New Mac Mini Teardown Provides Look Inside Apple's Smallest Mac Ever

[MacRumors]

YouTube channel Brandon Geekabit today shared a teardown video for the new Mac mini base model with the M4 chip, 256GB of storage, and 16GB of RAM. The video provides the first complete look inside Apple's smallest Mac ever, revealing the computer's logic board, built-in power supply, cooling system, and other components.

While previous Mac mini models with Apple silicon chips had plenty of unused internal space, since the computer had not been redesigned since it used Intel processors, components take up nearly all of the space inside the new model.

The bottom metal plate on the Mac mini continues to double as an antenna. Once that is removed, you can see the fan and heat sink that help to keep the computer running cool. Beyond that, you can see the Mac mini's modular storage that we reported on earlier today. The base model with 256GB of storage has two 128GB chips, which means it will no longer have slower SSD speeds compared to higher-capacity models. Last, you can see the Mac mini's logic board with the M4 chip and the power supply below that.

The new Mac mini has an innovative thermal architecture, in which air is guided from the bottom foot to different levels of the computer.

As far as the new Mac mini's repairability is concerned, we will have to wait for the website iFixit to share its own teardown video.

Overall, the new Mac mini is an impressive engineering feat made possible by the industry-leading performance-per-watt characteristics of Apple silicon. The new Mac mini launched in stores today, and we recently shared our own hands-on video.

Article Link: New Mac Mini Teardown Provides Look Inside Apple's Smallest Mac Ever

 

[Corefile]

Max Tech does unboxing the right way.

 

[JoeG4]

DUDE! The SSD on a stick! HECK YEAH!!! AWESOME!

MAYBE NEXT THEY'LL MAKE A CPU THAT DOESNT HAVE THE ****ING RAM SOLDERED ONTO IT

 

[Bytor65]

Repairability shouldn't be too bad. It's mostly solid state with little to go wrong, and the only wear item, the SSD is socketed...

Another step in the right direction. Fine little computer.

 

[Danilamak]

DUDE! The SSD on a stick! HECK YEAH!!! AWESOME!

MAYBE NEXT THEY'LL MAKE A CPU THAT DOESNT HAVE THE ****ING RAM SOLDERED ONTO IT

No sorry man, no soldered RAM no speed

 

[Populus]

I’m a bit worried about the power supply being, apparently, only passively cooled…

I would be much more chill if someone explained me how does the second layer of active cooling work, because I don’t see any gap on the motherboard for the fresh air to enter or exit “the second floor” inside the Mac mini.

 

[JPivlit]

DUDE! The SSD on a stick! HECK YEAH!!! AWESOME!

MAYBE NEXT THEY'LL MAKE A CPU THAT DOESNT HAVE THE ****ING RAM SOLDERED ONTO IT

The SSD might be easier to get repaired by Apple or an authorized shop but it's likely that it won't be something users can upgrade themselves.

 

[GraXXoR]

I’m a bit worried about the power supply being, apparently, only passively cooled…

I would be much more chill if someone explained me how does the second layer of active cooling work, because I don’t see any gap on the motherboard for the fresh air to enter or exit “the second floor” inside the Mac mini.

This computer has tiny power needs. And good quality GaN PSUs are very efficient.

I’m presuming that the ambient airflow in he case will help cool the “naked” PSU better than a densely packaged wall wart.

 

[NewOldStock]

Great tear down. Now we know how to get to the cat hairs and dust for clean out.

 

[Realityck]

Yes remarkable piece of engineering with this redesign. Like the heatsink design. Joy!, User replaceable SSD's and ports.

 

[Chuckeee]

Max Tech does unboxing the right way.

Sorry Max Tech cringe inducing clipbait commentary makes me want to puke.
🤮

 

[mazz0]

Impressive bit of kit. Couple of thing disappoint me though:

Why is the bottom so difficult to remove? Sticking something in the grill and prying seems like a recipe for damage, even if it’s just superficial. Why not just use screws? Could even be the same screws that hole the next layer in.

If they hadn’t included the PSU it could be soooo dinky and if it were powered over the same USB C cable that handles display (and USB) data to your monitor it would make for such a tidy desk.

 

[JPack]

Remember when M2 came out and some people invented ridiculous excuses for Apple using a single NAND?

“but THeY dOnt MaKe 128gB cHIps aNyMoRe”

Glad to see Apple listening a bit to customer feedback on price/performance and external display support.

 

[victorvictoria]

I have an M2 Mini, and I don't see any reason to change at this juncture. I really only use it to connect to my crazy large music collection, stored on my old Intel Mac Mini, with its terabyte HD, bought used for $300, and my 4 port Drobo which I got used for $200, already populated with 4x1TB HDs. The display is an original (DVI) Apple Cinema Display, which I got for free 10 years ago.

Sure, I also have an M2 MBP that I use for pontificating my profound observations on MacRumors and Facebook!

 

[Chuckeee]

How about a Mac Mini M4Pro teardown? anyone?

 

[splifingate]

Fine little computer.

Hear. Hear.

 

[splifingate]

Impressive bit of kit.

A'yup. Very impressive!

 

[steve333]

Is the $99 3 year Apple plan worth it?

 

[JWSpaceMan]

Awesome. But, I wish it wasn’t too tall to fit on a standard single rack space shelf (1 rack space is 1.75”).

 

[DavidSchaub]

Yes remarkable piece of engineering with this redesign. Like the heatsink design. Joy!, User replaceable SSD's and ports.

"User Replaceable" needs to be heavily qualified.

You'll might eventually be able to order replacement parts from Apple.

It will almost certainly require a second mac to re-flash the firmware and format the flash chips.

It is not considered a "user replaceable" item, it is a "repairable" item.

Apple made this change to reduce the cost of AppleCare repairs and to reduce the cost of Mac mini manufacturing SKU management. It wasn't so users could buy storage upgrades.

Maybe some third parties will make it happen, but that is a niche side effect of Apple's change.

 

[GraXXoR]

Max Tech does unboxing the right way.

Yuck. Max’s videos are nasty. He seems always on the verge of busting out laughing, there’s a 15 second black and white preview before the video even starts and when it does, some noisome kid is constantly interrupting Max’s irrelevant commentary by screaming in the background. What an absolute fustercluck of a teardown.

Also he uses a steel craft knife to open the case so he’s definitely scratching it.

On the other hand Brandon Butch’s review is professional and grown up.

 

[mrhick01]

dosdude1 has done a teardown and an upgrade of the storage from 256GB to 1TB (the 2TB upgrade failed because of a bad chip).

It's doable, but not by any user. Takes technician-level skills and some tools.

Given the SSD speeds, a good attached TB4/USB4 drive with an NVMe2 SSD can beat the speed of the base 256 GB (1700 read/2000 write), and match the 1 TB upgrade (3000 read & write).

 

[Populus]

Impressive bit of kit. Coupe of thing disappoint me though:

Why is the bottom so difficult to remove? Sticking something in the grilled and prying seems like a recipe for damage, even if it’s just superficial. Why not just use screws? Could even be the same screws that hole the next layer in.

If they hadn’t included the PSU it could be soooo dinky and if it were powered over the same USB C cable that handles display (and USB) data to your monitor it would make for such a tidy desk.

To the first observation, I guess on the Genius Bar they already have a tool to easily remove the plastic bottom without damaging it.

And regarding the PSU, yeah, it could have been tiny with an external PSU but honestly, I prefer it this way. Everything included on this compact aluminum block.

 

[Velli]

DUDE! The SSD on a stick! HECK YEAH!!! AWESOME!

MAYBE NEXT THEY'LL MAKE A CPU THAT DOESNT HAVE THE ****ING RAM SOLDERED ONTO IT

never mind.

 

[jayryco]

Very impressive stuff! Still blown away that the actual Apple Silicon chips are so small yet contain CPU, GPU, NPU, RAM and all the hardware accelerators like WOW, compared to standard desktop components and GPUs which are so large.

Also after watching this, will dust be a problem? Seems like it might and anyone wanting to clean it out after 2-3 years of continuous use might be in for quite the challenge...