RAM or SSD? Those are two very different components.
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New Mac Mini Has Modular Storage, 256GB Model Will Have Faster SSD
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He's already upgraded the new mini.
Oh, and Apple's claims about putting the SSD controller on the processor package are nonsense. It's not actually faster than NVMe. Apple went to a lot of effort to make upgrades harder, there's no performance gain.
Edit: Apparently I was misunderstood. Apple's claims are that putting the SSD controller on the processor somehow makes SSD performance magically better. It clearly and demonstrably does not. I was NOT saying that Apple didn't put the SSD controller on the processor. They did, and that's why their SSD architecture is inherently worse than using standard NVMe drives.
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Fun video to watch but no mere mortal can do that, and if the controller is on the SSD, then no one can make a after-market SSD because they need that (Apple) controller chip. Which is why we don't see any retail upgrades for the Studio or this.
BUT, looking at the SSD, both sides, I only see NAND chips and supporting parts -- no controller chip. Do you? That means it's elsewhere.
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What's your point? He says claims the SSD controller is in the SoC are "nonsense". It's not on the SSD, so where it is then?
For sure!
But they still benchmark way below what NVMe can do these days (while being truly modular)
Apple is royally ripping everyone off on storage
A removable SSD is good, because the electronics recycling/reselling company I worked for said that if a computer company just sticks to soldered-on storage, they could eventually get into legal problems. I remember when the Mac Studio first came out, my boss was happy when I told him about the removable SSD.
I'll help:
The claim that is nonsense is that putting the SSD controller on the processor helps them achieve higher SSD read/write speeds. Maybe it's theoretically true, but not in practice. Plenty of NVMes run faster than the SSD in the Mini. Apple could get the same or better performance with off the shelf parts.
Financial performance, however, is unmatched with the "lock 'er down and gouge the customer" shtick!
If the controller is built into the processor then you don’t need a separate memory controller chip and costs go down.
I’ve worked in this business a long time and if you’re trying to hit $600 retail price points then every single penny counts.
They need to make a certain profit margin and they clearly take a margin hit on their base configs but not their other configs. Thats just how it is. Fortunately, they put tremendous quality into their products, despite some missteps like the 16” MacBook Pros and the butterfly keyboards.
I, like 99% of people, would get external SSD and call it a day
Now, if the*RAM* were socketed, I'd get excited
More than 1% of Apple users, I reckon, use iCloud and will completely fill up the base SSD just with that.
Apple has restricted iCloud to not be able to use an external drive
See how the storage ripoff scam works?
It’s not a scam. They take low margins in their base models and higher margins on the rest. Thats how they’re able to distribute in Costco.
My first Mac had 1 MB of RAM and two 1.4 MB floppy disk drives. I survived.
Well I mean more the the R&D of an individual reverse engineering the system to provide what ether apple or their diehard fans claims is impossible and required for thinness and therefore impossible when it clearly isn’t.
Yet the function is kept ether blocker or soldered for nobodies benefit. That makes it just more infuriating that they chose not to do something that is extremely easy to do on a technical level.
The scam is the pricing of the component upgrades
They are anywhere from 2-5x the price they should be, while still allowing for a healthy margin for Apple
NOT what I said. I said Apple's claims about putting the SSD controller on the processor chips are nonsense. Those claims being that it somehow makes the storage magically faster. It clearly does not, and using standard easily user swappable NVMe drives would be faster.
It's a scam. They've got higher margins in their base models than the vast majority of manufacturers, and then they massively price gouge on the upgrades.
My first Apple had 48KB of RAM and one 140KB floppy drive. What's your point? It's not 1982 or 1988 any more, 256GB default storage and an upgrade to 512GB that costs more than a 2TB NVMe drive is a price gouging scam in 2024.
Yes, I think it’s clear they do it to protect their profit margins. Nobody likes it, but that’s how they’ve chosen to do things. Fortunately, they have a 40 and even 80 gbps storage connection.
My 16/512 M1 MacBook Pro easily handles everything I throw at it.
Was it also more cost effective to purchase two Macs instead of upgrading the storage and Ram last time?
Because if the cost of buying 1x Mac with 32GB RAM and 512GB storage is equivalent to 2x Mac with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage then it’s closer to a ripoff
It’s a shame really considering the cost to future second hand users and repairs. If the storage fails it’s mostly a costly repair in the future and a sad trend instead of consumer friendly choices.
It’s such a pointless point of failure.
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Any teardown videos about M4 pro model and specifically about SSD? Does it have two or four NAND chips?
The internals of the M4-Pro Mini and M4 Mini are rather different. The heat pipes are different as pointed out at
Aggravatingly if you look at the referenced teardown video they ONLY SHOW THE M4's STORAGE! The M4-Pro's storage has shielding they don't remove... so 🤷♀️
Aggravatingly if you look at the referenced teardown video they ONLY SHOW THE M4's STORAGE! The M4-Pro's storage has shielding they don't remove... so 🤷♀️
Actually, it is what you said, but maybe not what you meant. There is a period between your two sentences. I get what you mean now, but clearly what you wrote is different.