Mac Studio Teardown Indicates That SSD Storage May Be Upgradeable

[HobeSoundDarryl]

But didnt he say the pins were different from a normal SSD card? OWC will make an upgrade.
Wonder is the price difference will be huge.

If such modules can be made to work, they almost certainly will be MUCH cheaper than Apple OEM. You can see that in all storage upgrade options at OWC now. Throughout the Intel run, those comfortable with some DIY could buy minimum specs from Apple and then "load up" from OWC to max out (sometimes beyond Apple options) RAM and storage.

However, the related question is: will the system software support anything other than Apple OEM? In other words, maybe it's not just plug in another piece of hardware that DOES fit the jack. Something in the system software may need to be activated to support the extra. I recall a few generations of iPods had an FM radio tuner in the off-the-shelf chips Apple was using. But Apple never turned on the option to be able to also tune FM. Perhaps it would be the same here... UNLESS maybe you buy the custom SSD only from Apple and only Apple can do the install?

Since several of these "reviewers" bought several Studios to break down, wouldn't it have been great if ONE of them had simply taken the SSD from one of their spares and tried it in another? I wonder what would have happened if they inserted a spare in the empty jack and booted up?

If it was recognized and usable immediately, the software "key" would already be ON and there would be hope for OWC or similar to deliver clones of the custom SSD card. If it did not work, we would already know that it will require more than replicating the hardware card (SSD) itself. Even now, I wish one of them would simply open a spare Studio, pull its SSD and put it in the empty jack of another Studio to see what happens. Does it "just work" or will this require software/firmware support from Apple to activate... if they are ever motivated to do so?

Unlike the full teardown I saw some do, this doesn't even look that hard to test. It appears both SSD jacks are relatively easily accessible right at the bottom of the device- no full teardown required. I'm well aware that some of them read MR posts, so hopefully one will see this one and make a new video in which they test this out. It looks easy and would actually be a very informative video, perhaps helpful to MANY Studio owners with storage potential questions.

If it does work now, can 2 SSDs be RAID ZERO for even faster storage?

Imagine the ability to max that: 8TB plus 8TB inside that little box... but not at $2200 + $2200.

 

[dandeco]

Now THIS is really good news for the electronics recycling/reselling company I work for. Maybe Apple is now wising up that they could get in trouble with the law for having the SSD soldered to the motherboard. I sure can't wait to tell my boss about this tomorrow! (Funny thing, this week I'm going to be working on a LOT of 2nd-generation MacBook Airs, and any broken ones that won't boot or have some other functionality issue I can remove the SSD from and possibly reuse it in an Air that may not have one installed. (We've stockpiled on quite a few of those SSDs, but each one we do need to wipe among installing in a MacBook Air or Pro Retina, using a Mac OS installer.)

 

[PC_tech]

3th-party SSDs and memory and just as good and sometimes even better than the ones Apple delivers for 50% of the price. Apple doesn't deliver something special though. Besides that those requirements change quicker than CPU, GPU and especially connections ports. By the time you need 128 GB RAM or 8 TB storage other vendors have it for 1/10th the price Apple is selling it now and the SSD might even be faster.

They ARE the same that Apple delivers ….

 

[BeatCrazy]

Now THIS is really good news for the electronics recycling/reselling company I work for. Maybe Apple is now wising up that they could get in trouble with the law for having the SSD soldered to the motherboard. I sure can't wait to tell my boss about this tomorrow! (Funny thing, this week I'm going to be working on a LOT of 2nd-generation MacBook Airs, and any broken ones that won't boot or have some other functionality issue I can remove the SSD from and possibly reuse it in an Air that may not have one installed. (We've stockpiled on quite a few of those SSDs, but each one we do need to wipe among installing in a MacBook Air or Pro Retina, using a Mac OS installer.)

This situation feels a bit like the 2013 trashcan Mac Pro. Proprietary SSDs, but recyclers and (eventually) third parties offered up replacement options. Not cheap, of course. But certainly nice to have more options vs. purely soldered.

 

[cloudphrenia]

This situation feels a bit like the 2013 trashcan Mac Pro. Proprietary SSDs, but recyclers and (eventually) third parties offered up replacement options. Not cheap, of course. But certainly nice to have more options vs. purely soldered.

I had a 2013 Mac Pro. All you needed to do to use off the shelf M.2 SSDs was buy a little $5-10 adapter.

 

[edgefox]

A bit off-topic, but nah, pros want internal storage wherever possible, because it's way, way faster. The only reason to go for external storage is to save money, which is not the main concern for pros (or if it is, you're an aspiring pro at best).

What is a definition of “pro” here? Nearly all the work I do (film/tv) requires offloading and transcoding to multiple hard drives rarely do I do any work that requires writing to the internal. And given that you can build an 8tb external that reads/writes at ~2Gb/s for a little over 1000 bucks it seems silly to pay 2400 more for internal storage. What pro work are you referring to? Is that a music thing?

 

[vault]

Yeah that's a fair point of course. But how much are prices for fast internal SSD storage really going to go down over the next 3-4 years? Yes, you are right in principle, but how big is the difference really. And yes, I could invest these 1000 dollars in stocks now instead of getting more storage, and then in 3 years when I need more storage it might already have become 2000 dollars.

I like your signature, by the way.

They go down a lot, actually. Just not at Apple.

 

[QuarterSwede]

But didnt he say the pins were different from a normal SSD card? OWC will make an upgrade.
Wonder is the price difference will be huge.

From what I remember, it fit the wifi card not the SSD.

 

[HDFan]

A desktop machine build for studio work must not have a soldered SSD; it will degrade much faster at such intense use.

Why do you say that?

And yes, I could invest these 1000 dollars in stocks now instead of getting more storage, and then in 3 years when I need more storage it might already have become 2000 dollars.

or maybe $100. The insane stock prices of the last few years will eventually come to an end. We have been on a high so a low is overdue.

Nearly all the work I do (film/tv) requires offloading and transcoding to multiple hard drives rarely do I do any work that requires writing to the internal.

Given the ~5850/5217 MB/s write/read transfer rates in the MaxTech article of the internal SSDs wouldn't that mean that video work would be much faster having a project on the internal SSDs, assuming it would fit?

 

[BeatCrazy]

I had a 2013 Mac Pro. All you needed to do to use off the shelf M.2 SSDs was buy a little $5-10 adapter.

I did too, but I never got around to replacing the SSD before I sold it. I seem to remember in ~2015, either no one made 1TB SSDs in the M.2 form factor for cheap, or the adapters weren't available?

 

[BGPL]

This is not mainstream PCIe memory anyways, so you'll have to buy the SSDs from Apple, indirectly, from part outs and others that have upgraded. So for repairs it will be good, but for economical upgrades, not really, as you'll still need to buy a more expensive proprietary SSD.

 

[weckart]

I had a 2013 Mac Pro. All you needed to do to use off the shelf M.2 SSDs was buy a little $5-10 adapter.

The problem is that the Studio already uses short form M.2 SSDs. Add an adapter and that space gets even smaller. The only way I can see an adapter working is if it comes with a ribbon plus socket so you can place the SSD elsewhere in that very cramped space.

 

[jz0309]

but these sockets seem proprietary, right? seems stupid unless there are performance benefits
proprietary RAM modules - understand, performance benefits

 

[stevec618]

Great news.

But in general, I don't quite understand the fuss around user-upgradability. Why do storage and memory need to be upgradable? Just buy as much as you need over the machine's lifetime right away. Think you will need 32 GB memory in the future instead of 16 GB? Then just get 32 GB memory now. Think you will eventually need 4 TB storage instead of 2 TB? Then just get 4 TB now.

A machine that is good enough at the time when you buy it will also be good enough five years later.

Eventually after some years, the CPU becomes the bottle neck, and since that is not really replaceable anyway, whenever that point comes, you will need an entirely new machine anyway, not just a memory or storage upgrade.

Not everyone is a fortune-teller.

 

[alien3dx]

Yeah, but when your computer runs out of warranty and your SSD or RAM dies, just buy a new computer, right?

mostly me in 3 years , need to buy new one for safety purpose. even after 1 year warranty period some windows laptop also can be kaput or 2 years.If you just used for home usage no need to.

 

[profcutter]

I think there’s another aspect as well in favor of upgradable storage. If I want an off-the-shelf mode now so I can get started with work, I’m limited in terms of what storage and RAM options are available. Sometimes that can be a difference of several months. Imagine if I could get a stock model, and then upgrade to higher storage in a couple months when chips are available?

 

[ValSalva]

In another of their videos, they tested write speed, which was lower than Apple advertises. Maybe write speed is a casualty of the SSD not being soldered in?

 

[Earl Urley]

Apple is still using the T2 as the storage controller so these NAND modules are very likely not equipped with industry standard controller chips, just straight NAND possibly with a bit of DRAM for caching.

Knowing Apple, there's probably some special authentication protocol in some onboard firmware that tells the T2 it's okay to use this device for storage, since I believe that they will likely sell SSD upgrades the same way they did for the iMac Pro, in keyed pairs that must remain matched to each other (no replacements for single SSDs)

 

[theluggage]

But in general, I don't quite understand the fuss around user-upgradability. Why do storage and memory need to be upgradable? Just buy as much as you need over the machine's lifetime right away.

There's something to that - especially since RAM price-per-MB is no longer plummeting the way it did in the 80s and 90s. If a new application comes along that needs twice as much RAM, the odds are that it will also need the latest CPU and GPU advances, too. Also, low-power LPDDR RAM only comes in surface-mount packages and just isn't upgradeable - there's no equivalent of the DDR4 DIMM stick that you can just plug in. The M1 has also turned having the RAM embedded into the SoC package with the shortest possible connection to the CPU into a performance gain.

Also, Apple are a bit mean with RAM, often low-balling the entry-level module with something like 8GB - which should be enough for "entry level" users but - if you look at the prices of RAM in the general IT market - looks a lot like false economy. Apple have always charged a ridiculous amount for their BTO RAM upgrades - most obviously when you look at the Intel Mac Mini and former iMac which took bog-standard DDR4 SODIMMs that you could get at a fraction of the price retail (i.e. a distributor was eating hot meals and sleeping indoors on the profit margin) from a third party. E.g. with my 2017 iMac I added 16BG to get 24GB for substantially less than Apple wanted for a mere 8-16GB upgrade.

The real sticking point, though, is SSD, because the flash memory in SSD is perishable - it can only be written to a limited number of times before it degrades. Although the limit is fairly huge and should be enough for it to outlast the computer under "normal" use, it is always conceivable that a software problem will prematurely "age" it. Also, the reliability comparison is often between a SSD drive and the mean-time-between-failures of a mechanical hard drive, which is a pretty low bar - nobody in their right mind would design a serious computer where you couldn't replace the hard drive.

The removable SSDs in the Studio are good news if only because it means that a failed SSD will be replaceable without a whole new logic board (as on the MacBooks) even if that has to be done by Apple.

But didnt he say the pins were different from a normal SSD card? OWC will make an upgrade.

...and Apple will need to provide a way for regular users to "register" the new SSD with the M1's controller. Apple do offer DIY SSD upgrades for the Mac Pro (at their usual reassuringly expensive prices), but you need a second Mac and Apple Configurator software to do it, so it is entirely down to Apple.

I don't think OWC have produced any SSD upgrades for Macs released since Apple switched from standard NVME interfaces to having the controller in the T2 chip (and then in the M1 SoC) - although that's kinda moot for MacBooks which switched to soldered-in SSDs about the same time.

 

[satchmo]

Maybe this is what Apple meant by modular…but I doubt it.

 

[theluggage]

The problem is that the Studio already uses short form M.2 SSDs.

They're (probably) not M.2 which uses either a SATA or NVME (PCie) interface - Macs have a proprietary SSD controller integrated into the SoC - which also does a lot of security/encryption stuff requiring the SSD to be 'registered' with the SoC. Maybe they're sort-of-PCIe but they're probably not standard SSDs.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Given the ~5850/5217 MB/s write/read transfer rates in the MaxTech article of the internal SSDs wouldn't that mean that video work would be much faster having a project on the internal SSDs, assuming it would fit?

That's my thinking. In all of the loud WHINE about Apple SSD pricing, it feels like most are missing that this seems to be about the FASTEST SSD speeds generally available. Many seem to be wanting to go minimal internal storage and pile it up outside but I wonder if they can get any kind of comparable speeds outside for the same or less, even with some RAID options. I've seen lots of "super fast" reviews of various SSD cases and sticks... but super fast is apparently defined as up into the 2X00 READ speeds, which is about HALF these speeds.

Part of my interest in this discovery is could we get up to 16TB of Apple-fast SSD speed inside the Studio. If so, perhaps use it like slow RAM for video production? Bring the project inside to utilize the max speed while editing, then maybe store it outside when not working on it to free up the fastest SSD(s) for the next project?

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

$2,000 computer comes with 512GB of memory. To get more is, what, $400 upgrade at this time? More than that gets more exponential?

My wife makes music with her MacBookAir. Brilliant machine for that. It can handle multiple tracks, it can handle editing small videos of 5 minutes or less. But that is a lot of content. We paid extra for 512GB just to have the buffer needed to load libraries and offload larger files to external disks. Not entirely convenient. But acceptable for the form factor of a laptop.

This Studio is marketed as a workhouse, though. And 512GB with a huge premium to upgrade just ain't gonna cut it. We are all Mac here tentatively, because it's the best option right now at a certain range. But starting to charge a lot for internal upgrades starts to defeat that reasoning. Storage is very important to content creators. And building up an in-house Synology raid is an option, but feels more than a bit pointless considering the technology exists that we don't really need to.

There is no reason not to have an upgradeable storage slot on a machine as highly engineered as this. No reason other than Apple made the deliberate and specific decision not to do so.

The floppy disk was the format standard for something like 15 years. We all celebrated how brilliant it was that Apple led the charge in removing it. But consider. The old floppy mechanisms were bulletproof. They held that disk in there and kept it connected pretty solidly. What if we had the same form factor with PCIe 4 connections and NAND floppies with 2TB?

 

[edgefox]

Why do you say that?



or maybe $100. The insane stock prices of the last few years will eventually come to an end. We have been on a high so a low is overdue.



Given the ~5850/5217 MB/s write/read transfer rates in the MaxTech article of the internal SSDs wouldn't that mean that video work would be much faster having a project on the internal SSDs, assuming it would fit?

Realistically on nearly every project I do we average 4tb a day even in commercial world that might be less than two days loading that much on to an Internal to then offload onto an external for delivery negates any time you would save. Maybe if you only do short films so you want to have full res footage for playback and can fit an entire project on the system? But realistically any professional project will need more than 8tb of storage, unless you transcode to a smaller file size at which point, why would you need 5GB read/write?

 

[4nNtt]

I was wondering what would happen with the second SSD controller the Ultra would have. Now we know. Too bad there isn’t a striped mode that can double the performance of the SSD. I’m sure we’ll see upgrade kits from OWC. The connector will obviously be proprietary because the controller is on the CPU (which is why they perform better then m.2), but the chips on these cards should be pretty standard.