Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming build with working NVRAM

[flatlander48]

I understand your logic. I wanted to remain loyal to Samsung as I have 3 of their products, and they are all running well. If the SSD 980 threads were more abundant and more compelling that would convince me, but you know, fruitcake happens.

Newegg doesn’t have any WD Green models beyond the SN350. Is that a good choice or go higher up the food chain?

 

[pastrychef]

I understand your logic. I wanted to remain loyal to Samsung as I have 3 of their products and they are all running well. If the SSD 980 threads were more abundant and more compelling that would convince me, but you know, fruitcake happens.

Newegg doesn’t have any WD Green models beyond the SN350. Is that a good choice or go higher up the food chain?

When the reports of problems with the Samsung SSDs started rolling in from users who were on the beta version of Monterey, I switched to a WD SN750. It worked very well, and I ended up upgrading to the same SSD on my hackbook, too. it felt noticeably snappier than the HP EX920 that I previously had in my hackbook.

I have not tried other SSDs, but I haven't seen reports of problems from anything but the Samsungs...

I'd just look at some SSD reviews to look for something that performs well and is priced well. Prices have never been lower than they are now. It's a great time to be a buyer.

 

[trs96]

Here's my TL;DR version/guide regarding which NVMe to buy for a macOS boot drive. Use Amazon or Newegg.

1. Have an older PCIe 3.0 board ? Plan to keep it longer term ? Get the SN570 in the 1 or 2TB size.
2. Have a PCIe 4.0 board like the Z690 line ? Go with SN750/770 or the higher end SN850(X).

Newegg doesn’t have any WD Green models beyond the SN350. Is that a good choice or go higher up the food chain?

Green drives from WD refer back to the days when they only sold 3.5" spinning platter HDDs. Don't even look at that line for NVMe. Your #1 choice should be from the WD Black line. Especially this weekend as they are on sale.

The only WD black you'll need to avoid is the SN750 SE

These do not use the more desirable proprietary WD controller and won't work as well.
The best bang for your buck is the SN770 1TB drive for $79.99 at Newegg or Amazon.

If you need 2TB that should even cost less per GB of storage. The SN850X looks like a
great deal in the 2TB size this weekend. On Newegg it's already on back order at the
$170 price.

For those that want to go super low on cost, the WD SN570 drives are the best choice.
If you just need a smallish 250GB macOS boot drive. $30 gets you in the door for an upgrade.

For those with an older PCIe 3.0 board, you'll still get fast boot times and not be able to
notice much speed difference compared to the higher end black drives. Write speeds are
significantly lower on the WD Blue line of NVMe drives. On a tight budget, yet still need
a 2TB NVMe for storage ? The WD Blue SN570 2TB is the lowest price per GB on Amazon.
7 cents per GB for a quality name brand NVMe drive is about the best deal today.

Here's the speeds you could expect to get with a 1TB or larger SN570 Blue drive.

 

[trs96]

Green drives from WD refer back to the days when they only sold 3.5" spinning platter HDDs.

I looked at their Green NVMe drive on Amazon. It's no more energy efficient than Blue versions. They just use the cheaper, less durable QLC Nand flash in the Green line now. Not worth it for the small price difference. Just meaningless marketing. We're not really sure what controller these use either. It may not be macOS compatible like the ones mentioned in my previous post. It would be fine for large storage files but that's about it.

 

[flatlander48]

Yes, U

When the reports of problems with the Samsung SSDs started rolling in from users who were on the beta version of Monterey, I switched to a WD SN750. It worked very well, and I ended up upgrading to the same SSD on my hackbook, too. it felt noticeably snappier than the HP EX920 that I previously had in my hackbook.

I have not tried other SSDs, but I haven't seen reports of problems from anything but the Samsungs...

I'd just look at some SSD reviews to look for something that performs well and is priced well. Prices have never been lower than they are now. It's a great time to be a buyer.

Yes, I had noticed that it does seem to be a buyer’s market at the moment. I was quite surprised by some of the pricing. Now, if that would only translate to video cards!?!?

Thanks!

 

[flatlander48]

I looked at their Green NVMe drive on Amazon. It's no more energy efficient than Blue versions. They just use the cheaper, less durable QLC Nand flash in the Green line now. Not worth it for the small price difference. Just meaningless marketing. We're not really sure what controller these use either. It may not be macOS compatible like the ones mentioned in my previous post. It would be fine for large storage files but that's about it.

View attachment 558823

Thanks for the information!

Western Digital’s site is very user unfriendly. I couldn’t find a place where the differences between the Green, Red, Blue and Black hardware were described. Very poor web site design. Samsung does a much better job.

This would be for Hack_2 in my signature. It was Hack _1 updated with new parts. The rebuild is about a year and a half old now and I would hope to get another 4-5 years out of it. I think what I’m going to do is buy the 2Tb Blue SN570. The motherboard supports PCIe 3.0 x4. Dollar-wise, it is a big jump to the Black series.

 

[pastrychef]

Yes, U


Yes, I had noticed that it does seem to be a buyer’s market at the moment. I was quite surprised by some of the pricing. Now, if that would only translate to video cards!?!?

Thanks!

Video card prices have plummeted as well. The 6600 XT is about half what I paid for mine just a few months ago.

 

[trs96]

I was quite surprised by some of the pricing. Now, if that would only translate to video cards!?!?

It would be wise to follow the Deals of the Day section on this site to keep up on things like this.

Deals of the Day

Current Deals on Compatible Parts

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[philament23]

Hi, @pastrychef I'm using what I'm sure is an older version of your settings at this point, running opencore 0.5.9 still and Mojave. I want to update to at least MacOS 12 and I'm wondering where I should start. Update to Catalina, then Big Sur, and then Monterey? Which, if any jumps, can I update like a regular Mac? Do I update opencore all the way to the newest version first? Which EFI should I use? Sorry, I've been out of the hackintosh game for a bit and I'm rusty on some stuff (I know I should have been keeping up with things more), but I'm basically looking for a pointer on where to start this process again. My system is still the same as to the left there, 9700K, z390 M gaming, XFX RX580 (which despite the various warnings against that brand, does work for graphics, at least on Mojave, though I'm not opposed to buying a new card if compatibility has changed). I'm looking to just update everything through, not clean install (unless I have to). You don't have to answer all my questions, just a pointer in the right direction or any portion of this 500 some comment thread that hits the relevant details would be a huge help. Thanks in advance.

 

[pastrychef]

Hi, @pastrychef I'm using what I'm sure is an older version of your settings at this point, running opencore 0.5.9 still and Mojave. I want to update to at least MacOS 12 and I'm wondering where I should start. Update to Catalina, then Big Sur, and then Monterey? Which, if any jumps, can I update like a regular Mac? Do I update opencore all the way to the newest version first? Which EFI should I use? Sorry, I've been out of the hackintosh game for a bit and I'm rusty on some stuff (I know I should have been keeping up with things more), but I'm basically looking for a pointer on where to start this process again. My system is still the same as to the left there, 9700K, z390 M gaming, XFX RX580 (which despite the various warnings against that brand, does work for graphics, at least on Mojave, though I'm not opposed to buying a new card if compatibility has changed). I'm looking to just update everything through, not clean install (unless I have to). You don't have to answer all my questions, just a pointer in the right direction or any portion of this 500 some comment thread that hits the relevant details would be a huge help. Thanks in advance.

If your RX 580 is working, there's no need to change if you don't want to.

Since you are still on Mojave, do the following:

Download the newest OpenCore EFI from post #1.
Open the config.plist with OpenCore Configurator.
Copy/Paste your current Serial, Board Serial, and UUID to the new config.plist.
Change the following two fields to "-1":

Copy the EFI folder to the EFI partition of a USB flash drive.
Boot from the USB flash drive to make sure everything is working as it should.
Copy the new EFI folder to the EFI partition of your boot drive.
Update to Ventura as you would on a real Mac.