Enthusiasts Detail RAM Upgrade Process for the 2018 Mac mini

[lec0rsaire]

Swap original memory back in before you bring it in. Problem solved.

The majority of Mac Mini buyers will not be doing this. The number of people comfortable simply upgrading the RAM the first time around is a small fraction. To then open it up and swap the RAM to have to do the same thing after service is a total of 3 times.

If they’re not comfortable doing it themselves, the labor costs for doing this 3 times + cost of RAM quickly approaches buying the required amount of RAM straight from Apple.

Again not a problem for tech enthusiasts on this forum but definitely for the masses that just know how to use the programs they need and are clueless about maintenance and/or repair.

 

[BorderingOn]

Does everybody see the elephant in the room?
The real question is: How much cheaper can you find the RAM modules than Apple sells them to you? Has anybody found cheaper modules than these:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/2666DDR4S64P/Reviews

If you really need 64GB, might as well buy if from Apple. Prices are obscene everywhere, if you can even find them. The 16GB and 32GB kits can be had from Crucial for half of Apple's upgrade price.
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I get that bit, but where do the EVO numbers come from though? ie. '970 Evo: 3.5,2.5GB/s'.

70 EVO 2TB NVMe SSDs with a newly enhanced Phoenix controller outperform our previous 960 EVO 2TB model with exceptionally fast sequential read/write speeds up to 3,500/2,500 MB/s. They also support PCI Express® (PCIe) Gen 3 x 4 lanes to provide high bandwidth and low latency, making them perfect for business professionals who need cutting edge-performance for high-end computing.

https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/computing/ssd/client/970-evo-2tb-mz-v7e2t0e/

 

[Tech198]

Looks no different inside then 2014 model.. When did Apple change this from "upgradeable" to "non-upgradeable"? or was it always like that ?

Besides, you don't need to buy memory from Apple. any non-Apple memory will work as long as it's correct speed.

 

[GoodWheaties]

can i just add One-16gb and have a total of 20gb? lol cuz i dont really need 32gb.

You can but it isn’t the best idea as it will only run in single-channel.

 

[PaulRustad007]

I didn't think there was a motherboard that supports 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports. You get 1 at most (via a PCI adaptor) as it has to be installed in a specific PCI slot, and then only if the motherboard supports it via the necessary Thunderbolt bridge.

Admittedly, PCI slots give you a lot of internal expansion - but my audio Interface connects (externally) by Thunderbolt, so a PCI slot won't do. Any additional Thunderbolt 3 ports gives me more flexibility, in terms of running a Thunderbolt hub or running a second display, in my recording room, where I may wish to plug other things in. So for me, Thunderbolt 3 is far more flexible than internal PCI expansion.

People who really want (or need) PCI slots should hold out for the forthcoming Mac Pro (or maybe not... I'm not holding my breath!)

I my humble opinion, Apple will never go back to PCI slots in a hardware configuration. Everything will be based on TB3 or USB-C.

 

[ikramerica]

You can but it isn’t the best idea as it will only run in single-channel.

And what are the consequences of that? I know in past macs I’ve run mixed memory sizes where I was warned it would be slower. But it never was slower. Why? Because 20GB is going to work better than 8GB. So the upgrade is going to make your Mac faster overall.

Maybe matched 16GB (8+8) would be faster than unmatched 20GB (4+16), but you are still giving up 4GB, which means more swapping, less space for graphic apps to keep things in active memory, less room for the system, etc.

One assumes that anyone upgrading from 8GB is doing it because they want as much RAM as possible for a reason.

 

[Dlessor1]

Considering they stuck with the same case instead of making it even smaller, I suspect they have plenty of thermal buffer. Designing for a case this size compared to what Apple asks its engineers to do these days, was probably a walk in the park.

My 2018 Mac mini lasted about 15 minutes today before it bricked. Top model. It got very hot and shut off. It never turned back on RMA hope it’s not an overheat-gate.

 

[TallManNY]

My 2018 Mac mini lasted about 15 minutes today before it bricked. Top model. It got very hot and shut off. It never turned back on RMA hope it’s not an overheat-gate.

Well that seems like a manufacturing defect over a design defect. Something must have stopped the fan from going on. But what a bummer!

 

[GoodWheaties]

And what are the consequences of that? I know in past macs I’ve run mixed memory sizes where I was warned it would be slower. But it never was slower. Why? Because 20GB is going to work better than 8GB. So the upgrade is going to make your Mac faster overall.

Maybe matched 16GB (8+8) would be faster than unmatched 20GB (4+16), but you are still giving up 4GB, which means more swapping, less space for graphic apps to keep things in active memory, less room for the system, etc.

One assumes that anyone upgrading from 8GB is doing it because they want as much RAM as possible for a reason.

It just halves your memory bandwidth so depending on your workload you may or may not feel the effects of it.

 

[Greymacuser]

Where is the evidence that the Mac mini 2018 is poor cooling?

I own one. Any video processing sends it tiny fans whirring like weed wackers and the unit still gets too hot to handle. Its a poorly designed machine. No airflow.

 

[lilrush]

I own one. Any video processing sends it tiny fans whirring like weed wackers and the unit still gets too hot to handle. Its a poorly designed machine. No airflow.

Well if its widespread, then we should see it in the news shortly, considering that would be a groundbreaking flaw. If not, then it will be a single, isolated case. I guess time will tell.

 

[doctor-don]

The best explanation for not changing the size I’ve seen is that the mini has become popular as a server. There are places with hundreds of minis racked together. By keeping the mini enclosure the same they made it very easy for people to buy hundreds of new minis to replace their old ones.

Not to mention that it's harder to remove heat when things are jammed in a small space.

 

[Schnooder]

Since you’ll be editing videos on it, have you factored in the egpu cost yet?

Why no I have not, sir. I most often edit with proxy footage which as you probably know, doesn't tax the graphics card as much. In fact, my current mac mini (late 2012) has made it though all but the very newest version of Avid Media Composer, which is what I make a living on. If I ever get to cutting multi-camera layered uncompressed 5k, then yeah...I'll probably get whatever do-dad gets the job done.

 

[steve333]

This should be against the law and I wonder if it is already in many States.
Not allowing third party RAM to be used because the warranty wouldn't apply anymore is nothing short of disgraceful.
Sometimes I really despise Apple and they have become worse than Microsoft ever was

 

[3NV7]

I agree a full tower desktop is easier to work on and easier to upgrade but its also a lout louder (unless you spend a lot of money on cooling)

Nah, you just have to pick the right parts. I built my sister a desktop PC recently for under $600 that is dead silent. The only thing not "stock" is the Coolermaster 212 Evo CPU heatsink/fan, but that was only $25.

 

[Misaki]

if I were entertaining this, I would want to know how to upgrade the SSD because the 2tb SSD, Apple is charging $700 (CAD) more then Dell for the 2TB SSD option (1900 vs 1200). Not that I am going to spend $1200 on any SSD, I would just be as happy to plug in a Thunderbolt external raid for SO much cheaper, but its the same story across the entire range of option upgrades for the Mac Mini, just excessive stupid prices vs the same components options competitors are offering. And don't tell me that Apple has some special quality manufactured versions of these parts, they are raiding the same over-seas factories as ever other computer OEM these days.

I don't care if Apple is going to charge a premium for the boxes with their logos on it, that is to be expected these days, but when Apple tries to excessively profit monger off of the same off-the-shelf parts that competitors are putting into their systems, and make it user hostile to upgrade or repair them even years later, I am sorry, Apple doesn't have a right to $700 of free profit off of someone else's component by forcing people to configure a system once only in the shopping cart.

Before people jump on the "Apple is overcharging" bandwagon, do consider that Apple might have put in Class 50 SSD's and built it's own SODIMM's (go ahead, try find 2x32GB SODIMM's to do 64GB), so the price spread between a Dell with the same parts won't be a big spread people think it is.

That said, The previous two mac Mini's (2006 and 2012) I replaced the RAM myself, not because I felt Apple was overcharging, but because I was able to obtain better modules than what Apple supplied. Right now, I wouldn't be able to

I work on a lot of Dell equipment, and the PCIe NVMe M2 drives used on their laptops are speed demons, and what I've seen of the new Mac Mini benchmarks, it's comparable. Note that it often costs 500-$1000 to upgrade from a Mechanical drive all the way to a 1TB Class 40 on a Dell, so the price differential on the mini is actually not out of line, but it's going to price-rot pretty quickly since flash and dram chips are in a glut right now.

 

[venom600]

This should be against the law and I wonder if it is already in many States.
Not allowing third party RAM to be used because the warranty wouldn't apply anymore is nothing short of disgraceful.

Whoa, who said that? Show me where Apple says that or anything like it. What they are saying, and have ALWAYS said is that if you choose to install it yourself and screw something up, they won't fix it for free. If your RAM screws something up they won't fix it for free. But if your SSD dies or the fan dies they won't care about what RAM you are using, especially if an Apple Service Provider installed it.

 

[Horselover Fat]

T2 is. He was referring to the intel processors. Rumors are Apple will ultimately put their own processors such as the ones they use in the iPad Pro's (A12X) into all their Macs and ditch Intel. I hope this doesn't happen.

Right, that‘s why I refered to vintage home computers of different brands sharing the same CPUs while having exclusive custom chips. Sure, Apple‘s transition to ARM will make it even worse.

 

[crsh1976]

The T2 chip greatly off-loads the CPU performing on-the-fly SSD encryption/decryption and other security features, such as Secure Boot. It also replaces the SMC and handles other low level functions. It's a good thing.

It IS a good thing from a data security and performance stand-point, but Apple completely offsets that with that lousy 128 GB SSD on the base model (despite the base price going way up) and insane prices to upgrade to 256 or 512 GB (I'm not going to mention going with a 1 or 2 TB SSD as it costs more then the Mini itself).

 

[dilbert99]

You misunderstood. I'm not talking about final configuration retail skus. I'm talking about parts skus for arguably the most expensive unitized subcomponent of the Mac Mini: the logic board. The SSD is PCIe, thus not soldered. Software (logic pro, final cup pro) are also not permanently attached to the logic board. You're right about the ethernet - I forgot about that. We'll have to wait for the teardown; I wonder if that is also a modular add-on card of some kind.

So in the parts bins at the assembly plant and at every Apple repair/refurbishment plant, they'll need to stock 6 logic board skus; 3 cpu options x 2 ethernet options.

For a popular Mac with a lot of sales, like the Macbook Air, stocking a dozen different logic board configurations isn't so bad. Even odd configurations (like highest CPU, minimum SSD, and minimum RAM) are probably ordered often enough that nothing would sit for very long. But the Mac Mini isn't exactly a sales leader, and probably won't be after the initial uptick due to launching this new model. Having too many logic board skus means some will sit around; it's inefficient.

Not sure of your calculations, I calculated excluding the software 30 SKUs
5 SSD x 3 CPU x 2 Ethernet. Why did you exclude the SSD from the calculation?

Edit: just read your reply further, the SSD is soldered in the all macs now aren't they? https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/527568/SSD+Upgrade+possibilty+or+soldered+onto+board

 

[opeter]

Yes, the new Mac mini (2018) has soldered SSDs.

The only Mac, where you can change the internal HDD or SSD is the iMac (2017) and the Macbook Air (2017 or older, if they are still sold).

And of course the 2014 Mac mini, because at some places you can still get them.
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Will somebody please provide a link to 2x32GB DDR4-2666 SODIMM RAM. Thank you.

At maximum I'm seeing 2x16GB DDR4-2666 SODIMM:
$286 Crucial 2x16GB
$310 Kingston 2x16GB
$330 Corsair 2x16GB

There isn't one. Yet.
https://giphy.com/gifs/26DN48mfu3uWJ3J7y/fullscreen

 

[xylitol]

Will somebody please provide a link to 2x32GB DDR4-2666 SODIMM RAM. Thank you.

At maximum I'm seeing 2x16GB DDR4-2666 SODIMM:
$286 Crucial 2x16GB
$310 Kingston 2x16GB
$330 Corsair 2x16GB

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/2666DDR4S64P/

 

[x-evil-x]

The majority of Mac Mini buyers will not be doing this. The number of people comfortable simply upgrading the RAM the first time around is a small fraction. To then open it up and swap the RAM to have to do the same thing after service is a total of 3 times.

If they’re not comfortable doing it themselves, the labor costs for doing this 3 times + cost of RAM quickly approaches buying the required amount of RAM straight from Apple.

Again not a problem for tech enthusiasts on this forum but definitely for the masses that just know how to use the programs they need and are clueless about maintenance and/or repair.

of course. I dont expect my 70 year old mom to be swapping out ram on her computer she'll ask me to do it.
Im just saying if I was worried about the warranty I personally would do this but the majority of the public wouldnt want to mess with it.

 

[MacBH928]

We love (to screw) our customers, they could have designed it differently to make it easy to upgrade.

While I understand a CEO needs to please the investors by increasing revenues and margins the Tim Cook age seems to only be about taking advantage of the customers.

You are so right, the g3 case had a latch you open it and you have full access to replace everything.

Jobs cared about the computing experience of the average consumers(what makes Apple different from Microsoft), Cook uses the Apple brand to make money for the investors. Thats the difference.

 

[HBX]

My 2018 Mac mini lasted about 15 minutes today before it bricked. Top model. It got very hot and shut off. It never turned back on RMA hope it’s not an overheat-gate.

I saw your post on discussions.apple.com, have you tried an SMC reset. Thats pretty messed up. Mine has an issue with Bluetooth where it just can't see any Apple Keyboard or trackpad (Logitech k380). It seems that the T2 might be the culprit to a lot of the issues on these new machines. When I spoke to the Apple rep, she asked me what troubleshooting steps I took, and I told her I think it's an issue with the T2, she immediately setup a private appointment with an Apple Engineer at my nearest Apple store, so on Saturday I have an appointment to take my Mini in. Have you spoken to Apple yet?