iFixit’s Mac Studio teardown reveals monster cooling system

iFixit’s teardown of the Mac Studio found, among other things, a monstrous thermal management system connected to a relatively small computer.

The teardown video showed a somewhat complicated but not insurmountable process of getting into that small metal rectangle, and there weren’t too many surprises. The video identified some ports, showed the removal of the circuit board and, perhaps most notably, a dual-fan cooling system inside the machine.

Furthermore, iFixit spoke about the much-discussed SSD swapping situation. It is possible to swap the storage provided you are using the same size and type of storage, but that requires a device firmware update (DFU) restore. (Read our article on this topic to learn more about this.)

But replacing a part with its exact copy is not the same as an upgrade, which as expected still remains elusive.

Getting in was not impossible, but not easy either. iFixit had to detach the rubber foot from the device to access the first case screws, noting that the cooling fans buried inside are difficult to clean. But on the plus side in terms of maintenance, the modular ports can come and go with ease, and the entire housing is mostly accessible with a screwdriver with no risk of damage.

Overall, iFixit gave the Mac Studio a repairability score of 6 out of 10, a figure we’ve seen before for Apple products.

The video also featured a quick teardown of the Studio Display. There’s not much to say about the Studio Display, except that the inside looks like a stripped-down iMac. iFixit also noted that the webcam is similar to a camera on the iPhone 11.

Be sure and watch the video if you want more details.

List image by iFixit