New SSDs added to the recommended list of the Buyer's Guide

[tyns]

Can anyone comment on the SN850 1TB? Last I read it is still being tested? Would it be a safe bet to buy yet?

 

[trs96]

Can anyone comment on the SN850 1TB? Last I read it is still being tested? Would it be a safe bet to buy yet?

Some people like CaseySJ and others with Z690 systems, that have PCIe 4.0 support, are using them with success. For those with older boards, the extra cash to buy a SN850 won't buy you faster read/write speeds. You'd be limited by PCIe 3.0 throughput so probably better to choose the SN750.

The bigger read and write speed numbers of the SN850 are impressive. They don't mean anything unless you'd use it with a Z590 or Z690 motherboard. Even the GIGABYTE Z490 Vision D only includes three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots.

It would be like driving a Tesla Model S Plaid to the store for groceries and to pick up the kids at school. It can't be driven 0-60 in under 2 seconds when doing these tasks.

When you look at the 3470/3000 MB/s speeds of the Black/SN750 they are closer to the max PCIe 3.0 speeds.

 

[FormerUser-400995]

Can anyone comment on the SN850 1TB? Last I read it is still being tested? Would it be a safe bet to buy yet?

I agree with trs96's comment - an SN850 would be wasted on your system. Cheers.

 

[tyns]

Thanks for the input, I appreciate the feedback on others experiences with the SN850.

I am finally getting around to putting my vision-d Z490 system together that I bought parts for last year (it's been a bad year for me, long story) I bought a Sabrent Rocket 4 - 1 TB but the concerns raised about integrity made me decide to use that as a Windows Drive instead. I need the Mac drive to be reliable as I use it 99% of the time. I have a friend insisting, even though you are running PCIe3 with the SN850 you are getting benefits in sequential reads.. The controller also allows for bigger cache sizes too. It has some benefits in other ways with mixed/average numbers. At least this is what the bench numbers show. The SN850 in real bench marks barely even hit 3500 in average reads. The SN750 gets 1800. So I believe there is definitely performance worthiness there. Also, never know if I will move the drive to another system at some time.

UserBenchmark: WD Black SN750 NVMe PCIe M.2 (2019) vs SN850

 

[trs96]

I have a friend insisting, even though you are running PCIe3 with the SN850 you are getting benefits in sequential reads.. The controller also allows for bigger cache sizes too.

Yes, the SN850 will benchmark better than a SN750 when installed on a PCIe 3.0 board, but what really matters is real world user experience. Can you even tell the difference between 2,000 MB/s reads versus 3,000 ? I don't really notice it. What I was trying to convey to everyone reading this, is that they shouldn't expect the massive 7GB/s read speeds that WD advertises for the SN850 when using Z490 and lower motherboards. Just not possible. Here's a more readable chart of the WD SSD Sequential read/write estimates. It's fine to buy the SN850, just consider if the 50+ extra dollars spent is worth it or not. The best thing about the SN750s is that they cost close to what the much slower Sata 3 SSDs of the same size cost.

 

[FormerUser-400995]

I am finally getting around to putting my vision-d Z490 system together ...

This nugget of information from the onset, would have enhanced your question. Any responses given would have assumed the Z77X-UD5H system (at left). The SN850, then, will likely be quite at home on the Z490 Vision D.

I suggest updating your profile with information that reflects the appropriate system.

Cheers.

 

[FormerUser-400995]

Can anyone comment on the SN850 1TB? Last I read it is still being tested? Would it be a safe bet to buy yet?

With respect the TRIM issue on some NVMe drives when used as a macOS boot drive, which is what I believe you were concerned about: I have seen no information either way in relation to the SN850. Without any information to the contrary, my opinion is that if the SN750 is unaffected (and it isn't), then the SN850 is likely to also be unaffected by the TRIM issue.

However, it would serve your best interests to have a number of such opinions before making a purchase. Cheers.

 

[tyns]

I appreciate the feedback. My current system is still the UD5H hence not updating my profile. I apologize. It is amazing how much life this current machine has given. For the extra few dollars I will probably go SN850. For working with big files it doesn't make sense. I do believe that day to day small average read and write's will show performance benefits. Albeit, as mentioned above, probably nothing too noticeable. Thanks again.

 

[maxxx]

Hello, I'm running the main disk on WD SN850 and have 2nd disk Samsung 980, both 1 TB.
I installed Monteray on both, and both are booting at almost the same amount of time. RX6900XT make it longer, flashing monitor on of. I haven't seen the boot time problem that were mentioned.
SN850 disk benchmark on myhackintosh.

below is the screenshot when I check the health using smart tools :

% smartctl -a /dev/disk0

on Samsung:

 

[freesby]

Avoid the SN750 SE versions

The SN750 SE version works just fine with Monterey. No issues whatsoever.
In fact, I got the SE version by mistake thinking it was the older non-SE version. It didn't matter. Works great.