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More importantly the M4 Pro model can support up to 8TB. It clearly cannot be achieved by the same dual NAND setup in the teardowns so far (unless Apple goes out of their way to pay for high density NANDs). The Pro has to have a different layout.
If it used the same as Mac Studios before they use two of those modules.
 
If it used the same as Mac Studios before they use two of those modules.
That's my immediate thought, but looking at the teardown, the base M4 is already absolutely packed. It wouldn't surprise me the Pro will have to revert to soldering to save board surface area. But that cannot explain why the base M4 gets a special treatment.
 
I tip my hat to you. I still have my 2012 i7 Fusion drive Mini that lasted me a solid 10 years and only really started giving me issues last year. I got Apple Silicon after that but that was such a solid computer. I haven’t booted it up in awhile but this new one may make me nostalgic.
I also have a 2012 i7 mini. Not running at the moment, but still working (except the SD card slot). Best little machine I've ever owned. Maybe the new mini will be the next in that line? The possibility of upgrading the SSD might be a game changer for me. 16 GB RAM is a must, and that has been sorted out now. Don't care about I, anyway.
 
8TB is unlikely on the regular models as stated by others. I think 2TB is currently the largest available in those 2230/2242 formats.
 
Even if you can upgrade it where are you getting an 8 TB drive in that style cheap enough to make it worthwhile?
You aren’t going to get it cheap but at least now it can be repaired.

BTW, just last month, my friend’s Intel MacBook Air SSD died. It was one of those custom Apple ACHI blade drives. It just so happened I had one lying around so I mailed it to my friend, who was able to fix the machine immediately with it.
 
Even if you can upgrade it where are you getting an 8 TB drive in that style cheap enough to make it worthwhile?
Upgrading it is secondary to it being able to be repaired.

I’m sure Apple will happily sell bigger parts as part of their self service repair program.
 
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let's see how this goes down. If all of a sudden base model users are running 2TB for $600 to $700 total, some people may not be happy. Then again maybe not. There's a return window, and word will get out to the point of everyone knowing how to go about it. You just pay more for it stock. Not a big deal.
 
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Upgrading it is secondary to it being able to be repaired.

I’m sure Apple will happily sell bigger parts as part of their self service repair program.
For the Mac Studio, Apple would usually not sell larger capacity parts, just the same size parts as the original. However, some people were able to acquire larger capacity parts since they are out there. I also think there may have been an oversight in the part ordering process which for a time allowed that too. So the question going forward is how strict Apple will be in enforcing that SSD size rule.
 
Until someone makes a custom one?
OWC was one of the first to sell upgrade/replacement NVME for apple’s unique designs in MacBook models in the past. The lack of soldered down modules makes this possible again, at least I believe. It appears will hinge on current engineering attitudes @ Apple
 
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Whatever costs Apple less is what they are doing

That's the Tim Cook way
But Tim Cook's cheap might be different from average joe buying computers. Tim order those NAND in huge quantities to reduce cost and the NAND being found in the Macs are the exact NANDs found in iPhones. Which means there are parts sharing inside Apple's own supply chain, and this way will be much cheaper for Tim to source standard SSDs from let's say Samsung, as iPhones ships significantly more than Macs.

And FYI: these NANDs are still TLC as on iPhones.
 
It may not be readily "upgradeable", but as we are seeing on the Mac Studio, 3rd party / after market replacements can slowly become available. So it is at least a bit better than direct soldering on the logic board.

you must make some fine lemonade! I dont mean that to sound as snarky as it does, just.. well.. not sure the cost savings of the Mac Studio replacements that may or may not be available is enough for me to risk things getting screwed up. I do back up, but eh, at some point a fast external drive does the job.
 
Yes and no. It won't work as easy as just swap a new one in, but you can upgrade it if you can find the upgrade modules and want to take the risk to void your warranty.
True. But this is (potentially) great news for extending the life of these units down the road when the warranties have expired anyway.
 
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