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Are SSD drives upgradeable on new Macbook

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philrunclimb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 5, 2010
20
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Hi - thinking of getting one of the 2016 new Macbooks... the people in my local Apple Store said the SSD is wired in and cant be upgraded after market by the customer.... does anyone know if this is correct.

I ask because 128Gb or even 256Gb is way too small ...especially for the long term, and on my previous old style macbook, it was very easy to remove the original spinning drive and replace it with a larger SSD one.

Phil
 
Azl said:
Hi, there is no 128gb macbook - just 256 and 512, and yes the ssd is soldered on the mainboard.
You can see that here -> https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Retina+MacBook+2016+Teardown/62149
On step 7.
So going 512gb is your best bet
Click to expand...


Hi thanks for the help... apologies I have got goggle eyes looking at the specs for Macbook, Pro and Air....

So is that the same for the Macbook Pro 13 inch with retina display ..with 2.7 Ghz chip and 128 Gb storage??
and 8Gb RAM??
[doublepost=1466525767][/doublepost]
Azl said:
Hi, there is no 128gb macbook - just 256 and 512, and yes the ssd is soldered on the mainboard.
You can see that here -> https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Retina+MacBook+2016+Teardown/62149
On step 7.
So going 512gb is your best bet
Click to expand...
And... the "teardown" is brilliant reading. thanks so much for that link.
 
The SSD on the MacBook Retina is soldered and cannot be upgraded.

The SSD on the MacBook Pro Retina and on the MacBook Air can be upgraded.
[doublepost=1466534416][/doublepost]
gooser said:
not only is it not upgradable it's naturally not replaceable if it busts a few years down the line.
Click to expand...

Ditto.
 
However while the rMBPs SSDs are replaceable, Apple does not sell upgrades and the part is not industry standard. 3rd party mfgrs sometimes have them, but they are quite rare.
 
Thanks for the thoughts... At least if the rMBP drive can be upgraded later, it means there is hope... and SSD prices might gradually come down.

Shame about the new Macbook NOT being upgradeable... and I imagine when they bring out the new rMBP (apparently due later this year) .it might also be soldered...grrrrr
 
philrunclimb said:
Thanks for the thoughts... At least if the rMBP drive can be upgraded later, it means there is hope... and SSD prices might gradually come down.
Click to expand...

The SSDs Apple use are custom form-factor and utilise a proprietary connector. That significantly limits the available options as currently OWC is the only one making a suitable drive, although it's not as good as the drives Apple use. Pricing is never really going to be competitive due to very limited supply.

Shame about the new Macbook NOT being upgradeable... and I imagine when they bring out the new rMBP (apparently due later this year) .it might also be soldered...grrrrr
Click to expand...

That's the tradeoff you have to make for thinner and lighter devices.
 
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Hellhammer said:
The SSDs Apple use are custom form-factor and utilise a proprietary connector. That significantly limits the available options as currently OWC is the only one making a suitable drive, although it's not as good as the drives Apple use. Pricing is never really going to be competitive due to very limited supply.

That's the tradeoff you have to make for thinner and lighter devices.
Click to expand...

Well, at least it's nice to at least have the option to upgrade the SSD to a bigger one even if it's slower.

It's also possible (being optimistic here) that there may be faster compatible SSDs available in the future.

The pricing of these custom SSDs are definitely more expensive than more standardized SSDs, but the prices are definitely coming down.
 
Last edited:
philrunclimb said:
Hi - thinking of getting one of the 2016 new Macbooks... the people in my local Apple Store said the SSD is wired in and cant be upgraded after market by the customer.... does anyone know if this is correct.

I ask because 128Gb or even 256Gb is way too small ...especially for the long term, and on my previous old style macbook, it was very easy to remove the original spinning drive and replace it with a larger SSD one.

Phil
Click to expand...

As far as upgradability with the rMB: It's kinda like the "iPad" of laptops: No upgradable parts inside. Except perhaps the keyboard parts / screen parts... and (maybe) some other small tidbits... but the RAM / SSD / GPU / etc... it's all part of the "Borg" of computers lol
 
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