OWC Express 1M2 owners what SSD did you buy ?

[Solarflares]

I have the OWC with a Samsung 990 pro 1TB. Two of them.
I bought a Razer Chroma TB4 hub to be less demanding on the Mini’s power supply.
This keeps internal temps down, and the fan inaudible.

Edit - Samsung is not recommended for Mac OS as a system drive in APFS due to trim not functioning correctly. A WD is your best choice.
See next post (thanks) and my link below.
Samsung are not on Apple’s list of recommended suppliers.
Samsung trim might work in Mac OS APFS on some drives, but it will take a long time.

 

[bzgnyc2]

thanks for the reply

Not one thats on my list seems cheaper than the rest what speeds are you getting via black magic if you don't mind me asking ?

The ones i'm currently interested in are

samsung 990 pro 2tb/4tb

crucial t500 2tb/4tb

wd black sn850x 4tb

[Just noticed this thread started in 2024 not 2025 and sure OP bought something already...hopefully below is still helpful to others following this thread]

I don't have direct experience with those but would go with the WD Black SN850X over the Samsung 990 Pro due to the reported issues with the latter's TRIM implementation under Monterey+. These issues may have been resolved with the 9100 Pro but have not heard reports either way.

Someone also mentioned sustained performance and FYI my Seagate FireCuda 530R 2TB sustained ~2.7GB/sec over the whole drive (I didn't test rewrite, just filling the disk once) in an Acasis TBU401Pro during my initial tests. This is of course a different enclosure than mentioned but presumably the sustained performance of the SSD would carry over (can't speak to whether Seagate's 540 or other models would do the same -- I selected the 530R based on among other things reports of good sustained performance and TBW endurance ratings). If anyone gets this model of Seagate, make sure to install the July 2025 firmware update.

 

[Solarflares]

This article firmly warns against the use of Samsung NVME’s on MAC OS - when used as an APFS system drive in a Hackintosh or as a replacement to Apple’s SSD.
However they are fine to use as secondary drives if you format them to HFS+.
Firmware updates will be impossible in external enclosures, and Samsung Magician is Windows only.

Choosing a Compatible NVMe SSD for your macOS Boot Drive

Introduction to NVMe Choices If you have any previous hackintosh experience, you'll know that a limited number of hardware components have native support in macOS. You can't buy just any graphics card and expect it to work. Only certain Broadcom models of Wifi/BT cards have native support etc...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[Non-Euclidean]

This article firmly warns against the use of Samsung NVME’s on MAC OS - when used as an APFS system drive in a Hackintosh or as a replacement to Apple’s SSD.
However they are fine to use as secondary drives if you format them to HFS+.
Firmware updates will be impossible in external enclosures, and Samsung Magician is Windows only.

Choosing a Compatible NVMe SSD for your macOS Boot Drive

Introduction to NVMe Choices If you have any previous hackintosh experience, you'll know that a limited number of hardware components have native support in macOS. You can't buy just any graphics card and expect it to work. Only certain Broadcom models of Wifi/BT cards have native support etc...

www.tonymacx86.com

I don't know how valid that article still is. I think a lot of those issues were due to the Phoenix controller used in the older Samsung SSDs. They are now 2 generations past that.

I also see references that MacOS does send TRIM commands over Thunderbolt. Just not over USB 3.X.
TRIM usage can also be forced.

 

[Solarflares]

Thanks for the info.
Guess I have even more reading to do.
Still, to make it easy - the WD is a good choice on paper.

 

[Non-Euclidean]

Yeah, the WD Black controllers work well with MacOS and in general the SSDs run cooler. Its the default purchasing decision. Its why I went with a SN850X instead of anything else.

 

[bzgnyc2]

I don't know how valid that article still is. I think a lot of those issues were due to the Phoenix controller used in the older Samsung SSDs. They are now 2 generations past that.

Yes, I wouldn't assume the latest Samsung NVMe SSD (e.g. 9100 Pro) has the issue with TRIM and macOS. I also wouldn't assume it doesn't until someone who has one has done the test can report back with the results.

Otherwise, I believe the issue has been shown with the Samsung 980 and 990. Older Samsung up through 970 EVO+ (with final firmware applied) are reported to be fine.

I also see references that MacOS does send TRIM commands over Thunderbolt.

Note that the issue isn't sending TRIM but rather the Samsung's handling of TRIM especially with Monterey+.

P.S.Nothing against Samsung -- I never had a bad thing to say about my Samsung 970 Pro back in its day.

 

[Solarflares]

Yes, I wouldn't assume the latest Samsung NVMe SSD (e.g. 9100 Pro) has the issue with TRIM and macOS. I also wouldn't assume it doesn't until someone who has one has done the test can report back with the results.

Otherwise, I believe the issue has been shown with the Samsung 980 and 990. Older Samsung up through 970 EVO+ (with final firmware applied) are reported to be fine.



Note that the issue isn't sending TRIM but rather the Samsung's handling of TRIM especially with Monterey+.

P.S.Nothing against Samsung -- I never had a bad thing to say about my Samsung 970 Pro back in its day.

I loved my 970’s back in 2016. Wicked performance.