I use SN550 1TB as my system drive but I don’t recommend people to buy a new one. Mine is the original version that the writing speed out of cache is about 800 MB/s, but the current 1TB model drops to about 400 MB/s. SN570 is basically the successor of the original SN550.
Hi, what about the 980 PRO as a data drive? As I've been using it on my system as a second data (not cache) drive and haven't run into any issue, after more than one year disk speed test still runs with as-new speed.
Hi, what about the 980 PRO as a data drive? As I've been using it on my system as a second data (not cache) drive and haven't run into any issue, after more than one year disk speed test still runs with as-new speed.
I will quote the relevant part of the OP's message for you :
If you already own a Samsung NVMe, convert it to a Windows/Linux drive or a scratch drive. If you do need a "scratch" drive, also known as a cache/temp files drive, the Samsung 980 Pro really can't be beat. It's the most durable consumer SSD. Uses MLC NAND flash, the primary reason why they're so highly rated and are best sellers. One other option, put your Samsung M.2 NVMe into an external adapter and use it as a high capacity flash drive.
I use SN550 1TB as my system drive but I don’t recommend people to buy a new one. Mine is the original version that the writing speed out of cache is about 800 MB/s, but the current 1TB model drops to about 400 MB/s. SN570 is basically the successor of the original SN550.
If you have any previous hackintosh experience, you'll know that a limited number of hardware components have native support in macOS. You can't buy just any graphics card and expect it to work. Only certain Broadcom models of Wifi/BT cards have native support etc. It's the same way with NVMe SSDs and macOS. Some brands and models won't work at all and many will "work" but could lead to some serious issues with long term use as a macOS boot drive.
All new builds should have an NVMe SSD. Prices have come down in the latter part of 2022, early 2023 and are now on par with SATA based SSDs. Motherboards since the Skylake era (2016) have had M.2 slots and NVMe drivers included to make booting from one very easy. When you boot from a compatible NVMe, you'll get the fastest possible boot times. Large programs will load quickly. You won't have to wait and watch icons bounce in your Dock.
This discussion will help you to steer clear of problems that result from making poor NVMe choices for your hackintosh. You need to know what to buy before you start assembling your new build. Why ? Because once you install the NVMe drive, heatsink, graphics card and the CPU air cooler it's going to be a major pain to remove those components and swap out an NVMe that doesn't work well with macOS.
The brand and model of NVMe SSD you choose could potentially create long boot times and cause premature failure of your SSD. Two things that no one wants to see happen.
The SSD Controller Must be Compatible with macOS
An SSD controller, also referred to as a processor, includes the electronics that bridge the NAND Flash memory components to the SSD input/output interfaces. The controller is an embedded processor that executes firmware-level software. The SSD firmware is device specific, and in most cases can be updated.
View attachment 559131
Western Digital and Kioxia are among the world's leading SSD suppliers, with their joint production amounting to around 30 percent of the entire NAND flash market.
When you research which NVMe SSDs are used in current Macbook (Pro) laptops you'll see that the two main brands utilized by Apple are WD and Kioxia. They really don't use Samsung anymore as a supplier. Here are two 256GB Laptop NVMe drives in Macbooks. The WD drives use the proprietary WD controller and custom Apple firmware. It's WD's top priority to make their drives work well with the latest macOS versions. Apple is their biggest customer.
Kioxia and Western Digital have shared a successful joint venture partnership for over 20 years and will continue to maximize synergies and competitiveness through joint development of 3D flash memory.
About Kioxia
Kioxia is a world leader in memory solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its predecessor Toshiba Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation, the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. Kioxia is committed to uplifting the world with memory by offering products, services and systems that create choice for customers and memory-based value for society. Kioxia's innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH™, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, SSDs, automotive and data centers.
About Western Digital
Western Digital is on a mission to unlock the potential of data by harnessing the possibility to use it. With Flash and HDD franchises, underpinned by advancements in memory technologies, we create breakthrough innovations and powerful data storage solutions that enable the world to actualize its aspirations. Core to our values, we recognize the urgency to combat climate change and have committed to ambitious carbon reduction goals approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. Learn more about Western Digital and the Western Digital®, SanDisk® and WD® brands at www.westerndigital.com
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.
This is TRIM and APFS related. Disabling TRIM is not recommended. If you already own a Samsung NVMe, convert it to a Windows/Linux drive or a scratch drive. If you do need a "scratch" drive, also known as a cache/temp files drive, the Samsung 980 Pro really can't be beat. It's the most durable consumer SSD. Uses MLC NAND flash, the primary reason why they're so highly rated and are best sellers. One other option, put your Samsung M.2 NVMe into an external adapter and use it as a high capacity flash drive. See this post
Read about Acidanthera's research on the Samsung "TRIM Bug" by clicking here
2. Choose a WD Blue or Black NVMe SSD
From the cumulative experience of hundreds of WD NVMe users here at tonymacx86.com over the past two years, we can conclude they are fast and reliable when used as a macOS boot drive. Specific WD models with their proprietary "in-house" controller are designed to be macOS compatible.
Note that the SN750 SE has a Phison controller and should be avoided. Any of the other WD models in that chart are a much better choice. Any brand of drive with a Phison E12 or E13 controller should also be avoided.
All of the WD Black drives include the word "Gaming" in their description. Some even have game titles like Call of Duty on the label. They aren't just for gamers. They can be used by content creators or anyone that wants the fastest read and write speeds for their hackintosh. The fastest and most durable drive is the WD SN850X. It's their latest "high speed" PCIe 4.0 NVMe. Anyone with a Z590 or Z690 motherboard should have this one at the top of their SSD buyer's list. Here's WD's gamer-centric description of the SN850X.
Get the Ultimate Gaming Edge Insane speeds up to 7,300 MB/s deliver top-tier performance with ridiculously short load times.
This description is inaccurate. How fast your game loads doesn't do anything to give you an edge in playing that game.
The main reason WD markets to gamers is because they spend a lot of money for the best speeds. The reason these gamers want fast NVMe drives is because some modern games (Call of Duty Black Ops) are 250 GB in size ! Try to load that up from a 2TB mechanical HDD and it's a very long wait.
Make sure to use a heatsink. Any drive that operates at over 7,000 MB/s will heat up. Most new motherboards include them on top of the M.2 slots on the motherboard. Upgrade the firmware once you receive it. Easily done in Windows 10/11. Buy the 2TB size if you will be constantly writing data to this drive. Rated at 1,200 TBW !
4. What about the WD Blue SN570 ?
This drive is the lowest price per GB of any of the recommended WD drives. It is PCIe Gen 3 and comes in sizes up to 2 TB. If you have an older PCIe 3.0 motherboard (Intel 10th gen or older) and need a large 1-2 TB boot drive, this is a great lower cost choice. Write speeds are much slower than the WD Black drives so consider that fact when deciding.
5. The WD Black SN770 Drive offers the Best Price/Performance
The sweet spot for SSD capacity is 1TB. Getting a larger 2TB or even 4TB size won't get you any faster read/write speeds. If you opt for the lowest cost 250 GB drive though, it will greatly reduce the speed and endurance of the drive. The TBW rating goes way up as the drive capacity gets larger. If your budget is small, at least get a 500 GB drive to begin with.
7. Do not buyWD Green Drives (for use as your macOS boot drive)
"Going Green" is not a good idea when buying your NVMe boot drive. It costs a few dollars less but performs worse. It has a shorter 3 year warranty than the 5 years for a WD Blue SN570. The green designation is just marketing nonsense.
The WD Green Edition SN350 is QLC NAND Flash based. While it can work as a boot drive, it shouldn't be your first choice. It costs about the same as the TLC based WD Blue SN570. Just because they label it "green" doesn't make it any more energy efficient. You can buy a new 500GB SN570 for just $39.99 today. Prices may have changed at any time.
Triple-level cell (TLC) – Holds three bits per cell. Has 1.5x more capacity than MLC memory.
Quad-level cell (QLC) – Holds four bits per cell. Has 1.3x more capacity than TLC memory.
Benefits of TLC
TLC devices can offer a number of advantages that QLC devices cannot match, including but not limited to the following:
Speed – In general, TLC performs most tasks quicker than QLC.
Durability – Compared with QLC memory, TLC needs to go through fewer program/erase cycles, precisely because it has fewer bits stored in each cell. This can be a serious issue because one of the innate weaknesses of flash-based memory is the possibility of damage to the floating gates, causing premature wear to NAND cells. Although there are ways to mitigate the harm caused by this phenomenon—such as wear leveling and data buffering—TLC can be expected to last longer than QLC.
Better for write-intensive workloads – TLC is less likely to encounter errors in write performance, and less reliant on labor-intensive error correction, than QLC. Therefore, TLC is generally the recommended choice for write-intensive duties.
In Summary: These are the WD Black (Gen 4) and Blue drives to choose from. Ranked from fastest to slowest in overall performance. All of them utilize SanDisk NAND Flash and are fully macOS Monterey and Ventura compatible.
WD Black SN850X (Highest rated performance and endurance)
Here's an easy to read chart that compares the top 3 WD Black Drives. The SN770 does tend to perform better than the SN850 in the PC Mark suite of SSD tests even though the numbers from the manufacturer say otherwise.
The WD Black SN750 may still be available and can also be used. The SN770 has replaced that drive.
Avoid the SN750 SE model as was mentioned previously. It doesn't work well as a macOS boot drive.
The SN850X is only available in 1TB, 2TB or 4TB sizes. Currently $99.99 for 1TB at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7CKVCCV/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
How the mighty Samsung, the SSD Titan has fallen, with the recommendation now being to use another manufacturer for NVME.
That being said, I too have experienced issues with macOS and Samsung NVMEs, once was the 970 EVO, which used to cause kernel panics in macOS, but a firmware update fixed that. Then with macOS 12 and beyond, extra long boot times.
I used to use Western Digital back in the hard drive days, but my first SSD was a Samsung 840, and it was so much faster than a 3.5 inch hard disk with much better latency and seek times, so much so, that I abandoned ship and never looked back. Boot times went from over a minute to under 20 seconds. Simply amazing.
But now things have come full circle because I have moved on from Samsung SSDs and started using Western Digital. The SN850, SN770 have been beasts and have worked well with macOS. Another drive that I‘ve used with macOS has been Kingston‘s FURY Renegade PCIe 4.0 SSD, which has been a beast as well, with none of the TRIM issues that we observe with the 970 and 980. Curiously, I didn’t have any problems with Samsung’s 870 EVO SSD…
But now things have come full circle because I have moved on from Samsung SSDs and started using Western Digital. The SN850, SN770 have been beasts and have worked well with macOS.
Good to hear that you've transitioned back to WD. Since the prices of these are competitive with most other brands it makes them the best all around choice currently. The longer 5 year warranties are also an added bonus.
How the mighty Samsung, the SSD Titan has fallen, with the recommendation now being to use another manufacturer for NVME.
That being said, I too have experienced issues with macOS and Samsung NVMEs, once was the 970 EVO, which used to cause kernel panics in macOS, but a firmware update fixed that. Then with macOS 12 and beyond, extra long boot times.
I used to use Western Digital back in the hard drive days, but my first SSD was a Samsung 840, and it was so much faster than a 3.5 inch hard disk with much better latency and seek times, so minch so, that I abandoned ship and never looked back. Boot times went from over a minute to under 20 seconds. Simply amazing.
But now things have come full circle because I have moved on from Samsung SSDs and started using Western Digital. The SN850, SN770 have been beasts and have worked well with macOS. Another drive that I‘ve used with macOS has been Kingston‘s FURY Renegade PCIe 4.0 SSD, which has been a beast as well, with none of the TRIM issues that we observe with the 970 and 980. Curiously, I didn’t have any problems with Samsung’s 870 EVO SSD…
Same for me, I bought several Samsung SATA SSD’s starting in 2017 and even two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ones (T5 and T7) and now owns three WD SSD’s (2xSN770 and one USB 3.1 Gen 2 WD My Passport).
The Samsung’s SATA SSD’s are still going strong in my hacks (the most used one is still at 98% life!).
I remember the good old days of the WD Raptor 10000 RPM!
Same for me, I bought several Samsung SATA SSD’s starting in 2017 and even two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ones (T5 and T7) and now owns three WD SSD’s (2xSN770 and one USB 3.1 Gen 2 WD My Passport).
The Samsung’s SATA SSD’s are still going strong in my hacks (the most used one is still at 98% life!).
I remember the good old days of the WD Raptor 10000 RPM!
How the mighty Samsung, the SSD Titan has fallen, with the recommendation now being to use another manufacturer for NVME.
That being said, I too have experienced issues with macOS and Samsung NVMEs, once was the 970 EVO, which used to cause kernel panics in macOS, but a firmware update fixed that. Then with macOS 12 and beyond, extra long boot times.
I used to use Western Digital back in the hard drive days, but my first SSD was a Samsung 840, and it was so much faster than a 3.5 inch hard disk with much better latency and seek times, so minch so, that I abandoned ship and never looked back. Boot times went from over a minute to under 20 seconds. Simply amazing.
But now things have come full circle because I have moved on from Samsung SSDs and started using Western Digital. The SN850, SN770 have been beasts and have worked well with macOS. Another drive that I‘ve used with macOS has been Kingston‘s FURY Renegade PCIe 4.0 SSD, which has been a beast as well, with none of the TRIM issues that we observe with the 970 and 980. Curiously, I didn’t have any problems with Samsung’s 870 EVO SSD…
Certain 870 EVO 4TB and 2TB drives are affected by early failures where they develop uncorrectable errors and some data just cannot be read from them anymore. This seems to primarily affect drives produced in January/February 2021. For example, i have three 870 EVO 4TB, only one is affected (so...
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I have such a 870 EVO myself, although since I have only used it very sparingly since I bought it, I have not seen any problems with it. I have now updated its firmware and it is now given to my father to be used in an external enclosure.
The older Samsung SSDs in the 960 series also suffer from the APFS TRIM issue in Monterey+, though I doubt people are buying them new.
Additionally, (as someone who just installed one yesterday) the SK Hynix P31 Gold (500GB and 1TB, 2TB unaffected) drives require a firmware update to use with macOS, which can only be applied in Windows, and cannot be applied using a USB enclosure.
I tried to upgrade the firmware with the SK Hynix data manager 2.60 app in Windows 10. But kept getting an I/O error. But my P31 seems to boot fine with no lag.
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