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Exactly... good luck waiting for a Chinese clone...
You can buy the drives straight from Apple. Or at least you could for the Mac Studio.


The main issue is you're supposed to only replace a defective drive with the same size and not upgrade it IIRC. However, some people do get bigger drives, as there is now a legit source of the parts - Apple itself.

BTW, when I upgraded the drives on my wife's old Intel MacBook Air and my daughter's old Intel MacBook Pro, I used real Apple parts. These are non-standard AHCI drives (not M.2) but I just got old used ones and they worked fine. But that process is considerably easier than with the Mac Studio and now Mac mini.
 
Easy for them to do Xbox has done that.
Yeah, remember how Apple locked down the FaceTime cameras on previous iPhones? You couldn't just swap them out for one from another iPhone because it wasn't "paired" to the CPU.. the swapped FaceTime camera wouldn't work until it was serviced by an Apple Store. At least I think it was the FaceTime camera.
 
Yeah, remember how Apple locked down the FaceTime cameras on previous iPhones? You couldn't just swap them out for one from another iPhone because it wasn't "paired" to the CPU.. the swapped FaceTime camera wouldn't work until it was serviced by an Apple Store. At least I think it was the FaceTime camera.
Apple is genius with hardware and software guarantee you cannot even swap a display on an Ipgone without apple knowing it...
 
Should be easily upgradable. Mail in upgrade.

We all know how existing iPhones and iPads can be upgraded by certain shops. Basically CNC out the old NAND and solder in a new one, then restore.

Given Mac mini SSD is on a separate board, the risk of overheating and desoldering neighboring components is much lower.

 
Yes they are upgradable, some third party will make these. These are not SSDs but NANDs

Nothing to make really. Just have to wait for NAND chips to be available from China.
 
This is shaping up to be the best base model Mac mini Apple has released since 2012, that's 12 years ago. Amazing.
I tip my hat to you. I still have my 2012 i7 Fusion drive Mini that lasted me a solid 10 years and only really started giving me issues last year. I got Apple Silicon after that but that was such a solid computer. I haven’t booted it up in awhile but this new one may make me nostalgic.
 
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NAND is a component of an SSD. These Apple modules lack a lot of the "other stuff" that SSDs have.
The conventional accepted meaning of an SSD is narrowed to only refer to a complete self-contained stick with controller, but it doesn't mean the original meaning of the umbrella term SSD didn't refer to the broader collection of all solid state media.

Imagine if you show an analog dial telephone to a teenager, tell him this is a phone, and he telling you are wrong calling it a phone since it is not a slab of glass like the iPhone.
 
It does - watch the teardown video. This is a base M4 teardown. You can also clearly see the 128G markings on the NAND. The Pro model comes with a pair of 256G chips.

you might be right. the thing is: Apple states (fine print on their website) that the thermal module of the M4 Pro is made of copper whereas the one of the standard M4 is made of aluminum. AFAIK, all heatpipes are made of copper. no?

can't find the video...
 
you might be right. the thing is: Apple states (fine print on their website) that the thermal module of the M4 Pro is made of copper whereas the one of the standard M4 is made of aluminum. AFAIK, all heatpipes are made of copper. no?

can't find the video...

Heatpipes can be made of different materials, just like heatsinks can be steel, copper, zinc, aluminum, etc.

来自 麦子俊i 的微博
https://weibo.com/2575008657/OFiwK2Mzw
 
More importantly the M4 Pro model can support up to 8TB. It clearly cannot be achieved by the same dual NAND setup in the teardowns so far (unless Apple goes out of their way to pay for high density NANDs). The Pro has to have a different layout.
 
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