Apple Silicon Soldered SSD Upgrade Thread

[Rickyandika]

They are 49.9 Ohm, not KOhm... Just to avoid any confusion. But yeah, looks like that board has 4 per chip instead of two like the boards I’ve worked on, so you’ll probably want to order a good number of extras of those. Looks like that board also has some 15 Ohm resistors not used in other boards either, which you’ll want to get as well.

I misread the schematic. Turns out i only need 2pcs of 49,9 ohm(R2186, R1986) the rest has been populated from the factory. yeah i just realized i need 1 pcs 15 ohm resistor(R1988) for
“SWD_NANDO_S5E2_S5E3_SWDIO”?
1989, r1990, r1991, r1992 its all for NAND 1 pad and i would not need to populate it at all right?

 

[Rickyandika]

SUCCESSFUL NAND UPGRADE for my M2 14” from 512GB upgraded to 2TB!! Placing 80+ small components is a pain especially the 2.2uF capacitor. Placing the NAND chip itself was also quite a challenge but managed to pull through. It took me 18+ hours in the span of 3 days to do this upgrade 😭. Entering DFU mode was only possible via jumper pad, other than that its all good! HUGE thanks to @dosdude1 for all the info and help in this community!

 

[Hyuga78]

Good morning,
I'm stuck on a basic macbook air m3 256gb. I tested on two different motherboards and two pairs of k5a8s and I still have errors when restoring Apple configurator. The k5a8 are very virgin (check with the jc p15) Has anyone already encountered difficulties with the m3 air? I don't know which ones I did wrong. I contacted a person who told me that with k5a8 it was not successful but 2X k5a5 went through correctly.

Thanks in advance (sorry for the bad English just use Google trad)

 

[dosdude1]

Good morning,
I'm stuck on a basic macbook air m3 256gb. I tested on two different motherboards and two pairs of k5a8s and I still have errors when restoring Apple configurator. The k5a8 are very virgin (check with the jc p15) Has anyone already encountered difficulties with the m3 air? I don't know which ones I did wrong. I contacted a person who told me that with k5a8 it was not successful but 2X k5a5 went through correctly.

Thanks in advance (sorry for the bad English just use Google trad)

I had the same issue, I think K6B2 NANDs are needed for that model.

 

[danrico371]

No, the passive components are the same on all models that I've worked on. On M3 Air with both NANDs already populated, installing 2x blank K5A8 NANDs should get you up and running.

Sweet, how would one go about getting 2x blank K5A8 NANDs? Aliexpress has a couple listings, but they don't seem to specify whether they really are blank, and the prices seem a little high tbh

 

[dosdude1]

Sweet, how would one go about getting 2x blank K5A8 NANDs? Aliexpress has a couple listings, but they don't seem to specify whether they really are blank, and the prices seem a little high tbh

I was mistaken here, you actually need 2x blank K6B2 NANDs, as K5A8 are not compatible with the M3 MacBook Air. There are a couple listings on AliExpress that sell them, both of which should be blank.

 

[Pressure]

EZFIX upgraded the base M4 Mac mini straightaway to 2TB.

 

[Sauve Mon Mac]

Hello, I did it also - works with k5a5 nand IC for 1Tb and k6b2 chips for 2Tb.
Thanks @dosdude1 for telling us the right DFU port being the middle one - I tried with the one close to the ethernet port (like other model) and I couldn't restore at all.

 

[Borowski]

Will there be an upgrade option for the new Mac Mini M4?

Surprisingly, the NAND-board is socketed although they shrinked the housing, and the entry-configuration has 16GB RAM, but only 256GB SSD. A perfect victim for DIY upgrades

 

[Onizuka18]

Hello everyone I have a problem with a 1TB a2338 with a hynix nand mount UN000 H23B4689K7AFJ HYNIX 512GB
UN100 H23B4T84K7AEQ HYNIX 512GB I transplanted on an A2338 the mac turns on apple progress bar then black screen several different errors call configurator I can't find a dump for this configuration anywhere. I have already upgraded several M1 macs successfully with new nands in the case of a transplant it's a first do you have a way? peace

 

[waterchill]

Where is the difference between K5A8, 3T3B, K6B2, SDSFGKLKH-1TB, all four will work in M3/M4. Is the difference speed or what is it?

 

[dosdude1]

Where is the difference between K5A8, 3T3B, K6B2, SDSFGKLKH-1TB, all four will work in M3/M4. Is the difference speed or what is it?

First off, NOT all will work in M4.
K5A8 only works with BGA315 M2 and some M3 machines. You need K6B2 for later M3 machines and all M4. Not sure about 3T3B and SDSFGKLKH.

 

[waterchill]

ok thank you

 

[Pjeroff]

Does anyone know what kind of nand is in the Macbook Pro M4 Max? From my understanding the M4 mac mini's have the K6B2, but from observing some not-so-clear photos of the logic from the M4 Max, it appears to be a BGA110 nand?

Has anyone already done any work on upgrading the SSD's on the M4 Max yet? (also curious if the Mac Mini Pro has the same K6B2 as the normal version).

 

[dosdude1]

Does anyone know what kind of nand is in the Macbook Pro M4 Max? From my understanding the M4 mac mini's have the K6B2, but from observing some not-so-clear photos of the logic from the M4 Max, it appears to be a BGA110 nand?

Has anyone already done any work on upgrading the SSD's on the M4 Max yet? (also curious if the Mac Mini Pro has the same K6B2 as the normal version).

Nope, all M2 machines with the exception of the 13" MacBook Pro and 13" MacBook Air, along with all M3 and later systems, use BGA315.

Upgrading M4 Max to 4TB or 8TB, as with previous models, will also require the addition of around 160 support components to allow use of the second set of 4 NANDs (which are not used for 2TB and lower configs). An 8TB config will use 8x K6B2.

 

[Pjeroff]

Nope, all M2 machines with the exception of the 13" MacBook Pro and 13" MacBook Air, along with all M3 and later systems, use BGA315.

Upgrading M4 Max to 4TB or 8TB, as with previous models, will also require the addition of around 160 support components to allow use of the second set of 4 NANDs (which are not used for 2TB and lower configs). An 8TB config will use 8x K6B2.

So you're saying the M4 Max has missing components to be installed and the regular K6B2's. But only in sub 4TB configs?

Is that the same for the M4 Pro chips? This video seems a bit sus to be honest, it's just showing the NAND's being put in, no components -->

 

[Guenter]

Looks like when you increase the nr. of nands you have to add components. I always thought that transfer speed only depends on nr. of nands but the first video above says differently.

 

[dosdude1]

So you're saying the M4 Max has missing components to be installed and the regular K6B2's. But only in sub 4TB configs?

Is that the same for the M4 Pro chips? This video seems a bit sus to be honest, it's just showing the NAND's being put in, no components -->

No, the same does NOT apply for M4 Pro, as it only has support for up to 4 NANDs. Only the M4 Max, which supports up to 8 NANDs and has the second set of 4 unpopulated with 2TB and lower configs, requires the addition of components.

 

[Pjeroff]

No, the same does NOT apply for M4 Pro, as it only has support for up to 4 NANDs. Only the M4 Max, which supports up to 8 NANDs and has the second set of 4 unpopulated with 2TB and lower configs, requires the addition of components.

So, technically, upgrading a MBP M4 Max up to 4TB can be done with NANDs only, even from a base 1TB config, while for the 8TB you'd need the schematic to see all the missing small components (and NANDS)? Am I understanding this right?

 

[dosdude1]

So, technically, upgrading a MBP M4 Max up to 4TB can be done with NANDs only, even from a base 1TB config, while for the 8TB you'd need the schematic to see all the missing small components (and NANDS)? Am I understanding this right?

No. For 4TB and 8TB on the M4 Max model, 8 NANDs are required. Only the M4 Pro model supports 4TB using only 4 NANDs.

 

[Pjeroff]

No. For 4TB and 8TB on the M4 Max model, 8 NANDs are required. Only the M4 Pro model supports 4TB using only 4 NANDs.

You misunderstood me. What I'm saying is, the MAX has 8x pads for the 8x 1tb K6B2 NANDS.....4 pads on the left-side motherboard and 4 pads on the right-side mobo (I know they are 2 on top and 2 on bottom, just simplifying).

The base config of 1TB, i assume, comes with the (whichever) side the 1tb NAND (or 2x 512gb?) is at populated w/ the necessary small resistors/capacitors and whatever other small pieces.... while the other side of the mobo (if you look at pictures online, that's likely the left side) ... empty (missing the small pieces).

So my question was, if you take the 1tb config, you can technically just get 4x 1tb K6B2's to upgrade it to 4tb...while not worrying about any missing smaller pieces?

Reasoning: Surely they didn't create 3x different MOBO's for 3 SSD configs (2/4/8tb)....and just went with either FULL (8tb.... dual sides) ...and BASE (1/2/4tb....one side)?

 

[dosdude1]

You misunderstood me. What I'm saying is, the MAX has 8x pads for the 8x 1tb K6B2 NANDS.....4 pads on the left-side motherboard and 4 pads on the right-side mobo (I know they are 2 on top and 2 on bottom, just simplifying).

The base config of 1TB, i assume, comes with the (whichever) side the 1tb NAND (or 2x 512gb?) is at populated w/ the necessary small resistors/capacitors and whatever other small pieces.... while the other side of the mobo (if you look at pictures online, that's likely the left side) ... empty (missing the small pieces).

So my question was, if you take the 1tb config, you can technically just get 4x 1tb K6B2's to upgrade it to 4tb...while not worrying about any missing smaller pieces?

Reasoning: Surely they didn't create 3x different MOBO's for 3 SSD configs (2/4/8tb)....and just went with either FULL (8tb.... dual sides) ...and BASE (1/2/4tb....one side)?

4x 1TB is not a valid config for 8-NAND systems. Only 2TB and lower configs can use 4 NANDs. You cannot deviate from the configs Apple supports.

For 8-NAND M3/M4 systems, valid configs are:

- 8TB: 8x1TB
- 4TB: 8x512GB
- 2TB: 4x512GB
- 1TB: 4x256GB
- 512GB: 4x128GB

These are the only configs the M4 Max machines support, and you cannot deviate from that. M2 8-NAND systems differ from the above in that 512GB is achieved with 2x256GB. Otherwise M2 follows the same config list.

 

[Fero]

Installed all the small parts, now it is working! Thank you for supporting.

👍💪 hi, can you send me Foto from schematics which one need to be installed ? I have only XWZ and i dont see which one is 20uF and which one is 2,2uF etc. Thanks 💪

 

[sunny5]

I think Apple needs to make replaceable SSD design just like Mac min and Mac Studio to other Mac computers and allow individual to upgrade or heavily reduce the upgrade fee. RAM has no choice but SSD is a problem cause it could die without any reasons and there are tons of videos about this.

 

[Melbourne Park]

I saw a review of an m4 mini Pro with 1 TB. He tested a thunderbolt 5 external drive and got 5,100 read and about the same in writes. 4 TB costs at the moment $600 and I think such solutions will come down in cost. But for me T-5 seems easy, safe with no warranty issues and while not the 6,000 one might see in a Macbook Pro internal, its still faster than a lot of M processor hard drives. But I do wonder what the actuall cost of this is compared to $600 external for 4 TB and a 2 TB was $400.