Why the 1TB WD Black SN770 is the very best "Bang for your Buck" today

[JacCarson]

If maximum read/write speeds aren't that important you can save about $120 and get this instead.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08G14NBCS/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Maxes out at 10Gbps speeds. Price is just $19.

Yes, I have this one. Put a spare SSD in it, it flies.

 

[BusterMachine]

Can you believe the price went even lower... (from Amazon, not Amazon Warehouse)

 

[wstrohm]

Samsung's own Phoenix and other controllers are what makes them problematic with macOS.

This is of course true for macOS Catalina and later. But to pick a very small nit, the real problem I have experienced is not macOS vs. Samsung's controller, but rather the APFS file system vs. Samsung's controller. Mojave 10.14.6 and also High Sierra 10.13.6, when using the HFS+ filesystem, are fully compatible with my Samsung 970 Pro NVMe M.2 SSDs. 20-second boot times are typical.

 

[trs96]

Samsung just lowered their price on the 980 1TB model to match the SN770. I think they're seeing the $65 SN770 taking away more market share at the lower price lately. It's moved up to #9 on Amazon's best seller list.

Look at the MX500 1TB for $52. That's the lowest price I've ever seen. Very reliable Sata SSD. If you don't have a new enough system to use NVMe the 2.5" MX500 1TB is the way to go.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078211KBB/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[trs96]

Was looking up what SSDs used to cost back in 2012 when I started buying them. This article from June 2012 points out that prices dropped to below $1 per GB. Today some really fast NVMe SSDs sell for 5-6 cents per GB. Note that the largest size you could buy then was 256 GB. Today you can get 8TB SSDs.

 

[BusterMachine]

1TB down to $60 (from Amazon)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QV692XY/

 

[buddyjack2]

I just snagged a WD SN770 at Amazon's new lower price and used it to replace the 250 GB SSD I'd had Windows installed on in my dual-boot Hack. (Mac OS Ventura is on a second internal SSD).

This may be slightly off-topic, but I can't get the new SN770 to show up in my BIOS Boot Options, where I'm supposed to select it as the priority drive in order for the Windows installation to complete (I'm using a USB created with Windows Media Creator).

I can boot from the USB installer and then use the Command Prompt in Windows Troubleshooter to partition the SN770 as gpt. Then I can begin the Windows installation onto it, but after only a few seconds I get an error saying “Windows could not configure the computer to advance to the next step in the installation.” I'm guessing that's because the new SSD isn't appearing as a Boot Option in my BIOS.

I'm wondering if I should remove my Mac SSD and also unplug a couple of internal SATA drives before trying again? I saw that suggestion elsewhere online but figured I'd ask about it here first.

 

[trs96]

I'm wondering if I should remove my Mac SSD and also unplug a couple of internal SATA drives before trying again? I saw that suggestion elsewhere online but figured I'd ask about it here first.

I always disconnect all macOS drives if installing Windows. Just common sense to prevent them from being affected by EFI over-writing by Windows during install.

 

[oli.mathieu]

I always disconnect all macOS drives if installing Windows. Just common sense to prevent them from being affected by EFI over-writing by Windows during install.

This is a Golden advice

 

[buddyjack2]

I agree… inconvenient tho it is to open my Hack, remove the heatshields and pull out my other SSDs… for me that was the foolproof method to clean install Windows onto my new SSD. Thanks for the reply !