If you own a Mac mini with either an M4 chip or an M4 Pro chip (introduced in 2024), and are looking to upgrade to one of this year’s Mac mini models, there’s something that you may have to think twice. You see, initial teardowns from iFixit revealed that the SSDs are not soldered to the logic board; this is huge for Mac customers because, unlike most modern Macs, this meant that you could upgrade the storage on a 2024 Mac mini model yourself using aftermarket kits like those from Expand Mac mini, even after configuration and purchase.
However, with the newly launched Mac mini models from this week, Expand Mac mini has confirmed via its teardown that NAND chips on both the M6 and M5 Pro models are now soldered to the logic board, which means that you can no longer remove or upgrade the SSD module of these models, similar to the M2/M2 Pro models. While both the M6 and the M5 Pro are huge leaps in performance for the Mac mini, this news certainly feels like a step backwards in terms of upgradability. To add insult to injury, Max Tech on YouTube confirmed that the base 256GB configuration now reverts to using a single NAND chip, which could result in much slower read/write speeds overall. This is history repeating itself all over again, as the base 256GB configurations of the M2 models of the Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro also featured a single NAND chip. Additionally, the latest Mac mini models don’t get the 5th generation PCIe SSD either.
On the other hand, this year’s Mac Studio models seem to continue using removable SSDs based on Apple’s repair documentation, although any teardowns of those models have yet to confirm whether that’s the case.
This is certainly not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s unclear why Apple would cut corners on the base configuration of the M6 Mac mini, but I assume it was to save costs in light of the memory chip crisis, where storage chips are now getting more expensive thanks to the supply/demand imbalances.
Still, despite starting at $899, the latest Mac mini is still a solid computer for everyday users, and especially for those who rely on AI workloads. I’d recommend getting at least 512GB of storage, and you may want to act fast since many higher configurations won’t ship until next month at the earliest.
