A Mac mini and a disassembled Mac mini – Picture credit score: KianWee Lim/iFixit and Apple
Apple is not soldering the SSD to the logic board within the M4 Mac mini, however given the corporate’s historical past with Apple Silicon, do not anticipate upgrades.
Older Intel-based Mac minis supplied intrepid customers with the capability to disassemble the pc and to improve a number of parts. The 2018 mannequin had upgradeable RAM, however simply replaceable inner storage on the Mac mini has been a factor of the previous for a decade.
A query posed to the iFixit boards innocently asks if the SSD within the 2024 Mac mini is soldered in place. Soldered storage is follow that Apple has carried out all through the Apple Silicon age, for essentially the most half, making it extraordinarily troublesome for anybody to switch.
One reply from a brand new consumer to the discussion board recognized as “KianWee Lim” posts a single image in response, accompanied by the textual content “It isn’t soldered.” The {photograph} seems to be the insides of a New Mac mini, with the baseplate eliminated and a few parts extracted.
In the midst of the image is a slot-in board geared up with a big chip, much like the boards used within the Mac Studio and Mac Professional to carry its storage. There may be additionally an empty slot in direction of the bottom of the picture, the place the small board matches in.
Nonetheless not likely upgradable
The photograph signifies it’s doable for the storage to be eliminated and probably changed by one other board. Nevertheless, it isn’t a affirmation of straightforward upgradability in any respect.
For a begin, that small board holding the storage chip shouldn’t be an element shoppers may simply purchase for themselves. It is a customized Apple half, so it is meant extra for in-house repairs.
This hasn’t stopped the extra motivated {hardware} tinkerers from developing with their very own options.
YouTubers have posted movies the place they desoldered unique reminiscence chips from the board earlier than fastidiously changing them with different chips in a fragile course of.
There have additionally been efforts to create customized PCBs for comparable storage playing cards used within the Mac Studio, as nicely as a MacBook Professional. Once more, these have been troublesome processes to perform, requiring cautious soldering and present process a configuration course of to get them working.
These actually do show which you could exchange the reminiscence chips, but it surely’s a dangerous and troublesome process to perform.
There’s additionally no actual probability of Apple creating kits for customers to vary out these storage playing cards anytime quickly, as it could’ve completed so by now for different fashions. Apple did provide storage module alternative kits for the Mac Professional, however that appears to be the exception to the rule.
AppleInsider recommends that anybody searching for to improve their Mac’s storage to contemplate shopping for an exterior drive as a substitute. The drives are actually quick sufficient to be usable, and are significantly safer to carry out as an improve with out risking your {hardware}.