Install macOS with WD_Black SN750 NVMe !

[felbo]

Cuz I check SN750 and SN770 NVMe drive online platform for the pricing is almost similar.
Which is better for macOS?

I have SN770 also, 2TB version, also good. Perhaps faster. You can't go wrong with any of them

 

[kenwsf]

I have SN770 also, 2TB version, also good. Perhaps faster. You can't go wrong with any of them

@felbo
You got both of WD_Black SN750 and SN770 working for macOS?
Serious. I am about going to ask more from other users.
You gave me the great solutions.

Is your WD Black SN770 works great for Big Sur, Monterey and Ventura as well?

If the answer is "YES".
Meant that either one of WD Black SN750 and SN770 are the best selection for macOS too.
Of cause included WD_Black SN850X, but I can't afford here.

I am sorry that this is my first time upgrade to NVMe drive.
Need to know more before purchase the NVMe M.2 drive for my Gen.3 x4 motherboard purpose.

 

[felbo]

If the answer is "YES".

YES

 

[Edhawk]

You can use any of the WD NVME drives you listed.

However, as you have a Gen 3 x 4 motherboard the higher end Gen 4 x 4 drives (SN770 & SN850) won’t work at their full capacity. So unless you plan to upgrade your system in the very near future to make use of the newer Gen 4 speeds, it should be a simple and logical option to purchase the WD SN 570 500GB or 1TB drive.

You need to grow a pair and make a decision about which drive you are going to buy. Stop prevaricating and be more assertive, stop asking the same questions over and over again, about the drive you are going to use.

 

[trs96]

Need to know more before purchase the NVMe M.2 drive for my Gen.3 x4 motherboard

make a decision about which drive you are going to buy. Stop prevaricating and be more assertive, stop asking the same questions over and over again.

+1 This is probably the easiest and most straightforward decision for any single piece of hackintosh hardware. It shouldn't take weeks to decide which NVMe to buy. It just works, nothing more needs consideration.

 

[c-o-pr]

Not a good choice? May be I am dumb, but is there something wrong with the SN750? Does it have problems when used as a boot drive with MacOS Monterey or Ventura?

Only the SE version. WD stupidly called the Phison controller version, SN750 SE, when their regular SN750 uses the standard WD proprietary controller. They like to create confusion or think it just doesn't matter to end users.

Here's the gist of the situation. The SN770 (Gen 4) replaced the older SN750 (Gen 3). They could have left it at that to avoid confusing customers. After that they released the Gen 4 SN750 SE with a Phison controller to cut costs. Most people think of SE as second edition even though it's not a newer version of the SN750. It was a mistake in WDs naming of the drive. The SE version only goes up to 1TB in capacity, it reads and writes much slower than the Gen 4 SN770. Not sure why it even exists really. It's only very slightly faster than the original SN750. Much like a Gen 3 drive.

SN750 SE

View attachment 570055

@Edhawk, trs96 report on SE makes sense to me.

I've got a pre-pandemic SN 750 Black purchased in early 2020, used as system drive for several months and still installed and in use today as a bootable backup. It's performed reliably from Big Sur through latest Ventura. I've never seen even the slightest problem with the 750 Black, and it saved me more than once when two 2021 Sabrent Rocket 4s died, and a firmware update spoiled a 980 Pro with the spaceman trim delay. I would still be running my main instance on SN 750 today except that I wanted to explore PCIe 4 with Rocket Lake and ended up with SK Hynix P41.

Re SN 750 SE, I recall WD being called out in the press for switching controllers in popular models without changing the model number, so my SN 750 Black might be a different device from one bought today. It was at worst of pandemic and inventories were upset. I think WD switched up the controller to get through the shortfall.
I see how WD's gambit reasonably induced a feeling of betrayal with buyers.

But is the SN 750 SE known to actually fail with macOS?

Regarding pitfalls of Phison controllers WRT to hacks, my recollection from 2020/21 is that problems with a certain Phison generation were reported on the Anti-hackintosh Buyer's Guide: specifically E15 I think, tho I might be wrong about gen. But I don't recall detailed information about macOS versions, drive firmware revs, etc, and a lot has happened since then.

Let's keep in mind that since Catalina, macOS has undergone multiple major changes in the storage subsystem, so there are large potentials for compatibility issues.

Regarding "recommended" drives in 2023:

Blessings upon those who are making the effort to maintain a solid list.

However, I've seen no science of Mac SSD compatibility. By science, I mean a theory of compatibility, examples of failure with explanation of the failure mode, specific macOS versions, usage scenarios, firmwares, operations, etc.

Without a science of compatibility, I don't see how any device can be condidered proven. So the way I see the recommended drives that have not been known to fail yet.

Rather than looking for an oracle of proven drives, I think it's more fair to have a list of drives to avoid because of reliable reports of problems, and highlight the condition that some users run into various pitfalls with storage that aren't necessarily about macOS HW compatibility.

If SN 750 SE is one to avoid, OK. But 750 Black has been solid for me.

 

[trs96]

Regarding "recommended" drives in 2023

I look at it differently. It's probably best to go by which controllers work with macOS Monterey+ and which ones don't. It takes a little more work to find out the exact controller any drive might employ, but it's certainly worth it.
From there you can clearly differentiate which should be avoided and which will give you the best chance at long term success. This (I hope) makes all the confusion about which NVMe to use for a hack go away.

SSD Controllers to Avoid

Proprietary Samsung: Phoenix, Pablo, Elpis, Polaris, Pascal
Realtek: RTS5763DL RTS5766DL
Phison: E15, E16 and E18

Known Working Controllers

WD: Proprietary
SK Hynix: Aries

Anyone can look up the controller any SSD uses with a simple Google Search. As time goes on and more people report what has worked with no problems we can expand the list of macOS friendly controllers. The main reason, besides the controller, to go with the bigger brands like SKH and WD is that even if your drive does fail for any reason you've got a 5 year warranty to fall back on. If someone buys a no-name brand from some co. that doesn't even have an 800 number and a live person to talk to, they've thrown away their money on an inferior product and possibly lost important data too.

 

[kenwsf]

I look at it differently. It's probably best to go by which controllers work with macOS Monterey+ and which ones don't. It takes a little more work to find out the exact controller any drive might employ, but it's certainly worth it.
From there you can clearly differentiate which should be avoided and which will give you the best chance at long term success. This (I hope) makes all the confusion about which NVMe to use for a hack go away.

SSD Controllers to Avoid

Proprietary Samsung: Phoenix, Pablo, Elpis, Polaris, Pascal
Realtek: RTS5763DL RTS5766DL
Phison: E15, E16 and E18

Known Working Controllers

WD: Proprietary
SK Hynix: Aries

Anyone can look up the controller any SSD uses with a simple Google Search. As time goes on and more people report what has worked with no problems we can expand the list of macOS friendly controllers. The main reason, besides the controller, to go with the bigger brands like SKH and WD is that even if your drive does fail for any reason you've got a 5 year warranty to fall back on. If someone buys a no-name brand from some co. that doesn't even have an 800 number and a live person to talk to, they've thrown away their money on an inferior product and possibly lost important data too.

@trs96
This is a great reference list for those who wants to upgrade.
This is good solutions for me too as my first time get in touch for NVMe Drive.

Well, I have communicated with Gigabyte and Asus Manufacturer during these few days.
Confirmed that; Everyone could use M.2 NVMe Gen4 x4 drive for those main-board support Gen3 x4.
It's just the Gen4 x4 drive connected to a PCIe Gen3 x4 system board will function normally at Gen3 x4 speed.

As known NVMe working for Hackintosh - WD_Black SN750, SN770, and SN850X are work great in macOS Big Sur, Monterey and Ventura. Thank you for those users provided info.

 

[kenwsf]

@Edhawk, trs96 report on SE makes sense to me.

I've got a pre-pandemic SN 750 Black purchased in early 2020, used as system drive for several months and still installed and in use today as a bootable backup. It's performed reliably from Big Sur through latest Ventura. I've never seen even the slightest problem with the 750 Black, and it saved me more than once when two 2021 Sabrent Rocket 4s died, and a firmware update spoiled a 980 Pro with the spaceman trim delay. I would still be running my main instance on SN 750 today except that I wanted to explore PCIe 4 with Rocket Lake and ended up with SK Hynix P41.

Re SN 750 SE, I recall WD being called out in the press for switching controllers in popular models without changing the model number, so my SN 750 Black might be a different device from one bought today. It was at worst of pandemic and inventories were upset. I think WD switched up the controller to get through the shortfall.
I see how WD's gambit reasonably induced a feeling of betrayal with buyers.

But is the SN 750 SE known to actually fail with macOS?

Regarding pitfalls of Phison controllers WRT to hacks, my recollection from 2020/21 is that problems with a certain Phison generation were reported on the Anti-hackintosh Buyer's Guide: specifically E15 I think, tho I might be wrong about gen. But I don't recall detailed information about macOS versions, drive firmware revs, etc, and a lot has happened since then.

Let's keep in mind that since Catalina, macOS has undergone multiple major changes in the storage subsystem, so there are large potentials for compatibility issues.

Regarding "recommended" drives in 2023:

Blessings upon those who are making the effort to maintain a solid list.

However, I've seen no science of Mac SSD compatibility. By science, I mean a theory of compatibility, examples of failure with explanation of the failure mode, specific macOS versions, usage scenarios, firmwares, operations, etc.

Without a science of compatibility, I don't see how any device can be condidered proven. So the way I see the recommended drives that have not been known to fail yet.

Rather than looking for an oracle of proven drives, I think it's more fair to have a list of drives to avoid because of reliable reports of problems, and highlight the condition that some users run into various pitfalls with storage that aren't necessarily about macOS HW compatibility.

If SN 750 SE is one to avoid, OK. But 750 Black has been solid for me.

@c-o-pr
This is a tip top article for me to read.
This proof that WD Black SN750 is definitely working best in current Big Sur, Monterey and also Ventura.
As you shared the experience of using SN750. Appreciated it.

Yes, for some users msg: AVOID the SN750 SE.
Most users from other blog are recommended WD Black SN750 and SN770. But they haven't tried the SN850X yet.

Thanks a lot for your info.

 

[Jamesbond007]

@Jamesbond007
Wish to read your post for the WD_SN750 install on your Z390.
What is your processor and spec ?

I have successfully installed MacOS Monterey 12.6.9 and Ventura 13.5.2 on my Z390 Designare with an i7 9700KF and RX 580 using a 500GB SN750 SSD :

[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

Yes, we use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to make a bootable backup onto a spare SSD. Backups are absolutely essential as I'm sure you're aware by now. When we buy a car, most governments around the world also require us to buy auto insurance. Buying a car by itself is not enough because...

www.tonymacx86.com

Both OS are installed on the same SN750 and I can choose to boot between them from the OpenCore menu.