Touchbar MacBook Pro NVMe SSD Upgrade

In this video, I go over the process of upgrading a 2016-2017 Touchbar MacBook Pro soldered SSD, by converting it to support removable NVMe SSDs. This modification was designed by iBoff, and essentially involves soldering a custom PCB on the board in place of the original onboard SSD controller, utilizing its PCIe I/O to connect a standard NVMe SSD.

#macbook #ssd #upgrade

[EliezYT]

I'm really happy that there is a future out there where instead of buying a whole new mac for a storage upgrade we can just upgrade our mac's storage again!

[Retroman]

Love how u remind me of my electronic teacher when he taught us soldering. He always repeated what he was explaining and showing like a surgeon teaching the pre meds.... awesome to see u doing things they say u can't do thanks for the 25 years old memory. RIP Mr Green

[eileenlucynakurosawa]

Beautiful work, clean, functional and can add extra useful life to those dead SSD MacBooks also having the storage upgrade in a still working one is excellent.

[sssloe]

iBoff guys made some really nice boards, exquisite work as always!

[carholic-szqv]

1:09 as soon as you said removable SSD you got all my attention! i absolutely love these kinds of mods!

[thiagomesa]

I came for the "alright" but I stayed for the talent of this boy. He makes everything look simple, great engineer.

[mauatron]

I really want to attempt this on my 2017 15" touchbar MBP that has been sitting on a shelf for two years since the battery bloated and had to be removed. I bought it with 256GB storage at the time because I couldn't afford the extra storage upgrade, but I'm glad we're now at an inflection point where these devices are becoming easier to work on and upgrade, even with soldered components. Thank you for the upgrade video, I hope to take this on soon as I continue to hone my soldering skills and remove chips off donor boards for practice.

[trollingtime]

pretty cool to know that even if the ssd is dead on these macbooks, you can still give them an nvme slot to further increase its longevity. i like maximizing the lifespan of my computers tbh.

[SGCSmith]

Louis Rossmann's Discord brought me here!

Great work :) It's nice to see how the community continues to improve upon designs where Apple couldn't.

[WeMuckAround]

Dosdude, your videos have inspired me to really get into this level of Mac repairs. For Christmas I have asked for a soldering iron and solder! Hoping to replace the NVIDIA 8300 chip on my Early 2008 MacBook Pro. Just for the fun of it!

[Benk]

Im always so impressed to see your upgrades. "Non user servicable" parts removed and replaced with expertise. You're one heck of a solder artist.

[nicksower]

I have a stock 2017 MBP, 1TB SSD. Its performance (using AJA) is 2087 write & 1532 read. I'd say your upgrade is worth it!

[Epicgamer_Mac]

Dude you are legendary. These are exactly the types of shenanigans that Apple hates because it completely satisfies the Right to Repair advocates and, for many people, negates the need to upgrade your computer! Obviously for people doing any heavy work, you’d want to bump up to a new Apple silicon machine, but for someone who does basic things with their computer - probably MOST people - this breathes new life into their perfectly working machine.

[jacksonsneed]

This is a great idea, and will help me and hopefully many, MANY others keep these MacBook out of landfills! Seriously, thanks for these videos brother! Some of these small run parts are really well thought out, and this little board seems to be no exception. Thanks for telling us about it. I'm all over this one.

BTW, did you ever hear any news about the NVMe upgrade kit for the 2011 (I think it was the 2011, maybe 2010) 17" MacBook Pro that you demo'd a little while back? It's the kit that replaces the dGPU with an interposer/BGA reroute PCB, freeing up several PCIe 2.0 lanes, then there's a caddy that hooks to the slimSATA port for power (I think) and that's where you install the M.2 (2280). It worked, but there was a ribbon or connector that ran from the interposer to the M.2 slot that was kinda short. I hope I'm not misremembering too badly. I think you said they hadn't decided if they were gonna make more kits or not. THAT upgrade was very cool, and on the last 17" MBP too, not to mention removing the probably dead dGPU and installing an NVMe in its place.

Great video as always! Thank you for all that you do for the community. Seriously bro, I used your Mojave and Catalina patcher for years on my machines and to give clients of mine with older Macs the ability to have dark mode (yes, dark mode is THAT important to me). I'm an OpenCore user these days, but I did see that you were in the acknowledgement, with you and your patchers being cited as providing a map of where and how to start. You're very much beloved in this community, and we are so incredibly grateful for your work!

Thanks again!
🙂👍🐧🙂

[dibujandoconyuya]

This could be the revival of dead macbooks which SSD controller gets fried? Woa man, you are awesome

[sirNemanjapro]

First 2 minutes of this video has better MBP review and information quality over any other reviewer out there.

[Bless]

You are doing a really good job, I don't understand people who buy Apple equipment, where this company is a master at milking customers' pockets, and when the owner wants to add an NVMe drive, he has to perform such operations.

[ReTex]

No joke, PC DVD drives are one of the best tools for soldering :D

[ted]

Strangely enough, I have a 15” Mac book pro, 2017, Touch Bar and have never had a problem with it. Must have just been lucky. Nice to know there is an upgrade, if I want to bother with it. Good work!

[leap_]

You're doing a good job for being Apple's sleep paralysis demon! Keep up the good work on making newer MacBooks actually usable and upgradable!