I cannot give a complete back story on this drive. It was in my MAC pile of parts. It appears new and loads like it is new. The heatsink and the thermal pads are factory sealed. From what I can tell it is just a new open box item. Contact me for more info if needed. Check compatibility below.

Key Features 480GB Storage Capacity For macOS 10.13 and Later Custom Blade Form Factor PCIe 3.1 x4, NVMe 1.3 Interface

Keep your edge with the Aura Pro X2 480GB NVMe SSD from OWC / Other World Computing. Designed for installation in select 2013 and later Mac computers, this internal flash/SSD drive upgrade features a PCIe 3.1 x4, NVMe 1.3 interface and a custom blade form factor. The drive uses 3D TLC synchronous NAND flash memory with advanced SLC caching to deliver sequential data read and write speeds of up to 3282 and 2432 MB/s respectively—up to twice as fast as the factory-installed drives. Additionally, the Aura Pro X2 is calibrated to consume only 5.7W during operation and to run cool.

The Aura Pro X2 is designed for macOS High Sierra 10.13 and later, taking full advantage of the advanced features of APFS including strong encryption, copy-on-write metadata, space sharing, cloning for files and directories, snapshots, fast directory sizing, atomic safe-save primitives, and improved file system fundamentals. The drive reserves 7% of the overall capacity as free space to perform background maintenance tasks that optimize the health, performance, and endurance of your flash drive.

Compatible Mac Models 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (May 2015) 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (March 2015) 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (July 2014) 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (July 2014) 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (October 2013) 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (October 2013) 13" MacBook Air (June 2017) 13" MacBook Air (March 2015) 11" MacBook Air (March 2015) 13" MacBook Air (April 2014) 11" MacBook Air (April 2014) 13" MacBook Air (June 2013) 11" MacBook Air (June 2013) Mac mini (October 2014)