The Mac mini 2024 actually has socketed SSD

[blufrog]

@dosdude1 I just watched your NAND upgrade video (Mini and Studio). I'm envious of your skill! Great work!

 

[Chancha]

@dosdude1 What is the unpopulated/ empty BGA pad on the other side of the M4 mini logic board for?
It’s more or less underneath the M4 Pro SSD slot, but on the M4 board you dismantled. I don’t know if the Pro board has it.

View attachment 2450704

Likely where the 10GbE NIC should be, when you order it.

 

[Tago]

You misunderstood what I meant.

I understood what you wrote, if what you wrote wasn`t expressing your meaning, the whoops is on you.

 

[Chancha]

From what I can tell, I think all the boards are the same, they just either have all 8 NANDs populated or only 4 depending on config. I doubt anything would change in that regard, so it would be safe to assume that 2TB and lower will use 4 NANDs, and 4TB/8TB will use all 8 as usual.

You are most likely correct in that the passive components will also be missing for the second set of 4 NANDs on modules originally configured with only 4 NANDs.

What do we make of this? These are photos from someone in China saying he offers upgrade service for up to 4TB, not much more details. The board doesn't look like there are spaces for 8 NANDs? The area with black tape intact also seems untouched. The fact he only does it to 4TB not 8TB seems to suggest Apple actually starts to use 2TB NANDs, so there are no 8 NAND boards?

 

[Guenter]

If apple uses 2tb nands they could offer the m4 with 4 tb. But i am afraid puting the 2tb nands in the m4 will not work.

 

[dosdude1]

View attachment 2452256
What do we make of this? These are photos from someone in China saying he offers upgrade service for up to 4TB, not much more details. The board doesn't look like there are spaces for 8 NANDs? The area with black tape intact also seems untouched. The fact he only does it to 4TB not 8TB seems to suggest Apple actually starts to use 2TB NANDs, so there are no 8 NAND boards?

Need to see a pic of both sides of the board with all the tape removed. No such picture has been shown anywhere at this point.

 

[dosdude1]

If apple uses 2tb nands they could offer the m4 with 4 tb. But i am afraid puting the 2tb nands in the m4 will not work.

There are no 2TB NANDs that exist, largest capacity per chip is 1TB.

 

[aibloop]

@dosdude1 What is the unpopulated/ empty BGA pad on the other side of the M4 mini logic board for?
It’s more or less underneath the M4 Pro SSD slot, but on the M4 board you dismantled. I don’t know if the Pro board has it.

View attachment 2450704

10gb ethernet chip option, I suspect. I saw on other teardown, I forget which.

 

[aibloop]

Has anyone done bigger tests on speed for different size ssd configs? On Mac Mini M4Pro.

I saw that the 512gb one is around 3000mb sec vs 1tb 6000mb. Kind of odd if is 2x256gb striped, should be same... Am guessing are slower ssd chips?

 

[Guenter]

Is it possible to attach 2 4tb boards to the m4pro mini? From the teardowns of the mini it is difficult to say.

 

[EugW]

Has anyone done bigger tests on speed for different size ssd configs? On Mac Mini M4Pro.

I saw that the 512gb one is around 3000mb sec vs 1tb 6000mb. Kind of odd if is 2x256gb striped, should be same... Am guessing are slower ssd chips?

Some people are getting well over 4000 MB/s out of their 512 GB drives. I'm getting around 3450 MB/s write, but the drive is half full though.

 

[Chancha]

Need to see a pic of both sides of the board with all the tape removed. No such picture has been shown anywhere at this point.

Best image that I have seen so far. Still have tape on that area. But this one shows some intent / bezel that seems to suggest they aren't NANDs underneath.

 

[Chancha]

There are no 2TB NANDs that exist, largest capacity per chip is 1TB.

They exist, Apple just hasn't used them in their supply chain.

A further "evidence" is that with the M4 Pro MBP, both 14" and 16" logic board seem there are only 4 NAND pads and that the 8TB is M4 Max exclusive on the MBP. It seems to suggest like the M3 Pro, the M4 Pro does not have enough data lanes to storage controllers that can do 8 NANDs.

What's odd isn't with hardware, but that Apple feels the need to enable a 8TB option on the M4 Pro mini. Whether they created a custom daughter card, or they start using 2TB NANDs, both seem to be too much work just for that.

 

[Chancha]

Okay this is definitive. At least we know the base model M4 Pro 512GB daughter card has only 4 NAND pads. This means either there is another 8x NAND card, or that Apple has started to use 4x 2TB NAND on this same card, for the 8TB BTO.

 

[dosdude1]

View attachment 2452687View attachment 2452688

Okay this is definitive. At least we know the base model M4 Pro 512GB daughter card has only 4 NAND pads. This means either there is another 8x NAND card, or that Apple has started to use 4x 2TB NAND on this same card, for the 8TB BTO.

Interesting, would make sense that they'd use the new K6B3 2TB NANDs (as you posted previously, I wasn't aware those even existed). No way they could fit 4 more NANDs in there. This also begs the question if the K6B3s would also work on the regular M4 (to achieve 4TB). I highly doubt it knowing how these machines are (only allow officially supported configs), but if I can get my hands on some (and they aren't exorbitantly expensive), I may give that a try.

 

[Chancha]

功夫不负有心人，mini m4pro升级8TB已攻破[抱拳]感谢大家的期待.支持.鼓励，我们才有不断反复测试的动力与信心，以下是扩容到8TB的硬盘读写速度测试!_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

Mac Mini M4pro扩容测试8T过程分享, 视频播放量 15613、弹幕量 10、点赞数 173、投硬币枚数 22、收藏人数 81、转发人数 56, 视频作者 光头哥Mac电脑专修, 作者简介 -专注苹果MacBook电脑芯片级维修 -记录Mac日常维修分享✅ 电187186 .99988，相关视频：799！2TB！华强北苹果Macmini M4第三方硬盘能行吗？，最廉价Mac mini2T雷电硬盘升级方案 898块秒杀苹果原装，苹果电脑升级的硬盘都是二手拆机颗粒吗？，Mac mini怎么就不能用2K显示器了，340块的显示器一样用！，MacBook M1 M2...

www.bilibili.com

Found the guy who successfully upgraded to 8TB. The same M4 Pro mini base he already went from 512GB to 2TB then 4TB in previous videos. No special tricks, all it took was to source the right 2TB NANDs, he said he used Samsung 315.