Along with the launch of the Apple M1 Ultra, Apple also announced its newest mini PC, the Mac Studio. This is claimed to be the fastest mini PC in the world thanks to the Apple M1 Ultra chip.
The body is very compact, with aluminum material for the entire chassis, with dimensions of 3.7 inches high and 7.7 inches wide. It's like two Mac Minis stacked together. Although small in size, but the capabilities offered are very savage.
Apple Mac Studio Has An Extra SSD Slot But It Is Not Upgradable, What Is It Used For?
Some time ago there was a youtuber who disassembled the Apple Mac Studio device. There you can see that Mac Studio is powered by the M1 Ultra SoC, which looks very large, almost 3 times a typical PC processor.
But what is unique, it is also seen that Mac Studio has two SSD slots. One slot for the SSD that has been installed, and another SSD slot that is still empty.
This makes everyone think that Mac Studio devices actually have an option for users to upgrade storage. But unfortunately not so.
Apple itself has stated through its official website that users cannot access storage on the device. If you need a large capacity, the user must choose a larger storage configuration.
Another YouTuber, Luke Miani, conducted an experiment to prove this. He tried to install the SSD in the second slot which is still empty. And it's true, his Mac Studio won't even turn on.
Apple seems to be locking the ability to upgrade storage on Mac Studio devices by software. I don't know why Apple gave a second SSD slot, but it doesn't allow users to add their own SSD in the empty slot.
Or maybe later users will have to buy a special SSD sold by Apple which is sold at a high price like what was done on the Mac Pro 2019. Or must come first to an Apple service center if you want to upgrade?
Mac Studio Specifications
Powered with the Apple M1 Ultra chip, the device is claimed to have 60% faster CPU performance compared to a Mac Pro with an Intel Xeon 28 Core processor. Meanwhile, in terms of GPU, GPU performance can reach 80% faster than the fastest Mac graphics card ever.
For RAM capacity, this device can load up to 128GB. As for Storage, you can use SSD up to 8TB.
The available ports are fairly complete, starting from 4x Thunderbolt 4, 1x 10Gb ethernet, 2x USB Type-A, HDMI port, and Pro Audio Jack. It also supports wireless connectivity WI-FI 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
Its multimedia capabilities are also very high, which can stream 18 8K ProRes 4:2:2 quality videos at once. It also supports up to 4 Pro Display XDR outputs, and one 4K TV.
