Mac Mini Teardown Provides Real-World Look at M1 Chip on Smaller Logic Board

[President-Elect Beachball]

With all that empty space inside they could've added a couple m.2 slots for extra storage.

But yeah, that's Apple.

 

[C. Robert]

Its like a car built for a v-8 and you open the hood to see a 4 cylinder with a turbo......and the street through it.

 

[Wando64]

Am I right in thinking this is the same enclosure as the 2012 Mini?
There used to be space for two 2.5" HD or SSD. That's enough space to remove the fan and put a huge heatsink.

 

[CarlJ]

I am guessing one way the Mac mini "got so cheap" was by using old spare parts that they already have on order in big quantities and the "redesign" will happen eventually with an increased price tag

Except Apple is famous for running their supply lines in a way such that they don’t have warehouses full of oversupplies of parts. I don’t think they have “old spare parts”.

 

[President-Elect Beachball]

Am I right in thinking this is the same enclosure as the 2012 Mini?
There used to be space for two 2.5" HD or SSD. That's enough space to remove the fan and put a huge heatsink.

It's virtually the same enclosure as the *beats drums* the 2010 Mac mini. It's been around since the Core2duo days.

 

[SuperCachetes]

There's also a video teardown of the new MacBook Air, providing a peek inside the notebook, although many components are covered with shielding.

Many components are covered with shielding because that wasn't even remotely a teardown IMHO. That was a 3:00 video that was mostly of a guy unscrewing the back cover of an MBA for YT clicks.

 

[shardey]

I wonder where they took inspiration from...

A G5 hackintosh build?

 

[ruka.snow]

A G5 hackintosh build?

It looks like the P4 dev machine

 

[SmileyDude]

Does anyone know what that Apple chip on the bottom (below the M1) is? It's relatively large when compared with the other chips. I was originally thinking it could be flash storage, but there are a lot of passive components around it as well.

 

[smaffei]

I ordered the Mini with 16gb RAM. Estimated delivery Dec 4-11th. Can't wait. Great work-at-home computer!

 

[Serban55]

the space in there....maybe Apple for the top tier mac mini will ad another M1, dual M1 to be able to offer 4 usb4 and 2 external displays

 

[ruka.snow]

With all that empty space inside they could've added a couple m.2 slots for extra storage.

But yeah, that's Apple.

Where would the PCIe bandwidth come from for those m.2 slots. Removing the 2 TB3 ports so you can have internal storage?

 

[SWAON]

They could fit all internals in smaller case, probably this would be future redesign. Considering how good the M1 chip is, I can't be even mad on the design anymore..

 

[Spock]

Why do multiple engineering challenges at a time when you don't have to?

Odds are the Air and mini will both receive a redesign in the next two or so years.

Both the 68k-to-PowerPC nor the PowerPC-to-Intel transitions came with mostly identical cases:

• the 6100 was the same cases as the 660AV
• the 8100 as the 840AV
• the 7100 was a little different to the 650, I believe
• the MacBook Pro was virtually identical to the PowerBook G4 except for things like adding a webcam
• the (Intel) iMac looked just like the iMac G5
• the Mac mini was identical
• the MacBook that came after a few months was a noticeable change from its preceding iBook

So, we might see a model or two next year that looks noticeably (but not drastically) different. The iMac would be one obvious choice.

The MacBook Pro also had a slightly larger display.

 

[Samuel Sosa]

A lot of wiggle room in there.

 

[Bytor65]

They couldn't make a smaller enclosure for this? Really?

How small do you need it to be? Do you have a pressing need to carry a desktop computer in your pocket?


Do you want to switch to a power brick, and have worse thermal just to have it smaller, and merely for the sake of having it smaller?

 

[jonproject]

Delete

 

[FasterQuieter]

Perhaps the "pro" version will have M2 slots. That would be a good used for the empty space inside. The larger case also allows more room for I/O, which I know most Mac Mini users appreciate. Hopefully the M2 or whatever it is called has capacity for more USB4 ports.

 

[saulinpa]

I see the Intel name on a few of the chips. Are those the next to go?

 

[DogcowUK]

The board is insanely small, amazing work. They have to make a 5" black glass covered cube Mac... for Steve.

 

[Moonjumper]

the space in there....maybe Apple for the top tier mac mini will ad another M1, dual M1 to be able to offer 4 usb4 and 2 external displays

I also hope for a more powerful Mac Mini, perhaps sharing specs with high end MacBook Pros. But rather than dual M1 chips, I think it will be an enhanced M1 with more CPU and GPU cores, hopefully higher RAM options, and if we're really lucky it will able to drive 2 Thunderbolt drives.

 

[blackcrayon]

They couldn't make a smaller enclosure for this? Really?

Might have something do with the price and the fact it shipped right on time...

However, it would have been cool if some kind of expansion port were found on the inside and there was the ability to slip in an m.2 ssd or something. Sometimes Rev 1's have unexpected bonuses like this...

 

[chucker23n1]

The MacBook Pro also had a slightly larger display.

Larger, but lower-res, oddly enough.

 

[President-Elect Beachball]

Where would the PCIe bandwidth come from for those m.2 slots. Removing the 2 TB3 ports so you can have internal storage?

If there is not enough banwidth then that's a new limitation introduced by AS.

But let's be honest, even assuming there is bandwidth Apple wouldn't have given the buyer this option.

 

[JosephAW]

Can’t wait for the quad core M1 x 8 in the tower. Hopefully larger ram options like 32,64,128,256GB