How I changed the SSD in a MacBook Pro to an inexpensive, but capacious and fast one. Installing an SSD and a second HDD What is PCIe

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

However, as it turned out, even in such a not at all complicated upgrade, you can do things wrong if you don’t have the proper experience. In this regard, about one mistake that the author of this post first managed to make, and then had to fix it when he decided to change the HHD to an SSD in his work MacBook. By the way, regarding Apple repair issues in Kyiv, this link will tell you and help you.

In general, the essence of the fable is that the Mac OS operating system, unlike Windows, does not automatically enable the TRIM command for newly installed solid-state drives. However, if your MacBook was originally equipped 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 deleting any file, is sent by the file system drivers to the SSD disk 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 is rewritten to SSD memory blocks at approximately the same speed as on HDDs, in which data rewriting is performed according to a different principle (new ones are written “on top” of 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 disk replacement has begun and after an “unclear problem” has arisen.

Therefore, if you are planning a similar event, I recommend that you first check whether this same TRIM team works there.

You can do this 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, find and click “ Hardware " and then in the list - " SATA/SATA Express «;
• Now scroll to the right side to the line “ TRIM support «;
• if we see nearby " Yes", it means the command is enabled if it says " No“, then TRIM must be enabled separately.

How to enable TRIM on MacBook:

First, let’s double-check that you are logged into your laptop with administrator rights. After that:

• launch Terminal (you can simply find it through Spotlight);
• recruiting a team sudo trimforce enable and click Enter ;
• enter password the account that is currently in use 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 this, all that remains is to wait until the laptop reboots, and you can consider the job done. But for the sake of order it’s better to go to “ System report" and check if TRIM is working. And then you can change the disk. Read more about the features of replacing components and repairing Apple equipment, in particular Macbooks, iPads and iPhones of any model and year of manufacture here - http://wefixit.com.ua/remont-iphone.

Online store of spare parts and tools for Apple.
Today we will tell you how to save money by upgrading the SSD drive of all Mac computers after 2013. As you know, OWC has released new drives with a capacity of up to 1 TB with a PCIe interface and a proprietary Apple connector. Disk speeds for this protocol are not great: up to 763 MB/s reading and 446 MB/s writing, but PCIe 2.0 allows you to achieve much higher speeds. And the price for 480GB is almost 30,000 rubles with delivery from the USA, and in Moscow from 44,000 rubles.

Most recently, Kingston released PCIe 2.0 SSD drives with an M.2 connector. The power supply is the same as on Mac computers, but the connector is different. The task has been set, the drawings have been drawn, months of waiting and the necessary adapter is already in our office. All that remains is to install the disk through the adapter and carry out testing.

Brief instructions for installing a Kingston M.2 SSD in a MacBook Retina 13" 2015.

Step 1
- unscrew 10 Pentalobe screws *1.2 with a screwdriver
- please note that the screws differ in shape and length, during the assembly process return everything to its place

Step 2
- remove the plastic cover from the battery connector

Step 3
- disconnect the battery cable from the motherboard with a spatula

Step 4
- now that the motherboard is de-energized, unscrew the T5 screw that secures the standard SSD drive

Step 5
- carefully remove the SSD at a slight angle

Step 6
- prepare a new larger SSD with an adapter and insert it into the connector, it fits perfectly

Step 7
- install our disk with the adapter and assemble the laptop in reverse order

Step 8
- install clean OS X from a flash drive and test the new disk

After installing the operating system, we pass the BlackMagic Disk Speed ​​Test. Windows results in the screenshot. The write speed at some points reached 561Mb/sec, and the read speed over 1Gb/sec. What did all this give us? A new 256Gb SSD disk for Mac PCIe devices of the latest generations costs from 25,000 rubles, and it will be a disk without any warranty, since Apple does not sell such disks, it will be a disassembled or used disk. We, using a magic adapter, installed a Kingston SHPM2280P2/240G 240GB drive (price on Yandex Market at the date of publication from 11,730 rubles). Total savings of over 10,000 rubles, taking into account the cost of the adapter, as well as a 3-year manufacturer’s warranty on the SSD drive.

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The MacBook Air wasn't designed to be expanded or upgraded, but it turns out that with a little effort you can replace the SSD yourself. This will significantly increase the laptop's storage size and often its performance. Another common reason that requires installing a new SSD is that it has broken down. In any case, replacing the SSD on a MacBook Air is easy and the procedure remains the same.

Preparation

To install a new SSD you will need a few things:

• a new, replaceable solid-state drive compatible with your existing laptop model;
• special screwdrivers (Torch 5T and Pentalobe);
• 2-3 small containers for temporary storage of screws.

The process of replacing the SSD on a MacBook Air is fairly simple, although it does involve disassembling and reassembling the Mac. Please keep in mind that this method is only applicable to laptops whose warranty period has already expired. Replacing the hardware may void your warranty, so if you still have one, you should contact support or an Apple store to have a professional handle it.

Step 1: Check compatibility

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

Once you have determined the exact model name and year of manufacture, you can find a compatible solid state drive on online retail sites such as Amazon.

Step 2: SSD selection

The choice of brands and types of SSDs is large, and the user can follow his preferences. An example is Transcend's 240GB upgrade kit. Users love it for several reasons: good price, fast performance, excellent reviews, good warranty, and a complete upgrade kit that includes a case for the old SSD and the screwdrivers needed to finish the job. Other brands also offer similar package solutions.

Of course, you are absolutely free to buy another compatible SSD that is not part of the kit. You just need to get the appropriate screwdrivers and ensure that the drive and Mac are compatible.

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

Step 3: Backup

Before replacing the SSD on your Macbook Air, you need to create a copy of the drive. Experts recommend setting up a Time Machine backup at a minimum, and some more sophisticated users combine this measure with direct disk cloning tools SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. The only exception is when the disk has completely failed or is 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 Machine option and specify the location for recording the backup copy.

This step should not be skipped. If a backup is not created, there will be nothing to restore and the new disk will not contain the necessary data. This is not something you would want to experience yourself. Using Time Machine also has the benefit of being able to perform a clean install of the operating system on the new SSD and then restore your Mac from the backup.

Step 4: Replace the drive

Now comes the fun part - opening the case and replacing the MacBook Air SSD with a new one. For this you will need boxes for screws, since you will have to deal with fasteners of different sizes and types. It is better to sort fasteners by size and installation location.

This part of the process requires some skill. Users with an electronics background will likely be at ease, but others will want to read the manual for details on how to proceed. Instead of reinventing the wheel, experts recommend checking out the detailed instructions on the iFixIt website, 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 difficulty of replacing a 13" MacBook Air SSD is rated as moderate, but according to experts, anyone with patience and the ability to follow instructions can easily complete the job, even if they are a beginner.

Instructions for replacing SSD

To replace the SSD you must:

1. Remove the screws on the bottom of the MacBook Air 13 and place them in separate boxes according to their size, type, and installation location.
2. Remove the bottom panel. Discharge static electricity before touching internal components.
3. 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. Don't forget about this, as well as the fact that it will need to be connected again after installation is complete.
4. Remove the SSD by first unscrewing the screw that holds it in place. The device is located in the center, directly above the battery.
5. Install the new SSD, secure it with a screw, and then connect the internal battery.
6. Put on the bottom cover and secure it.

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

Step 5: X and Data Recovery

The procedure described here is slightly different from the steps outlined 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 drive before replacing the SSD in your MacBook Air. Cloning ahead of time is often the best approach, but if the drive fails, this is not possible as it becomes completely inoperable, as evidenced by the question mark on boot and the Apple hardware test.

Luckily, having a Time Machine backup allows you to perform installation and recovery differently. If you prefer the cloning method, Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper are applications that will do the job perfectly.

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 remember that you can begin restoring a MacBook Air SSD backup immediately after a clean installation of Mac OS X.

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

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

Once the operating system and data are restored, the laptop is ready for normal use with the new SSD.

(early 2011) at home.

There is a crisis outside, and dreams of buying a new Macbook are dissipating like smoke. In these harsh times, when a kilogram of ordinary cucumbers costs as much as a kilogram of Israeli apples, it’s time to take out a screwdriver and update your faithful aluminum comrade with your own hands.

If you don’t have a screwdriver, hands, or lack the courage, please turn to the professionals of modding and repair. Trusted professionals live in the company ModMac, who, with unwavering hands, will mercilessly disassemble any gadget, repair it and put it back together without any unnecessary remaining parts.

On a winter Saturday morning, from the pattern of clouds in the sky, I realized it was time! Having made a backup, my MacBook Pro and I went to workshop for rejuvenation surgery. The plans included replacing the original HDD cable with a new one, as well as replacing the optical drive with a super-fast SSD drive using a special Optibay tray.

Few people know, but if you install an SSD drive instead of the native HDD, and install the native HDD as a second hard drive instead of a CD drive, then in this situation the system will work a little slower. It’s better to plug the SSD drive in place of the optical drive, and leave the original HDD in its place. Productivity will be higher.

Upon arrival at the place, my laptop immediately passed into the hands of the specialist, and I got the small role of an impassive extra who recorded on camera every movement of the specialist’s hands.

Preparation

So, the MacBook Pro sat on the table, turned upside down, revealing its defenseless belly to our eyes. With deft movements of a Phillips screwdriver, 10 screws were unscrewed along the perimeter of the back cover. And then, without much effort, the lid was removed and carefully set aside.

Once again, I marveled at the ergonomic arrangement of all the components inside the brainchild of Steve Jobs. How fascinating it is that all the filling fits together!

The first stage has been successfully completed, we move on to the next level.

Replacing the HDD cable

In my MacBook, the hard drive is very easy to remove. In some models, for example, to remove the HDD you must first remove the battery, but this is not our case. So, what needs to be done, point by point:

1) Disconnect the cable leading from the battery to the board;

2) unscrew two screws and pull out the clamping bar;

3) gently pull the hard drive by the special tab and use your fingers (a mediator, a special plastic spatula) to disconnect the cable from the hard drive.

The hard drive cable is very fragile; tugging, tearing or twisting it strongly is not recommended.

Why do you need to change the cable to a new one: sometimes (rarely, but still) after replacing an ordinary HDD with an SSD, the MacBook disk begins to behave strangely. It seems that disk utility sees the new SSD, formats it and does not find any errors; The operating system is downloading, but all installation attempts are interrupted by a gray screen with a blinking folder icon or question mark.

In this case, replacing the hard drive cable helps. The operation is very intricate and requires confident movements and some skill in such actions. Here's how to replace the HDD cable:

1) Carefully disconnect the cable connector from the board, unscrew the two screws that secure the cable in the case and the two screws that secure the black strip on the front inner wall of the case.

Using your fingers, carefully pull out the black strip to which the HDD cable is glued and you will be horrified by the miniature size of the connector, which must be carefully removed.

At this stage you need to gather all your concentration and use tweezers to disconnect the connector from the HDD cable. You can’t swear at your mother, it’s advisable to breathe every other time.

After this dangerous procedure, you can exhale and relax, the HDD cable has been completely removed.

So, at this stage we have removed the original hard drive and completely disconnected its cable. To install a new cable, all the above steps must be repeated in reverse order. Again, the hardest part is connecting the small connector to the connector of the new HDD cable.

Replacing an optical drive with an SSD drive

Carefully disconnect the cable responsible for Airport/Bluetooth and the camera cable from the board. These cables (like most others) are quite fragile and breakable.

Then carefully remove the cable around the perimeter of the CD drive and disconnect the antenna connector.

The easiest thing left is to unscrew the three screws holding the optical drive, carefully remove it, and disconnect the cable connector. That's it, half the job is done, now you need to insert an SSD drive into the resulting void.

SSD and Optibay

Everything is simple here. Take an Optibay tray, insert a brand new SSD drive into it, tighten two fixing screws on the side, insert a short cable from the CD drive into the tray, which was removed in the previous step, and insert the entire resulting structure into place. Finally, repeat all the above-described manipulations to remove the drive in reverse order.

At the very end, the main thing is not to forget to connect back the battery cable, which was disconnected at the very beginning of this instruction article.

Note to the hostess

After “upgrading” the MacBook master from ModMac can set up something like Fusion Drive.

Fusion Drive is a technology that combines a conventional hard drive (HDD) and a solid state drive (SSD) with 128 GB of flash memory into a single logical volume. Mac OS X automatically manages its contents, so frequently used files such as applications, documents, photos (and so on) are dynamically moved to flash memory for faster access. For example, if a program is used frequently, it will automatically be moved to the SSD drive to speed up access to it. As a result, startup times are reduced, and as the system accumulates data about the computer's usage profile, program launch and file access speeds up.
– Wikipedia

Through clever manipulations with terminal commands, the guys from ModMac can configure a MacBook so that the system will see one shared disk with a capacity of 768 gigs (total capacity of SSD and HDD drives) as if it were one SSD drive.

Productivity increases, nerves are protected, and the owner is happy. I highly recommend it. The only caveat is that you need to avoid emergency shutdowns while using the laptop; Fusion Drive may “crumble” and you will have to restore all the information again ( so you should always remember about backup!).

Remember the good old days, when in a couple of minutes you could change the battery, add RAM and install an additional drive? If you're an Apple user, this is all a thing of the past for you, but upgrading your hard drive is still possible, and Apple developers are still allowing us to do it. In 2010, Apple introduced its proprietary solid-state drives - "blade" SSDs. The company touts their read and write speeds and reliability, but rarely explains the details of the technology used in SSDs, which are designed only for Apple computers.

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

Every hard drive or SSD you've used in the last 10 years has probably used a SATA interface, and more recently, PCI Express has become more common. If you have an older computer and think that taking many minutes to boot up and waiting for a program to respond for a long time is the norm, then you may still be using a SATA drive. Time to increase the speed!

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 drives. The SATA standard has undergone three major changes, resulting in connectors that are identical in appearance (for backwards compatibility) with twice 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 drive's potential throughput. And in the case of an SSD, 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 it is the fastest bus available to most computers. It's no surprise that 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 a breakneck pace. PCIe 2.0 (probably the most common version of PCIe) reaches a maximum speed of ~500 MB/s with a single bandwidth channel. This speed is slightly slower than SATA III, but PCIe has the advantage of using multiple channels to run connected peripherals.

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

In 2011, version 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 to transfer data (same as SATA), meaning that every 8 bits of data sent are sent via a 10-bit line code. In other words, 2 of the 10 bits are simply overhead required to transmit the remaining data. These 20% of “idle” costs eat up the real bandwidth of the interface, as a result of which it is reduced by the same 20%.

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

AHCI vs NVMe

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

Now about NVMe or Non-Volatile Memory Express. NVMe was designed specifically to work with SSDs, reducing latency and allowing large amounts of data to be transferred per unit of time, making better use of today's multi-core processors. By the time PCIe 3.0 was released, the NVMe specification had become essential to harness the full bandwidth potential of drives.

Original Apple connectors

When Apple released its first thin SSD in the MacBook Air in late 2010, it still used traditional SATA interface technology, while Apple abandoned traditional form factors SATA and mSATA, which were in most laptops of that time, instead choosing their own connector, which was never used by other developers either before or after. With the release of the MacBook Air in 2010, Apple ushered in a new trend of proprietary connectors and form factors, which eventually took over Apple's entire lineup and ushered in an era of storage devices that, while easy to replace, were difficult to purchase.

Many people mistakenly believe that the connectors are a variant of M.2, which can be found in many PCs, but in fact Apple has never used it. And unlike the pinouts called M.2, Apple did not give names to its connectors, so from now on we will simply refer to the connectors by the location of their contacts, 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 to mid 2011 releases. Apple's desire to reduce the thickness of the already thin MacBook Air required a transition 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 has started using an even thinner drive. This "Generation 1" drive used a proprietary 6+12-pin connector, a redesigned mSATA III, limited to 6 Gbps.

The first generation SSDs were made by Samsung and Toshiba, but as it turned out, Samsung drives were much faster. Both drives performed within Apple's stated specifications, but MacBook Air buyers were entering into the "SSD lottery" because laptop owners with Samsung drives read and write 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 as much variation 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 size 2280 - for example, Samsung 860 EVO, through a special adapter.

2nd generation Apple SSD

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

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

MacBook Pro (mid 2012 - early 2013)

With the release of the first MacBook Pro with a "Retina" display, Apple included the SSD standard in the MacBook Pro line and now, in fact, the only storage device is a drive with a 7 + 17-pin connector. The Generation 2A SSDs used in these MacBook Pros came in capacities of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 768GB and were manufactured by Samsung as well as SanDisk.

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

iMac (Late 2012)

Things were a little different with the iMac Late 2012. SSD drives were only available with Fusion Drive; they were combined into one array with traditional 3.5" and 2.5" standard SATA III hard drives. Apple's Fusion Drive optimizes file storage so that most frequently accessed files and system files are stored on the SSD, while most others are stored on the hard drive.

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

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

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

MacBook Air (Mid 2012)

As stated above, generation 2B drives have a different shape, but use the same interface and connector as their generation 2A counterparts. 2B read/write speeds are noticeably slower, likely due to technical limitations and the smaller storage space of 2B drives.

Another result of technical limitations is the inability to install a 768 GB drive. Samsung and Toshiba have produced Generation 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).

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 600 MB/s limit for mSATA would not allow for increased speed, so in the next generation of drives, Apple began using the PCIe 2.0x2 interface, which resulted in a very significant increase in performance. Performance varies widely between devices and drives, but the fastest third generation configurations can be more than twice as fast as the fastest second generation drives.

The third generation also saw a consolidation of drive types, with virtually all drives 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 obtained from all computers. Samsung may have added unique endings (/0A2, /0A4, /0A6, etc.) to the drives used in different devices, but all drives use the same flash controller, and testing showed no differences between them performance differences.

Solid State third generation drives have the same form factor(let's call it 3A), with the exception of the 1 TB SSD (generation 3B), which, with the same length, is approximately twice as wide. All third-generation drives use the same 12+16-pin connector and share a common PCIe 2.0x2 interface, with the exception of the 1TB SSD with PCIe 2.0x4 interface, which is most likely due to the large physical size of the drive. which allows for fewer engineering constraints.

All Gen 3 drives use AHCI technology, but computers that ship with Gen 3 drives also support NVMe SSDs, allowing 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 versions of the MacBook Air.

Interestingly, while all drives are limited to PCIe 2.0x2, all MacBook Air motherboards support PCIe 2.0x4, making it possible to upgrade to faster 4-lane 4th generation drives.

Mac Pro (Late 2013)

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

Mac Pro supports all drives (128 GB - 1 TB) 3rd generation SSD, but in the stock version it was equipped with drives with radiators, secured with extremely strong heat-conducting adhesive. Apparently, if Apple engineers decided that it was necessary, then it was 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 without this, and internal tests showed absolutely no difference in SSD temperatures when using the drive with and without a heatsink, even under extremely harsh test conditions.

The SSD connection interface on the Mac Pro motherboard is similar to the MacBook Air - with support for PCIe 2.0x4 connections, which allows for improved performance with later 4-channel drives. Black Cylinder also supports NVMe SSD drives and can be upgraded to Gen 5 drives when running macOS 10.13 or later.

MacBook Pro (late 2013 - mid 2014)

MacBook Pro laptops from late 2013 to mid-2014. support all third-generation drive options, just like the MacBook Air, and while PCIe 2.0x2 drives are included, all logic cards support 4-lane PCIe connections.

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

iMac (Late 2013 - Late 2015)

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

Since the iMac has many times more free space than other Apple computers, you can easily install a wider SSD drive of 1 TB from 27” to 21”. As with the previous generation, the 27-inch iMac always has a PCIe slot on the system board, regardless of version. But its younger 21.5-inch brother is not so lucky. The PCIe 100% slot is only present 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 into the iMac 21.5'' 2014, but not everything is so simple, to run the disk there are not enough electronic components on the board, and there are no circuits, a donor is needed. Or change the entire motherboard.

iMac 21.5″ and 27″ from late 2013 to 2014. support NVMe drives provided that MacOS 10.13 and later is installed, but the PCIe 2.0x2 connection width negates any speed advantages over ACHI.

Mac mini (Late 2014)

At the end of 2014, the first Mac mini with a PCIe SSD from Apple appeared, but its internal design did not allow the drive to be connected directly to the motherboard. The space for the drive in the Mac mini was found on the back of the plastic hard drive casing, on top of the motherboard, which required a flexible cable to connect the SSD.

The 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 Apple used a similar connector for PCIe connections in its computers.

The connector is present on the board no matter what storage configuration was originally ordered, so a PCIe SSD can be added to all Late 2014 Mac minis, including via a PCI-e adapter to install a third-party SSD. The only thing is that in a configuration without Fusion Drive, the cable must be purchased separately.

The 2014 Mac mini allows you to install NVMe drives starting with Mac OS High Sierra, but, like the 21.5” iMac, the PCIe 2.0x2 interface will not allow them to be fully overclocked. The speed increase is a modest 10-15%.

Fourth 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 drives can slightly overclock 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 had PCIe 2.0×2 (let’s call it 4C) from the previous generation. You can refer to the 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB generation 4 drives as generation 4A, and the larger 1TB drive as generation 4B.

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

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

MacBook Air (early 2015 - mid 2017)

The last release of the 11″ MacBook Air in early 2015 brought minor updates to some components, with virtually no changes to the SSD. These drives were the only ones in Apple's 2015 product line that retained the PCIe 2.0x2 interface from the previous generation. The new drives were now identified as "Apple" in the system, although the flash memory chips on the SSD indicated that the manufacturers were Toshiba and SanDisk. Despite the 2-channel drive, the 11″ MacBook Air 2015 motherboard supports 4-channel PCIe 2.0 connections, i.e. Can be upgraded with 4A generation drives from other devices in this year's lineup. The exception is the MacBook Air 11” with a 512 GB SSD from the factory. It has generation SSD 4A.

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

MacBook Pro (Early 2015 - Mid 2015)

MacBook Pro laptops in 2015 also featured relatively minor updates, but SSDs still led to a significant increase in speed, especially for the 15″ A1398 model, because there PCIe 3.0x4 is up to 8 GB/sec.

Both the 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pro support NVMe, and upgrading to a Gen 5 SSD results in a slight speed boost for the 13″ A1502, while the 15″ A1398 with PCIe 3.0 connectivity truly allows for full NVMe technology. Read speed increases by ~40% and write speed can increase by ~60%. This year’s line has become the most stable when upgraded to a third-party SSD via an adapter from the M.2 connector to an Apple SSD. It’s better not to save money here and take fast PCIe 3.0 from Samsung. Below in the photo is an adapter kit with a Samsung 970 Evo drive.

iMac (Late 2015)

The late 2015 iMac features many of the same trends as previous models. The 21.5″ model must have a PCIe connector on the board only if the computer was initially configured with a Fusion Drive or a standalone SSD, otherwise it may not be available, especially on computers from the USA. Unfortunately for many, the 1TB Fusion Drive now includes only a 24GB SSD paired with a 1TB SATA HDD. It is possible to choose the option of a standalone SSD with a capacity of 256 GB.

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

Fun fact: This year, the FD's 24GB PCIe 3.0x4 SSD also became Apple's first NVMe drive! The disk capacity is actually 32 GB, 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 conventional system.

Fifth Generation

The fifth generation of Apple SSDs introduces several major changes. First of all, only iMac and Macbook Pro 13” WITHOUT Touch Bar have removable SSDs. Secondly, all of these drives support the NVMe protocol, and all devices support PCIe 3.0x4 connections. This means that the read/write performance of the entire line is high and approximately equal.

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

MacBook Pro (late 2016 - mid 2017)

At the end of 2016, Apple began releasing two versions of the MacBook Pro laptop: a version without a Touch Bar and a version with a Touch Bar (TB). Only the 13″ MacBook Pro A1708 was offered without the Touch Bar, and it is the only MacBook Pro of this release to have a removable SSD. In the rest, the drive is soldered to the motherboard and cannot be removed and replaced. The only way to increase storage on a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is to replace the motherboard.

The MacBook Pro A1708 without Touch Bar with removable SSD uses the new 5A generation drive. In late 2016, the MacBook Pro offered SSD storage capacities of 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB, and the mid-2017 release added a 128GB option. Read speed ~2000 MB/s, write speed ~1900 MB/s. There are no replacement solutions from third-party manufacturers or any adapters at the moment.

iMac (Mid 2017)

These devices use the already familiar 12 + 16-pin connector, 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 iMac and previous ones - the PCIe connector is ONLY available in the version with Fusion Drive or SSD blade. And this applies to the 27” model too. The place of production also does not matter, so when purchasing an iMac for a further upgrade, you should take this nuance into account. Reading speed of the drive is ~2200 MB/s, writing speed is ~2000 MB/s. On Samsung drives the speeds are much higher - 2800 MB/s read.

iMac Pro

At the moment, the only iMac Pro is equipped with two PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives. Read speed ~2500 MB/s, write speed ~3000 MB/s. These are unique SSDs, because they are not SSDs as such in the usual sense. These two removable cards contain only memory chips, while the T2 coprocessor takes on the role of the PCIe/NVMe controller. This means that replacement and upgrade may result in the iMac not starting, since the IDs of the new SSDs will not match those in the memory of the T2 controller.

conclusions

In almost all Apple computers, you can replace the SSD with a faster one or simply increase the disk capacity. 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 Touch Bar, nothing can be changed - perhaps nothing at all due to the T2 chip. For those who read to the end, a nice bonus - 10% discount with promo code Insider for all types of work and spare parts for upgrading your Mac from the Eptibey service center in Moscow and St. Petersburg.