Mac Studio Storage Not User-Upgradeable Due to Software Block (macrumors.com) 204
Despite being easily removable since it is not soldered down, the Mac Studio's SSD storage is not currently user-upgradeable due to a software block, YouTuber Luke Miani has discovered. MacRumors reports: Initial teardowns suggested that the Mac Studio's storage could be upgradeable since it is not soldered in place. Each Mac Studio contains two internal SSD slots, and the SSDs themselves can be freely swapped between the connectors. In a video on his YouTube channel, Miani tested if the Mac Studio's storage is user upgradeable in practice. Miani wiped the SSD of a Mac Studio, removed it from the machine, and inserted it into an empty SSD slot in another Mac Studio, but the Mac's status light blinked SOS and would not boot.
The Mac Studio recognizes the SSD, but Apple's software prevents it from booting, suggesting that this is a conscious decision by Apple to prevent users from upgrading their storage themselves. On its website, Apple claims that the Mac Studio's SSD storage is "not user accessible" and encourages users to configure the device with enough storage at the point of purchase. It now seems that the purpose of the easily replaceable storage is to aid repairs performed by authorized technicians, who likely will have software tools that enable the Mac Studio to boot from different internal storage. Since the prevention of user-upgradeability appears to simply be due to a software block, Apple could enable users to upgrade their own storage in the future via an update.
The Mac Studio recognizes the SSD, but Apple's software prevents it from booting, suggesting that this is a conscious decision by Apple to prevent users from upgrading their storage themselves. On its website, Apple claims that the Mac Studio's SSD storage is "not user accessible" and encourages users to configure the device with enough storage at the point of purchase. It now seems that the purpose of the easily replaceable storage is to aid repairs performed by authorized technicians, who likely will have software tools that enable the Mac Studio to boot from different internal storage. Since the prevention of user-upgradeability appears to simply be due to a software block, Apple could enable users to upgrade their own storage in the future via an update.
What do you expect from Apple? (Score:4, Informative)
Overpriced, overcomplicated and locked down. Who'd have guessed? Unless your need 100% accurate colours for DTP then a cheap 4K hdmi TV will do the job just as well for probably 1/10th the price.
Re:What do you expect from Apple? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yup. Apple are completely customer hostile and love to be dicks at every opportunity. This sort of shit should be covered by "right to repair" legislation. Companies pulling this sort of crap should also be 100% liable for *all* costs arising from responsibly disposing/recycling their unrepairable, junk.
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Right to repair shouldn't be a partisan issue as an overwhelming majority of democrats, republicans, and independents support it.
Of course, we live in a particularly stupid time. Other issues with broad public support like this have run into trouble in the senate. Keep your eyes open and vote accordingly.
Re: What do you expect from Apple? (Score:2)
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1) Nope. Read that line again.
2) There are two bills up now. What, if anything, do you object to in either bill?
As a result nothing ever gets done;
Nothing gets done because one party in particular will vote against their own legislation just because the other side doesn't oppose it.
Re: What do you expect from Apple? (Score:2)
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Re: What do you expect from Apple? (Score:2)
Keep your eyes open and vote accordingly.
Only Apple is authorized to replace members of the Senate.
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Re:What do you expect from Apple? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't agree with Apple's policies. I don't support pointing guns at them to get them to change their behavior so I don't support forcing companies to act in a manner that the mob decides that they want. Have you already purchased a laptop from a company like Frame.Work? If so - great! If not, stop being so lazy and asking some third party to use threats of violence to achieve a goal that you are unwilling to approach by simply changing your purchasing behavior.
That's not how this works. Nobody is even talking about violence. Legislating that manufacturers cannot block 3rd party repairs with software/DRM helps everyone. It's quite funny how you try your hardest to frame the issue such that right to repair laws = violence. Next time you try to shill for the big corporations it might help to be a little more subtle about it.
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The libertarian world view is coercion is violence because refusing to abide by what the coercer wants results in violence anyway
If you think that civil fines, for breaking the law, are "violence" then you're certifiably insane. Which is basically libertarians - the entire philosophy is based on seeing greed and fucking malignant narcissism as "the greatest virtue."
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If you think that civil fines, for breaking the law, are "violence" then you're certifiably insane.
Nice try. No, I did not say fines in and of themselves are violence. It is what happens if the fines are refused. Fines are confiscation of civil property. However, civil fines in and of themselves are not bad, if they are used for restitution when a third party is damaged by the actions of the first party. The problem arises when what happens when the fines are designed to protect the second party who has a choice to be a willing participant in a transaction with the first? Civil fines are also mandatory p
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Interference and coercion are the greatest sins.
Now you've caught yourself in a lie. You don't care at all if it's a business doing the interference and coercion, like in the case of Apple here.
the free market will punish Apple on its own if the decisions it makes are bad for the market.
That is just delusional. It's a complete fantasy so divorced from reality that I don't even know where to begin.
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Legislation passes forcing apple to take a certain path. Apple do not want to take that path. They found a business model that works to their favor
I'm convinced that libertarianism is a mental disease.
Re: What do you expect from Apple? (Score:2)
This article wasn't about repairs was it? They stuck a drive in a secondary slot. Idk what that slot is for, but if it's undocumented and doesn't work, why is anyone surprised.
That doesn't have anything to do with replacing a failed drive in the first slot, which works? If you need to read data from a corrupt drive then boot from an external device, that's a standard Max repair process. There's no need to stick it in the secondary slot of another Mac for repairs. Can can even remote boot a Mac with a b
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Thanks to existing laws like DMCA, the default situation is that companies point a gun at you, where it's illegal to maintain your own computer.
A company pointed a gun at you to buy their wares? Where? How? Why was this not on the news??
It isnt against the law to maintain your own computer. It may be against the terms and conditions you voluntarily agreed to when you made your purchase decision, but that is on you. Not them. You should have chosen a free-er alternative if that was what you wanted. sytem76.com would be a good alternative. You can also always enter the market and compete more freely if that need is not met and profit yourself.
[Somewhere in this, I got confused about whether or not I'm being sarcastic or literally serious. Strange times we live in.]
In
Re:What do you expect from Apple? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate to defend Apple, but there is another explanation that doesn't make them look quite so bad.
Most SSDs encrypt data before it is written to the flash memory. Normally it is transparent, the SSD's controller generates the key and does all the encryption/decryption. However, there is a feature called OPAL V2 that lets the computer supply a key, effectively encrypting the entire drive with zero loss of performance/CPU load.
Many manufacturers enable that feature on business machines. The main reason is that makes securely wiping the drive trivial and instant - just erase the encryption key. Usually the key is stored in the TPM and the UEFI BIOS automatically unlocks the drive at boot time. Alternatively the user can be prompted for a password or PIN to unlock it.
Anyway, Apple may have enabled that feature on the drive, which would prevent another Mac from unlocking it. That doesn't mean that upgrades are impossible, it just means that the drive needs to be wiped before being installed, assuming that unencrypted drives are accepted.
Pure speculation but it would be interesting to know.
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That is most likely the correct explanation.
Or a similar one. Such a lock in would not fly in Europe, they would get law suits without end.
Why the testers tried something that complicated is beyond me anyway, buy a cheap SSD, put it into the Mac and off you go. Either it works, or you are certain there is a lock down.
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I'm curious what happens if you put the drives in a Mac Studio, put the Mac Studio in DFU mode, and use Apple Configurator 2 to push out a new firmware image on the security chip level. This is something that can be used to completely obliterate all contents on the internal SSD and install a fresh copy of macOS and other items.
I am not surprised that moving a SSD won't work, just due to how the security chip works, but a DFU restore -might- allow for the moved SSDs to work.
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I'm curious what happens if you put the drives in a Mac Studio, put the Mac Studio in DFU mode, and use Apple Configurator 2 to push out a new firmware image on the security chip level. This is something that can be used to completely obliterate all contents on the internal SSD and install a fresh copy of macOS and other items.
I am not surprised that moving a SSD won't work, just due to how the security chip works, but a DFU restore -might- allow for the moved SSDs to work.
That's exactly how it works.
See my Comment:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
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I hate to defend Apple, but there is another explanation that doesn't make them look quite so bad.
Most SSDs encrypt data before it is written to the flash memory. Normally it is transparent, the SSD's controller generates the key and does all the encryption/decryption. However, there is a feature called OPAL V2 that lets the computer supply a key, effectively encrypting the entire drive with zero loss of performance/CPU load.
Many manufacturers enable that feature on business machines. The main reason is that makes securely wiping the drive trivial and instant - just erase the encryption key. Usually the key is stored in the TPM and the UEFI BIOS automatically unlocks the drive at boot time. Alternatively the user can be prompted for a password or PIN to unlock it.
Anyway, Apple may have enabled that feature on the drive, which would prevent another Mac from unlocking it. That doesn't mean that upgrades are impossible, it just means that the drive needs to be wiped before being installed, assuming that unencrypted drives are accepted.
Pure speculation but it would be interesting to know.
That’s exactly what is hapoening.
You CAN upgrade the SSD as follows:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
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That doesn't mean that upgrades are impossible, it just means that the drive needs to be wiped before being installed, assuming that unencrypted drives are accepted.
The article specified that it was wiped before being moved to another machine. It really needs to be tested moving an unwiped drive and a drive backed up, wiped and restored and then a non apple supplied drive with the restored image (assuming the apple drive wiped and restored worked).
As another poster pointed out, the module is not an SSD but raw memory, with the SSD controller in the M1 chip. It's possible this is not some nefarious plot on the part of Apple but a way to ensure the controller and memory perform as designed to prevent data issues. In that context, it makes sense that simply plugging in new memory will not work until it is properly registered and verified as compatible.
Re: What do you expect from Apple? (Score:2)
How would that work, there's an empty slot somewhere and it must do what you want? Good luck legislating that.
Did replacing the simulated failed drive work, yes.
Did shoving it into an (undocumented?) empty slot on a working computer do anything, nope. Why is it supposed to?
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This is about the Mac Notso Mini, advertised as the Mac Studio, not the Mac Studio Display. Only your first two sentences apply.
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I disagree. Two years ago, I built a "high end desktop" with similar specs to the Mac Studio, although in a much larger case: Threadripper 3960X, 64 GB RAM, 2 TB (PCIe 4) SSD, GeForce 2080 Super. It cost about the same as a comparable Mac Studio does today, but included 48 TB of spinning disks for mass storage -- and is surprisingly close in performance considering the age difference.
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I disagree. Two years ago, I built a "high end desktop" with similar specs to the Mac Studio, although in a much larger case: Threadripper 3960X, 64 GB RAM, 2 TB (PCIe 4) SSD, GeForce 2080 Super. It cost about the same as a comparable Mac Studio does today, but included 48 TB of spinning disks for mass storage -- and is surprisingly close in performance considering the age difference.
Yea, if you are a techie who likes to tinker and run Windows you can do that; but the people who are buying $6K Macs for business reasons don't want to mess with cobbling together a machine and supporting it over the next few years on their own. They want a solution that works and they can get support for from a company that will be around for the next few years at least. In addition, they probably have a significant investment in software and staff experience so changing OS's I a not insignificant cost a
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would be valuable for many professional people. This is a given for machines that I've used in the past and if Apple don't roll that way because of greed, that sucks IMO
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I guess opinions may vary but for me features like:
would be valuable for many professional people. This is a given for machines that I've used in the past and if Apple don't roll that way because of greed, that sucks IMO
I agree, and what you buy depends on your needs. I have a bootable external SSD so if the main dies I'm not SOL, along with cloud backups and hourly backups to an external drive of everything in Documents. Not as easy as swapping a drive but it meets my needs. Then again, I've been known to carry an Air as well if I go someplace w/o an Apple retailer or store. But that's just me being anal.
That said, I'd buy a thicker MBP with swappable components than a thin one without, but that isn't in Apple's roadm
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Unless your need 100% accurate colours for DTP then a cheap 4K hdmi TV will do the job just as well for probably 1/10th the price.
Even if you do, a $100 calibrator will let you use that cheap monitor.
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A long time back, I use to work for a company that sold and repaired Xerox (previously Tektronix) Solid Ink Printers. Putting in 3rd party ink voided the Warranty. In general we preferred Covered in Warranty fixes, as Xerox would pay us on time, and the customer isn't so pissed off at us, because we gave them a bill, and a lot less nonsense trying to figure out how much the repair costed, and trying to get them to pay for it.
However we would get customers, who replaced their printers with 3rd party ink (eve
Tolerances in components (Score:2)
which were close to the OEM but not quite the same, as they often had a slightly different melting, cooling temperate and viscosity.
Luckily for most computer tinkerers, most of the electronics component found in computers don't have complex and very thigh requirements for physico-chemical properties like printer ink.
At best, as long as all components follow the specs, you can happily slap any mix of parts together.
At worse you might have some slight interferences problems (e.g.: Valve is warning that the Steam Deck's wifi module and SSD are very close to each other and one should also check for EMI).
So for parts that follow specs, there
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Overpriced, overcomplicated and locked down. Who'd have guessed? Unless your need 100% accurate colours for DTP then a cheap 4K hdmi TV will do the job just as well for probably 1/10th the price.
Wrong article, bub.
I just don't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
I just don't get why people still buy Apple's bullshit...
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I'm in the same boat for my work stuff, and even then, I just buy PCs. A Windows laptop runs about $500 and will be more than usable with office apps.
As a laptop, it's not worth upgrading. But it'll last a few years, and it's easy enough to transfer everything over to the next computer I buy.
Funny enough, my cur
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I'm in the same boat for my work stuff, and even then, I just buy PCs. A Windows laptop runs about $500 and will be more than usable with office apps.
If all you use is Office, then you don't need something like a Mac Studio, regardless of the manufacturer.
Mac Studio are for people in... a Studio. For example: video editors (the very popular Final Cut Pro being exclusive to macOS).
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I just don't get why people still buy Apple's bullshit...
It's not just apple, did you not see steam hardware survey? The last 23+ years plus everyone has been robbing themselves of owning software starting with mmo's in 1997 with ultima online, then we got steam in 2003, then origin/uplay in 2010's
AKA people have literally been dispossessing themselves and gave up software ownership and paid a subscription when they were clearly being scammed.
Windows 10/11 is literally marrying hardware drm with the OS to enable denuvo level exe protection at the os/hardware lev
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For the same reason people buy any other overpriced status symbol... because it shows they're rich or cool.
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And yet, Macs are popular with scientists. Most scientists don't give a flying rat's ass about status symbols, nor do most other people.
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You know most scientists? I think not. I've skateboarded at uni and saw a nice collection of BMW.s and Maserati's and so on. And most other people DO care, hence overpriced Apple phones and little polo guys on their shirts and swooshes on their sneakers.
So your comment is just all kinds of wrong. Nice try though.
Re:I just don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd bet your board that those BMWs etc. were owned by deans and chancellors rather than scientists. The ones that are sitting in the airport, writing grant applications on a MacBook, waiting for the cheap because it's at stupid-o-clock flight, got there in a 15 year-old car that's running more on hope than petrol.
They use Mac because it's UNIX with the minimum amount of fucking around needed. And because the educational discount makes it competitive with the other common option - Ubuntu on a Dell.
Re: I just don't get it (Score:2)
saw a nice collection of BMW.s and Maserati's and so on
That's the football team.
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And yet, Macs are popular with scientists. Most scientists don't give a flying rat's ass about status symbols, nor do most other people.
What? Have you ever spent time at a university? Firstly, most science professors don't make much just from lecturing, if all they do is lecture they won't be able to afford most of this overpriced apple shit, maybe an iphone at the most. Those that have side jobs in industry are usually quite well paid, and they are happy to spend it on flash cars and such, they care about status symbols as do most people. They may also have a few Apple products as status symbols or maybe they are perceived as expensive=h
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And yet, Macs are popular with scientists. Most scientists don't give a flying rat's ass about status symbols, nor do most other people.
What? Have you ever spent time at a university? Firstly, most science professors don't make much just from lecturing, if all they do is lecture they won't be able to afford most of this overpriced apple shit, maybe an iphone at the most. Those that have side jobs in industry are usually quite well paid, and they are happy to spend it on flash cars and such, they care about status symbols as do most people. They may also have a few Apple products as status symbols or maybe they are perceived as expensive=higher quality (competent scientists are not always tech savvy). However, when they want to get real science done they overwhelmingly use linux. At least that was my experience as an undergraduate/postgraduate at a top-10 UK university about a decade ago.
Scientists that work solely in the private sector probably use whatever their employer provided. Macs might have a larger chunk of that market because Apple are very good at making flashy pitches to senior managers (MBAs rather than STEM graduates) and so the macs get chosen over alternatives that would probably be cheaper and more productive in the long-term but require a bit more short-term setup time.
Nice try, but total bullshit.
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As a scientist, I have observed that Macs are somewhat popular. The reason is not because they are better, but because
1. many old scientists consider them easier to use
2. many computer scientists see them as the only way to get a high-end machine with a POSIX-like environment, where everything works out of the box
In biological sciences, there is an amazing amount of computer illiteracy among university faculty, and even the most expensive Macs cost less than a month's supply of a single molecular biology re
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And yet, Macs are popular with scientists.
Who says scientists are computer experts?
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And yet, Macs are popular with scientists.
Who says scientists are computer experts?
They aren't. Mostly.
That's why they want a nice, POSIX-Compliant system that they can just sit down and use.
That’s not Linux. And it is only Windows if you have a competent IT Staff.
Out-of-the-box POSIX (Score:2)
And yet, Macs are popular with scientists.
Yes, specially when the Macs are faculty equipment paid for by the university (i.e. the scientist don't need to deal with the "expensive" part of the Apple problem), even more so in richer countries where the relative cost of Apple's hardware seems less over-priced.
Most scientists don't give a flying rat's ass about status symbols
But in several fields they do give an ass about POSIX compatibility, because tons of software is only available on unix-like OSes (e.g.: bioconda package repository is only available on Linux and Mac OS X), and before WSL2, running Linux stuff o
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And yet, Macs are popular with scientists.
Yes, specially when the Macs are faculty equipment paid for by the university (i.e. the scientist don't need to deal with the "expensive" part of the Apple problem), even more so in richer countries where the relative cost of Apple's hardware seems less over-priced.
Most scientists don't give a flying rat's ass about status symbols
But in several fields they do give an ass about POSIX compatibility, because tons of software is only available on unix-like OSes (e.g.: bioconda package repository is only available on Linux and Mac OS X), and before WSL2, running Linux stuff on most PC did require quite some tinkering.
Also, Mac OS X machine tend to work out of the box and feature a lot of other common software component (e.g.: getting Microsoft Office, because that what everyone else is using for document), making them more attractive to users less obsessed with tinkering their machines (as opposed to wiping Windows from a PC laptop and installing and tuning some Linux distro).
This two points have made Apple's laptops very popular in research, in richer countries that can afford them more easily (I work in Switzerland).
Still most of the academic institution also offer to give the user a "bare" PC laptop and let them install their choice of Linux (I went that route) or even offer to wipe and install some standard Linux distro (Ubuntu was offered).
Also, as a lot of university are jumping on Microsoft's Office 365 bandwagon, running the Webapp instead of the official software has become a viable replacement (I haven't had a working Windows Virtualbox anymore for a couple of years, and even before that LibreOffice has been covering most of my compatibility needs).
MS Office is just the least of it. As you stated, POSIX compatibility is tantamount. And WSL2 still ends up being Linux; worse yet, Lunux On Windows, where every single FORCED Update can totally upset a researcher's world. Sometimes permanently.
Yes, Apple can have a bad Update, too; but Updates can be prevented on Apple equipment. No Registry Hacks, no Terminal Commands. And, unlike Windows, Apple doesn't go behind your back and turn that shit back on!
https://support.apple.com/guid... [apple.com]
Besides, You are obviou
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And yet, Macs are popular with scientists. Most scientists don't give a flying rat's ass about status symbols, nor do most other people.
Perfect retort!
Bravo!
You got what you bought (Score:2)
"Apple could ..." (Score:2)
"Apple could enable users to upgrade their own storage."
Could, Should and Would were three brothers. Two of them ganged up on the other. Then could Would not do what he should.
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Yeah, imagine that. A desktop computer with "upgradeable storage".
If Apple ever capitulates, their acolytes will claim this to be a Steve Jobs invention.
Upgrade? (Score:2)
"Since the prevention of user-upgradeability appears to simply be due to a software block, Apple could enable users to upgrade their own storage in the future via an update."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *snort* HAHAHAHAHA
Yes, good luck with that.
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They do sometimes walk back on their policies a little.
They gave an official but unsupported way to enable TRIM on 3rd party drives after their kernel module signing broke trimenabler.
iphone screen and home button replacements have a "we'd rather you didn't, but we won't brick your phone anymore"
Interoperability patches for there software tend to turn up eventually.
I mean, they are hardly consumer friendly, but the summary is right, PERHAPS this will be one of the times they do something nice.
In other news . . . (Score:2)
Apple's gonna Apple.
SSD swap is feasible - Article updated (Score:5, Informative)
macrumors article updated:
Update: The Mac Studio requires an IPSW restore after changing its SSD modules to ensure that they are readable and able to boot. Running a Device Firmware Update (DFU) restore using the macOS IPSW package for the Mac Studio should enable the machine to boot from a different SSD, providing that both of the modules are of the same size and make, meaning that storage upgrades still appear to be feasible.
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"providing that both of the modules are of the same size and make" "upgrades"
I'm having difficulty parsing the first in a way that makes "upgrades" make sense. It sounds like they're saying you can swap out a part for an identical part, which wouldn't be an upgrade (but might be useful for repairs)?
All Storage Modules have to be identical in Capacity and Manufacturer. Not necessarily the same as the original module(s). See:
https://mobile.twitter.com/mar... [twitter.com]
Re:SSD swap is feasible - Article updated (Score:4, Informative)
Physical size, not storage size.
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Physical size, not storage size.
No, the modules must be the same Capacity and Manufacturer as each other.
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macrumors article updated:
...providing that both of the modules are of the same size and make, meaning that storage upgrades still appear to be feasible.
If they must be the same size, then that wouldn't be an upgrade - merely a repair.
All the Modules need to be the same capacity as each other, and same vendor.
Plus, they aren't SSDs, per se. Most of the Controller is onboard the M1 SoC. See:
https://mobile.twitter.com/mar... [twitter.com]
New Drive (Score:5, Interesting)
The summary says the person took the SSD from one Mac and put it in another, correct? Could this be a security feature to stop someone from taking the drive out of one and putting it in another to copy or access the data on the drive? Most importantly did the guy try putting a brand new drive in the Mac and see if he could install the OS. Again the summary makes it sound like he didn't try a new drive. Full disclosure I've never owned a Mac but I do own an iPhone.
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A security feature doesn't stop the owner. The key should be available to the owner.
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I agree, but I was wondering if the author tried a brand new drive.
Raw storage media, not SSD (Score:5, Informative)
According to Hector Martin, those modules are raw storage media, not a traditional SSD. Details here:
https://twitter.com/marcan42/s... [twitter.com]
Key takeaway: "Apple Silicon Macs don't work like PCs and you shouldn't expect them to. It's not Apple being evil, it's different. If you try to blindly apply x86 world concepts to them, from how they boot to how storage works, you're going to be very confused."
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Key takeaway: "Apple Silicon Macs don't work like PCs and you shouldn't expect them to. It's not Apple being evil, it's different...
Changing hardware back to an end-user upgradable configuration, only to rub a consumers nose in it by creating a secret handshake the rest of the storage planet doesn't recognize, for the purposes of charging a 200% premium for "factory" storage, to all but guarantee the "base" price, will never be the actual sales price?
Yeah. That's "different" alright. If you consider assholes like fingerprints.
If that's not evil, I'm not surprised the goalposts moved. We watch Greed do that shit all the time now.
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I suppose Apple would argue that putting the storage controller on the M1 gives them full control over it and they can tune it for best performance. There is probably some truth in that, although on paper it doesn't appear to be any faster than NVMe SSDs in benchmarks. Then you have Intel Optaine as an option for PCs...
The alternative explanation is that it's a cost cutting measure. No need to buy someone else's SSD controller, they can just source raw NAND flash. And then charge you a fortune for it.
Both S
Re:Raw storage media, not SSD (Score:4)
It's not Apple being evil, it's different.
It's not Apple being evil, it's Apple being greedy. Just another way to extract money from a captive fan base.
Re: Raw storage media, not SSD (Score:2)
Or plug in any external storage you want, because this is a workstation class computer and there's a fuckton of options available for that.
You're calling Apple greedy because of internal storage limitations and most of these will be plugged into Very Expensive(TM) external storage arrays because of the nature of the work they'll be doing. That's dumb.
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Apple has a huge history of fleecing its user base for every cent they can. That is all this is, another way to fleece a captive group. Nothing more.
haters gonna hate? (Score:5, Insightful)
it's quite entertaining to see how upset people can get seeing how OTHER people spend their money. If you think it's "overpriced crap", fine, don't buy it. You didn't buy it? Good for you! Why are you still whining? I don't get it.
Just yesterday /. we had an article on the "shock and confusion" of the SSD in the studio display: we've since learned that the Studio Display also features 64GB of onboard storage, because who knows why... Now today we have an article specifically complaining about not being able to upgrade it... does anyone else see the irony here?
It's very doubtful there's a hardware limitation here, it's probably just a hardware check during boot, to make sure the module is present. If 64 is the only size possible off the assembly line, then "IF MEMAVAIL 64 THEN HALT" works just as well as testing for over some minimum amount. Odds are pretty good that Apple will release an upgraded model with 128 GB, at which point that one line will have to be changed from "not equal to" to "less than" and it'll work fine with larger modules. Apple might release a firmware update to fix something or add a feature to the old displays, which MIGHT include the change to the check. I've got a Mac Pro here that was limited to 100GB RAM, but after one of the Mac OS updates, it detects and uses all 128GB fine. And this isn't the only example of them increasing the ceiling on memory via firmware update. (also, they've always maintained the white macbooks have a limit of 2GB, when it's been 3GB since release)
TL;DR - Apple isn't giving people less than they promise, but there's no guarantee you'll get MORE than promised. But a few special snowflakes are still getting their undies in a twist over it.
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Why are you still whining? I don't get it.
Because excessive amounts of e-waste caused by anti-consumer products such as this wastes our planet's finite resources and that affects everyone and their offspring for many generations. BTW there are easier ways of broadcasting that you are a selfish asshole, get a t-shirt or something.
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Complaining about Macintosh e-waste, really?
PCs typically have short service lifespan compared to Macs.
Macintosh usually has excellent resale value. Most used Macs are sold and continue to be used for years to come, whereas most used PCs have little to no resale value and usually wind up recycled or in landfills.
Apple's M1 processor uses far less power than Intel & AMD CPUs, and nVidia & AMD GPUs, resulting in much less environmental impact.
Workstation class PCs which compete with Mac Studio are dr
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PCs typically have short service lifespan compared to Macs.
Do you have data to back that up? I expect high-end Macbooks will last longer than the average Windows laptop. Not sure if they'd last longer than a comparably-priced Windows laptop, however, and I'm pretty certain that desktop PCs will outlast any sort of notebook/laptop computer. (I have Linux boxes over 12 years old that I still use daily... I know that's anecdotal, but I think it's pretty representative of how long desktop machines last.)
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Dunno about you but I've seen a lot of 10 year old PCs still in active service. And lots of laptops 5 to 10 years old (batteries failed of course) still going strong. It's not that uncommon to top the RAM off and stick in a SATA SSD and away you go with Windows 10. Granted, Windows 11 is going to change all of that, effectively killing many otherwise perfectly service-able PCs.
I think it used to be true that Macs lasted longer than PCs but now I don't think this is true anymore. At best they last about t
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Or it could have been something as dumb as "if two modules are present, always try to mount them as striped RAID". It would have been much more informative if they set it up to boot from an external drive and only replaced the single module.
As for your Mac Pro, if it's a 4,1/5,1 model, the chipset supports triple-channel RAM, even though it has four slots per CPU module. It's better to have 96GB than 128GB, because then it can run in triple-channel mode. It's also possible that certain specific configurati
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mine came with 128 *shrug*
I did upgrade the procs though, got it up to 3.2 twin hexis :)
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Just yesterday /. we had an article on the "shock and confusion" of the SSD in the studio display: we've since learned that the Studio Display also features 64GB of onboard storage, because who knows why... Now today we have an article specifically complaining about not being able to upgrade it... does anyone else see the irony here?
These are two separate items being talked about here. The 64GB is in the Studio Display. It is the Mac Studio that is having trouble with SSD swapping. No one is trying to upgrade the 64GB of storage in the Studio Display here they are only trying to change the SSD in the Mac Studio
Hasn't this already been debunked? (Score:5, Informative)
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Same thing. You cannot take NAND chips from one SSD and put them in another SSD and access your data, which is the equivalent of what you'd be doing here. It won't boot, but you can wipe them and start over (assuming the studio can boot off an external drive). It did work fine in the hard disk era, swapping a dead HD board with another one to read your data.
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The surprising (or maybe not so surprising) thing is that Apple loves to come up with proprietary ports yet they stuck with m.2 connectors for these NAND modules. There may have been less confusion if the NAND modules used a different connector so that people didn't automatically think that they would work like standard SSD modules.
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I still laugh (Score:2)
Calm your tits.. (Score:2)
Nothing new here (Score:2)
For any Apple product that you buy, you should walk into that transaction with the und
how hard is it to have an wipe storage restore mod (Score:2)
how hard is it to have an wipe storage restore mode build in with an basic os restore? Not one that needs an 2th mac? or one that can load restore from an USB disk?
Why can't they put in an ADD disk mode when you fill slot 2 with an added disk?
Wait they do this so they can make you pay x3-x4+ the price of higher end m.2 pci-e disk.
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both units have the same max disk size unless they are planing to have the Ultra with higher disk sizes later on.
then maybe it's own only configs over X size need 2 slots.
As if... (Score:2)
As if I needed yet another reason not to buy an Apple product.
Isn't that... (Score:2)
...what Thunderbolt 4 ports are for?
Can Be Upgraded After DFU Restore (Score:2)
Apparently, Storage can be Upgraded after all:
"Update: The Mac Studio requires an IPSW restore after changing its SSD modules to ensure that they are readable and able to boot. Running a Device Firmware Update (DFU) restore using the macOS IPSW package for the Mac Studio should enable the machine to boot from a different SSD, providing that both of the modules are of the same size and make, meaning that storage upgrades still appear to be feasible."
https://www.macrumors.com/2022... [macrumors.com]
So, not quite as simple as
What does Apple sell? (Score:2)
Really, I want to know if I am buying hardware? I grok Apple license MacOS. Is the thing that’s for sale(Apple Studio) not come with Right to Repair? Or is this a shill for Apple Care? Then consumers are paying an up front subscription that happens to come packaged in alum. and plastic stamped with a big Apple.
Apple is selling after care since you can’t swap SSD’s except narrowly defined in Apple code.
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"Apple could enable users to upgrade their own storage in the future via an update." ~ Narrator: "They never did"
They used to, but in the quest for ever thiner MacBooks that went away. The old white MacBook was easily and cheaply upgraded; I put an SSD and more Ram in mine to make it perform better. Some of the old Minis and iMacs were upgradable as well. Apple, however has moved away from user replaceable parts, probably for design as well as profitability reasons. Still, I prefer my M1 MBP to any other machine; but that is my choice. YMMV HAND
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Why do people still buy this crap? Talk about being anti consumer.
Bought steam, mmo's, ever bought a mtx? I bet you've got a copy of wow or steam infested game somewhere. Everyone has been literally stealing software from themselves over the last 23+ years, why wouldn't ms, intel and AMD now lock down our hardware with trusted computing modules? They are embedding denuvo level exe protection going forward into the OS as we move to mainframe computing where you will own nothing.