Third-party accessory-maker Polysoft stepped in to make something Apple won’t: upgrade SSDs for the Mac Studio. These will allow owners of the powerful desktop to increase the storage capacity with relative ease, which is not possible now.
And the product raises the possibility that Mac mini SSD upgrades will launch at some point, too.
Mac Studio SSD upgrades coming from Polysoft
The SSD in each Mac Studio isn’t soldered in — it’s removable. However, Apple tries to prevent upgrades with a software lock. Cupertino certainly does not sell SSD upgrades for the macOS desktop.
But the French company Polysoft reverse engineered Apple’s proprietary NVMe SSDs and put them on the market at prices well below Apple’s.
The necessary process was elaborate. “We sacrificed a SSD module, removed all its small components one by one using a laser station, inventoried them and measured their characteristics, then we oil sanded every layer with fine-grained sandpaper and scanned every layer with a flatbed scanner,” said Polysoft. “We could then start making our own schematics from this work.”
StudioDrive is manufactured with the same Kioxia and Hynix TLC NANDs as the original Mac Studio SSDs. The company promises read speeds up to 7.4 GB/s.
It began sales with a Kickstarter campaign. Polysoft‘s StudioDrive included 2TB, 4TB and 8TB replacement SSDs for M1 and M2 Mac Studio units. Prices ranged from €399 ($420) for the 2TB version to €1,099 ($1,160) for 8TB. For reference, Apple charges $600 to configure an M2 Mac Studio with a 2TB drive, and $2,400 for 8TB — and those can only be installed at the time of purchase.
Image: Polysoft
Regular sales begin in 2025
With the Kickstarter campaign over, the upgrades are not currently available. Still, Polysoft intended to begin regular sales in 2025, according to The Verge.
And that might not be the end. The recently released M4-powered Mac mini also has a removable but proprietary NVMe SSD. Apple doesn’t sell replacements for these either, but the French company could potentially reverse engineer the drive and offer storage upgrades for the miniature Mac, also.
To reassure those skeptical of crowd-sourcing campaigns, YouTuber Luke Miani got one of Polysoft’s SSD upgrade cards and installed it in a Mac Studio:
