacBook Pros support NVMe, and the upgrade to a Gen 5 SSD results in a slight increase in speed for the 13 ″ model A1502, while the 15 ″ model A1398 with PCIe 3.0 does allow NVMe to be fully utilized. The read speed increases by ~ 40%, and the write speed can increase by ~ 60%. This year's lineup has become the most stable when upgrading to a third-party SSD via an M.2 to Apple SSD adapter. It's better not to skimp here and take Samsung's fast PCIe 3.0. Below in the photo is an adapter kit with a Samsung 970 Evo disk.

iMac (Late 2015)

Late 2015 iMacs follow many of the same trends as previous models. The 21.5 ″ model necessarily has a PCIe slot on the board only if the computer was originally configured with a Fusion Drive or a stand-alone SSD, otherwise it may not appear, especially in computers from the USA. Unfortunately for many, the 1TB Fusion Drive now includes a 24GB SSD paired with a 1TB SATA hard drive. It is possible to choose the option of a standalone 256 GB SSD.

The 27 ″ has a Fusion Drive with a 1TB HDD and a 24GB SSD, and a 2TB and 3TB Fusion Drive with a 128GB SSD. The 27 ″ iMac also comes with a standalone 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD.

Fun Fact: This year a 24GB PCIe 3.0x4 SSD for FD is also Apple's first NVMe drive! The disk capacity is actually 32GB, but 25% of the available space is reserved and unusable by the user. Apparently, this is done to use this space for dead blocks, since the SSD is used more often than in a regular system.

Fifth Generation

Apple's fifth generation SSD introduces several major changes. Firstly, removable solid-state drives are only available in iMac and Macbook Pro 13 ”WITHOUT Touch Bar. Secondly, all these drives support the NVMe protocol, and all devices support PCIe 3.0 × 4 connections. This means that the entire line has excellent read / write performance and is approximately equal.

There have also been changes in the form factor, there are models with different types of SSD. Let's call one type 5A, it uses a completely new, much smaller form factor and a new 22 + 34-pin connector. Generation 5B drives use a 12 + 16-pin connector like previous generations. Despite the larger slot on the Gen 5A drive, which can improve performance, the speeds are roughly the same. The iMac Pro has 12 + 23 pin SSDs, they are smaller, we will call them 5C.

MacBook Pro (Late 2016 - Mid 2017)

In late 2016, Apple began shipping two versions of the MacBook Pro: a non-touchpad version and a touchpad (TB) version. Only the 13 ″ MacBook Pro A1708 was offered in a non-Touch Bar version, and this is the only MacBook Pro in this release to feature a removable SSD. In the rest, the drive is unsoldered on the motherboard and cannot be dismantled and replaced. The only way to increase storage on a MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar is by replacing the motherboard.

The MacBook Pro A1708 without Touch Bar and Removable SSD uses the new 5A generation drive. At the end of 2016, the MacBook Pro offered 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSDs, and the 128GB option was added in the mid-2017 release. Reading speed ~ 2000 MB / s, writing ~ 1900 MB / s. There are no third-party replacement solutions or adapters available at this time.

iMac (Mid 2017)

These devices use the already familiar 12 + 16-pin connectors, the motherboard has a PCIe 3.0 × 4 connection interface, the drives use the NVMe protocol and operate at the highest possible speeds. There is an important difference between this generation of iMacs from previous ones - there is a PCIe slot ONLY in the version with Fusion Drive or SSD blade. And that goes for the 27 ”model too. The place of production also does not matter, so when purchasing an iMac for a further upgrade, it is worth considering this nuance. Drive speed for reading ~ 2200 MB / s, for writing ~ 2000 MB / s. On Samsung drives, the speeds are much higher - 2800 MB / s for reading.

iMac Pro

At the moment, the only iMac Pro is equipped with two PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives. Reading speed ~ 2500 MB / s, writing ~ 3000 MB / s. These are unique SSDs of their kind, since, as such, in the usual sense, they are not. These two removable cards contain only memory chips, while the T2 coprocessor took over the role of the PCIe / NVMe controller. This means that replacing and upgrading could result in the iMac not starting up as the IDs of the new SSDs will not match those in the T2 controller's memory.

conclusions

In almost all Apple computers, you can replace the SSD with a faster one, or simply increase the disk space. For example, the MacBook Air 2010 has a fairly slow drive, although the laptop supports SATA III. It's sad that in the latest versions of the MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar nothing can be changed - perhaps nothing at all because of the T2 chip. For those who have read to the end, a nice bonus - 10% discount with Insider promo code for all types of work and spare parts for upgrading your Mac from the Eptibey service center in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

If you have already changed the HDD, that is, an ordinary hard drive, of your MacBook-on SSD, that is, on a solid-state drive (and you did it), then it will be superfluous to tell how much faster the laptop becomes after such an upgrade.

However, as it turned out, even in such a not at all complicated upgrade, for not having the proper experience, you can mess things up. In this regard, about one mistake that the author of this post first managed to make, and then had to fix when he undertook to change HHD to SSD in his working MacBook. By the way, regarding the issues of Apple repair in Kiev, this link will tell you and help.

In general, the essence of the fable is that the Mac OS operating system, unlike Windows, does not automatically include the TRIM command for newly installed solid-state drives. However, if your MacBook originally came with an SSD, then when you replace it (for example, with a larger drive), TRIM will already be enabled by default.

What is TRIM? In short, TRIM is a special command that, when any file is deleted, is sent by the file system drivers to the SSD controller. Having received this command, the controller "understands" which data stored on the SSD is no longer needed and clears it in the background, freeing up memory blocks for new data. This is one of the specific features of flash memory. And in this way, data in SSD memory blocks is rewritten at about the same speed as on HDD, in which data rewriting is performed according to a different principle (new ones are written "over" old ones without preliminary cleaning).

Another thing is that not all operating systems support the TRIM command. And, as in my case, the user finds out about this after the start of the disk replacement and upon the occurrence of an "incomprehensible problem".

Therefore, if you are planning a similar event, then I recommend that you first check if this same TRIM team is working in it.

This can be done as follows:

click the Apple icon (in the upper left corner of the screen) and in the menu click " About this Mac «;
in the next window, click the button " System report «;
in the left part of the window that opens, we find and click " Hardware "And then on the list -" SATA / SATA Express «;
now scroll the right side to the line “ TRIM support «;
if we see next to " Yes“Which means the command is enabled if it says“ No“, Then TRIM must be enabled separately.

How to enable TRIM on MacBooke:

To begin with, we double-check that you entered the system of your laptop with administrator rights. After that:

launch Terminal (you can simply find it through Spotlight);
we are typing a team sudo trimforce enable and click Enter ;
introduce password the account that is currently being used and click Enter ;
the system will ask you to confirm your actions, read the request, write y and press again Enter ;
now the system will ask for permission to reboot - write again y and click Enter .

After that, it remains only to wait until the laptop reboots, and the job can be considered done. But for order, it is better to go to " System report”And check if TRIM is working. And then you can change the disk. Read more about the peculiarities of replacing components and repairing Apple technology, in particular Macbooks, iPads and iPhones of any model and year of manufacture, here - http://wefixit.com.ua/remont-iphone.

Apple has always ranked hard drives in its devices. For iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks, every step of increasing storage media costs a pretty penny. And gigabytes from Apple are significantly more expensive than the market average. There is no doubt, usually these are very fast gigabytes, and you don't have to regret the overpayment. Yet sometimes the toad chokes. And you buy an option with a smaller drive. You hope to shrink and interrupt somehow. But always, absolutely always, you are faced with a lack of volume.

In the case of the iPhone and iPad, the problem is partly, but on relatively old MacBooks (up to 2016), you can change the SSD. But in the case of using original components, this is a very expensive pleasure. For example, a 256-gigabyte drive will cost 30 thousand rubles, if you take a new one, and 18-20 thousand for a used one. It bites, you know. Meanwhile, "just an SSD" of this size is sold for 9-10 thousand. For 16-18 thousand, you can take a 512 gigabyte model. The proprietary Apple connector is bypassed with an adapter, which costs about 1000 rubles on Aliexpress, and 2-3 thousand in Russian stores.

An autopsy showed ...

I will tell you about my own experience with the MacBook Pro 13, model Early 2015. I got it from a 128 gigabyte SSD, which, in general, was enough, but still somehow itching - suddenly it will be necessary to mount some incendiary video, and not enough space? For some reason I didn't want to spend 30 thousand. But even with non-native SSDs, everything is not so simple. The fact is that Apple has its own troubles, due to which disks from other manufacturers are seen by the operating system only after dancing with a tambourine, to enable TRIM, shamanism is also required, and there are still problems with hibernation, which must be disabled.

In particular, such overlays happen with the Samsung 960 EVO, which is often bought for upgrading MacBooks. I didn't want to face something like that.

It's even funny that Samsung SSDs are trying to fail in MacBooks, because, as you can easily see, the original SSD (pictured below) was made by whom.

Deep googling revealed that Kingston KC1000 is considered one of the least problematic SSDs for MacBook Pro Early 2015. The 240 GB model (I certainly don't need more) costs an average of 8,500 rubles. For this we get a drive with the declared read speed of 2700 MB / s, and 900 MB / s write. For comparison, the original Apple SSD gives out 1200/700 read and write respectively. Here it is worth mentioning that Kingston's recording is relatively slow only on the junior model, and already from 480 GB it grows to 1600 MB / s. But, again, I do not need such a volume, and the overpayment would not make any sense.

Considering that I had never upgraded MacBooks before, I asked the guys from the Fixed.One service to help in this matter. Running a little ahead, I will say that with special screwdrivers (five- and hexagonal stars), the operation can be done at home.

Let's go. First, unscrew the back cover and admire how everything is beautifully arranged inside. The SSD is secured with one screw. Easy movement - and the slot is free.

Above a Kingston SSD with an adapter already installed

The adapter came from China, it looks modest, but, on the other hand, it doesn't need to do miracles. There is no electronics on it - everything is limited only to redirecting contacts from the Apple connector to a regular M.2 connector. Something similar happened with proprietary Sony cards: it quickly became clear that ordinary microSD cards can be perfectly inserted into a portable PSP console through a penny adapter.

The installation procedure is as follows: first inserts an adapter into the connector, then a new SSD into it. If we are talking about a capacious model (for example, per terabyte), it makes sense to wrap the contact point with thermal tape for secure attachment and additional heat dissipation. But in our case, it would be clearly unnecessary, because this Kingston model heats up very moderately, and in conjunction with the existing adapter protrudes above the board a little higher than the original and perfectly contacts the thermal interface on the lid. In length, the match is complete, so the KC1000 was fixed with a screw from its predecessor.

When turned on, the MacBook expectedly swore at the lack of a boot disk, but after inserting a flash drive with the High Sierra distribution kit, he immediately saw a new SSD and offered to install the OS on it. A very important point: without upgrading to High Sierra, it is impossible to install a third-party disk, and you need to upgrade the operating system BEFORE replacing the drive.

The installation took place without the slightest overlap. That's real - there is even nothing to tell. Upon completion, I restored all data from a copy of Time Machine on a flash drive. It turned out to be significantly faster than by air, but still slow relative to the capabilities of the flash drive. It can transfer up to 300 megabytes per second, and the restoration proceeded at an average speed of 20 megabytes, only occasionally increasing to 40-50 megabytes.

Immediately after the recovery, I launched the benchmark and, frankly, was pretty discouraged: according to its data, the read and write speed was below 400 MB / s. At the same time, the speed of work was the same. Launching applications, switching between them - that's it. I had a suspicion that the matter is in background tasks with which the system loads the disk, and in particular - the Spotlight indexing service. The latter works furiously in the first days after installing a new drive, re-examining files, letters, contacts, etc., which leads not only to slowdowns, but also to increased energy consumption. You can disable indexing by entering the command in the Terminal sudo mdutil -a -i off... But it’s probably better to just wait until the system realizes itself again and calms down.

Actually, the very next day the benchmark showed completely different, more pleasing numbers. This is not at the peak of the SSD's capabilities, but noticeably higher than on the original drive, released, let me remind you, three years ago.

What pitfalls can arise? Firstly, with a non-native SSD, the MacBook Pro tends to wake up incorrectly from hibernation - it crashes and goes into reboot. I've had this a couple of times, but only on the first day, when FileVault data was encrypted in the background. After its completion (pah-pah-pah) everything became normal. If you have the same problem, you need to type the command in the terminal sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25... But the best thing, experts say, is to reset your laptop and set it up from scratch, rather than restore it from Time Machine. Then there will be no problems getting out of sleep. I have not checked it myself, but I believe in experts.

Secondly, the drive may not work to its fullest. This is also stated in honest descriptions of adapters: they do not pump more than 2 GB / s. Plus, not all PCI Express lanes can work, for example, only two instead of the maximum four. In my own diagnostic utility, x2 and x4 are shown. This does not affect performance. And by the way, I don't even know - maybe the original SSD also jumped.

But in general, especially after the release of High Sierra 10.13.3, third-party SSDs work decently, and if you are lucky with the adapter, you will save a very significant amount. To be lucky, it is still better to buy it in Russia and in companies that conduct preliminary testing of this kind of hardware.

Many thanks to Fixed.One for helping with the upgrade. The Kingston KC1000 has shown full suitability for use in the MacBook, and given the fact that they have a maximum capacity of 960 GB, this will allow someone to increase the volume of the drive to a very impressive size at a very reasonable cost.