You can order Apple’s all-new Mac Pro with a whopping 8TB of storage.
Just like every other Mac Pro upgrade, however, it isn’t cheap. Maxing out your SSD space will cost you more than a high-end iMac with Retina 5K display — or even a brand-new 16-inch MacBook Pro.
The 2019 Mac Pro is the most powerful, most customizable Apple computer we’ve seen in years. But it’s also the most expensive, with prices starting at $5,999 and rising quickly when you add optional upgrades.
Apple’s prices for bigger SSD drives are actually a little more acceptable than they have been in the past. Upgrading from a standard 256GB SSD to a 1TB SSD will cost you just $400.
But if only the 8TB option will do, you’d better have a big budget.
Mac Pro’s 8TB SSD upgrade costs $2,600
Adding an 8TB SSD to your 2019 Mac Pro costs $2,600. That’s $1,200 more than the 4TB SSD, and $1,800 more than the 2TB SSD.
Of course, you can buy 8TB PCIe SSDs from third-party manufacturers and install them in Mac Pro yourself. OWC offers an 8TB model of its own, with speeds of over 6,000 Mbps, for $1,600.
But third-party storage drives cannot completely replace the SSD that comes installed in your Mac Pro. Apple ties its drives to the machine’s T2 security chip, and Mac Pro won’t boot if the pre-installed SSD isn’t present.
But it’s great to know that even if you opt for the 256GB drive and quickly fill it up, there are more affordable storage upgrades available. That’s a luxury that’s becoming incredibly rare with Apple computers.
A maxed-out Mac Pro now costs even more
You may remember a maxed-out 2019 Mac Pro previously cost almost $53,000. That figure has obviously now risen since the 8TB SSD was added as an option. All available extras take the total price to just under $54,000.
