How easy is it to upgrade hardware on M1 computers?

Incidentally, that machine IS upgradeable. Head on over to OWC and they’ll sell you drives, RAM, and parts. They’ll even give you some videos about how to do it, and sell you tools for opening it up if you need them.

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Thanks for that.

It seems the general consensus is that Apple products are, “as is” and that’s only going to get more so.

Been that way for quite some time now …

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Individuals. A significant push for “Right to Repair” came from farmers that want to be to fix their own tractors.

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They won’t have to make it easy – e.g. requiring you to solder the replacement chips onto the board without frying everything else.

The “Right to repair” does not include the “Right to Alter the Product”!
A “Repair” is not an “Upgrade”.

I have a 2011 27’’ iMac sitting next to me on the other desk, doing Videorendering for me, and a 2011 iPad2, still working great for reading and surfing.
I use a couple of old iPhones as a Videocamera.

I had never a Windows based equipment, even with certain “Upgrades” last so long!

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As I understand it, “right to repair” means a vendor (Apple) needs to make their OEM parts and repair manuals available to private individuals / repair shops, and that repairs that are done in a “workmanlike manner” can’t be used to invalidate a warranty.

It doesn’t, as far as I know, generally mean that they’d be required to make things available that they’re not using for repairs internally. For example, if the M1 is soldered to a logic board, no Apple tech is ever removing the M1 and replacing it - they’re just replacing the board.

So actually buying an M1 SOC would likely not be possible. But “Logic Board, M1 MacBook Air - 8 GB / 512GB” might be available as a replacement unit.

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Most farms are businesses (some quite large) with enough equipment and tools to qualify in my book as small repair shops (among the many other business-like activities a successful farmer performs).

It appears to be open to everyone.

“The new online store offers more than 200 individual parts and tools, enabling customers who are experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices to complete repairs on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups and iPhone SE (3rd generation) . . . “

I don’t disagree. But previously you seemed to be mocking(?) Apple for requiring a significant investment in equipment in order to repair their own device. However, the “Right to Repair Act” is not the “Affordable Repair Act”. The dollars needed to repair modern devices seems to require an investment more suited to a small repair shop than to an individual. That is my point.

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I think this is a business that they do not wish to be in. And, based on this one review, it appears they may have some bugs in the system.

I’ve repaired/upgraded several Macs and MacBooks but have no desire to work on iPhones. When my 6S needed a new battery I took it to an Apple store.

Apple is providing the same equipment to do the repair, as it is used at an Apple Shop or other qualified Repair Shop.
And this makes of course sense, as the repair is not conflicting with the warranty, if it is done as described in the Repair Manual (incl. the use of the right equipment).
It makes no sense for an individual, to pay 1000$ for the Equipment, to do a single repair of an Screen that will cost normally 125$ in an Apple Store.
But there are for example in Germany so called “Repair Cafés”, where you can sit together with skilled people, and the show and help to repair your equipment, from Toaster over iPhone to Bikes. And there it makes a lot of sense, to have the right equipment available, to do the repair in a serious way.

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Me, too. PCs and Macs. So, what? That ship has sailed! Modern components and system design argue against any sort of the tinkering that we used to do. The replaceable modules, even for skilled technicians, are fewer and fewer because of the ever increasing complexity and integration which are key to the functionality of today’s devices. State of the art devices simply could not be made to today’s standards if they had covers all over them that coud be unscrewed to access and replace electronic submodules. The phenomenal reliability we now enjoy would be the first thing lost.

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I agree. Our computers are now devices with batteries and storage that have a finite life.

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I too miss the days of swapping RAM and hard drives in my machines, but just to play devil’s advocate: this has always been true for most people. Especially since the processor typically wasn’t upgradable.

It’s not like people were rocking the 1984 Mac still by the mid-90s. And for all our talk about how reliable Mac machines were in the early 2000s, I don’t know anybody who kept their 2004 machines past, say, 2010. Etc.

The argument for upgradability just feels like the old man yells at cloud Simpson gif, on repeat, ad infinitum forever. And the weirdest part is that the tech nerds demanding it are also often early adopters who race to get the new shiny before everybody else. Who are we advocating for? It’s such a strange obsession to me.

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Advocating for people who want to change the RAM and hard disk. More people than you might think.

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This isn’t really possible anyway, unless you have the means to flow-solder.

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As noted above, the “upgrade” I was really typically advocating for, as a tech nerd, was “allow me to buy and install my own (RAM|SSD)” because Apple’s prices were positively obscene for either of those upgrades. But again, that was almost always a matter of doing it immediately.

I do also remember upgrading an old 2009 MacBook to an SSD from a spinning drive, and it was cool to be able to get another couple of years of useful life out of it for $100 or so.

But at this point, my “upgrade” concerns are mostly related to the fact that the M1’s architecture means that if a ($200) SSD drive fails, the whole computer (> $200 :slight_smile: ) is junk. I think we’re not in far enough yet to know whether that’s likely to be a common issue at earlier-than-expected failure points, but as long as it isn’t happening all the time it’s not a big deal.

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I have done this multiple times on older machines. I remain to be convinced the number of people who want to do this is “more than I might think.”

I’m not trying to say that it’s not worth allowing access to this. I’m suggesting that there are not many of us who still want to do this. Really, truly. Just like there are not many folks who enjoy taking photos with big heavy cameras and lenses like I do. Things change.

I think, after 10 years of SSDs in Macs, we’d have some idea of whether or not the SSDs were a common early failure point. I don’t think it’s normal anymore.

I made similar upgrades to you in the past. I’m not saying these sort of upgrades aren’t fun or worth being able to do. My point is just that the general desire to do them, I think, has diminished for most — almost all — people.