[conradev]

I bought an M1 Max with a 2TB SSD, but I’m running up against the capacity and I want more storage. The computer is still plenty fast. Normally, I’d upgrade my computer and continue using it, but now I need to sell it and get a new one to get more storage. Not to mention the carbon cost of doing that, these things are $4000!

Further, when I buy a new one, I’m now incentivized to over-provision it based on my current needs by that same logic.

OWC has an entire business around this (for older Macs): https://www.owc.com/

Photos and videos get larger each year with larger sensors, so it can be hard to predict future usage if you take a lot of those.

[kridsdale3]

I have the same Mac and problem.

I used OWC parts to make a 16 TB m2 SSD array that connects over Thunderbolt. It's fast enough to edit 8K footage, just like the internal disk. Look for the 4-bay Thunderbolt enclosure on Amazon. I did add extra cooling (heatsinks on the modules, and a bigger fan).

Total cost was about $2000.

[codersfocus]

You could buy an SD card that goes up to 2TB and keep it permanently in your macbook using a shortened version like so:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1569

[conradev]

I have one of those suckers, but the read/write performance is nowhere near the multi GB/s speeds of the NAND. Could be useful for archival, but it wasn’t great for blockchain indexing or running VMs.

USB4 can hit those speeds, but then you’re in dongle town.

[dzhiurgis]

Same here, these cards suck. Even loading an mp3 takes few seconds, it's insane.