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Upgrading M4 Mac Mini SSD: Pre-Soldered 2TB Chip Options

kbonnel said:
I did the last preorder round which was March 27. They initially indicated it would ship around April 30th, but they sent an update about delays in the manufacture process due to holidays. They got the devices at the end of April, they do a bunch of QC checks and it shipped out mid May. Took about a week to get to me.

It definitely isn’t a fast process, and that might because they are doing smallish manufacturing orders and not stocking items.

So far the drive is working as expected, and I don’t even think about it, which was kind of my goal.
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I just got the email from iBoff that they are shipping the order.

Fingers crossed. Between these two vendors, I’ve waited so long.
 
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Has anyone here done it to the pro yet ?
I saw a video on YouTube a while ago for the pro upgrade
 
turbineseaplane said:
Interesting ... surprised the delta is so small.

Tariffs or something hitting the 3rd party option?
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The Pro has four chips on the storage card. I don't know whether all four need to be populated for it to work but if so, that might account for some of the uplift. That and the risk that one is going to turn out to be a dud so, more reworking before shipping if the current sellers do any QC.
 
genexx said:
Well, i am very sure that any USB3 Case will not show your NVME Temps.
The Reason is, a Thunderbolt Connector has beside Display Port something like a PCIe Device connection to the NVME so that the Temps will be showed as it would be an internal NVME.

It works with JHL7440 Chipset based enclosures like the Acasis TBU405 Air, this one is much cheaper, but cannot be connected to USB3 but the more expensive one without AIR can.

The newer and faster USB 4 Enclosures with the ASMEDIA ASM2464 Chipset can do the same and are also sometimes cheap to get.
I prefer the still Fast TB3/4 enclosure because the Temps are normally lower.
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Hi mate,

I have TBU405Pro and ASM2464DP and iStat Menu latest version lost the external nvme drive temps. Any idea? thanks
 
gaule said:
Hi mate,

I have TBU405Pro and ASM2464DP and iStat Menu latest version lost the external nvme drive temps. Any idea? thanks
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This is normal for at least from Dez. 24 and the Temp view of the External was the initial reason for me to buy iStat.

If you Switch Language it will come back most of the time.

I have informed the iStat Team 16.12.2024 and it has not been better since.

This is part of the second E-Mail i have send them in Dez24:
(btw. my 4TB WD SN850X does the same and i have now sendet an aditional E-Mail to the iStat Support Team)
In the attached Pic you can see that the Enclosure with the WD_SN770 2TB is listed with the old Temp and was not conected, after connecting the actual Temp was not shown, after i changed Lang from EN to DE the Sensor did show the Low Temp as visible.

After Disconecting the Temp is further shown as last measured.

Bildschirmfoto 2024-12-16 um 09.21.23.jpg
Bildschirmfoto 2024-12-16 um 09.21.33.jpeg
 
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genexx said:
This is normal for at least from Dez. 24 and the Temp view of the External was the initial reason for me to buy iStat.

If you Switch Language it will come back most of the time.

I have informed the iStat Team 16.12.2024 and it has not been better since.

This is part of the second E-Mail i have send them in Dez24:
(btw. my 4TB WD SN850X does the same and i have now sendet an aditional E-Mail to the iStat Support Team)
In the attached Pic you can see that the Enclosure with the WD_SN770 2TB is listed with the old Temp and was not conected, after connecting the actual Temp was not shown, after i changed Lang from EN to DE the Sensor did show the Low Temp as visible.

After Disconecting the Temp is further shown as last measured.

View attachment 2535593View attachment 2535592
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I also bought the istat for the exact same reason but it does not work :(. I've sent the email but still not got the response from them. It is pretty sad that they ignored the after sale support.
 
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Sorry if I didn't read the whole thread, I am almost sold at getting an M4 Studio even tho my only intensive task is Adobe LightRoom and some basic PhotoShop but since my old i7 Mini struggles I either bit the bullet and go for the Studio, which won't happen before end of September of beginning of October or I get a base M4 Mini and try the internal storage upgrade myself (I am pretty familiar with such operations, not a faint of heart...), how do I get the sources for a 1TB SSD upgrade and which are the average costs of such devices?

Thank you
 
So how reliable are these 3rd party SSD? Are there ones that perform as good as the stock SSD from Apple with the same reliability?
 
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hajime said:
So how reliable are these 3rd party SSD? Are there ones that perform as good as the stock SSD from Apple with the same reliability?
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From what I can see, not massively reliable in that you cannot tell if your card will work until you try to restore to it. Some sellers, maybe those with an online presence outside of this upgrade may peform some QC and check the boards before they go out. Ancecdotal evidence online suggests that 25% of the storage NANDs used for this are DOA before even soldering starts. Dosdude
 
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weckart said:
From what I can see, not massively reliable in that you cannot tell if your card will work until you try to restore to it. Some sellers, maybe those with an online presence outside of this upgrade may peform some QC and check the boards before they go out. Ancecdotal evidence online suggests that 25% of the storage NANDs used for this are DOA before even soldering starts. Dosdude
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So basically use at own risk and one may end up losing data and paying more at the end?
 
hajime said:
So basically use at own risk and one may end up losing data and paying more at the end?
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It is easy to see what you described must be the case. The way these cards are made requires "hand" soldering with BGA the NAND chips onto the boards, unless someone sets up a supply chain where the boards when made (with its chips) already include the NANDs into the supplies. This is simply not at the scale that anybody would find it a viable business to do.

Together with the questionable BGA quality, and the reliability of the (unknown) NAND sourcing, you get what you get.

That said, due to the massive price difference between this vs what Apple charges for BTO, it still makes economical sense for us users to risk.
 
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hajime said:
So basically use at own risk and one may end up losing data and paying more at the end?
Click to expand...
My post got truncated but basically, the odds are in your favour. Nevertheless, a sizeable minority will have to deal with the hassle of overseas returns. You could pay a little more and go with a more established workshop like iBoff who should do some QC on the finished product and will accept returns but will probably have to wait a little longer for stock to become available. Otherwise, as Chancha said, the risk is commensurate with the reward.
 
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