- A Reddit User Manually Updated His MacBook’s Storage Chips
- The process involved welding, 12 hours and ‘some nerves’
- The move saved them $2,200 after Apple recently raised its prices.
How much is too much to pay for laptop storage? After Apple’s shocking price increase, things may feel so bad that you’re tempted to roll up your sleeves and do an emergency update job of your own on your MacBook. That’s exactly what one Apple fan did, and they saved themselves a cool $2,200 in the process.
Posting on Reddit, user arduinoRPi4 explained how they took their MacBook Pro with 2TB of storage and bumped it up to 8TB, quadrupling its available storage with a major upgrade that means they can “store everything you want.” They spent “around $800” on parts, saving them $2,200 (around £1,650 / AU$3,170) compared to the exorbitant $3,000 (around £2,240 / AU$4,320) it would have cost to pay Apple for a similar upgrade.
Of course, this being Apple, opening up a MacBook Pro and increasing its storage yourself isn’t easy. The publication revealed that it took them 12 hours “and some nerves” to make the switch, and it’s no surprise, since doing so requires removing the existing storage modules from the MacBook Pro’s motherboard and soldering alternative chips in their place.
On top of that, the poster stated that they had to “refill the power components on the other side as well” to complete the upgrade. “That was really hell,” they admitted, adding that these pieces “are SMALL packages.”
All of the work was done while they were on vacation in Shenzhen, China, where they “borrowed a lab from a friend who repairs high-level components.” They used a hot air station, microscope soldering, and jigs to do the job, which involved soldering power management ICs in place, followed by 4TB of NAND storage chips on each side of the laptop for a total of 8TB.
“Looks like excellent work”
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If you have the determination, patience, and skill for a portable surgery site like this, the savings can be enormous. A 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max chip and 2TB of storage will set you back $4,099 / £4,099 / AU$6,399 at Apple’s increased prices. Upgrade the storage to 8TB and that adjustment will add a hefty $3,000 to your bill, bringing the total to $7,099 / £7,099 / AU$10,899.
The difference is even greater when this change is applied to Apple’s entry-level MacBook Pro. A 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 chip and 2TB of storage currently costs $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,949. Add 8TB of storage and the total skyrockets by a colossal $4,600. This is partly due to the expensive addition of storage and partly because it requires changing the M5 chip to an M5 Max, which is the only chip that can be configured with 8TB of storage.
A $3,000 upgrade is out of reach for most MacBook buyers (let alone a $4,600 one), so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that an enterprising user with a lot of experience and a bit of free time would be motivated to manually upgrade their storage.
Most of the participants in the thread were very impressed with his work, with comments like “very impressive, I could never” be typical. One user was especially effusive in his praise, saying, “This kind of work blows my mind.”
That said, other users were not happy that a task like this was necessary. “It’s crazy that you have to go to this level of modifications just to upgrade your storage,” said one, noting that Apple’s storage price hike isn’t exactly the most popular move it’s ever made.
But with artificial intelligence (AI) fever driving up component prices around the world and Apple unwilling to compromise its famously high margins, rising costs are here to stay, at least for the time being. And while that remains the case, there will likely be many more people willing to take on the considerable task of upgrading their laptop’s storage with a few off-the-shelf components and a soldering iron on hand.
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