Memory upgrade M1 iMac? Anyone tried?

[Sledneck52]

I know the memory is soldered to the board but has anyone tried to upgrade from the 8GB to 16GB?
Are the LPDDR4 chips available to purchase?
I figured someone might have tried it by now.

 

[cmaier]

I know the memory is soldered to the board but has anyone tried to upgrade from the 8GB to 16GB?
Are the LPDDR4 chips available to purchase?
I figured someone might have tried it by now.

It can’t be done. They are not soldered to the board - they are inside the M1 chip’s package. And they are not standard - the pin count is way higher than normal.

 

[Sledneck52]

It can’t be done. They are not soldered to the board - they are inside the M1 chip’s package. And they are not standard - the pin count is way higher than normal.

Okay. I was looking at the pictures of the board on ifixit and couldn’t tell if they were separate chips on the board. If they were I figured someone would have tried it by now.

 

[apple2me]

I remember this article which said it may be possible but not that practical:

M1 Mac RAM and SSD Upgrades Found to Be Possible After Purchase

Technicians in China have reportedly succeeded in upgrading the memory and storage of the M1 chip, suggesting that Apple's integrated custom...

www.macrumors.com

 

[cmaier]

Okay. I was looking at the pictures of the board on ifixit and couldn’t tell if they were separate chips on the board. If they were I figured someone would have tried it by now.

it *can* be done, but you need to use the right ram, and it’s extraordinarily complicated to do. But the fact that you can spend more than the cost of the entire machine to have professionals with special equipment do something isn’t that interesting.

 

[Sledneck52]

it *can* be done, but you need to use the right ram, and it’s extraordinarily complicated to do. But the fact that you can spend more than the cost of the entire machine to have professionals with special equipment do something isn’t that interesting.

People buy brand new iPhone pros and perform “drop tests” to see when it will break.. never underestimate the will of stupid people 🤷🏻‍♂️😂

 

[leman]

I know the memory is soldered to the board but has anyone tried to upgrade from the 8GB to 16GB?

It has been allegedly done by some Chinese folks. Whether it worked or not, who knows. At any rate, it's not interesting for the end customer as buying it preconfigured from Apple is sign to be much cheaper.

Are the LPDDR4 chips available to purchase?

No, since Apple uses completely custom RAM modules with a non-standard pin layout. Their RAM is much more energy efficient than the regular LPDDR4. So the only way to procure these modules is from a 16GB M1 Mac.

 

[mi7chy]

No, since Apple uses completely custom RAM modules with a non-standard pin layout. Their RAM is much more energy efficient than the regular LPDDR4. So the only way to procure these modules is from a 16GB M1 Mac.

It's just off the shelf LPDDR4X-4266 from Hynix but Samsung has it too. RAM manufacturers don't deviate from JEDEC standards for one customer.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1378721039086067714

 

[leman]

It's just off the shelf LPDDR4X-4266 from Hynix but Samsung has it too. RAM manufacturers don't deviate from JEDEC standards for one customer.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1378721039086067714

Which parts are those? All commercially available LPDDR4X I can find are BGA200 packages. Chips that Apple uses seem to have over 800 pins (this is clearly visible on the image you have linked). I know nothing of JEDEC standards or whether it mandates how many pins RAM should use but I can’t find anything even remotely resembling this particular flavor of LPDDR4.

 

[jdb8167]

Which parts are those? All commercially available LPDDR4X I can find are BGA200 packages. Chips that Apple uses seem to have over 800 pins (this is clearly visible on the image you have linked). I know nothing of JEDEC standards or whether it mandates how many pins RAM should use but I can’t find anything even remotely resembling this particular flavor of LPDDR4.

They might be available in China. We don't know for sure if they are actually custom. A lot of high end electronic parts are hard to source in the US and Europe.