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

trs96

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Updated November 2022

As we've progressed on from Monterey to Ventura it looks as though the WD Blue and Black NVMe drives are still the very best choice for your macOS boot drive. Samsung has not fixed anything through firmware updates that would let us suggest their NVMe drives for use in your hackintosh. Those would need to have TRIM disabled for use with macOS as a boot drive.

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TL;DR : Use WD Blue or Black SSDs with a WD Proprietary controller (avoid the WD SN750 SE)

Choose a 500GB or larger drive for faster read/write speeds and greater longevity of your drive.

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1. Have an older PCIe 3.0 board ? Plan to keep it longer term ? Get the SN570 or SN770 in the 1 or 2TB size.

2. Have a PCIe 4.0 board like one from the Z690 line ? Go with SN770 or the higher end SN850(X).

Original post, November 2021

If you are planning on buying a new SSD for a build or replacing an older drive in your current build, this is some important information you should know about.

vit9696 had this to say last April of 2021:
After our discovery of a severe bug in the TRIM implementation of practically all Samsung NVMe SSDs we spent time investigating which SSDs are affected by all kinds of issues, and so far came up with several names worth mentioning.

Working with TRIM broken (can be used with TRIM disabled, at slower boot times, or as a data storage):
  • Samsung 950 Pro
  • Samsung 960 Evo/Pro
  • Samsung 970 Evo/Pro
As you may know, many are experiencing slower (up to) 6-7 minute boot times when using Samsung NVMe drives with macOS Monterey. Those drives have now all been removed from the Buyer's Guide. The Sata based Samsung 870 EVO 2.5" SSD has been added to the list and has no TRIM implementation problems.

The Sabrent Rocket Q is a new QLC NVMe drive on the list. Pease avoid the PCIe 4.0 versions of Sabrent NVMe drives until we've done further testing. Some have reported problems with the newest PCIe 4.0 drives from Sabrent.

Edit Nov. 2022: The SN770 is PCIe 4.0 based and has replaced the SN750 from WD. Feel free to buy one if it's offered at a lower price than the SN750. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QV692XY/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

The WD Black SN750 has maintained it's fast boot times even with Monterey and is now our #1 choice for a Monterey compatible NVMe boot drive. Comes in sizes from 250GB up to 4TB. You can also buy one with an optional heatsink attached. Amazon reviewers have given these an average 5 star rating on 13,000+ reviews. In terms of value, performance and stability when running macOS, you can't do much better than the SN750 NVMe.

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Avoid the SN750 SE versions. They are not the same drive as the SN750. A completely different controller is used in the SE models. They should be fine for either Windows or Linux but macOS is still a question mark. I've tested the SN570 and it works well with Monterey. No problems to report. Fast boot times. 11/21/22.

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How about the newer PCIe 4.0 version SN850 from WD ? If your motherboard supports PCIe 4.0 and you're willing to pay more for it then it makes sense. 11th and 12th Gen Intel motherboards have support for PCIe 4.0.

If you're limited to PCIe 3.0 x4 throughput then don't pay more for the SN850. See this article by Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/resources/what-is-pcie-4-and-why-does-it-matter.html
Currently, PCIe 4.0 SSDs are designed to have higher maximum read/write speeds than PCIe 3.0 SSDs, but their current real-world advantages in areas like loading times and large file transfer are small. Over time, however, new memory controllers will be released and both games and applications are expected to take greater advantage of modern SSDs.
The Crucial MX500 is another Sata SSD with it's own Dram. A solid and fast performer that will give you boot times nearly as fast as an NVMe SSD. Can often be purchased at prices well below comparable Samsung Sata SSDs.

When making your SSD buying decision, remember that the more free space there is on an SSD, the better it will perform. Write speeds are usually faster on larger capacity SSDs as well. So plan on keeping at a minimum, 15% of your total SSD capacity as free space. On a 500GB SSD keep at least 75GB available. Even more is better.

By clicking through the links in the tonymacx86 Buyer's Guide to buy these drives, you'll be helping support the community. Amazon or Newegg gives us a small commission when you buy through our links to products sold on Amazon and Newegg. Thanks for your support !
 
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To learn more about the problems with TRIM, Monterey and Samsung NVMe SSD drives see:




This is why we recommend the WD Black SN850 for use as a macOS boot drive. It performs the best and has the highest level of macOS compatibility. Intel Optane drives are not compatible with macOS and are a lot more expensive as well. Look at the price for a small 380 GB Optane SSD. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PZLYKFV/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

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Discussion of TRIM for Beginners
You probably know that solid state drives (SSDs) differ from Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) in how they store information, and you may have heard that something called TRIM can maintain their performance.

An HDD encodes data onto a magnetic coating on a spinning disk inside the drive.

An SSD, on the other hand, is just a network of flash memory cells with a controller assembled into a drive enclosure, meaning it has no moving parts. It’s like having a series of very high performance USB Flash keys squished into a box.

The advantages of SSDs are clear: they’re exponentially faster, they’re entirely silent, they’re more durable, and they’re immune from issues like fragmentation.

As with any new technology, they have higher prices than their predecessor, HDDs. But now that those prices are dropping, SSDs come standard on most new computers, and even more people are replacing their old hard drives with modern solid state alternatives.

Wear and Tear on your SSD
Because flash memory cells can only be written to a certain number of times, solid state drives technically have a limited lifespan, more so than their hard disk drive predecessors.

The inability of SSDs to directly overwrite anything makes it more complicated for them to manage data.

Without knowing when old file data becomes invalid, SSDs expend a lot of write cycles ferrying useless data around. This not only causes normal file operations to slow down, it also means more reading and writing to the flash cells, diminishing their lifespan unnecessarily.

You may have noticed that even though you buy SSDs of a certain capacity, you have much less space actually available to use. A typical 256GB SSD will have only about 240GB available for use, for instance.

The reason is that SSD manufacturers set aside a percentage of the drive’s space for the firmware to use as a buffer for Garbage Collection and other maintenance tasks. This is called Over-Provisioning and it’s necessary for making sure that the drive’s performance doesn’t degrade significantly as it fills up. As a general rule, the more free space there is on an SSD, the better it will perform.

By default, SSDs have no way of knowing when files become invalid, and this is where TRIM comes to the rescue.

TRIM is a command that the operating system sends to the SSD telling it which data has become invalid. Using this information, the SSD can perform its Garbage Collection more efficiently, and reduce the strain on the hardware.


Read More: How to Check and Enable TRIM on a Mac SSD
 
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When making your SSD buying decision, remember that the more free space there is on an SSD, the better it will perform. Write speeds are usually faster on larger capacity SSDs as well. So plan on keeping at a minimum, 15% of your total SSD capacity as free space. On a 500GB SSD keep at least 75GB available. Even more is better.
How does this apply when you partition the drive? Is it that we should keep 15% unused and partition the rest? or keep 15% free space on each partition? (which has always been the case already for a MacOS partition, for other reasons — I usually try to keep it to 20% minimum).
 
How does this apply when you partition the drive? Is it that we should keep 15% unused and partition the rest? or keep 15% free space on each partition?
I keep at least 15% free space on each partition. More than that is not a bad idea either. It's because most people buy smaller drives that cost less and end up running out of space that I use the 15% cutoff number.
 
I keep at least 15% free space on each partition. More than that is not a bad idea either. It's because most people buy smaller drives that cost less and end up running out of space that I use the 15% cutoff number.
Yes, the more the better. :thumbup:
 
im thinking of buying one NVMe drive for video editing
 
You may have noticed that even though you buy SSDs of a certain capacity, you have much less space actually available to use. A typical 256GB SSD will have only about 240GB available for use, for instance.​
Not completely correct. A 256GB SSD should use NAND cells more than 256GB combined.
 
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