SSD Shortage Due To AI Encouraged An Engineer To Upgrade A MacBook Pro’s Storage To 8TB, But The NAND’s $800 Price And Hours Of Work Will Make Anyone Nervous
Publish Date: 2026-07-06 07:14:00
Source Domain: wccftech.com
Apple’s price hike now means that just for a storage upgrade, moving from a 2TB SSD to an 8TB one on the company’s latest M5 Max MacBook Pro models will cost you a whopping $3,000. Fortunately, while the AI boom may have caused a real problem with storage and memory shortage, that doesn’t mean everyone has to accept these insane cost bumps.
Those proficient in micro-soldering can definitely take advantage of the skill, with one individual upgrading his MacBook Pro SSD to a whopping 8TB. However, as you’ll soon find out, it’s quite an expensive undertaking, and even then, there’s no guarantee for success, with a massive probability that you’ll render your machine useless.
Modder doesn’t recommend anyone performing this MacBook Pro SSD upgrade without having at least 2-3 years of experience, as it took him 12 hours to complete the process
After a long, arduous job, Redditor “arduinoRPi4” says he successfully transplanted 8TB of high-speed NAND flash to his M4 Max MacBook Pro. However, this isn’t a task for the faint-hearted, as one of the biggest obstacles is sourcing the correct storage chips, with only specific ones compatible with these portable Macs. Also, acquiring these NANDs isn’t cheap, as the Redditor says that the 8TB SSD pack set him back $800.
However, the purchase sure beats Apple’s $3,000 premium, but after hearing about the entire procedure, it’s likely that the majority of buyers will end up forking over the extra premium instead of attempting the soldering job. The modder also gives the following warning to anyone who has the desire to upgrade the SSD on their Macs.
“I would NOT recommend anyone without at least maybe 2-3 years of electronics experience. This took around 12 hours and had to use a hot air rework station, microscope soldering, and BGA stencil/reballing. If its just upgrading to 2TB then maybe you can get away with practicing a few throwaway packages since…
