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.
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.
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.
Building a CustoMac Hackintosh: The Ultimate Buyer's Guide
www.tonymacx86.com
vit9696 had this to say last April of 2021:
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.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
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.
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
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.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.
Building a CustoMac Hackintosh: The Ultimate Buyer's Guide
www.tonymacx86.com
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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