Upgrading Mac Studio storage

[Molecular1958]

Please don't tell me I missed it.

Nope. rushed to the site and... out of stock again 😅
Looks like things are taking longer than expected. Keep in mind @gilles_polysoft is a small team doing a lot — reverse engineering, prototyping, small-batch production, and (thankfully!) solid quality control.


I want my M4 baby too, but honestly, I’d rather wait and get something reliable than rush and regret. 💪

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Against my better judgment, i ordered a M2 Studio since amazon has this crazy deal of 899 and it should arrive soon.

So checking the polysoft site and reading this thread, i am under the impression that polysoft doesnt sell any compatible ssds for M2 Studios?

Hello,
We are reopening orders in a few days !

Sorry, as already explained above, the factory had a small technical problem with the manufacture of the M2/M3/M4 cards for the third batch. They struggled with BGA soldering settings, because of the the seven different physical sizes of the NANDs we use.
We had to send all M2/M3/M4 cards back to the factory, which has now corrected everything : all customers who ordered studio drives for M1 for the third batch have already received them (they were not affected), and we will be sending out the kits for customers who ordered studio drives for M2/M3/M4 between Monday and Wednesday.

I also took the opportunity to make a change to the website so that customers receive more accurate notifications of the delivery date for each batch.

The PCBs for batches 4 and 5 have already been manufactured (496 PCBs) and we were waiting for the assembly problem to be corrected before restarting assembly. We will open orders at the beginning of next week.

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Lets go back to your statement, thousands of macbooks, iphones and iMacs? Please backup your statement of fact.

This number is literally underestimated.

I'm not going to talk about NVMe SSD upgrades here (I contributed extensively to the thread here).

I'm going to limit myself strictly to talking exclusively about upgrades of NANDs soldered and glued with epoxy on Apple hardware.
Whether they are BGA60s from iPhones 5 to 6, BGA70s from iPhone 6s to 7, BGA110s from iPhones 8 to 13, and BGA 315s from iPhones since 14, in Shenzhen, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, dozens of repairers have been each one replacing hundreds to thousands of soldered NAND chips on iPhones on every street corner for the past ten years or so.


In the US, I can obviously mention Colin (@dosdude1 ), in France I personally know at least two colleagues (Quentin Wagner and Jean Amaral de Oliveira), and in Germany Stephan Steins and Robert Lindeneau.

All workshops and repairers use NANDs that are absolutely original, either new or used (pulled).
Whether they are Kioxia, Hynix, Sandisk, or Samsung brand, all of these NANDs are "plane" TLCs supplied by the manufacturer but incorporate an Apple-designed ARM processor CPU in their package that is common to all models., currently in version "S5e".
NAND compatibility is very strict, and "compatible", not genuine, NANDs cannot be used under any circumstances to this date.
Only original NANDs of specific models must be used.
I am publishing a compatibility table here.

 

[Surenmunoo]

Who knows what's the size of the SLC cache on the 8TB M4 drives from @gilles_polysoft. Just trying to get a better understanding of what the speed drops might end up being if transferring big files. I highly doubt I will ever transfer a file bigger than 50GB at any time, but you never know.

 

[KlingmannMusic]

Who knows what's the size of the SLC cache on the 8TB M4 drives from @gilles_polysoft. Just trying to get a better understanding of what the speed drops might end up being if transferring big files. I highly doubt I will ever transfer a file bigger than 50GB at any time, but you never know.

Seeing how they are identical apart from the additional voltage regulator I would assume they have exactly the same as the Apple provided ones?

 

[Surenmunoo]

Seeing how they are identical apart from the additional voltage regulator I would assume they have exactly the same as the Apple provided ones?

Thanks, I assumed as much but just wanted some clarity. Even Apple does not disclose their SLC size on their drives. I could not find any information on it.

 

[neomorpheus]

Hello,
We are reopening orders in a few days !

Sorry, as already explained above, the factory had a small technical problem with the manufacture of the M2/M3/M4 cards for the third batch. They struggled with BGA soldering settings, because of the the seven different physical sizes of the NANDs we use.
We had to send all M2/M3/M4 cards back to the factory, which has now corrected everything : all customers who ordered studio drives for M1 for the third batch have already received them (they were not affected), and we will be sending out the kits for customers who ordered studio drives for M2/M3/M4 between Monday and Wednesday.

I also took the opportunity to make a change to the website so that customers receive more accurate notifications of the delivery date for each batch.

The PCBs for batches 4 and 5 have already been manufactured (496 PCBs) and we were waiting for the assembly problem to be corrected before restarting assembly. We will open orders at the beginning of next week.

Thanks for the update.

It was just a matter of cleaning the front page of your sote to include the M2 next to the others.

Hopefully the manufacturing issue is resolved for good, so you can keep selling more units.

 

[Chancha]

Thanks, I assumed as much but just wanted some clarity. Even Apple does not disclose their SLC size on their drives. I could not find any information on it.

So far even on proper original Apple BTO SSD configs of 8/16TB, it is hard to find much if anyone doing tests that tries to find the SLC limit. I have seen these kind of test in videos for M4 Mac mini though. I guess people who do have the higher configs bought straight from Apple are the people who don't have time to "waste" on anything other than their work.

 

[KlingmannMusic]

We will open orders at the beginning of next week.

Hey @gilles_polysoft , I really don't want to bug you about that as I understand that quality control and soldering of these many units probably is quite an undertaking, however I really don't want to miss out. Did you mean the now coming week with that?

 

[kevamir]

Hello @gilles_polysoft , I'm reaching out about my order placed on June 10, 2025. It's been almost two months, and while I have an order confirmation and payment was accepted, I haven't received any updates or response to my inquiries via your website and email.

I understand there are delays, but the website hasn't updated the order information. Could you please provide an estimated shipping date or let me know which batch my order is in?
Thank you.

 

[gerpytorrone]

Hello @gilles_polysoft , I'm reaching out about my order placed on June 10, 2025. It's been almost two months, and while I have an order confirmation and payment was accepted, I haven't received any updates or response to my inquiries via your website and email.

I understand there are delays, but the website hasn't updated the order information. Could you please provide an estimated shipping date or let me know which batch my order is in?
Thank you.

I don't think most people realize what an utter nightmare this Polysoft business is. Unfortunately they're the only game in town, so they can continue to exist despite operating like this. Just give them your money and wait without any contact for months on end hoping they actually deliver the product you paid for and that the product actually works. I have my doubts about if this "batch" will be salvageable at all, and how functional they'll be with allegedly how poorly they have been manufactured.

How many new delays have happened over the past few months? I've heard various excuses from colleagues and ever moving date changes ("don't worry we'll ship it next week", except they won't). It's probably less embarrassing for them to not send any updates for months rather than disclosing what's actually going on behind the scenes.

At least Giles realizes to some degree to how badly he's fscked up and at least isn't ripping off a whole new "batch" of orders.

 

[pshufd]

I don't think most people realize what an utter nightmare this Polysoft business is. Unfortunately they're the only game in town, so they can continue to exist despite operating like this. Just give them your money and wait without any contact for months on end hoping they actually deliver the product you paid for and that the product actually works. I have my doubts about if this "batch" will be salvageable at all, and how functional they'll be with allegedly how poorly they have been manufactured.

How many new delays have happened over the past few months? I've heard various excuses from colleagues and ever moving date changes ("don't worry we'll ship it next week", except they won't). It's probably less embarrassing for them to not send any updates for months rather than disclosing what's actually going on behind the scenes.

At least Giles realizes to some degree to how badly he's fscked up and at least isn't ripping off a whole new "batch" of orders.

I think that a lot of Kickstarter projects are like this and the key to survival is if you can fix the issues. It's pretty rough stuff getting a small business off the ground if you don't already have paying customers.

 

[Molecular1958]

I get the frustration — really. Waiting weeks or months without updates is tough, especially when communication is limited. But I think it’s worth distinguishing between a large-scale IT manufacturer and a small, craft-style operation like Polysoft. This isn’t Dell or Apple; it’s closer to what you find on Kickstarter: a small team juggling reverse engineering, testing, custom builds, and yes, handling communications — all while also running a repair shop. Every extra task takes a toll.


That said, I agree the lack of a clear, regularly updated status page is part of the problem. The shop page does now show availability and estimated shipping windows, which is a good step. Still, a dedicated page for batch status and production updates would go a long way to build trust and reduce frustration.


At the end of the day, buying from a small, niche company like this is a bit of a bet. Personally, I’d rather wait longer and receive something made right than get a rushed, mass-produced part that doesn’t deliver. But I totally respect that not everyone has the time, patience, or context for that kind of risk — and clearer updates would help everyone.

 

[Surenmunoo]

I got tired of waiting and ordered an Acasis TB5 external enclosure. I have seen some good speeds come out of it and will use it on my M4 Studio. I will pair that with a Samsung 990Pro 4TB

 

[KlingmannMusic]

I got tired of waiting and ordered an Acasis TB5 external enclosure. I have seen some good speeds come out of it and will use it on my M4 Studio. I will pair that with a Samsung 990Pro 4TB

Did the exact same thing in the meanwhile so I can install audio libraries already. Still waiting for the upgrade though.

 

[Molecular1958]

Did the same here — grabbed the Acasis 4-bay 40Gbps TB4/TB3 RAID enclosure. Loaded it with a mix of recycled SSDs and moved my OS + audio libraries over. It works well for now... but I’m still holding out for that sweet 8TB Polysoft drive 😅
Feels like the eternal wait, but hopefully worth it in the end!

 

[maflynn]

I got tired of waiting and ordered an Acasis TB5 external enclosure. I have seen some good speeds come out of it and will use it on my M4 Studio. I will pair that with a Samsung 990Pro 4TB

Overall given the fast speeds of TB5, there really isn't much of any downsides from using external drives, vs. the internal drive. The use of symlinks can also allow files/folders to exist on the external drive where normally an application expects it in ~/Library. My Crossover library, is one such example.

I'm still tempted/contemplating an internal storage upgrade, but ATM I see no need to spend the money or take the risk of opening up my Studio.

 

[KlingmannMusic]

Overall given the fast speeds of TB5, there really isn't much of any downsides from using external drives, vs. the internal drive. The use of symlinks can also allow files/folders to exist on the external drive where normally an application expects it in ~/Library. My Crossover library, is one such example.

I'm still tempted/contemplating an internal storage upgrade, but ATM I see no need to spend the money or take the risk of opening up my Studio.

I don’t really want to move the AU or VST3 directories of logic though and unfortunately some of those libraries in there can get quite big and can’t be installed elsewhere (looking at you NeuralDSP, yes, YOU).

Is 8TB internal necessary? Probably not but if I’m upgrading from 512GB then definitely not for the measly 4TB.

 

[maflynn]

I don’t really want to move the AU or VST3 directories of logic though

I get it, my use case is not everyone's use case, but I think the days of external storage being significantly slower are gone. My drive is as fast as the internal drive and if your workflow can support the use of external drives, then that's just another option

In a weird way, this is where the trash barrel mac was ahead of its time (in a twisted perspective). With no real internal expansion for drives, apple expected us to use external drives. I remember how folks in the mac pro forum justified it saying if you're a true professional, then you don't need internal storage, you're working off a NAS anyways. Many of those same folks heralded the new Mac Pro in 2019 with drive expansion options. Anyways the idea of external storage being nearly the same as internal has finally arrived with TB5 imo

 

[pshufd]

I get it, my use case is not everyone's use case, but I think the days of external storage being significantly slower are gone. My drive is as fast as the internal drive and if your workflow can support the use of external drives, then that's just another option

In a weird way, this is where the trash barrel mac was ahead of its time (in a twisted perspective). With no real internal expansion for drives, apple expected us to use external drives. I remember how folks in the mac pro forum justified it saying if you're a true professional, then you don't need internal storage, you're working off a NAS anyways. Many of those same folks heralded the new Mac Pro in 2019 with drive expansion options. Anyways the idea of external storage being nearly the same as internal has finally arrived with TB5 imo

This will change when Apple supports NVMe 5 on internal drives to catch up with midrange and high-end Windows PCs. I have not seen any announcements of a TB6 standard to catch up for external drives.

 

[Surenmunoo]

Overall given the fast speeds of TB5, there really isn't much of any downsides from using external drives, vs. the internal drive. The use of symlinks can also allow files/folders to exist on the external drive where normally an application expects it in ~/Library. My Crossover library, is one such example.

I'm still tempted/contemplating an internal storage upgrade, but ATM I see no need to spend the money or take the risk of opening up my Studio.

While I wait for the Acasis enclosure to arrive, I am using the Acasis TB4 enclosure with the Samsung 990Pro and booting off that. Speeds are much slower compared to internal 512GB but it is okay for now. I am checking Polysoft site daily for stock but nothing. If the speeds on the TB5 enclosure hits 6000mbps and over then I might just forget about upgrading the internal as I worked from external drive on M2 for 2 years before selling it. I still got the Mackintosh which is blazing fast enough.

 

[neomorpheus]

I get it, my use case is not everyone's use case, but I think the days of external storage being significantly slower are gone. My drive is as fast as the internal drive and if your workflow can support the use of external drives, then that's just another option

In a weird way, this is where the trash barrel mac was ahead of its time (in a twisted perspective). With no real internal expansion for drives, apple expected us to use external drives. I remember how folks in the mac pro forum justified it saying if you're a true professional, then you don't need internal storage, you're working off a NAS anyways. Many of those same folks heralded the new Mac Pro in 2019 with drive expansion options. Anyways the idea of external storage being nearly the same as internal has finally arrived with TB5 imo

Im sorry but us being forced to use external drives just because of apples greed its a ugly hack.

Not to mention, desks were incredibly messy thanks to all of those that used multiple external drives.

We have PCs that are small yet have at least 2-3 easily accessible nvme slots.

This is not cute:

https://i.redd.it/sjuveowyzvw31.png

www.reddit.com

 

[maflynn]

Im sorry but us being forced to use external drives just because of apples greed its a ugly hack.

I don't see it as an ugly hack and to be honest, that seems like an extreme take. I'm not defending apple's aggressive and predatory pricing for storage upgrades but using an external drive is not a hack, and has a number of upsides

The bottom line is, if you don't like how Apple does business, or using external drives, you have options. I'm pointing out with TB5, my external drive is now as fast as my internal drive and its been working great.

We have PCs that are small yet have at least 2-3 easily accessible nvme slots.

Yes, no argument. I have a desktop PC sitting next to my mac unused, but its also a heat pump, drawing 600 watts, and I have to deal with advertisements, and Microsoft wanting to capture every mouse and keyboard action (Recall). Plus that PC also had external drives attached to it, because even with internal NVME slots, there's still a need for external drives, i.e., backups.

This is not cute:

Correct. its not cute, however what you show is not typical. I can search the internet for the most ugly case, and PC setup and to justify the Mac but what will that prove?

Here's my setup, I have one TB5 drive showing and I have another external drive no visible behind the studio as my time machine backup.

 

[pshufd]

I get it, my use case is not everyone's use case, but I think the days of external storage being significantly slower are gone. My drive is as fast as the internal drive and if your workflow can support the use of external drives, then that's just another option

In a weird way, this is where the trash barrel mac was ahead of its time (in a twisted perspective). With no real internal expansion for drives, apple expected us to use external drives. I remember how folks in the mac pro forum justified it saying if you're a true professional, then you don't need internal storage, you're working off a NAS anyways. Many of those same folks heralded the new Mac Pro in 2019 with drive expansion options. Anyways the idea of external storage being nearly the same as internal has finally arrived with TB5 imo

I was just reading an article about PCIe 6.0 and it claimed that there would be devices for it this year. I see zero evidence of this though I could see PCIe 6.0 motherboards in 2027. AMD announced PCIe 6.0 support for AM6. PCIe 6.0 doubles gen 5 bandwidth. I've not heard anything from Intel on Thunderbolt 6.

Now who needs PCIe Gen 6? I'd guess the AI folks as I assume that nVidia and AMD will provide support when motherboards and CPUs support it.

I pulled my i7-10700 motherboard out of my case yesterday and plan to put the 9900x motherboard in tonight and test it out on a test bench setup to install Windows and then Windows Updates which may take a few days. I'll need to get the drivers too. My old box only has a 550 watt PSU but I'm just going to use the integrated graphics port for the setup. Once Windows 11 is running well, we can put it into the other case and I can say goodbye. I will run some benchmarks on it for performance, power consumption and thermals as I may get one of these for myself too.

 

[neomorpheus]

I'm not defending apple's aggressive and predatory pricing for storage upgrades but using an external drive is not a hack, and has a number of upsides

It is a hack since its forced.
And you conveniently left the part that it does has many downsides, like suddenly getting drives dropped by the OS.

The bottom line is, if you don't like how Apple does business, or using external drives, you have options.

Ah, there it is.

I'm pointing out with TB5, my external drive is now as fast as my internal drive and its been working great.

TB5 its extremely rare today because its still very new but there are differences between internal and external drives, besides the physical implementation and perhaps limitations.

but its also a heat pump, drawing 600 watts, and I have to deal with advertisements, and Microsoft wanting to capture every mouse and keyboard action (Recall). Plus that PC also had external drives attached to it, because even with internal NVME slots, there's still a need for external drives, i.e., backups.

Whataboutism is such a low excuse especially when generalizing at that scale. Not all PCs are 600W power sucking monsters and actually, some that consume that amount is because they have a GPU that its producing results justifying such consumption.

And no, not making any excuses for Windows because it does has turned into a mess.

however what you show is not typical.

Trust me, it was very typical at many work places.

Just on one of my supported offices at the tv channel i work, i had over 20 similar deployments.

Many ended being replaced by NetApps appliances but some still needed to keep such arrangements.

And now have less of those since we get the option to pay obscenely high storage prices at purchase time.

Anyways, this has gone enough off topic and wont continue doing so, since its unnecessary .