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Choosing a Compatible NVMe SSD for your macOS Boot Drive

Hey trs96,
Thanks so much for all this wonderful info!

I had installed a Samsung 980 Pro 2tb on my Mid 2015 Macbook Pro , 16g ram, quad i7, Monterery OS, and it was a horrible experience. Super slow boots (3-5 min), frequent beachballs, all kinds of problems!

Following your advice, I replaced the system drive with a Western Digital WD_BLACK 2TB SN770 NVMe and my Macbook pro runs faster than ever. Writes above 2400mb/s reads above 2100mb/s.

I can't return the Samsung 980 Pro 2tb, so I plan to use it as a time machine or DATA drive inside this Orico enclosure which I already have. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B6N92K1H/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Should I reformat the Samsung 980 Pro 2tb as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) instead of APFS? I get high 350 mb/s r/w as an external with the Orico enclosure.

Thanks again for the great advice!!!
 
FREIMUZIC said:
Should I reformat the Samsung 980 Pro 2tb as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) instead of APFS?
Click to expand...
If you don't dual boot with Windows, that's the next best use for it. I would convert it to
Mac OS Extended Journaled for use with macOS.
Your Mac’s version of Time machine will quite happily use the APFS format or Mac OS Extended.

When you’d pick one file system format over the other then comes down to how much you have to backup. Intersected with your budget for an external drive and how fast you need to backup.

On older Mac’s running Mac OS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra or Sierra.

The choice is simple.

It’s Mac OS Extended Journaled. Because although Mac’s since Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra support an APFS volume on an external drive. They don’t support a Time Machine backup to an APFS volume.
Click to expand...
 
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trs96 said:
If you don't dual boot with Windows, that's the next best use for it. I would convert it to
Mac OS Extended Journaled for use with macOS.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for the fast reply and advice, trs96!!!
 
Hello Folks,

I read the full thread, but still have some questions.

Can I use Samsung 980 Pro 1TB on my MacBook Air 2017 and Big Sur? Should I disable TRIM? Anyone tried it?

I know I cannot use this NVME on MacOS 12 and later...
 
Hi Luczuk,
While the Samsung 980 Pro gets a tick, I tested it as a boot drive in 2011 iMac using Ventura OS and found that loading involved a 1-2 second pause midway through process which I took as an indication of some mild incompatibility. I also tested the WD Black SN770, a PCIE 4 NVME which ran smooth as silk in PCIE 3 mode. Interestingly, Black Magic PCIE speeds are similar with both NVME’s just over 3100mbps read and 2890 mbps. write; on my iMac 19.1. My computer start-up time now is 15 secs for 300GB. I reverted to Monterey because I found Ventura updates where interfering with VM Ware Fusion 13 on OS Ventura. The SN770 will suit Sonoma as well.

Don’t mess with trim. It should be OFF by default in Mac OS. The WD Black has built in TRIM function which is compatible with Mac. See it registered in System Report>Hardware>NVMExpress screenshot.

You should also read this extract from an earlier blog with c-o-pr:

Australopithicus said:
The behaviour of the Samsung 980 Pro PCIE 4 Similarly deserves review as some of your own comments on its performance date from two years ago. I am sure many factors have changed during that period.
Click to expand...

I ran 980 Pro for months and it would be fine, except for stalls during boot, OS updates, and APFS snapshots.


Australopithicus said:
After reading your explanations c-o-pr, I reckon Samsung 980 Pro works well on Ventura 13.5. Apart from boot up behaviour.
Click to expand...

Well, yes... except for stalls during boot, OS updates, and APFS snapshots.

On a half-full 980 Pro 2T, connected via PCIe 4, the stalls could take over 10 minutes.

And when trying to debug a hack, this becomes a show stopper.


Australopithicus said:
As you pointed out regarding boot-up "incompatibility is not necessarily a defect, but only mismatch of SW and HW". I found formatting the NVMe from Recovery improved Samsung performance by comparison with the previous cloned version of the O/S which I used.
Click to expand...

When you reformat or reinstall, spaceman thinks the drive is clean, so stalls go away for a while.


Australopithicus said:
The progress bar paused for a couple of seconds then completed in good time - 17 secs.
Click to expand...
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Thanks for the reply Folks!

Very usefull comments, currently I do have latest and greatest Sonoma, boot time takes around 5-7 minutes, sometimes the system randomly crashed and power charger is overheated. Trying to find workaround with Big Sur. As I said before I have MacBook Air 2017. I should and could return this drive, but now is too late and original drive missed.
 
Is there a recommended PCIe 4 card or are they generic enough that price and number of drives are only factors?
 
I meant the actual PCIe card, not the drive. Is their a favored one, I didn’t see a mention.
 
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