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Upgrading Mac Studio storage
- Thread starter gilles_polysoft
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Nearly every country has their own set of customs border police along with rules, duties that must be paid
There's a number of reality tv shows that deal with airports/customs and border protections. Oddly enough there's a NZ specific one I think its called border patrol New Zealand. I'm amazed at the volumes even for such a small country, its quire fascinating.
Yeah, they are very strict and lots of us buy from ALiExpress, Temu, Ebay etc here because everything here is so expensive which leaves us with no choice.
Shouldn't they be efficient with their processes?
I've heard a lot of complaints on r/Lenovo the past few weeks about stuff stuck in Customs and I assume that this is to deal with the De Minimus changes which would result in a big increase in work for Customs. I am personally avoiding buying anything that requires shipping from overseas until next year.
I don't know of a single government entity that embraces efficiency. Tbh, with the world so interconnected, and the desire of certain individuals to send things (that cannot be discussed here), Customs has taken the brunt of making sure what is sent to a country is not going to harm their citizens, their economy, and in NZ's case, their ecosystem, which is so fragile, unique and beautiful
The downside of living in an island nation, Hawaii has the same exact issue, nearly everything needs to be shipped and its expensive to live there - I guess that's the price you pay to live in paradise.
I have had only problems with ebay shipping from the US this year.
Seems all items are sent to one individual in the US, who collects them, and then proceeds with the export.
The VAT is not properly registered, even if it is paid. So the shipping companies in Sweden demand I pay the VAT + fee.
The first time it was important for me to get the item, an iMac Pro logic board.
Now I got a used book waiting, but I am not going to pay this time. They can ship it back to the seller for all I care
I have been following this thread. And if I find a Mac Studio M1 or M2 for a good price. I will very much prefer to buy a kit from polysoft.
The US used to be efficient. Packages under $800 don't have tariffs. So government used to be very efficient and is currently inefficient.
I think I've had bad luck with Polisoft. I ordered an M3 on June 9th, and it still hasn’t been shipped... What I really hope is that it eventually arrives and not that it ends up being something that never does.
Thats not bad luck, thats just like the rest of us. I think I ordered in May.
I have not heard back from @gilles_polysoft in over a month now. I understand that delays can occur with such a purchase but not communicating with customers or providing any updates regarding delays/shipments for over a month is unacceptable. Thankfully I can still file a chargeback with my CC provider for non-delivery.
Gilles seems to be coming to the forum but not answering any questions posed to him. As much as forum members want to support him, his responsiveness leaves much to be questioned. He was on the Forum yesterday and to provide good customer service and honest transparency, he should have answered the questions posed to him.
Hello everyone,
I apologize for the updates, which are much too slow, I admit.
The problem encountered by the PCB factory on the third batch caused a cascade of problems.
Since our kits contain between 4 and 8 NAND chips, even the slightest soldering defect can result in 1 chip being programmed correctly and 7 others being programmed incorrectly, and sometimes the solution was to buy again new NAND chips.
So, august was a very challenging month professionally. We are a small team, and I admit that it was very difficult to prevent my employees from burning out.
I also had to deal with a very serious family issue, which I wouldn't wish on anyone.
We suspended orders, as well as kits for Mac mini M4 and M4 Pro (which have been ready for months), while the PCB factory corrected their manufacturing process (specifically, the supports that hold the PCBs during pick and place and soldering).
We also added testing steps and the ability to reprogram the chips at the factory, as close as possible to the manufacturing process, instead of going back and forth between the factory and our workshop. This is something I had always planned to do to support the increase in volume, but I hadn't planned to do it this summer.
At present, and in all transparency, out of 138 orders from the third batch (corresponding to 200x PCBs), there have been:
- 43 kits delivered (in addition to the 250 already issued in the first two batches)
- 87 that have been manufactured but are still to be delivered and are currently being reprogrammed.
- 8 kits refunded
We have also already had 500 PCBs manufactured for the next batches.
I also had to deal with hundreds of messages, which I handle mostly personaly.
I understand the disappointment of some and I apologize, but I regret that some are drawing inappropriate conclusions (saying that we are running a "scam" or other hasty conclusions).
Best regards to all.
I apologize for the updates, which are much too slow, I admit.
The problem encountered by the PCB factory on the third batch caused a cascade of problems.
Since our kits contain between 4 and 8 NAND chips, even the slightest soldering defect can result in 1 chip being programmed correctly and 7 others being programmed incorrectly, and sometimes the solution was to buy again new NAND chips.
So, august was a very challenging month professionally. We are a small team, and I admit that it was very difficult to prevent my employees from burning out.
I also had to deal with a very serious family issue, which I wouldn't wish on anyone.
We suspended orders, as well as kits for Mac mini M4 and M4 Pro (which have been ready for months), while the PCB factory corrected their manufacturing process (specifically, the supports that hold the PCBs during pick and place and soldering).
We also added testing steps and the ability to reprogram the chips at the factory, as close as possible to the manufacturing process, instead of going back and forth between the factory and our workshop. This is something I had always planned to do to support the increase in volume, but I hadn't planned to do it this summer.
At present, and in all transparency, out of 138 orders from the third batch (corresponding to 200x PCBs), there have been:
- 43 kits delivered (in addition to the 250 already issued in the first two batches)
- 87 that have been manufactured but are still to be delivered and are currently being reprogrammed.
- 8 kits refunded
We have also already had 500 PCBs manufactured for the next batches.
I also had to deal with hundreds of messages, which I handle mostly personaly.
I understand the disappointment of some and I apologize, but I regret that some are drawing inappropriate conclusions (saying that we are running a "scam" or other hasty conclusions).
Best regards to all.
Hey Mate. We do sympathize with your situation and know that everyone does go through issues. I don't think anyone mentioned that you are running a scam but you gotta understand that many here have outlayed lots of $$$$ ordering these kits and to go months with no response is not on. It does not take much to update your website explaining the issues and people will support you. I ended up buying from AliExpress because after many messages and no response, we look else where.
I've given up, I honestly don't mind that its late in shipping, problems happen. It's the lack of communication, ignoring emails, ignoring this forum even though he's clearly reading it. I've started charge-back with my CC company, and it may sound mean, but I hope there is some fee he has to pay for doing that, there has to be some lesson learned here, and maybe making him pay actual $$ will do it.
@gilles_polysoft All it would have taken is to answer an email, make a simple post now and then, but you cant even do that.
edit: oh look, a response while I was typing this. I would have tried to refund directly thru you, but since you cant respond to emails, how can I do that.
@gilles_polysoft All it would have taken is to answer an email, make a simple post now and then, but you cant even do that.
edit: oh look, a response while I was typing this. I would have tried to refund directly thru you, but since you cant respond to emails, how can I do that.
So, customs finally released my Mac SSD drives and I fitted it on today when I came from work. I used my Intel 2019 MacBook Pro to do the DFU restore and it took around 30 minutes to fully restore. Am I happy - Hell Yeah. Speeds are great and I now have 8TB of storage. See speed tests and pictures of the AliExpress SSD compared to the original Apple SSD.
Thank you, I appreciate
I beg to differ, you are making false claims without being a customer.
Since placing their orders, each customer has received several group emails and at least two individual emails from me. I also respond, althought lately, on WhatsApp, and indeed much less here on this thread.
However, I know that I need to improve.
I admit that my personal concerns took precedence in August.
I myself have announced here that there is a manufacturer that makes 100% clones of Apple cards which I think are of very good quality, and sell them at a low price on Taobao.
Some resellers on Aliexpress buy and resell these products at higher price to occidental customers, with greater commercial efficiency than me, I completely understand that.
In absolute terms, this makes me happy and I think it's a good thing because above all, I like the idea that Apple products can be upgraded after purchase, and I am happy for you.
Congrats on your upgrade and it going smooth. Enjoy your new upgraded Studio
Thanks mate. Works well so far. I did a few reboots to check and it is still going. Now I can use my external drive for scrubbing movies.
@gilles_polysoft, Sorry, But how did I make false claims? please read through the comments here of your customers trying to get hold of you for months and even other forums that I am part of. Anyway, I am not going to get into an argument as I am happy as I type from my M4 Studio with 8TB that took 2 weeks to get to me. I would have been a customer, I had sent numerous messages via your website with no response, says a lot about customer care and service. I wish you well in the future mate.
I try to take the middle of the road and give small businesses the benefit of doubt, but what @Surenmunoo posted was spot on. You've largely been absent in this thread and people were beginning to wonder what's going on. You're very site is directing people here and yet you've chosen to go silent.
I don't think you've explained what the issues were, the steps that were taken. How are we to make an informed decision, and why should we work with a company that is not actively engaged with their customers?
The old "trust me bro" just doesn't really mean anything in 2025.
It seems he has been reaching out to actual customers via email and not fence sitters. It's a small business and he has been dealing with personal stuff as well. Time is limited. It's unfortunate for all involved.
**** happens and it is brutally hard being an entrepreneur and cover all bases (especially when it gets spread over different media platforms).
I can empathize, but he's using MR as an official means of interaction, and then people with questions, seemingly both customers and potential customers are not getting replied - it causes concerns and is not a good look. I'm not trying to attack him, just pointing out that its not a good look.
Here my experience with aliexpress
Ordered on 24 august
Arrived 11 sept
2tb for my studio m2 2023 since I use only for logic and music app
Easygoing the installation and the re-activation via MacBook M1
No screw for the ssd
The kit for
Mounting isn’t really bad…
Another aspect is inside the kit will not found an adesive for the black ring
Ordered on 24 august
Arrived 11 sept
2tb for my studio m2 2023 since I use only for logic and music app
Easygoing the installation and the re-activation via MacBook M1
No screw for the ssd
The kit for
Mounting isn’t really bad…
Another aspect is inside the kit will not found an adesive for the black ring
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