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Affordable Third-Party Mac Studio Storage Upgrades Coming in 2025
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You sir, are a life saver.You can...
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They could skirt around the issue by reducing performance when something like this is used. Would annoy people enough that the practice would become too much hassle.
Sort of like a limp mode when a car detects an issue, but for computing, call it electrical safety or something with a service message displayed.
And if you use your studio for anything more than a few files and listening to mp3s, like oh I dunno, say video work, then enjoy uploading and downloading TB of enormous working files to & from the cloud all day. ...and on a fickle connection for everyone not in a city.
There could also be an argument that creating happy customers makes for a better long term strategy. How many customers are happy with Apple’s RAM and storage pricing? Very few I imagine, and that is damaging to the Apple brand. (To what extent is open to debate.)
If I buy a new Mac with more internal storage, it doesn’t mean I’m rationalising Apple’s prices—it means I need that storage and don’t have a lot of choice. Let’s face it—none of us buy Macs because of Apple’s pricing policies. We buy Macs because they are still the best darn PCs out there (subjective opinion of course).
I don’t love all the Tim Cook hate that happens on these forums, but quietly, I do hope that if and when there is a leadership change, it will be someone who realises that creating happy customers ultimately works better than holding customers to ransom.
You in theory could roll the drives together to look like one system drive to macOS with APFS. It has quite a few tools for rolling volumes into one thing. Back 8-10 years ago I used to make a system that combined the internal SSD with an external raid array of SSD's connected via Thunderbolt and all appeared as one system disk to macOS. Of course an always up to date Time Machine backup was required more than ever with such a system.
But Apple has NEVER been cheap - they've not spent the best part of 25-30 years repositioning themselves as a desirable luxury brand to then go and start making discounts on what they sell, and as consistently one of the top 3 biggest companies in the world, they don't need to either; their marketing and pricing strategy is working perfectly.
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Not really. Cloud replication is automatic. Disk to disk backups are automated and scheduled. 8tb not 2tb. I used to have a fotprint of >60tb. But had a huge cull when I considered what I would use most of the data for.
- I don’t need 200 versions of the same DAW project. I won’t live long enough to do anything with them!
- I don’t need all the DVD and BRD Rips from the 90s and 00s. I have Netflix and other streaming services.
- I don’t need to keep every version of every installer of every app I ever downloaded. If they switch off the internet i’ve bigger issues than how to build a laptop!
- I don’t need 10,000 photos of my dog or 50 versions of every photo I ever tooknof anything or anyone else. I won’t live long enough to view them all
I’m not including long term archive for regulatory or contractual obligations. Just day-to-day working files and personal stuff. But YMMV.
You can say that again! Oh wait, you did. 😉
Seriously though, I have never said Apple should be cheap—as in, they should be competing with generic PC makers and the like on price. No, Apple are a premium brand and always have been. I have always said that the high premium on Apple hardware is compensated for by the great software and the overall user experience, which has always been superior to the competition (in my opinion). That user experience is ultimately what created Apple's success.
Now, the user experience doesn't just start when you power on the machine for the first time. It actually begins before that, when you're on the Apple website, reading up about the products, clicking through to the online store, and choosing what to buy. When you realise that the base storage doesn't meet your needs and you see what Apple is charging for a basic storage upgrade—that's part of the experience. Again, I'm not saying that Apple needs to be the cheapest, but there is a limit to what people will see as reasonable, and Apple's pricing on RAM and storage upgrades is growing ever more unreasonable when compared to the rest of the market.
But that's not even the worst of it. Again, it's the 'holding customers to ransom' bit that I (and many customers) object to the most—the monopolistic practices where Apple forces you to buy their storage by design—that is, they are making intentional design choices to take away customer choice and lower the overall customer experience. That kind of behaviour just makes people cranky—it damages the Apple brand and that is not a good long-term strategy IMHO. And no, it's not what the Apple success was built on.
Not much fun of you use a laptop though. You’d look a bit of a tit with drives dangling from all sides running from meeting to meeting.
Sounds to me like you shouldn’t be buying Apple. You knew what you were getting, stop whining about it after the fact. Apple never said you could do this… It’s like complaining about the cost of gas after you buy a V8 powered sportscar…
And, if you are logging a Mac Studio around every day, you should have a MacBook as supposedly to a DESKTOP computer.
Apple doesn't care what people do with old machines. They'll change new machines to a new design delaying the process by another 2-3 years. But that costs them money, too.
Guy did a great job breaking Apples BS, one big problem, you have to be outside apples warranty. 8TB needs to be the minimum not the max
My 4TB Thunderbolt 5 drive connected to my M4 Pro Mac Mni from OWC costs a lot less than that, and it's almost as fast as internal storage. So, big nope from me.
Especially when the other option besides Sabrent is Kickstarter? Riiiiight.
Especially when the other option besides Sabrent is Kickstarter? Riiiiight.
Today's ATP is quoting an e-mail saying that the NAND chips include Apple proprietary IP, which suggests that this won't scale at all, and Apple will have legal means to stop them.
This is certainly a good idea. Maybe they could bring back Fusion Drive this way?...
If Sony allows for third-party M.2 NVMe storage in their console, a "closed" system that should sustain very certain performance level all the time, then any other computing device could do it as well.
Or Apple shuts this down quickly, because they probably have this planned, but it requires the NVME makers to have it certified by Apple via licensing and fees before it can be used. (aka Made For program)
Alex Ziskind's videos in general are good but he is a software guy. His hypothesis is just wrong, the NANDs are the same. Because he didn't know the number of NANDs used in each config is the major factor on sequential speed. The 4TB and 8TB model of Apple Silicon MacBooks have to use 8 NANDs, utlizing the maximum number of PCIe data channels from the Max chip.
On the desktop Macs, the new mini, the Studio, and the Mac Pro they all use daughter card boards, this is a slightly different config than the MacBooks which are just directly soldered, but the principle stands. You just count the number of NANDs and can tell the general speed ceiling.
As for these 3rd party storage solution; the interesting factor is they are forced to use compatible NAND chips that are very few options, most of them are from supply chain, likely Apple's own ones. It ironically forced them to be on par with Apple's vanilla chips. But your point in whether or not they are of lower quality, likely "binned" or even defective is a legit worry.
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
Apple needs to get over its obsession with profit margins and realize if they dropped RAM and storage prices they could build a lot more marketshare and profit just as much.
I imagine Apple have a team dedicated yo precisely that kind of analysis. If they dripped their unit prices 15% to 20% they’d have to more or less double the number of sales break even. That’s ignoring the extra costs involved in making the extra units. Are there really that may customers waiting in the wings that are hard pressed to buy today without a similar discount? Would Apple really need those price sensitive customers? Harder to upsell to customers who’ve struggled with entry ticket price.
‘Our’ wishes for lower pricing and Apple’s margins and overall profitability are in direct conflict. Other than a handful of Apps that are Apple only, for which there are alternatives, then staying in then ecosystem is a choice.
And looking at the business strategy through in a cynically cold lens. It seems easier for Apple to entice the less well off to spend more on Apple devices than it is for them to shift business model.
People who are buying the maxed out machines are generally buying hem for business too and therefore off the cost against taxes. So saving £/$1k on 128gb/8tb configs is really neither here nor there when you consider a 3 or 4 year accounting cycle. It is pennies a day. They probably spend more over that period on coffee. And if upgrading annually is a necessity to keep on cutting edge. Likelihood is that business is doing fine and the price is even more trivial.
So no, I don’t expect Apple think they need to realise this anytime soon. It will take a seismic shift in the industry to change that model. Something far more fundamental and game changing than the cost of ram and storage.
In fact I can quite see the opposite happening. If they can push the envelope and get something like an M5 Ultra with 24 cores, 256 ram and 16tb storage into a laptop form factor whilst maintaining similar power to battery performance as today’s Max and Pro, I could quite easily see them breaking the 5 figures barrier on a laptop!
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Right, get what you need but TB3/4 External Storage is way slower that internal.
there is quite an install base of Studio so this comes handy, even when buying a second hand on Ebay to max it out.
and essentially the "drive" is far less complicated compared to an actual NVMe drive. no controller, no SLC or RAM cache, no controller firmware and its maintenance. so definitely cheaper if we compare it at BOM level.