Apple TV Gets Unofficial SSD Upgrade

Apple TV is a sealed box that discourages users from changing the hardware of the device. But there is a vibrant modding community responded with hacks and guides that enable users to upgrade the box. The most recent trend is to replace the standard hard drive with solid state disk drives.

The procedure published by Apple TV Hacks isn’t for everyone, but can be done by any user with an interest in modding and a basic level hardware installation experience. Users will have to remove the Apple TV’s hard drive, connect it to a Mac and create a disk image of the drive. Then the image is copied to the SSD and the drive is put into the box.

But why exactly would you put an expensive solid state disk drive into the Apple TV. There aren’t much reason’s to do that for the average user, especially if you consider the price of a 64 GB SSD that will cost you somewhere around $1000. They have less capacity than 2.5" or even 1.8" hard drives, but they run faster, generate less heat and run without any noise (and consume less power, if that matters in this application.)

Modders claim that the upgraded Apple TV is virtually silent with the exception of a "minor fan sound heard when ear is pressed on the unit".