2014 macbook pro 13 - ssd upgrade

I'm awaiting delivery of the brand new 2014 macbook pro 13, should be with me tomorrow. Due to RAM being soldered in, I went with 16gb. Limited funds allowed me only one upgrade so I will have only 128gb ssd to start with. My plan is to order transcend jetdrive lite 128gb asap and take available storage up to 256gb. In near future I was planning on buying transcend jetdrive 720 (480GB) witch is only £250 on amazon uk and seem to be excellent deal.

I'd like to ask you if 2014 internal architecture is the same as previous models, would upgrade be straight forward or did apple change something to make it more difficult. I've asked transcend tech support couple of days ago but have not got the answer yet.

Do you have any experience with 3rd party ssd's in your macs, transcend in particular.

I'll be using macbook for photo editing exclusively - lightroom and elements.

Ssd upgrade:

Transcend JetDrive 720 480 GB SATA III SSD Upgrade Kit - for Macbook Pro with Retina display (Mid 2012 - Early 2013) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JKCHMMS/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_UcoDub0X99PVJ

Storage expansion:

Transcend JetDrive Lite 330 128 GB Storage Expansion Card https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MTHLURE/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_afoDub10Y67S8

Thanks for a prompt response John!

Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like the SSD itself is different from previous model.

Upgrade tbh looks even easier.

Any feedback on how those ssd's work long term?

Grosh said:

I'm awaiting delivery of the brand new 2014 macbook pro 13, should be with me tomorrow. Due to RAM being soldered in, I went with 16gb. Limited funds allowed me only one upgrade so I will have only 128gb ssd to start with. My plan is to order transcend jetdrive lite 128gb asap and take available storage up to 256gb. In near future I was planning on buying transcend jetdrive 720 (480GB) witch is only £250 on amazon uk and seem to be excellent deal.

I'd like to ask you if 2014 internal architecture is the same as previous models, would upgrade be straight forward or did apple change something to make it more difficult.

Click to expand...

They only increased the offered processor speeds slightly and made 8 GB the default RAM amount, maybe they also changed the prices slightly.

Grosh said:

Ssd upgrade:

Transcend JetDrive 720 480 GB SATA III SSD Upgrade Kit - for Macbook Pro with Retina display (Mid 2012 - Early 2013) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JKCHMMS/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_UcoDub0X99PVJ

Click to expand...

The description of the 720 says it has a SATA-III interface. Current rMBPs use PCI-e attached flash. I don't think this third-party SSD stick is compatible with your system.

I've no personal experience with the 13"; just thought you'd like the link

I'm not aware of ANY 3rd party SSDs for late 2013+ MBA or MBPs that use PCI-e connectivity for the SSD.

Yep, it looks like ssd card is different on 2012 -2013 (early) than 2013 (late) - 2014.

Tom_N said:

Grosh said:

Ssd upgrade:

Transcend JetDrive 720 480 GB SATA III SSD Upgrade Kit - for Macbook Pro with Retina display (Mid 2012 - Early 2013) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JKCHMMS/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_UcoDub0X99PVJ

Click to expand...

The description of the 720 says it has a SATA-III interface. Current rMBPs use PCI-e attached flash. I don't think this third-party SSD stick is compatible with your system.

Click to expand...

Confusingly, there are two '2013' 13" rMBPs, where the 'early 2013' was just a 2012 model with some slight changes to processor or storage offered (both share the same model identifier of MacBookPro10,2).

In essence there have been two 13 and 15" rMBPs, one in mid-2012 (15") and late-2012 (13") and then the next update in late-2013 (both display sizes). The first rMBP did have slot-type SSDs but still SATA ones, the second ones from late 2013 did have PCIe ones.

Howard Moftich said:

I'm not aware of ANY 3rd party SSDs for late 2013+ MBA or MBPs that use PCI-e connectivity for the SSD.

Click to expand...

I recall reading something recently about a new third-party PCI-e SSD. I'd check with Other World Computing or try an online search...

Thanks Howard, you just confirmed my worst fears lol. Seems I'll have to stick with storage expansion card for now and pray that someone will come up with ssd upgrade later....

Anyone used those cards before? How well does it work to have LG catalogue located there?

iFixit does sell flash SSD storage for 2014 13" MBPs, but I am pretty sure it's Apple product. And quite expensive, of course.

I don't see why storing a LR catalog on what is essentially a flash card wouldn't work. It's certainly not the fastest, and I would imagine performance would be way better on the internal flash, but doable I guess. I've on occasion used a USB 3 thumbdrive that was pretty fast (in theory SanDisk says 245MBps), and that worked. You might try the card, and if it's slow, switch to a faster thumbdrive.