SSD Upgrade for MacBook Pro 13-inch Retina Display Early 2015

admin DIY, Technology

Upgrading my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) with 500GB flash storage.

MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch Early 2015
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

Decided to use the Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB 3D NAND NVMe Gen3x4 PCIe M.2 2280 for my SSD upgrade. Purchased from Fuwell @ SGD359 on 28 December 2019.

Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB
Model: ASX8200PNP-2TT-C
Sequential read/write speed up to 3500/3000 MB/s
NAND Flash: 3D TLC
Interface: PCIe Gen3x4
Form Factor: M.2 2280
MTBF: 2,000,000 hours
TBW: 1280TB
  • M.2 NVMe SSD and a DIY XPG stick-on heat sink
What’s inside the Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB 3D NAND NVMe Gen3x4 PCIe M.2 2280 package
Purchased the M.2 NVMe SSD convert adapter for MacBook Pro from Taobao
The existing Samsung Apple flash storage is secured by a T5 Torx screw
Attach the Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB 3D NAND NVMe to the NVMe convert adapter
Secure the M.2 NVMe SSD with the NVMe convert adapter back onto the logic board using the T5 Torx screw
Booted up the MacBook Pro using the USB macOS install drive.
The Adata SX8200 Pro 2TB connected to the NVMe convert adapter is detected by the system.
Successfully formatted the Adata SX8200 Pro 2TB NVMe to APFS
Available storage after a clean install of macOS Catalina 10.15.2

Due to the PCIe 2.0 x4 interface limitation (Retina MacBook Pro 13-inch, Early 2015), we will not be able to achieve the XPG SX8200 Pro advertised sequential read/write speed of 3500/3000 MB/s.

  • Before:
    Original Samsung 500GB Flash Storage
  • After:
    Adata SX8200 Pro 2TB
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test results before and after upgrading to NVMe SSD

One thought to “SSD Upgrade for MacBook Pro 13-inch Retina Display Early 2015”

  1. Did you install something else?? Or only update Catalina? My makbook is a MacBook air 13” early 2015

    Reply

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