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Apple's User-Installable Mac Pro SSD Kits Now Available With Up to 8TB of Storage for $2,800

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Following an announcement earlier today, Apple is now selling SSD storage upgrade kits for the latest Mac Pro, with 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB options available. Prices range between $600 and $2,800 in the United States.

mac-pro-ssd-kit.jpg

Each kit contains two SSD modules, enabling users to upgrade the internal storage capacity of a Mac Pro themselves. Until now, Apple advised customers who wanted to upgrade the built-in SSD modules to book an appointment with a Genius Bar or Apple Authorized Service Provider, as they are tied to Apple's T2 security chip.

As we demonstrated earlier this year, it is also possible to expand a Mac Pro's storage capacity by placing a third-party SSD in a PCIe slot. Another option is to install a third-party internal drive mount that connects via SATA.


Apple sells a variety of other components and accessories for the Mac Pro and its companion Pro Display XDR, including graphics modules, RAM kits, expensive wheels, a VESA mount adapter, an AUX power cable kit, and more.

Article Link: Apple's User-Installable Mac Pro SSD Kits Now Available With Up to 8TB of Storage for $2,800
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/15/apple-mac-pro-ssd-kits/
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GamerZer0 said:
"Note: Software reinstallation requires a second Mac running Apple Configurator 2 and a USB-C cable."
Click to expand...
kb923689 said:
B-b-but Macs are easy to use right out of the box!
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Annoying, I agree, but most end-users probably have more than one Mac in their environment and corporate IT departments definitely do.

Being able to do this now without having to send the machine in is a huge Quality of Life upgrade.
 
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matrixv said:
This puts a bit of a damper on all the speculation that the 7,1 could have a short lifespan in lieu of ARM coming.
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Why?
It isn't like these are created new. These are parts that Apple originally made along with the Mac Pro 2019. They needed to create them anyway to do repairs over the next 6-9 years anyway. Even if Apple 'quit' next year they are on the hook for repairs for the at least the next 5 years.

The pricing here is quite high. $500-600 per TB is closer to "make money fast" than "in it for the long haul" indicator.
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GamerZer0 said:
"Note: Software reinstallation requires a second Mac running Apple Configurator 2 and a USB-C cable."

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
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probably more often a Bigger issue

".. Important: The modules are marked “1” and “2”. The module marked “1” must be installed in the socket marked “1” and the module marked “2” must be installed in the socket marked “2”. ..."

come in fixed pairs that must go into a specific slot. Pragmatically dealing with marked SSD internal components. Not random off the shelf stuff.

It won't be surprising if that specific pair only works with one another.

But it is better than only some authorized repair vendor with a secret decoder ring device and a custom probe.
However, off in a remote jungle with only your Mac Pro with you.... yeah you are stuck.
 
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This price for the 8 TB kit is not that terrible if high performance SSDs. If Apple offered these kits for regular PC’s that were Hackintosh capable to keep costs in line for users trying to save money during this pandemic would be a nice move and probably convert more to traditional Mac hardware when the economy recovers.
 
Maclander said:
"This puts a bit of a damper on all the speculation that the 7,1 could have a short lifespan in lieu of ARM coming."

Lifespan in fact may be short.
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Not very likely given that Apple has about zero suitable processor for the Mac Pro ready at all. Ieven by the rumors whispers ).

Additionally, because as pointed out above ... these modules will probably still be there even with a shift to "ARM". The T2 is "ARM" now and have modules. What makes you think will disappear when there is still an apple SSD implementation sitting there in the future that is also based on ARM. Pretty good chance get a T3 or T4 and it is doing the same break down of a single SSD into discrete components for the desktop systems still with a switch to another ARM as userland host CPU..
 
Mr. Awesome said:
Does anyone else think that Apple won’t replace this Mac Pro with a new ARM version soon, but will instead offer an “ARM kit” to allow you to add an ARM chip to a PCIe slot in your Mac? That seems like the logical solution.
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That’s what I am hoping for. Whether or not it’s doable, I don’t think anyone honestly knows.
 
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So since these are in pairs, does that mean the 8TB kit is 4TB x 2 in RAID 0 or what? If so, can you choose the RAID level and do 4TB mirrored with the 8TB kit?

EDIT: Nevermind. The Apple site says it's 4TB x 2.
 
Mr. Awesome said:
Does anyone else think that Apple won’t replace this Mac Pro with a new ARM version soon, but will instead offer an “ARM kit” to allow you to add an ARM chip to a PCIe slot in your Mac? That seems like the logical solution.
Click to expand...

That probably will work as well as those "x86 on a card" solutions worked for the 68K ( or PPC?) Macs back in the 90's. Not all that well How many folks are going to want to run two macOS instances with separate apps installs inside the same box that consumes a slot.

If want a lightweight second instance just fire up VMWare Fusion / Parallels / etc and run it.

The CPU+RAM+storage being confined to a PCI-e card is only going "box in" the ARM implemetnation to something much less horsepower than the Mac Pro 2019 sitting in side of.


Apple will likely not replace it soon for same reason there was a 2014-2019 gap in replacing the last Mac Pro. They'll go back to sleep hope some ARM solution falls happens to show up in the copious spare time they put into Mac Pro development. And probably don't really want to do relatively extremely low volume chip for a Mac Pro.


"A Mac on a card" could conceptually go into a Windows PC too and Apple hasn't been a huge rush to do that either.
 
dmylrea said:
So since these are in pairs, does that mean the 8TB kit is 4TB x 2 in RAID 0 or what? If so, can you choose the RAID level and do 4TB mirrored with the 8TB kit?
Click to expand...

These are internal SSD components. All modern high speed SSDs that have write speeds that are about the same as the read speeds are reading and writing in parallel to NAND chips. These are really just NAND chip modules. The 'brains' in the T2 writes to the individual NAND chips in parallel just like the off the shelf SSDs do. There are a few more NAND chips to write to in this set up but Apple isn't leveraging that for "ludicrous speed " ( probably making things wear slower. )

So if that is "RAID 0" then every other SSD you buy is also doing "RAID 0". ( which pretty much have to if want to get decent write speeds. )
 
deconstruct60 said:
That probably will work as well as those "x86 on a card" solutions worked for the 68K ( or PPC?) Macs back in the 90's. Not all that well How many folks are going to want to run two macOS instances with separate apps installs inside the same box that consumes a slot.

If want a lightweight second instance just fire up VMWare Fusion / Parallels / etc and run it.

The CPU+RAM+storage being confined to a PCI-e card is only going "box in" the ARM implemetnation to something much less horsepower than the Mac Pro 2019 sitting in side of.


Apple will likely not replace it soon for same reason there was a 2014-2019 gap in replacing the last Mac Pro. They'll go back to sleep hope some ARM solution falls happens to show up in the copious spare time they put into Mac Pro development. And probably don't really want to do relatively extremely low volume chip for a Mac Pro.


"A Mac on a card" could conceptually go into a Windows PC too and Apple hasn't been a huge rush to do that either.
Click to expand...
I too think it will be a long time before they mess with the 7,1. 5-7 years would be my guess.
 
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