It’s been that way since Apple started soldering storage back in 2015 (MacBook) and ramped it up in 2016 (MacBook Pro).
MaxTech did a teardown and the storage is socketed. It’s proprietary, but not as dire as soldered storage.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
SSD in Mac Studio: is it upgradable?
- Thread starter Cham2000
- Start date
-
- Tags
- ssd studio upgradable macs
- Sort by reaction score
MaxTech did a teardown and the storage is socketed. It’s proprietary, but not as dire as soldered storage.
Very interesting. Too bad they didn't put the SSD from their second Studio in the first to see what happens.
And it is remained to be seen if all variant - meaning from the "low cost version" with M1 MAX to the high end has the same layout of the logic board.
Probably yes for now but that could be a case to cut production costs after they figure you how many of each version the market wants.
Probably yes for now but that could be a case to cut production costs after they figure you how many of each version the market wants.
Even if the base Studio only has one slot, it's still removable and therefore theoretically upgradable.
I get what they’re trying to do security wise, but not offering an easy way to upgrade even their proprietary storage because they keep changing form factors gets old. I would even be okay with an onboard m.2 slot, as long as people understand here that it wouldn’t be bootable. But the bitching and moaning on these forums would be inescapable.
Doesn't seem particularly hard to access the slots. I expect there will be 3rd party drives within the year because these will probably be used on the upcoming Mac Pro as well; the MacPro will have a lot more internal space so accessing those SSDs will be pretty easy by comparison. Considering there isn't a separate soldered drive, these will be bootable as well.
But they’re not “drives”, they’re dumb NAND with no controller. The only way we’ll get them is if Apple offers them for sale as they have with the 2019 Mac Pro. There won’t be third party drives for the Mac Studio that fit that slot ever, exactly same as the 2019 Mac Pro. Booting is the Provence of the SSD controller that Apple builds as is located on the logic board of the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro. Apple is t about to open that up to third parties.
My 2014 MBP used a proprietary SSD connector, but you could get a 3rd party replacement/upgrade for it.
It had a Samsung controller on the blade, Apple doesn’t do that anymore, the blade is just raw NAND chips and the SSD controller sits on the motherboard.
Meh, it will be fine. There will be 3rd party drives, or whatever you want to call the SSDs.
I have. I have a 2015 iMac with a Fusion drive. The SSD failed last summer and I had to remove it. The HDD is still working fine
Just like the third-party drives for the 2019 Intel Mac Pro...?
The difference is that you can pick up a Studio for 2k instead of 6k for the Mac Pro. There will be significantly more people to sell drives to.
I would love to see an option from OWC appear, I could get the 512GB SSD option then upgrade to two 2TB blades (for 4TB total) for the cost of 2TB from Apple...?
Let me reiterate this so that everyone understands. These are simply a PCB with NAND chips on them, they are proprietary, only Apple is going to make them and sell them. NO third parties are going to make these for the Mac Pro or the Mac Studio. I cannot be any more succinct about it. End of line.
Even the Mac pro uses proprietary NAND for its primary drive. Only third party storage soluions for Mac Pro is the ones you attach to the PCIe slots. Even then, you can't use it as the main drive.
Pretty much zero chance Apple will go back to using standard M.2 SSD slots when Apple has gone the opposite way for past 5 years.
Nobody is saying Apple needs to go back to "regular" SSD controller + NAND M.2 offerings...
We are saying we want to see third-party (aka OWC, aka CHEAPER $$$) NAND-only options...!?! ;^p
I have faith a 3rd-party like OWC will come out with a solution for upgrading proprietary SSDs. They’ve done it before with other Mac models…
But they have NOT done so with the 2019 Intel Mac Pro, which uses the same basic scheme (two separate M.2-esque SSD slots)...?
I have faith a 3rd-party like OWC will come out with a solution for upgrading proprietary SSD upgrades. They’ve done it before with Mac models…
Good point… Time to call them up and ask about the feasibility of producing/manufacturing such an upgrade, including the 2019 Mac Pro. ? Has there at least been any resellers of such Apple proprietary SSDs?
Last edited:
There doesn't need to be. Apple will sell you an upgrade kit for the Mac Pro and directions on how to pair the new SSDs with the Mac Pro (along with the software of course, you have to provide the other Mac).
I do not. Check out this twitter thread:
They did a full wipe and tried to use the ssd both in the second slot and in the first slot.
It wouldn’t work. Apple has locked them down so the storage is paired to a certain machine.
These are there to save apple money on config options, and apple are able to repair and replace SSDs but screw the customer.