Most desktop “clones” are designed so that you can swap out components such as CPUs, RAMs, video cards, storages, etc. Most of today’s laptops, to some degree, are upgradeable too.
But how about the Surface Studio? This is a “desktop” class PC after all, right?
Surface Studio Teardown
iFixIt has managed to completely strip the Surface Studio down to pieces. And there are 21 steps to get to this!
There’s detailed instructions on how to dissemble the Surface Studio, complete with pictures. At the end, they gave a “Repairability Score” of 5 out of 10 for the Surface Studio.
Not exactly a great score…
Conclusion
In a nutshell, as far as upgradeability goes:
- Standard SATA hard drives and SSDs are relatively easy to upgrade. You will still need to open the case but a genius brain/hands are not required here.
- RAM, CPU and GPU chips are soldered onto the board! You cannot replace, nor add more RAM to this setup. In other words, buy as much RAM as you think you will need during the lifetime of this PC!
Personally, I don’t see a point soldering RAM in a package such as this. I see a point on ultrabooks where the physical dimension could result in a make or a break situation but in AIO boxes? I’ll take upgradeability over an extra 1mm thickness!
Here’s the original iFixIt article for those who are interested in more details.
Kent Beck is an American software engineer and the creator of extreme programming, a software development methodology that eschews rigid formal specifications for a collaborative and iterative design process. Wikipedia
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