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2018 Mac mini Teardown: User-Upgradeable RAM, But Soldered Down CPU and Storage

Friday November 9, 2018 5:51 am PST by Joe Rossignol
The repair experts at iFixit have completed their teardown of the new Mac mini, providing a look inside the portable desktop computer.


Disassembly of the new Mac mini remains fairly straightforward. iFixit popped off the plastic bottom cover with its opening tool and then used a Torx screwdriver to unfasten the familiar antenna plate underneath.

With access to the inside, iFixit then unscrewed the fan and popped out the logic board with some old-fashioned thumb pressing. While the RAM in the previous-gen Mac mini from 2014 was soldered to the logic board, the new Mac mini has user-upgradeable RAM, as discovered earlier this week.


As seen in older iMacs, the RAM is protected by a perforated shield that allows the memory modules to operate at a high frequency of 2666 MHz without interfering with other device functions, according to iFixit. To upgrade the RAM, the shield can be removed by unfastening four Torx screws.

Other silicon on the logic board of this particular Mac mini includes the Apple T2 security chip, a 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i3 processor, Intel UHD Graphics 630, 128GB of flash storage from Toshiba, an Intel JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 controller, and a Gigabit Ethernet controller from Broadcom.


Despite the good news about the RAM, the CPU and SSD are soldered to the logic board, as are many ports, so this isn't a truly modular Mac mini.

iFixit awarded the new Mac mini a repairability score of 6/10, with 10 being the easiest to repair, topping the latest MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, and iMac Pro, and trailing only the 2013 Mac Pro.

"Back in the day, a Pro Mac meant a computer you could upgrade, configure, and connect as you pleased," iFixit's teardown concludes. "This new mini aligns so well with that ideal that we're surprised it didn't earn itself a "Pro" title—especially compared to the increasingly closed-off MacBook Pro line."

The new Mac mini earned its higher repairability score thanks to its straightforward disassembly with no tough adhesive or proprietary pentalobe screws and user-upgradeable RAM. However, it didn't earn a perfect score due to the soldered-down CPU, storage, and ports, impacting repairs and upgrades.

Related Roundup: Mac mini
Tags: iFixit, teardown
Buyer's Guide: Mac Mini (Buy Now)
[ 276 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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Smeaton1724
10 weeks ago
2014 - Solder the RAM, allow user replaceable Storage.
2018 - Solder the Storage (Base 128GB on a desktop!), allow user replaceable RAM.

The Mac Mini is Apple's troll machine.
Rating: 62 Votes
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seanbperiod
10 weeks ago
Soldered 128GB is an absolute insult to their customers. How much does 128GB cost, like $20? Probably even much less at cost for Apple. There's no reason at all to not have the lowest tier start at 256GB, or even 512GB if they even pretended to care about their customers, instead of forcing people to upgrade to 256GB for an extra $200, which is even more insulting.

But they know many of us are locked into the system and won't switch to PC. This must be what an abusive relationship feels like.
Rating: 47 Votes
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dual64bit
10 weeks ago

Why not just buy an iMac with dedicated graphics? With that Mac Mini setup you’d be spending at least $800 PLUS an eGPU PLUS a monitor, and it will take up way more physical space.


Because the end user could replace the display and/or eGPU anytime. As newer ones are released... upgradability.
Rating: 36 Votes
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rednif
10 weeks ago
The soldered on SSD is a dealbreaker. Plain and simple. There goes another option to replace my old MBP...
Rating: 35 Votes
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recoil80
10 weeks ago

The soldered on SSD is a dealbreaker. Plain and simple. There goes another option to replace my old MBP...


I think it is better to have a soldered SSD than soldered RAM. You can always expand storage via an external drive, but you can't get more RAM.
Of course it would be great to being able to replace BOTH, but if I had to chose I'd pick RAM over SSD.
By the way, I think since they're using the T2 even for the disk we can't expect to be able to replace the storage in the future.
Rating: 31 Votes
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Broken Hope
10 weeks ago

Let's be real, for most users the ram is too hard to install. It can be done by a lot of tech people but not the average user.

Not the average user no, but for anyone who’s ever built their own PC it’s really easy.
Rating: 27 Votes
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Veinticinco
10 weeks ago
Someone needs to confiscate all those pesky soldering irons at Apple's manufacturing facilities.

Storage and memory need to be user-upgradable on every Mac.
Rating: 24 Votes
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rom3o
10 weeks ago

Mac Mini + eGPU = Killer Setup

A big eGPU undermines my idea of a clean Mac mini setup.
Rating: 20 Votes
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Rudy69
10 weeks ago
Let's be real, for most users the ram is too hard to install. It can be done by a lot of tech people but not the average user.
Rating: 15 Votes
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Tinmania
10 weeks ago

If you’re trying to max out your Mini, you’re potentially spending upwards of $2000. That means were talking about roughly a 10%-15% premium to have Apple upgrade your SDD. If you don’t wanna spend that, fine, but let’s not be disingenuous and suggest that this premium represents the spending elite.

It is not just a "10%-15% premium," especially when you want a TB or more in local storage. To go from the base mini's 128GB SSD to 2TB, via Apple, costs $1600, for a total of $2400 for the mini. One can buy a 2TB SSD from Amazon for $325, for a total of $1125, starting with the same base mini. That works out to a 210% increase, or in your words "premium to have Apple upgrade your SDD." Of course Apple is, in no way, upgrading your SSD: they are replacing the base SSD with a more expensive SSD. You don't get "your" old SSD back. When I upgraded my 2010 and 2012 minis, I got to keep the original drives.



Mike
Rating: 15 Votes

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