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0 pointspaxys2y ago0 comments

> A fast 2TB NVMe drive can be had for ~$130

Not if the drive is soldered to the motherboard..

0 comments

With thin laptops you can maybe justify that as a necessary compromise for the form factor, but there's no good reason the Mac Studio shouldn't have a hatch on the bottom with two or three M.2 2280 slots inside.

You can put your own PCIe SSDs in the Mac Pro, but that's so wildly marked up compared to an equivalently specced Mac Studio that it probably cancels out any savings.

samatman2y ago

I remain flabbergasted that there's no model of Mac Mini or Studio which has M.2 slots. I believe the Doctrine is that Thunderbolt is fast enough that YAGNI but that's absurd given the amount of open space inside those things. If you look at a picture of the motherboard[0] it's dead obvious that there's room for one M.2, maybe two if they cared about it.

[0]: https://www.ifixit.com/News/57898/mac-studio-teardown

jsheard2y ago

Thunderbolt is decently fast but the enclosures don't come cheap, it's an extra $100 or so per drive you want to hook up. The enclosure could easily cost as much as the drive you put in it nowadays.

Dalewyn2y ago

>there's no good reason

There is: Not wanting to support end-user modified products.

Apple is never shorthanded on white knights, but more generally I can see why companies might opt to lock out customer modifications under practical pretexts.

jsheard2y ago

That's their prerogative but I'm not spending thousands of dollars to be treated like a child who can't operate a screwdriver.

Hell, I'm sure they could make it a tool-less operation if they wanted to.

eurleif2y ago

A PCIe/NVME adapter costs $10 on Amazon.

jsheard2y ago

To USB you mean? The cheap ones only do 10gbps, not even a quarter of the speed a PCIe4 drive is capable of. 40gbps adapters are up in the ~$100 range.

1 more reply

SirMaster2y ago

Why would soldering it cost so much more?

xnx2y ago

I believe the parent is saying that Apple can charge more because the consumer has no feasible way to replace it themselves after purchase.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

jsheard2y ago

You can put your own PCIe SSDs in the Mac Pro, but that's so wildly marked up compared to an equivalently specced Mac Studio that it probably cancels out any savings.

samatman2y ago

[0]: https://www.ifixit.com/News/57898/mac-studio-teardown

jsheard2y ago

Thunderbolt is decently fast but the enclosures don't come cheap, it's an extra $100 or so per drive you want to hook up. The enclosure could easily cost as much as the drive you put in it nowadays.

Dalewyn2y ago

>there's no good reason

There is: Not wanting to support end-user modified products.

Apple is never shorthanded on white knights, but more generally I can see why companies might opt to lock out customer modifications under practical pretexts.

jsheard2y ago

That's their prerogative but I'm not spending thousands of dollars to be treated like a child who can't operate a screwdriver.

Hell, I'm sure they could make it a tool-less operation if they wanted to.

eurleif2y ago

A PCIe/NVME adapter costs $10 on Amazon.

jsheard2y ago

To USB you mean? The cheap ones only do 10gbps, not even a quarter of the speed a PCIe4 drive is capable of. 40gbps adapters are up in the ~$100 range.

1 more reply

SirMaster2y ago

Why would soldering it cost so much more?

xnx2y ago

I believe the parent is saying that Apple can charge more because the consumer has no feasible way to replace it themselves after purchase.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse