4 ms·

The SSD prices are insane. $400 to go from 1TB to 2GB. $307/TB to go from 1TB to 16TB. That is 3 times the Amazon prices: https://diskprices.com/?locale=us&c

The SSD prices are insane. $400 to go from 1TB to 2GB. $307/TB to go from 1TB to 16TB. That is 3 times the Amazon prices: https://diskprices.com/?locale=us&condition=new&capacity=4-&disk_types=m2_nvme https://diskprices.com/?locale=us&condition=new&capacity=4-&...

rsynnott 2y ago
Given that it's a desktop, most people should just get it with the default size and get an external thunderbolt NVMe disk. Only if you need >Thunderbolt 5 speeds (ie 80 Gbit/sec) do you really need the internal drive, and most NVMe is slower than this in any case.
- WWLink 2y ago
  Or if you don't want ugly ass external boxes cluttering up your desk. I don't get why they couldn't be arsed to stuff a few m.2 slots in there. They could keep the main nand their weird soldered on BS with the firmware stuffed in a special partition if they want. Just give us more room!
  - outime 2y ago
    You seriously don't get why?
    - WWLink 2y ago
      MONEY!
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Pro#Apple_silicon_(2023) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Pro#Apple_silicon_(2023), kinda. The most ultra-niche of Apple's products.
    - hot_gril 2y ago
      I remember this but never looked into it enough to get what the point is. They still sell it with an M2 chip. "includes six internal PCIe 4.0 slots for expansion. It does not support discrete GPUs over PCIe." uhhh, so in case people want an AS chip with most stuff soldered on but also really need certain PCIe cards that aren't GPUs?
      - wpm 2y ago
        Audio interfaces, video capture interfaces, network interfaces, etc etc etc.
        hot_gril 2y ago
        Would a TB-PCIe enclosure like the Sonnet ones not cut it? I get that it's still easier to have PCIe built in, but that's a big premium to pay.
        wpm 2y ago
        Those cost hundreds of dollars and often only have 1 slot. The premium can’t be avoided.
        hot_gril 2y ago
        Yeah, but it's either that or buying outdated hardware at this point because they don't refresh the Mac Pro. Idk why Apple didn't just make their own expansion add-on.
  - bruhWithDeth 2y ago
    [dead]
- staplung 2y ago
  I did this recently with a new Mac Mini that I set up. MacOS recently added the ability to locate the home directories on any volume. There's a somewhat hidden feature too that if you drag the Applications directory onto an external drive it will move selected apps there (the larger ones like Pages, etc.); combine that with the option in the App Store to keep large downloads on a separate disk. So far it's been working quite well with the exception that VSCode does not seem to understand how to update itself if you keep it in the external Applications folder: every time it tries to update itself it just deletes itself instead. Moved it back into the /Applications folder and it's been fine.
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    You can just use it as a boot drive, IIRC.
  - wpm 2y ago
    > MacOS recently added the ability to locate the home directories on any volume Mac OS has always been able to do this.
  - zuhsetaqi 2y ago
    Instead of dragging them over you should create a link. This way it's the same as before for Applications like VS Code.
    - rafram 2y ago
      Last I tried this, Spotlight didn't play well with symlinked application bundles.
- moralestapia 2y ago
  This is also quite convenient when you buy a new laptop and just unplug/plug and that's it, you have everything.
- ravetcofx 2y ago
  I don't know about thunderbolt, but the Apple Silicon macs I help my clients with have something really wrong and screwed up with how macOS or the firmware deals with USB 3.1+ external drives with constant disconnects despite sleeping hard-drives setting turned off etc. Searching on forums leads to similar issues others are having.
  - Citizen8396 2y ago
    What brand and model of drive? This sounds similar to a hardware defect in some SanDisk Extreme SSDs; IIRC it was caused by firmware and/or overheating.
naikrovek 2y ago
the Studio doesn't use nvme but it does put its storage on a removable card. The mac mini does as well. So you don't have to pay Apple for the storage you want. There are places which sell storage upgrades for the Mini and the M1 Studio, and they, of course, are cheaper than what Apple charges for the upgrade when you buy the machine. dosdude1 on youtube has some videos of this exact upgrade, and a bit of googling will help you find vendors. I am assuming that this M3 and M4 Studio will be the same, but that's not a guarantee.
- blacksmith_tb 2y ago
  I see iFixit[1] rates the storage swap for the M4 Mini as "moderate", I remember thinking that popping RAM in my old 2018 Intel Mini was harder than most laptop repairs I have done... I think I will probably settle for an external nVME enclosure when I get one. 1: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+Replace+the+SSD+in+your+Mac+mini+(2024)/180199 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+Replace+the+SSD+in+your+...
canucker2016 2y ago
One can upgrade the SSD storage for a M1/M2 Mac Studio through a third party for a lot less money than what Apple requires at purchase time. I'd expect an upgrade route for the new Mac Studio will appear. Here's one YouTube video showing an upgrade to 8TB of SSD storage. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDFCurB3-0Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDFCurB3-0Q
ohgr 2y ago
Yeah they really need to get that under control. It's a complete rip off at this point. I don't mind them charging say $50 "Apple premium" for the fact it's a proprietary board and needs firmware loading onto the flash but the multiplicative pricing is bullshit price gouging and nothing more.
- LeafItAlone 2y ago
  Get what under control? People (me included) still pay it. And most (me included) would still end up buying the device anyways, maybe just with less storage than they want. And then need to upgrade earlier. From Apple’s perspective, they seem to have figured it out. And maybe the upgraded configurations somewhat subsidize the lower end configurations?
  - xtracto 2y ago
    Exactly!! The prices are a result of extensive market research. Apple prices this things at a price they know people will buy it. It's the beauty of having a product with no real competition in the market. (BTW, I use Linux as my home and work OS But I'm a super geek and 20+ years full stack dev... not their target market, as I can handle the quirks and thousand papercuts of Linux)
  - ohgr 2y ago
    I don't. I've got a 256 gig M4 mini with a 2TB disk hanging off it.
    - LeafItAlone 2y ago
      >I've got a 256 gig M4 mini So you agree with me.
- Saris 2y ago
  Tons of people happily pay for it, so I'd say it works out pretty well for them.
protocolture 2y ago
I remember being a PC enthusiast in high school, spending my lunch hours pricing up Mac's, comparing them to market pc component prices, to laugh at the cost of addons. Seems like nothing has changed.
rootbear 2y ago
Years ago, someone on Usenet explained that Apple upgrade prices are so high because they use components made from the powdered bones of Unicorns and I truly believe that is the truth.
metadat 2y ago
Are the SSDs soldered in place for the desktop machines? Criminal.
Lammy 2y ago
They've obviously done the math on what percentage of Mac buyers will subscribe to what tier of iCloud storage, times how long people tend to keep each computer, then priced the local storage options above that: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108047 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108047

rsynnott 2y ago

Given that it's a desktop, most people should just get it with the default size and get an external thunderbolt NVMe disk. Only if you need >Thunderbolt 5 speeds (ie 80 Gbit/sec) do you really need the internal drive, and most NVMe is slower than this in any case.

WWLink 2y ago
Or if you don't want ugly ass external boxes cluttering up your desk. I don't get why they couldn't be arsed to stuff a few m.2 slots in there. They could keep the main nand their weird soldered on BS with the firmware stuffed in a special partition if they want. Just give us more room!
- outime 2y ago
  You seriously don't get why?
  - WWLink 2y ago
    MONEY!
- rsynnott 2y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Pro#Apple_silicon_(2023) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Pro#Apple_silicon_(2023), kinda. The most ultra-niche of Apple's products.
  - hot_gril 2y ago
    I remember this but never looked into it enough to get what the point is. They still sell it with an M2 chip. "includes six internal PCIe 4.0 slots for expansion. It does not support discrete GPUs over PCIe." uhhh, so in case people want an AS chip with most stuff soldered on but also really need certain PCIe cards that aren't GPUs?
    - wpm 2y ago
      Audio interfaces, video capture interfaces, network interfaces, etc etc etc.
      - hot_gril 2y ago
        Would a TB-PCIe enclosure like the Sonnet ones not cut it? I get that it's still easier to have PCIe built in, but that's a big premium to pay.
        wpm 2y ago
        Those cost hundreds of dollars and often only have 1 slot. The premium can’t be avoided.
        hot_gril 2y ago
        Yeah, but it's either that or buying outdated hardware at this point because they don't refresh the Mac Pro. Idk why Apple didn't just make their own expansion add-on.
- bruhWithDeth 2y ago
  [dead]
staplung 2y ago
I did this recently with a new Mac Mini that I set up. MacOS recently added the ability to locate the home directories on any volume. There's a somewhat hidden feature too that if you drag the Applications directory onto an external drive it will move selected apps there (the larger ones like Pages, etc.); combine that with the option in the App Store to keep large downloads on a separate disk. So far it's been working quite well with the exception that VSCode does not seem to understand how to update itself if you keep it in the external Applications folder: every time it tries to update itself it just deletes itself instead. Moved it back into the /Applications folder and it's been fine.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  You can just use it as a boot drive, IIRC.
- wpm 2y ago
  > MacOS recently added the ability to locate the home directories on any volume Mac OS has always been able to do this.
- zuhsetaqi 2y ago
  Instead of dragging them over you should create a link. This way it's the same as before for Applications like VS Code.
  - rafram 2y ago
    Last I tried this, Spotlight didn't play well with symlinked application bundles.
moralestapia 2y ago
This is also quite convenient when you buy a new laptop and just unplug/plug and that's it, you have everything.
ravetcofx 2y ago
I don't know about thunderbolt, but the Apple Silicon macs I help my clients with have something really wrong and screwed up with how macOS or the firmware deals with USB 3.1+ external drives with constant disconnects despite sleeping hard-drives setting turned off etc. Searching on forums leads to similar issues others are having.
- Citizen8396 2y ago
  What brand and model of drive? This sounds similar to a hardware defect in some SanDisk Extreme SSDs; IIRC it was caused by firmware and/or overheating.

naikrovek 2y ago

the Studio doesn't use nvme but it does put its storage on a removable card. The mac mini does as well. So you don't have to pay Apple for the storage you want. There are places which sell storage upgrades for the Mini and the M1 Studio, and they, of course, are cheaper than what Apple charges for the upgrade when you buy the machine. dosdude1 on youtube has some videos of this exact upgrade, and a bit of googling will help you find vendors. I am assuming that this M3 and M4 Studio will be the same, but that's not a guarantee.

blacksmith_tb 2y ago
I see iFixit[1] rates the storage swap for the M4 Mini as "moderate", I remember thinking that popping RAM in my old 2018 Intel Mini was harder than most laptop repairs I have done... I think I will probably settle for an external nVME enclosure when I get one. 1: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+Replace+the+SSD+in+your+Mac+mini+(2024)/180199 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+Replace+the+SSD+in+your+...

canucker2016 2y ago

One can upgrade the SSD storage for a M1/M2 Mac Studio through a third party for a lot less money than what Apple requires at purchase time. I'd expect an upgrade route for the new Mac Studio will appear. Here's one YouTube video showing an upgrade to 8TB of SSD storage. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDFCurB3-0Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDFCurB3-0Q

ohgr 2y ago

Yeah they really need to get that under control. It's a complete rip off at this point. I don't mind them charging say $50 "Apple premium" for the fact it's a proprietary board and needs firmware loading onto the flash but the multiplicative pricing is bullshit price gouging and nothing more.

LeafItAlone 2y ago
Get what under control? People (me included) still pay it. And most (me included) would still end up buying the device anyways, maybe just with less storage than they want. And then need to upgrade earlier. From Apple’s perspective, they seem to have figured it out. And maybe the upgraded configurations somewhat subsidize the lower end configurations?
- xtracto 2y ago
  Exactly!! The prices are a result of extensive market research. Apple prices this things at a price they know people will buy it. It's the beauty of having a product with no real competition in the market. (BTW, I use Linux as my home and work OS But I'm a super geek and 20+ years full stack dev... not their target market, as I can handle the quirks and thousand papercuts of Linux)
- ohgr 2y ago
  I don't. I've got a 256 gig M4 mini with a 2TB disk hanging off it.
  - LeafItAlone 2y ago
    >I've got a 256 gig M4 mini So you agree with me.
Saris 2y ago
Tons of people happily pay for it, so I'd say it works out pretty well for them.

protocolture 2y ago

I remember being a PC enthusiast in high school, spending my lunch hours pricing up Mac's, comparing them to market pc component prices, to laugh at the cost of addons. Seems like nothing has changed.

rootbear 2y ago

Years ago, someone on Usenet explained that Apple upgrade prices are so high because they use components made from the powdered bones of Unicorns and I truly believe that is the truth.

metadat 2y ago

Are the SSDs soldered in place for the desktop machines? Criminal.

Lammy 2y ago

They've obviously done the math on what percentage of Mac buyers will subscribe to what tier of iCloud storage, times how long people tend to keep each computer, then priced the local storage options above that: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108047 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108047