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M1/M2/M3 Macs user memory upgrades by soldering - blocked by Apple?
- Thread starter islack
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No, they haven't and they use genuine chips (the same ones Apple uses), so the computer and OS doesn't know the difference. This has been a thing with iPhones for a decade.
Yes it's possible, but 99.99% of people are unable to solder BGA chips.
Yes it's possible, but 99.99% of people are unable to solder BGA chips.
I get where your heart is, but unless you’ve done this kind of work before I think it would be a mistake to do it.
Who the hell is realistically going to do this?
You’d spend more money on the proper tools and the potential of destroying the device than if you just bought the damn config you need in the first place.
You’d spend more money on the proper tools and the potential of destroying the device than if you just bought the damn config you need in the first place.
Depends on what you're upgrading to. Apple charges a ridiculous $1200 for 4TB when fast NVME PCIE 4.0 SSD is now $200 on sale. I'm sure someone can make a business here if they're good at it. Of course warranty is out the window lol. If the SSD on my M1Max MBP 16 ever goes out and the rest of the logic board is still good, I would consider it.
Who in their right mind is going to take the risk of destroying $2K+ of computer over this?
This is an insane idea. You’re going to take the chips off the $200 NVME drive, then transplant them?
Apple charges $700 for logic board repair out of warranty. If my M1Max SSD ever dies, then I would consider doing this option as I would pay the same and get a much larger SSD. You can also buy the raw chips from Alibaba/aliexpress. People have been doing this with iPhones already to upgrade the stock storage.
Who is stupid enough to adopt a business model with such a huge amount of risk? Let alone the potential customer pool is astonishingly small.
In Shenzhen China they have a business "model" doing this, but they have the benefit of already having these tools due to how condense of an IT (hardware) area it is, and also proximity to the actual supply chain that serves Apple. Their labour cost being relatively cheap compared to Apple product price may also play a role.
But yeah you are right about the rest of the world, the math doesn't add up.
Oh Shenzen is an absolutely amazing place. It’s basically the hardware parts bin of the world. So much so that you often seen “cheap” gadgets and companies come and go by the month, with some making some impressive products. If you have an idea, the sheer quantity of components along with an abundant amount of people that *actually know how to design, assemble, and manufacture them into systems* means you can launch just about anything with an enormously lower barrier to entry than just about anywhere in the world.
I can see someone buying a used 4-6yo Mac doing this in a 3rd party repair shop that offers the service.
Persons with used M1 models would be doing this as early as 12 months from now.
Cheap skill labor with cheap available parts and cheaper overhead are plentiful there.
It's pretty trivial with a good soldering station and some practice. BGA soldering isn't something exotic for someone in the electronics repair world. The problem is sourcing the correct NAND flash and RAM because Apple have locked down the supply channel, so no one can get pin compatible chips.
The stuff on Alibaba and Aliexpress are used and second-hand, so you are not getting new NAND flash chips.
The stuff on Alibaba and Aliexpress are used and second-hand, so you are not getting new NAND flash chips.
Here is a video with a technician in China upgrading an M3 14" to 2TB. He didn't say where the NANDs are from, he just said "new chips", doesn't look like the NANDs are stripped from donor boards. Just with a heat gun and eyeballing is already enough for this board, no need to add resistance which should be required on Pro / Max boards if you go from unpopulated slots to populated.
More YouTube clickbait drivel from a usual suspect, Luke. Not really practical for most people to attempt.
I suppose a hobbyist who enjoys this sort of thing might do it. But yeah, for a regular person, too much work and too much risk.
Anybody can buy the tools and parts anywhere in the world. It’s the lack of technical skill from people outside China. You can do this upgrade in most major cities in China, not just Shenzhen.
Everybody in China knows someone in electronics design or manufacturing. It’s like the ease of finding someone who knows how to modify a firearm in the U.S. Nobody knows how to do that in China, but there’s a good chance the girl at the mall knows how to reball a BGA NAND chip.
if your in new york a place does this upgrade in Brooklyn called L2
Location
They quoted me 550$ to do a 2TB upgrade (only option). Too much for the risk of breaking a board and I don't like there reviews, where people seemed to have had issues with other work they have done.
Location
They quoted me 550$ to do a 2TB upgrade (only option). Too much for the risk of breaking a board and I don't like there reviews, where people seemed to have had issues with other work they have done.
Buddy, you realize the mac has usb ports where you can plug external memories right?
I just got a 256gb m2 mac mini and I have barely used any space since I set up all my apps to store data, cache, etc on a external USB hard drive. there's also a lot of thunderbolt to M.2 adapters on amazon like, just work smart
Using external storage with a Mac mini I can understand. I dunno about you, but I don't like using external drives with laptops, defeats the purpose for me.
Me, once the warranty expires on my M1 MBA currently with 256GB.
No donor boards are involved. That was the mistake the first youtubers made - assuming that you had to use chips from another Mac. Those chips are already tied to a Mac and can't be moved. What you actually need are completely blank brand new chips.
That's so cool. So much for Apple using "special NAND chips". I bet those chips didn't cost anywhere near the Apple ripoff $600 price. I wish I was that handy soldering SMD/BGA. My modding days stopped when I used to solder in blue/white LED's on Nokias and PS2 mod chips 20 or so years ago.
I'm a bit confused. On the Studio, where the chips are slotted, the SSD controllers are on-die, so those slotted chips are just raw NAND. So what's going on with the Mini? Isn't its SSD controller on-die as well? If so, what you'd need for the upgrade wouldn't be simply an aftermarket SSD, but raw NAND without the controller. And wouldn't the latter be tricky to source?
This might be interesting to do for an older device that you own and would otherwise need to get rid of because you'd outgrown its storage. But if you just wanted to save money on a device you're buying now, it seems safer and more cost-effective to instead buy a used device with the storage you need from one generation ago.
For instance, a new M2 Mini with 16 GB RAM and a 2 TB SSD is currently $1,600. But I've seen sold listings on eBay for an M1 with those specs for $700. And when the M3 Mini comes out, similar deals will be available on the M2.
This might be interesting to do for an older device that you own and would otherwise need to get rid of because you'd outgrown its storage. But if you just wanted to save money on a device you're buying now, it seems safer and more cost-effective to instead buy a used device with the storage you need from one generation ago.
For instance, a new M2 Mini with 16 GB RAM and a 2 TB SSD is currently $1,600. But I've seen sold listings on eBay for an M1 with those specs for $700. And when the M3 Mini comes out, similar deals will be available on the M2.
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