Teardown reveals SSD ports, these are not soldered down
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Mac Studio Teardown: THE SSDs ARE UPGRADEABLE!!! (Edit: No, it's not)
- Thread starter dfelix
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Teardown reveals SSD ports, these are not soldered down
Does not mean you can upgrade them. Maybe an Apple certified repair center could with the right software.
Someone like OWC will make them. Someone in China will find the OEMs or B-stocks and sell them on Aliexpress.
The SSDs on T2 Macs are paired to the SoC, I would expect the M1 Macs to be the same.
The Mac Pro is a T2 mac. Apple itself sells SSD kits for it.
As long as it's not soldered but socketed instead, there is hope.
Pretty sure it has two SSD ports for those who want to max them 8TB. I won't be surprised if you open one with 8TB, you will see both SSD ports in use, each one with a 4TB SSD and "IF" by any chance that port can be used to upgrade the storage, I'm almost 100% that some sort of firmware/BIOS trick has to be done by Apple and only Apple for the second SSD been recognized.
If you want to upgrade your SSDs you have to buy the Apple kit, there are no third party solutions, and you have to have a second Mac handy to run the configuration software they provide to pair the SSD to the T2 SoC.
Wonder what the process is then to upgrade the ssds if they are shown like that in tear down. Blessing in disguise
To be fair, the middle third (where the thermal paste residue & Apple logo are visible) is the M1 Ultra, top & bottom thirds are the RAM chips...
Not a fair comparison since that isn't really chip size rather the die size. The die includes the M1 chip and the RAM chips which isn't the case on the AMD chip.
I think the problem is greater than just the lock (though that is major issue), I am pretty sure the T2 and M1 SSD interfaces are non-standard. I think some of the controller logic is embedded in the Apple SoC.
The die on the AMD chip is also nowhere close to that size as that is the IHS
I think the exciting news is that you won't have to pay for a logic board replacement if the SSD craps out. Even if Apple is the only source of these SSDs, it's possible to replace one -- unlike on the MBP.
Let's see how long it takes before someone attempts an upgrade, and what the outcome will be.
Misleading title. It's "serviceable" to benefit Apple so they don't have to replace the whole main board but it doesn't benefit the customer in the sense that you can swap in cost competitive off-the-shelf NVMe SSD.
I'm still waiting to see if Max Tech was able to reassemble it or if the M1 Ultra is a new coaster.
Technically, if it can replaced it can be replaced with a larger unit. Which means it is, in fact, "upgradable". Apple's reasoning or planned usage doesn't change that fact. I imagine at some point, someone is going to figure out to swap theirs out. Or if one dies, put a bigger one in as it's replacement.
I would think the 512GB SSD option is a single card, 1TB & higher would be two cards; two x 512GB cards for a 1TB SSD, two x 1TB cards for a 2TB SSD, etc. ...?
It's upgradable but is it user upgradable? I don't think so. I doubt Apple will sell the parts to anyone but an authorized repair facility.
