M1/M2/M3 Macs user memory upgrades by soldering - blocked by Apple?

[theorist9]

PS: RAM is not possible as Collin already said👍

Who's Collin and where did he say this? I did a search of this thread, and got no hits for that name.

 

[RobertLindenau]

Who's Collin and where did he say this? I did a search of this thread, and got no hits for that name.

a.k.a. DosDude

 

[theorist9]

PS: RAM is not possible as Collin already said👍

a.k.a. DosDude

Got it. So DosDude never said RAM wasn't possible (at least not in this thread). He said it might be possible, but he needs to find some chips to determine this:

I definitely intend to try upgrading the RAM myself. Just have to find some other dead or iCloud locked board that has 16GB to steal the chips off of. As mentioned previously, those RAM chips are a custom package designed by Apple, and are not sold anywhere that I can find. So even if the upgrade does end up working, it wouldn’t be worth doing unless a source for the chips alone becomes available.

....though, granted, it's not possible in the practical (as opposed to technical) sense, until a source of such chips becomes available.

 

[RobertLindenau]

Ok, so even if you drill out M1 from donor to preserve the ram and drill out the ram from actual M1, which is the safest way, you`ll end up stuck at boot. Those chips are not available in china, no matter where you ask. Sorry, there`s no point in attempting..

 

[Chancha]

I have been paying attention to Chinese modification circles, and can confirm there hasn't been a single instance of Apple Silicon RAM swap / upgrade that has been done with proof. During the M1 days it was speculated to be possible but too many stars need to align so no results yet. Then with M2 / M3 it seems the general consensus has shifted to "not worth bothering, we gave up".

 

[acertuche368]

@dosdude1 Do you have a link or just key terms to look up nands for the Mac Studio? I know you mentioned you have a good supplier but I wouldn't want you to air them out. I would really love to try this out since I've already maxed out the storage on my Mac. I believe I have 500gb and it's definitely not enough. I'm blessed to have access to proper equipment at the university and would love to not only try this, but use this as a cool project to show our IEEE/Robotics club. They are starting to get into micro soldering. Any guidance or resources would be greatly appreciated.

 

[1am0]

Each nand chip in m1 macs has it's own firmware. You can't just solder any nands to a2337 board in hope it'll work. But there's a possibility to read internal firmware from "genuine" IC's and flash it to another. Thus i can upgrade from stock 256gb to 2tb. I can use only nands which are "blessed" by Apple.

 

[theorist9]

None of the western YouTubers exactly know what they are doing, at least they didn't exhaust the possibilities before publishing their videos. The Studio changing SSD config needs to run Mac Configuration Utility, I think within Apple Configurator 2 which is only accessible with Apple Authorized Repair account or something to that effect. (I suspect ifixit must know how to but they just pretend they don't)

Our guy in China just posted this as well, soldering more NANDs onto the base M2 Max Studio daughter card. The total of 4 solder pads, only 2 were occupied, and he spent like half a day to test capacitor / resistor combination along the unoccupied pads. Ended up successfully upgrading to 2TB on that card. Now there is a question of using the 2nd daughter card slot, and what kind of capacity combinations are possible, that is so niche that I have not seen anyone trying that.

So just to clarify this:

Both the Studio and MP have slotted NAND (what Apple calls "SSD Modules"). That is only officially upgradeable on the MP, and only if you buy the part from Apple:

Apple 4TB SSD Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro

The SSD kit for Mac Pro enables you to upgrade the internal SSD storage capacity of yourMac Pro. Installation required. Buy now at apple.com.

www.apple.com

Thus, IIUC, if you want to upgrade the SSD Module on the Studio, these are the only ways it could be done. Do I have this right?:

1) Find a cheap broken "for parts ony" Studio, transfer the module from that, and then run the appropriate configuration utility*.
*You said this could only be done by an Apple authorizied service center, but would this not work?:
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-pro/uninstall-and-install-ssd-modules-apd587f502f6/mac

2) Find a (likely Chinese) source with access to the Apple supply chain, purchase the SSD module from them, and configure as described in #1.

3) Solder additional raw NAND onto the existing SSD module. [That's what the video showed, right?]

 

[Chancha]

So just to clarify this:

Both the Studio and MP have slotted NAND (what Apple calls "SSD Modules"). That is only officially upgradeable on the MP, and only if you buy the part from Apple:

Apple 4TB SSD Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro

The SSD kit for Mac Pro enables you to upgrade the internal SSD storage capacity of yourMac Pro. Installation required. Buy now at apple.com.

www.apple.com

Thus, IIUC, if you want to upgrade the SSD Module on the Studio, these are the only ways it could be done. Do I have this right?:

1) Find a cheap broken "for parts ony" Studio, transfer the module from that, and then run the appropriate configuration utility*.
*You said this could only be done by an Apple authorizied service center, but would this not work?:
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-pro/uninstall-and-install-ssd-modules-apd587f502f6/mac

2) Find a (likely Chinese) source with access to the Apple supply chain, purchase the SSD module from them, and configure as described in #1.

3) Solder additional raw NAND onto the existing SSD module. [That's what the video showed, right?]

I posted an even newer video from the same repairer in another thread:

Upgrading Mac Studio storage

You can use the original card and a spare one from selfrepair : remove the 8 chips and replace them with 8 new kicm223 Boom 8To after DFU :-) It will cost you around 800€ just in components !

forums.macrumors.com

What's more interesting is this time an addition of a 2nd daughter card is added, into a base Studio that only came with one card.
Then a fellow poster replied saying you can get a 2nd card with (official) self-repair channel.

I have only heard the MCU I mentioned above but I have not used it personally. I suppose this step is only mandatory for Studio but not for the Mac Pro, or that with the Mac Pro the ability to do so is not locked only to authroized repairer.
(a lot of what I claimed may not be 100% correct as I don't personally work on this. The original intention of mentioning all these was to point out the YouTubers knew even less than I do with their videos)

 

[KamikazePlatypus]

8TB you mean? Yes, that upgrade can be done on the M1 Pro/Max machines that have support for 8 NANDs, with these same 1TB NAND chips I use. Only tricky part there is you also have to re-install a bunch of passive components (resistors, capacitors, etc) for the chips that were initially omitted from the factory on the 2TB and lower configs. Not a huge issue, just a bit more work, as it’s about 40 components per omitted chip.

Does this apply to the M3 Max as well or just the M1? Would love a guide on this.

 

[dosdude1]

Does this apply to the M3 Max as well or just the M1? Would love a guide on this.

It applies to the M3 Max as well. I have one right now I plan to make a video about upgrading pretty soon.

 

[JPack]

 

[JPack]