Upgrading Mac Studio — picture credit score: Polysoft
All it takes is cracking open your Mac Studio and voiding your guarantee, however it’s been confirmed that you would be able to improve to 8TB SSD for lower than half what Apple fees.
Now will not be one of the best time to purchase a Mac Studio, because it’s possible that an M5 model could also be only a few months away. However it’s by no means, not ever, the correct time to pay Apple’s SSD improve costs as a result of they’re so very a lot overpriced.
You simply could not must. We’ll must see what occurs when this will get out into the arms of extra customers, however a profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign by Polysoft was providing SSD upgrades for each the M1 and M2 fashions of the Mac Studio.
This appears like the identical improve that YouTuber dosdude1 did in August 2024. In that case, the improve used Polysoft’s really useful answer, however it required exact and skillful soldering.
Since then, Polysoft launched its Kickstarter marketing campaign for pre-built SSD improve playing cards. They may then be slotted into the Mac Studio straight, with little experience and confidence.
It is an interesting piece of labor by French agency Polysoft, however you simply need to know what it prices. Sadly, that is the place there could also be an issue — for now, the marketing campaign is over and there is not a manner to purchase the improve.
However, ordinarily a Kickstarter marketing campaign is adopted by an everyday sale of no matter has been created. It will be at the next worth than the Kickstarter backers paid, however at current the makers haven’t mentioned whether or not that may occur, or what pricing shall be.
So you could be tantalized and upset. However for those who had been in a position to get in on the Kickstarter, you would have purchased 2TB for about $340.
A 4TB improve was provided for $865. The utmost 8TB improve, the one you need, was round $1,015 for the M1 Mac Studio, or $950 for the M2.
Only for comparability, for those who purchased the SSD improve from Apple at time of buying the Mac Studio, you’d have paid such much more. Apple’s worth for 2TB is $600, for 4TB is $1,200, and for 8TB it is $2,400.
The way it works
There are full particulars on the Kickstarter marketing campaign web page of how Polysoft created a alternative SSD that will work with the Mac Studio, and to say it was painstaking is about proper. It included sanding down Apple-made improve boards to find out simply how they had been made.
It is that stage of detailed work that made the distinction, say the makers. They level out that others have tried to improve the Mac Studio and failed, whereas their model has been in use with creatives throughout France.
What they made was a circuit board that homes the SSD, and matches Apple’s personal system. Customers who cracked open their Mac Studio may then pull out Apple’s SSD board, and plug in Polysoft’s alternative.
It isn’t doable to maintain no matter SSD Apple put in. And the makers say solely the identical measurement SSDs that Apple sells will work, so you possibly can’t have a 3TB drive as an example.
What’s not clear is kind of what customers do after putting in the drive. The drives are presumably empty so customers must get macOS onto it, and possibly format the drives.
Dangers versus rewards
So getting the brand new SSD up and working in a Mac Studio is perhaps fiddly. The truth that you need to open the Mac Studio’s case might be off-putting – though when you take away the rubber base, the case simply makes use of common screws.
After which there’s the truth that Apple is hardly going to encourage you. Addressing the query of whether or not this voids the guarantee, the makers say “technically no, legally sure.”
It comes right down to how you aren’t utilizing Apple components in your upgrading of the Mac Studio. That is sufficient that Apple will most likely refuse to make any repairs.
The worth is reasonable in comparison with Apple, however it’s a great distance from being an informal buy you possibly can chalk as much as expertise. However, come on. It is 8TB for the lower than Apple would cost you for 4TB.
Maintain that thought
It’s true that, at time of writing, the Kickstarter marketing campaign is over. The corporate raised thrice its hoped-for quantity and took in $97,000. Then it is also true that the makers haven’t introduced plans to promote extra following the tip of the marketing campaign.
Nevertheless, there’s a additional risk that’s going to make you sit up.
“It is nonetheless slightly early to say for positive,” write the makers on their marketing campaign web page, “however we’ll most definitely be launching one other marketing campaign for SSD modules for Mac mini M4 and M4 Professional once we can have a working prototype for these fashions!”
Simply word that in addition to voiding the guarantee on any of those Macs, you are by no means going to get AppleCare protection as soon as you have completed this.
