When the very first Mac Studio was unveiled in 2022, a teardown found a surprisingly removable SSD module. However, there’s no way to officially upgrade the drive, since Apple doesn’t offer any type of service or do-it-yourself option to swap it out. Neither has any third-party company, until now.
Polysoft launched a Kickstarter campaign for its Studio Drive, an SSD upgrade that “enthusiasts and repair professionals” can use to upgrade the Mac Studio SSD. The campaign was successful and according to the Studio Drive website, the company is “very busy producing the boards sold on Kickstarter” and they’re going to be taking new orders for “bare PCB board to 8TB models” soon. If you’re interested, Polysoft has an online form to request more information.
In case you’re wondering if this is a legitimate product, the company reached out to YouTube PC enthusiast Luke Miani, who posted a hands-on with the Studio Drive. Miani shows how the Studio Drive is installed, points out how Apple’s SSD implementation is different from typical PCs, and how you need another Mac to connect to, run the Apple Configurator app, and reformat the Mac Studio. The installation may sound a little daunting–it’s not as simple as swapping out the SSDs and rebooting, but it’s not terribly complicated for the type of user who would buy the Mac Studio in the first place. You can see Miani’s demo below.
The Studio Drive is guaranteed for 140,00TB written and includes something Apple’s SSDs don’t have: overvoltage protection to prevent the SSD modules from being zapped dead.
According to Miani, Polysoft plans to offer an 8TB Studio Drive for €799 (about $845/£660), though the official prices are not posted on the Studio Drive website. While Apple doesn’t sell Mac Studio SSD upgrades, an 8TB Mac Pro SSD upgrade for the Mac Pro is $2,800/£2,800. So, that’s a big price difference.
Polysoft also has M4 Mac mini SSD upgrades in the works. For more information as it’s available, check out the Studio Drive website.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor, Macworld
Roman is a Macworld Senior Editor with over 30 years of experience covering the tech industry, focusing on the Mac and other products in the Apple ecosystem. He is also the host of the Macworld Podcast. His career started at MacUser, where he received Apple certification as a repair technician (when Apple did that kind of thing). He's also worked for MacAddict, MacLife, and TechTV.