Choosing a Compatible NVMe SSD for your macOS Boot Drive

[Borgo1971]

1. Avoid Samsung NVMe drives

Prior to macOS Monterey, Samsung drives worked seemingly without issue. We don't know what changed in macOS 12 but we do know that Samsung's proprietary NVMe SSD controllers do not work well with macOS Monterey or Ventura. It doesn't look like a firmware fix from Samsung is ever going to be released. Here's a few examples of their drives that will potentially lead to ultra long macOS boot times. Some have reported six to seven minutes.

Since I already have a 2 TB Samsung 970evo plus in my MacPro from 2009 (updated to firmware 5.1), which has always worked flawlessly, both with native macOS 10.14 and now with OpenCore and macOS 11.7.8, reading this article I am wondering if anything has changed since this was written, as I wanted to both upgrade the drive to a new hackintosh (the MacPro has earned its retirement ;-), and upgrade the system.
Or do I really have to factor in the purchase of a new SSD as well?

 

[trs96]

Or do I really have to factor in the purchase of a new SSD as well?

Prices of NVMe SSDs have gone down to historically low levels recently. On Amazon.com right now, a 2TB SN570 sells for 93 USD. Depending on when you bought the 970 Evo Plus, I'd guess you paid well over 200 dollars.

In my opinion, it's probably best to buy a new 2TB drive and clone the Samsung drive to it. There hasn't been any action taken by Samsung to address the TRIM incompatibility issue with macOS through a firmware update. It's not high on their priority list as far as I can tell. It's up to you though to choose how to proceed.

which has always worked flawlessly, both with native macOS 10.14 and now with OpenCore and macOS 11.7.8

As post #1 says, the problems started with macOS Monterey. That's probably why you've not had any problems so far.

 

[oli.mathieu]

Hello Every one
I've Just Upgrade 8 identical hackintoshes , from big sur to Monterey to Ventura
6 boot and work correctly, One has stop to boot this morning, Another has sudden Reboots
They all have an NVME Corsair MP600 as boot drive.
Seems to me that the NVME is the failure
Is there anyone with the same experience ?
I'm buying WD SN770 to swap boot drive and test
I'll report

 

[Middleman]

Hello Every one
I've Just Upgrade 8 identical hackintoshes , from big sur to Monterey to Ventura
6 boot and work correctly, One has stop to boot this morning, Another has sudden Reboots
They all have an NVME Corsair MP600 as boot drive.
Seems to me that the NVME is the failure
Is there anyone with the same experience ?
I'm buying WD SN770 to swap boot drive and test
I'll report

Have you made sure that the affected NVMes have been updated fully on the firmware and that the BIOS settings of all the affected machines are exactly the same as the working ones? If problems still persist it would be good to run disk checks against the affected drives as well as use ResetNVRAM to clear any caches.

 

[oli.mathieu]

Have you made sure that the affected NVMes have been updated fully on the firmware and that the BIOS settings of all the affected machines are exactly the same as the working ones? If problems still persist it would be good to run disk checks against the affected drives as well as use ResetNVRAM to clear any caches.

Thanks for you reply
BIOS settings are the same on every hackintoshes
I have reset NVRAM on affected machines.
If I boot from the original NVME EFI to Ventura on SATA drive ➧ No issues
That what give me the clue to NVME issue

I'll have to look about firmware version
I need windows 10 I presume ....

 

[Australopithicus]

Great to hear Jay. The SN770 is the lowest cost way to max out speeds on an older PCIe Gen 3 motherboard. Highly recommended. No Sata based SSD, which costs nearly the same per GB, comes close to this performance.

I've got the SN770 on order for my next Z490 build. The board has 2 M.2 slots and included heatsinks so that also helps save on costs. Finally we have a PC hardware trend of prices getting lower !

Given my dilemma regarding which NVME SSD to choose, this thread is reassuring regarding the WD SN770 for my iMac.

Regards,
Australopithicus

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Given my dilemma regarding which NVME SSD to choose, this thread is reassuring regarding the WD SN770 for my iMac.

Regards,
Australopithicus

Please update your Profile as requested previously in the other thread.

Compatibility 2TB Samsung 980 Pro PCIE4 for iMac 2019 EMC3194

I am upgrading an 2019 iMac 27" 5k model 19.1 with either NVME 2TB Samsung 980 Pro or 2TB WD Black SN770. I prefer the specs of the Samsung as it has better sustained transfer rate than the WD Black for video files. I have installed the Samsung and it works like a dream. SMART lists all 100%...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[m4rk0]

I'll have to look about firmware version
I need windows 10 I presume ....

Hi, have you made any progress on finding out what caused some NVMEs death?

 

[Australopithicus]

Hi, have you made any progress on finding out what caused some NVMEs death?

Hi Guys,
Phase 1.
I know exactly how I killed the Adata SX8600 NVMe. I loaded it onto an iMac 2019, formatted it and was told "Disk incompatible". Since Apple regard everything non-Apple as incompatible, I was uncertain how to respond. I decided to take a risk, loaded Ventura and re-booted. Boot process was rough, irregular but fast. Ventura worked fine, Black Magic gave me over 3000Mbps write and read but I figured the rough initialization in boot up confirmed compatibility problems. I erased the disk prior to removal. From that point forward NVMe could not be mounted. So "Disk Incompatible" means exactly what it says. Perhaps repair and mounting could be made on Windows?

Phase 2.
Samsung 980 Pro PCIE 4 replaced Adata NVMe. iMac happy - NVME recognised, formatted and iMac ran Ventura 13.2 smooth and fast. I have booted and run the Samsung for over a week. However there may be issues. Time will tell.
After the Adata episode I entirely erased and reformatted drives, downloaded fresh version of Ventura and reloaded my Account files via CCC clone. All ran smooth and fast. Boot time 16 secs. Read 3050 Mbps; Write 2995 Mbps. However Boot-up does pause and occasionally stops absolutely (2.30mins) after 40% loaded at which point I re-boot manually. (I note the Apple 128 MB NVMe uses Samsung Polaris controller and Samsung NAND).

Whether this behavior is the result of damage caused by the Adata episode or is indicative of Ventura/iMac being unhappy with Samsung is an open question.

I have a new WD Black SN770 which I intend to install over the coming week to see if initialization process is the same as Samsung or whether it is smoother and better.

3. Trim Question.
I checked iMac Ventura trim via Terminal which was OFF. I did not switch it on as I am unclear about the requirements. I read Samsung has TRIM in its controller and switching TRIM on in o/s conflicts with Elpis controller.

I would be pleased to learn the views of those better informed than I on this matter of TRIM on o/s Ventura 13.2. At present, Therefore boot-up behavior has nothing to do with o/s TRIM, only with initialization process.

Any suggestions or observations welcome.

 

[Feartech]

Hi Guys,
Phase 1.
I know exactly how I killed the Adata SX8600 NVME. I loaded it onto an iMac 2019, formatted it and was told "Disk incompatible". Since Apple regard everything non-Apple as incompatible, I was uncertain how to respond. I decided to take a risk, loaded Ventura and re-booted. Boot process was rough, irregular but fast. Ventura worked fine, Black Magic gave me over 3000Mbps write and read but I figured the rough initialisation in boot up confirmed compatibility problems. I erased the disk prior to removal. From that point forward NVME could not be mounted. So "Disk Incompatible" means exactly what it says. Perhaps repair and mounting could be made on Windows?

Phase 2.
Samsung 980 Pro PCIE 4 replaced Adata NVME. iMac happy - NVME recognised, formatted and iMac ran Ventura 13.2 smooth and fast. I have booted and run the Samsung for over a week. However there may be issues. Time will tell.
After the Adata episode I entirely erased and reformatted drives, downloaded fresh version of Ventura and reloaded my Account files via CCC clone. All ran smooth and fast. Boot time 16 secs. Read 3050 Mbps; Write 2995 Mbps. However Boot-up does pause and occasionally stops absolutely (2.30mins) after 40% loaded at which point I re-boot manually.
Whether this behaviour is the result of damage caused by the Adata episode or is indicative of Ventura/iMac being unhappy with Samsung is an open question.

I have a new WD Black SN770 which I intend to install over the coming week to see if initialisation process is the same as Samsung or whether it is smoother and better.

3. Trim Question.
I checked iMac Ventura trim via Terminal which was OFF. I did not switch it on as I am unclear about the requirements. I read Samsung has TRIM in its controller and switching TRIM on in o/s conflicts with Elpis controller.

I would be pleased to learn the views of those better informed than I on this matter of TRIM on o/s Ventura 13.2. At present, Therefore boot-up behaviour has nothing to do with o/s TRIM, only with initialisation process.

Any suggestions or observations welcome.

As per rules, please update your hardware profile to allow others to help you easier

https://www.tonymacx86.com/account/account-details