A teardown of Apple’s redesigned M4 Mac mini reveals a removable SSD. More importantly, the storage is upgradeable, though there’s a big catch.
The new Mac mini uses a non-standard SSD, though. So, you cannot just buy an off-the-shelf disk drive for replacement.
New Mac mini ships with a user-upgradable SSD…sort of
Soon after the M4 Mac mini went on sale on November 8, teardowns detailing its internals popped up. They revealed that unlike the previous Mac minis, Apple did not solder the SSD on the logic board of the new model. Instead, the SSD is removable. However, the machine uses Apple’s proprietary SSD format, so replacing it can be challenging.
Now, the folks at iFixit have posted their teardown of the M4 Mac mini. During the process, they replaced the Mac mini’s SSD with a higher-capacity one, and it worked just fine after using Apple Configurator!
Apple is known for pairing and locking parts of its devices, so it’s surprising that there is no software block on the M4 Mac mini. This was not the case with the 2022 Mac Studio, where swapping the modular SSD stopped the machine from booting.
Apple is unlikely to sell replacement SSDs for the Mac mini. However, as the machine ages, spare components from used M4 Mac minis should become available, allowing you to upgrade the SSD.
M4 Pro Mac mini uses a beefier cooling solution
iFixit’s teardown also reveals the differences in the cooling system of the M4 and M4 Pro Mac mini. The latter chip is significantly more powerful and generates more heat. To dissipate this heat better, the M4 Pro Mac mini sports a thicker heat pipe and a beefier copper heatsink with more fins.
Photo: iFixit
Another notable change on the M4 Mac mini is the modular USB-C ports and headphone jack on the front. As they aren’t soldered to the logic board, you can remove and replace each port individually. However, since the rear Thunderbolt 4/5 ports are soldered, you cannot replace them.
Still, thanks to all the underlying changes and a focus on repairability, the M4 Mac mini earned a provisional repairability score of 7 out of 10 from iFixit.
