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Floodgates have opened (M4 Mac mini storage upgrade)
- Thread starter d5aqoëp
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Not sure why we would think this will happen
It never has for the Mac Studio, which has been this way for a couple years
This is actually quite a technical upgrade requiring some specialist equipment and probably beyond a lot of mac users skill sets. While some companies may sell this, I imagine the market for upgrade kits will be relatively small, especially as you can almost match the performance with a thunderbolt SSD.
Surely the PCB/board that apple has the standard NAND on is relatively easy to replicate in terms of functionality. Someone like OWC could commercialise this, and ship plug in modules.
Watching the videos of this process
Goodness gracious Tim
Is any amount of money ever enough?
Please just put an extra NVMe slot in .... in the Studios at least perhaps?
The threads about people sharing "which $150+ enclosure to buy" are just ...
I can't ...
Really?
We are pumped about Apple locking everything down, ripping everyone off on upgrade pricing and then discussing which external drive setup to buy which will end up rivaling the cost of the Mac itself?
Goodness gracious Tim
Is any amount of money ever enough?
Please just put an extra NVMe slot in .... in the Studios at least perhaps?
The threads about people sharing "which $150+ enclosure to buy" are just ...
I can't ...
Really?
We are pumped about Apple locking everything down, ripping everyone off on upgrade pricing and then discussing which external drive setup to buy which will end up rivaling the cost of the Mac itself?
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I'm wondering if future upgrades will be just plug-n-play or will people need to do DFU mode in order to get the upgrade working? I'm thinking you'll need to because the new upgraded storage chips won't have anything on them.
Indeed. I seem to remember a few years ago people were replacing their display and front camera only to find that FaceTime camera no longer worked because the new camera wasn't an official Apple product and wasn't "paired" to the CPU.
Do you folks seriously think Apple hasn't thought that lots of people would simply buy the base model Mac mini and then upgrade the memory themselves? i'm sure Apple has found a way to lock down that memory module.
Not unless forced by some regulation
Apple is all in on locking down hardware and overcharging for component upgrades
Also, we have to remember that the Mac mini isn't meant to be a pro-class machine that can be upgraded whenever the user wants. The Mac mini is entry-level, to get users into the Apple ecosystem. If people want a pro-class machine that they can upgrade anytime they want.. well that's what the Mac Pro is for.
It'd be nice to see the Studio get an extra NVMe slot that could be user filled
Not in a million years on their own. They need to be arm twisted by laws to do basic common things.
The Mac mini used to be able to be bought at $599 and you could easily drop in 16gb of ram to replace apples measly 4gb offering and drop in a ssd for the prices they were charging for spinning rust.
Main reason is BGA315 isn’t a common package across the industry. It’s only mainly used on Apple products, which means outside of Apple assembly countries, you can’t buy this NAND in large quantities.
“A mac pro” costing $$$$ just to be able to upgrade an SSD. Lol.
Only in Apple Land.
As nice as the mini is there are plenty of small form factor PCs (albeit not as small as the mini) where you can upgrade ram and m2 SSD etc.
Apple could easily make something like it for mac users but chooses not to so you pay more on extortionate at purchase time in-device upgrades.
So go buy one of those smaller PC's and stop worrying about what Apple are doing.. vote with your wallet.
"Used to be".. yes, times change. No sense trying to live in the past, it's over and you can't change it. Time to move on.
The Mac Pro is just as locked down. You can't add RAM, change the CPU or even put in a graphics card. The only meaningful "upgrade" are the spendy wheels.
Yeah I saw the ssd update. It looked nice. My issue Is pretty simple I don't need more than 24gb ram but I do need 4tb ssd and the base model could give us a 4tb ssd option. So the base model with 4tb could have been offered. I would need to buy a pro and pay quite a bit more for things I need.
Ok, I admit that I haven't been keeping up with the Mac Pro line since around the "trashcan" era. I didn't know that that line went so far downhill.
Mac Studio that came out in 2022 and it used similar SSD memory chip boards. And you don’t see OWC or any other mainstream retailer selling SSD upgrade kits. There is some store in France that is trying to develop an upgrade kit via a kickstarter, but after the Mac Studio was released 2 years ago, there still isn’t a regular commercial product yet.
I would NOT hold your breath waiting for a Mac mini upgrade kit. If you buy the smallest 256GB SSD with the intention of upgrading the SSD, you should be prepared to settle with an External drive or online storage.
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Would actually be nice if the EU forces apple to support more upgradability (if Apple doesn't overcharge on the base price to cover missed upgrade profits).