Please note that everything below is theoretical at this point, do NOT desolder your RAM just yet 
I'm still in love with my by now classic Macbook Pro early 2015 13". It's a wonderful little Macbook but two specs are becoming a bit... outdated and that is the disk-size and the amount of RAM. Mine came with 8 gigabytes worth of RAM (max was 16GB and that was way to expensive back then). A random google showed that it is actually possible to upgrade soldered RAM chips on some Macbooks, so now i'm investigating mine.
My inspiration was this video on Youtube:
But that is for a Macbook Air...
My Macbook is a A1502, 820-4924 board.
In the schematics we're off to a promising start:
So all different models of this macbook are done with the same logic board.
And apparently all models use 1866mhz DDR3, either by Hynix, Epida or Samsung
And you can configure the amount of RAM using some config-lines!
So this seems to be pretty straightforward. The different options of RAM are controlled by a few GPIO lines on the CPU which are either pulled high or low with a few resistors.
Now what model of RAM should we buy? Apple provides one type in the schematic:
LPDDR3-1600-32GB, EDFB232A1MA
Which leads to... A testing document by Intel in which they've tested compatibility of various RAM chips for the specific CPU i'm using:
So i'll probably need either:
[*] Micron EDFB232A1MA-JD-F
[*] Samsung K4EBE304EB-EGCF
[*] Hynix H9CCNNNCLTMLAR-NUD
And with a bit of thinking i've figured out (i think) what each of the 4 configuration settings does:
My questions now:
And yes i know, i'll void warranties, and do impossible stuff etc. Not my first rodeo with 'impossible' soldering
I'm still in love with my by now classic Macbook Pro early 2015 13". It's a wonderful little Macbook but two specs are becoming a bit... outdated and that is the disk-size and the amount of RAM. Mine came with 8 gigabytes worth of RAM (max was 16GB and that was way to expensive back then). A random google showed that it is actually possible to upgrade soldered RAM chips on some Macbooks, so now i'm investigating mine.
My inspiration was this video on Youtube:
But that is for a Macbook Air...
My Macbook is a A1502, 820-4924 board.
In the schematics we're off to a promising start:
So all different models of this macbook are done with the same logic board.
And apparently all models use 1866mhz DDR3, either by Hynix, Epida or Samsung
And you can configure the amount of RAM using some config-lines!
So this seems to be pretty straightforward. The different options of RAM are controlled by a few GPIO lines on the CPU which are either pulled high or low with a few resistors.
Now what model of RAM should we buy? Apple provides one type in the schematic:
LPDDR3-1600-32GB, EDFB232A1MA
Which leads to... A testing document by Intel in which they've tested compatibility of various RAM chips for the specific CPU i'm using:
So i'll probably need either:
[*] Micron EDFB232A1MA-JD-F
[*] Samsung K4EBE304EB-EGCF
[*] Hynix H9CCNNNCLTMLAR-NUD
And with a bit of thinking i've figured out (i think) what each of the 4 configuration settings does:
My questions now:
- is my reasoning correct in assuming the three chips i've mentioned will probably fit and work?
- Where can i obtain these chips?
And yes i know, i'll void warranties, and do impossible stuff etc. Not my first rodeo with 'impossible' soldering