Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD

[zlei]

EVO series runs fast because of its SLC cache. When cache are used out, its speed goes down.

 

[Gigamaxx]

Here's a speed test with 970 EVO using a PCIE Adapter on a Z97 motherboard.
Still much better than a SSD Sata drive.

 

[RXSilva]

In High Sierra I did not need any fixes, just used my 2.5” SSD drive to clone copy to NVMe then installed clover using NVMe as target drive (you could also use MultiBeast) and then copied my config.plist and Kexts folder to new drive. And apfs in drivers64efi folder. It was as simple as any standard drive install I’ve done before.

I did have to format it like a normal drive but once I did the system recognized it natively.

This is for High Sierra - older software will probably require fixes.

When you say you "used my 2.5" SSD drive," does that mean you booted into your Hackintosh using your internal 2.5" drive that already had macOS and cloned the drive to the NVMe SSD using an app such as CCC?

@Gigamaxx
In this case it's not the same. The replacement of the SSD shortens the boot time from about 55s to 10s. I didn't change anything (kexts, dsdts etc.); just cloned the Installation with Carbon Copy Cloner.

Just wanted an update on how the Evo 970 is holding up. Am looking into putting together my 1st Hackintosh & have my parts list but was reluctant to get the 970 Evo NVMe (which I currently use on my Windows PC & enjoy) due to the warnings from other members on this forum & around the web.

 

[Gigamaxx]

It is working fine, yes I already had a 2.5” SSD and when I got the 970 I just cloned it and then added my EFI folder to it.

I think the issue with others is the apfs configuration in general. Mine is HFS formatted. I’ve had 2.5” SSD drives with apfs that got corrupted but I have others that are fine.

 

[RXSilva]

It is working fine, yes I already had a 2.5” SSD and when I got the 970 I just cloned it and then added my EFI folder to it.

I think the issue with others is the apfs configuration in general. Mine is HFS formatted. I’ve had 2.5” SSD drives with apfs that got corrupted but I have others that are fine.

Ahaa! Now that's an important distinction.

I have read others doing that as well. You formatted your NVMe to HFS+ prior to cloning the drive over? There by bypassing High Sierra converting the SSD to APFS correct? Also, pls can you point me to a guide on how one backups/copies their EFI folder between drives as I have seen this discussed many times on this forum.

 

[Gigamaxx]

Here’s a good trick, if you have a working system with Sierra or High Sierra already and the HS installer downloaded. Get either a USB to Sata adapter cable or a cheap external drive enclosure $5-$15.

When you install HS or Mojave beta to the USB attached drive it will install as HFS. Format he drive first of course.

For pasting EFI folder I do this. Go go top tool bar next to the Apple right click the Finder tab. Scroll to the preferences tab and click. You should see an option to “Show Disks” check the box. Now all your attached drives should show up on desktop.

I use Clover Configurator to Mount EFI then choose the 970 drive EFI to open and your running drive or main drive EFI. Close Clover Configurator app and you should have 2 EFI folders on the desktop. Open them and just drag the working one with your Clover folders and apple folder in it to the empty one. It’s that easy. There are no major commands or tricks to do. Turn off the computer and disconnect the 2.5” drive Sata cable then reboot and check to see if the NVME clover is working.

P.S you may have to go into bios to enable NVME drive if you don’t see it at boot.

 

[RXSilva]

Here’s a good trick, if you have a working system with Sierra or High Sierra already and the HS installer downloaded. Get either a USB to Sata adapter cable or a cheap external drive enclosure $5-$15.

When you install HS or Mojave beta to the USB attached drive it will install as HFS. Format he drive first of course.

For pasting EFI folder I do this. Go go top tool bar next to the Apple right click the Finder tab. Scroll to the preferences tab and click. You should see an option to “Show Disks” check the box. Now all your attached drives should show up on desktop.

I use Clover Configurator to Mount EFI then choose the 970 drive EFI to open and your running drive or main drive EFI. Close Clover Configurator app and you should have 2 EFI folders on the desktop. Open them and just drag the working one with your Clover folders and apple folder in it to the empty one. It’s that easy. There are no major commands or tricks to do. Turn off the computer and disconnect the 2.5” drive Sata cable then reboot and check to see if the NVME clover is working.

P.S you may have to go into bios to enable NVME drive if you don’t see it at boot.

Thnx for taking the time to break that down! Definitely going to find it helpful during my setup

 

[mauroenass]

I was noticing the boot time on my Evo 970 500GB get worse and worse on each boot.
So I've Carbon copied the drive on my Evo 850 SSD. The 850 was prior formatted to HFS+.
Copied all from boot drive EFI to the backups drive efi by mounting them with Efi Mounter v3.
Plugged every hard drive out and booted to Evo 850. The speed was awesome and after I checked - everything worked.
The 850 drive has Trim disabled by default. My Evo 970 formatted to APFS had Trim Enabled by default.
Now I'm using this but I plan to format the NVMe 970 drive to HFS+ and do the same thing I did to my boot backup drive.
I hope that will help, otherwise I'm selling my Evo 970 M.2. Or waiting for Mojave.

 

[mauroenass]

I was noticing the boot time on my Evo 970 500GB get worse and worse on each boot.
So I've Carbon copied the drive on my Evo 850 SSD. The 850 was prior formatted to HFS+.
Copied all from boot drive EFI to the backups drive efi by mounting them with Efi Mounter v3.
Plugged every hard drive out and booted to Evo 850. The speed was awesome and after I checked - everything worked.
The 850 drive has Trim disabled by default. My Evo 970 formatted to APFS had Trim Enabled by default.
Now I'm using this but I plan to format the NVMe 970 drive to HFS+ and do the same thing I did to my boot backup drive.
I hope that will help, otherwise I'm selling my Evo 970 M.2. Or waiting for Mojave.

Yep it all works as a fine backup and my Evo 970 NVMe is now running formatted as HFS+, but I noticed that Trim is still enabled by default. The boot time is waaay faster as it should be but I still have to give it time for another 10-15 shut down cycles and see if the speed degrades.
Off topic but maybe relevant to HFS+...I noticed it took a long time to empty the trash of 970 when it was on APFS.
Now it does that instantly.

 

[LSP]

I have 970 evo 250 GB directly in MB slot.These are my speeds. The drive should be getting better speeds according to specs. Am I missing something in my settings, kexts etc that would cause this