Affordable Third-Party Mac Studio Storage Upgrades Coming in 2025

[MacRumors]

French company Polysoft has successfully reverse-engineered Apple's proprietary storage modules for the Mac Studio and plans to offer more affordable upgrade options starting in January 2025, following a successful Kickstarter campaign.

The company's "Studio Drive" modules will be available in 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB capacities, with pricing starting at €399 ($420) for 2TB, €799 ($843) for 4TB, and €1,099 ($1,158) for 8TB – roughly half of what Apple charges for comparable storage upgrades at the time of purchase. Unlike traditional SSDs used in PCs, Apple's storage modules require specialized engineering because the actual storage controller is built into the M1 and M2 chips rather than being part of the removable module.

To develop compatible modules, Polysoft conducted extensive reverse engineering, sacrificing an original Apple module for detailed analysis. The company removed all its small components one by one using a laser station, inventoried them and measured their characteristics, then scanned every layer with a flatbed scanner. From this work, the company then made its own schematics and designed different boards, using the same Kioxia and Hynix TLC NAND chips as Apple's original modules to ensure compatibility and performance.

Polysoft has also added what it calls "RIROP" (Rossmann Is Right Overvoltage Protection), a safety feature designed to prevent data loss from potential voltage regulator failures – an issue the company says it has encountered when repairing certain MacBook Pro models.

As noted by The Verge, this development may have exciting implications beyond the Mac Studio. Recent teardowns have revealed that Apple's new M4 Mac mini also uses removable storage modules – potentially opening the door for similar upgrade solutions in the future. While the Mac mini's modules use a different design than the Mac Studio's, Polysoft's breakthrough in reverse-engineering Apple's storage architecture suggests that affordable storage upgrades might eventually become possible for Mac mini users too.

Just like with the Mac Studio, Apple's security system in the Mac mini encrypts storage using a unique identifier tied to each Mac's chip, meaning any storage upgrade requires a complete system reset using Apple's Configurator software to re-encrypt the drive for use with the new machine. Polysoft says it will provide detailed installation instructions for hardware enthusiasts and professionals wanting to upgrade their Mac Studio, including the necessary steps for properly initializing new storage modules with Apple's security system. For further details, see Polygon's Kickstarter campaign page.

Article Link: Affordable Third-Party Mac Studio Storage Upgrades Coming in 2025

 

[Killerbob]

Isn’t the best solution on a Mac Studio to get what you need at time of purchase and then augment with super fast external Thunderbolt 3/4 storage? Cheaper as well. You can’t buy the Mac Studio without the storage, and the external storage, even the fastest, is still cheaper than this offering.

 

[Harry Haller]

Interested to see what Apple’s response is.
Half of what Apple charges is still twice as much as a standard NVMe drive.

 

[CalMin]

This is pretty cool for hardware hackers and enthusiasts. I can’t see my dad upgrading storage this way but for those of us handy with a screwdriver this will be an awesome to extend the life of a Mac.

Wish there was a way to do this with laptops. I find I struggle with storage more so than ram. The only thing pushing me to upgrade my M1Pro MBP is that my 1TB drive is up to 800GB full with stuff I like to keep with me. RAM and CPU are fine. I’d love to stick in a bigger SSD.

 

[dannyyankou]

I think this is good, but people should realize this will most likely void your warranty.

Edit: People downvoting as if I agree with that policy. I’m just giving information. I think as long as it meets Apple’s specifications, people should be able to make whatever repairs with whatever third party parts they want without it affecting their warranty. I only mention the warranty because if people attempt a repair and don’t know what they’re doing, Apple may catch on.

 

[CalMin]

Interested to see what Apple’s response is.
Half of what Apple charges is still twice as much as a standard NVMe drive.

It’s not a plug and play thing, so this won’t do much for your typical Mac buyer. I doubt apple will change anything.

 

[Spidder]

Isn’t the best solution on a Mac Studio to get what you need at time of purchase and then augment with super fast external Thunderbolt 3/4 storage? Cheaper as well. You can’t buy the Mac Studio without the storage, and the external storage, even the fastest, is still cheaper than this offering.

Isn't the free market about choices for consumers?

 

[ELman]

Just in time for the new studio that Apple will make certain this upgrade will not work.

 

[apparatchik]

Isn’t the best solution on a Mac Studio to get what you need at time of purchase and then augment with super fast external Thunderbolt 3/4 storage? Cheaper as well. You can’t buy the Mac Studio without the storage, and the external storage, even the fastest, is still cheaper than this offering.

And with Thunderbolt 5 already in the Mac Mini, surely an ultra fast, ultra small thumb drive can be made available for a lot cheaper than this, with virtually identical performance than internal storage.

I just bought a new Mini with TB5, 512GB disk and plan on going that route in due time.

 

[DunedinD]

€399 ($420) for 2TB, €799 ($843) for 4TB, and €1,099 ($1,158) for 8TB

Affordable? Relative to Apple but poor value per GB. 🤣

 

[Canubis]

Back when the Mac Studio was released, wasn’t there a lengthy video by Linus Tech, how swapping modules even from another Mac Studio didn’t work, because Apple didn‘t allow it/didn’t provide the software to set it up? (Apple did provide this for the Mac Pro)

Has this actually changed by now?

 

[CharlesShaw]

It’s not a plug and play thing, so this won’t do much for your typical Mac buyer. I doubt apple will change anything.

Agreed. And even if Apple sold the upgrades at a "reasonable" price, everyone many would still feel the need to tinker with it and complain about it, and be dreaming about the next upgrade while reading articles about people hacking it.

Add: And I get it. Decades later, I still remember the experience of buying an overdrive chip at CompUSA for my PC. I really didn't need it, but it gave me joy and emptied my meager wallet.

 

[Harry Haller]

Affordable? Relative to Apple but poor value per GB. 🤣

The ecosystem is not Dollar General.
Who wants to belong to that club?

 

[torontotim]

Seems a lot easier to go back to the days of SSD/HDD combos and run your OS/main system on the integrated storage and use slower external and CHEAP storage for data.

Nobody needs 8TB of onboard storage in a Mac. If you need that much storage and you're doing it onboard, you're doing it wrong.

 

[ppj845]

According to RED, they already made a few iterations of the Mac mini cards in shenzhen. Mass production should be starting soon. Expect 2T price to be around 150 dollars

 

[John_Blackthorne]

Isn’t the best solution on a Mac Studio to get what you need at time of purchase and then augment with super fast external Thunderbolt 3/4 storage? Cheaper as well. You can’t buy the Mac Studio without the storage, and the external storage, even the fastest, is still cheaper than this offering.

What do you do if your biggest drive hogs are Mail and Photos and you need cloud syncing? Can't do that with the apps on external drives, right?

 

[All Taken]

According to RED, they already made a few iterations of the Mac mini cards in shenzhen. Mass production should be starting soon. Expect 2T price to be around 150 dollars

Mac Mini M4 or M4 Pro, they’re different cards so I’m wondering if the base M4 has been given any attention.

 

[CarAnalogy]

This is so ridiculous. We’ve been through this before and that’s why storage interfaces became standardized.

Good on these people for taking the obvious opportunity, but it’s sad that Apple didn’t just use the standard interface.

As I’ve said before, just give me one M.2 nvme slot. Why even bother with this half measure?

 

[ZebraDude]

Isn’t the best solution on a Mac Studio to get what you need at time of purchase and then augment with super fast external Thunderbolt 3/4 storage? Cheaper as well. You can’t buy the Mac Studio without the storage, and the external storage, even the fastest, is still cheaper than this offering.

well.....one thing to think about I know that Apple Intelligence is not much (hopefully in the future) currently but it is disabled when booting from a external drive...

 

[alchemistmuffin]

While the Mac mini's modules use a different design than the Mac Studio's, Polysoft's breakthrough in reverse-engineering Apple's storage architecture suggests that affordable storage upgrades might eventually become possible for Mac mini users too.

So how long before Apple modifies the Mac Studio internally to block this modification and also add firmware update to undo any modification? And also send the lawyers to sue the company? Because this is probably dead on arrival as Apple is super protective and this is security disaster waiting to happen.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Isn't the free market about choices for consumers?

Where did the commenter say this wasn't free market? The commenter simply expressed an opinion that using external storage is a better option. That doesn't mean this is a bad option or shouldn't be available, it just means that it's "best" (commenter's opinion) to go with internal storage as needed and use external drives, which is also a "free market" approach.

I think having both as options is good. Personally, I'd rather see Apple allow for easy upgrading on our own without having to jump through hoops.

 

[Harry Haller]

So how long before Apple modifies the Mac Studio internally to block this modification and also add firmware update to undo any modification? And also send the lawyers to sue the company? Because this is probably dead on arrival as Apple is super protective and this is security disaster waiting to happen.

Is the encryption on these and standard NVMe drives less than Apple’s encryption?

 

[neuropsychguy]

What do you do if your biggest drive hogs are Mail and Photos and you need cloud syncing? Can't do that with the apps on external drives, right?

I'm not sure about Mail, but you can host your Photos library on an external drive and have iCloud syncing.

 

[longofest]

I think this is good, but people should realize this will most likely void your warranty.

It will void the warranty if the chip is in there. If the chip isn't in there when you send it back (you replace the original chip), how would apple know?

 

[JonathanX64]

Great news. Internal storage is surely nicer than using anything external.

Sure, it's possible to put your iCloud Photo Library and Apple Music downloads onto external drive, and some files, but it's finicky, it takes away one of your ports, it doesn't look as nice (additional item on your desk), performance is worse, and it's certainly not what users of $2000+ computers should spend their time on.