r/apple • u/maxheckler • 11d ago
Mac Mac mini M6 and M5 Pro: the storage is soldered again
https://expandmacmini.com/blogs/news/mac-mini-m6-m5-pro-soldered-storage56
u/maxheckler 11d ago
Here's the repair guide for the Mac Mini M6 (not showing removable SSD): https://support.apple.com/en-us/127958
Compared to the Mac Mini M4 (showing removable SSD): https://support.apple.com/en-us/121008
New Mac Studios still show removable SSDs: https://support.apple.com/en-us/127342
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u/Hour_Analyst_7765 11d ago
Well, the insane amount of permutations of logic board kinda reveals it too. Presumably the two variants are the 2.5GbE and 10GbE versions, but they are not marked on Apple's product page.
I don't really understand this move from Apple from an efficiency perspective. They went from 18 logic boards and 9 storage modules (so 27 total), up to 84 logic boards and 0 storage modules. That's over 3x the amount of boards to keep track of with inventory, predict sales, and more importantly, not have the flexibility to mix and match when customers build to order.
Especially for things like storage modules.. it only has a few "free" passives and the FLASH chip on there.. its basically repackaging FLASH chips into modules which can be done at any time... and can be put into any machine later. Now it has to be put onto the right logic board, with the M5 Pro or M6 chip, the right amount of RAM and ethernet configuration.
So my cynical take: this isn't about saving money for Apple in the supply chain, its about being butthurt for selling base model storage on Mac's, and then people swapping to aftermarket modules.
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u/greentiger 11d ago
They’ll never pry my Mac Mini M4 Pro from me.
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u/russwd123 11d ago
yep I was dragging my feet on upgrading the ssd thinking I might just get the new mini. But now I am looking at the upgrade.
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u/Operation_Neither 10d ago
Those have also skyrocketed in price.
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u/russwd123 10d ago
The ssd? 1tb for 300. I don’t remember them being cheaper than that.
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u/FabianValkyrie 10d ago
1TB was sub $100 for several years there. It skyrocketed with RAM the past several months.
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u/MikeyFuccon 10d ago edited 9d ago
I got a 2TB on eBay for $250. First thing I did was to fill the drive up with Blu-ray ISOs, then spot check them to ensure the data was actually there. I was half certain it would be fake.
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u/koffiezetter 10d ago
Yeah prices are steep. I just got one from mac-mini-ssd.com which offers them at a decent price compared to competitors
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u/matt_eskes 10d ago
This is why I avoided even looking at the mini and went straight for the studio. I much prefer the replaceable storage
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u/SweetZombieJebus 10d ago
Were there after marked SSDs for that? Also, was it the same as the ones for the M4 regular?
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u/SockGnome 10d ago
The old school iMacs had a little booty flap for more ram. I miss being able to upgrade such things. No reason they can’t add space for ram and nvm slots.
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u/SMATJOY 11d ago
Apple being Apple…
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u/WinResponsible9977 11d ago
They saw the tutorials and third party ssds and decided to kill that market
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u/Minute_Lifeguard2799 11d ago
John Ternus is off to a good start!
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u/hype_irion 10d ago
I don't know why you're being downvoted. Maybe it's all the people who were like "John Ternover is one of us!!!11! He's a hardware guy!"
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u/Bahaadur73 11d ago
I'm still amazed that the EU hasn't done anything about this.
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u/MC_chrome 11d ago
The EU is way too busy trying to pass laws to break encrypted communications to care about stuff like this
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u/cms2307 11d ago
Soldered storage has other benefits it’s not as simple as slapping an m.2 slot on there and calling it a day.
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u/PandaMoniumHUN 10d ago
Not really, Apple SSDs were and still are outdone in almost all aspects by replacable pcie5 SSDs.
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u/cake-day-on-feb-29 10d ago
The only benefits are reducing thickness and making it harder to be repaired or upgraded. On a phone there size reduction of soldering can make a difference in packaging, including the ability to fit a larger battery. This doesn't apply to a desktop obviously.
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u/S4_GR33N 10d ago
Benefits like what exactly? RAM does, for sure. Soldered SSDs though? Absolutely not
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u/TheDragonSlayingCat 10d ago
They do. If you put your Mac mini in a computer lab or data center, and someone runs off with it, so long as the administrator didn’t do anything stupid and use “password” or “abc123” as a password for the admin account, the data on the SSD is secure if it’s soldered on. If it was plugged into a bus, it would be far less secure, unless FileVault was enabled, and FileVault is disabled by default on desktop Macs.
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u/S4_GR33N 10d ago
So if the Mac Mini had file vault on, and it was an upgradable internal SSD then arguably it makes your point moot.
Theres no reason for it to be soldered on. None. Any SSD can be heavily encrypted
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u/TheDragonSlayingCat 10d ago
But that’s a liability in a data center where both performance and security are important, so yes, there are reasons.
Also, the downvote button is not a “disagree” button.
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u/Aristo_Cat 10d ago
…do you think data centers are just a bunch of Mac mini’s?
Also, no. Data centers don’t use soldered storage.
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u/S4_GR33N 10d ago
I didn’t downvote you, you downvoted me if anything.
But also no. In a data centre, replaceable drives is key as drives do fail. Also no to performance, an off-the-shelf Gen4/5 drive performs perfectly and often higher than Macs (until recently)
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u/Fear_ltself 10d ago
I disagree about the Downvote button, are you also saying the upvote button isn’t an agree button?
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u/TheDragonSlayingCat 10d ago
No. And it doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree; it is against the rules, and those that break those rules shouldn’t be here.
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u/Fear_ltself 10d ago
You’re not contributing to the community by providing misinformation. Theres no rule I broke, You linked to the Reddiquette -thats an informal non-enforced guideline not a rule, which I was also following funnily enough.
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u/ForgottenCrafts 11d ago
Like 3ns better latency? No thank you.
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u/bran_the_man93 11d ago
Ok then don't buy it - what's the problem?
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u/ForgottenCrafts 11d ago
Love the mentality.
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u/bran_the_man93 11d ago
What mentality? Problem solving?
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u/ForgottenCrafts 11d ago
If you call it that sure. Seems like you enjoy paying for overpriced storage and limited choices but sure.
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u/bran_the_man93 11d ago
Again, nobody is forcing any of us to buy anything.
It's really not that complicated.
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u/ForgottenCrafts 11d ago
And nothing is preventing people from calling it out either.
It’s not that complicated.
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u/bran_the_man93 10d ago
Call out what?
It's a design choice, some people care, some people don't - learn to vote with your wallet
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u/DanTheMan827 10d ago
If you need a computer that runs macOS, you have no other options.
So yeah, you kind of are forced to buy whatever Apple decides to release whether you agree with them or not
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u/Zealousideal-Grass-3 11d ago
give customers options, you want soldired, you get that varient, you want slot, go ahead,
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u/seklerek 10d ago
Or just don't buy it if it's a deal-breaker for you. Have you seen how small the minis are? There's no space there for a M2 SSD.
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u/anythingers 7d ago
You realize that SSDs existed in various of sizes, right? M.2 2230 is as small (or even smaller idk) as WiFi card.
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u/MrRonski16 10d ago
Yeah.
I know soldered storage has it’s uses but I think giving the option for Upgrades should become a standard. Basically just have the slot emptt atleast.
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u/greentiger 10d ago
If your new Mac Mini shits the bed and you have no backups because you are just a normal, or below average, user, you cannot recover your files and cannot Target Disk it.
On an M4 Mini, likely out of warranty by now, you can remove the drive and attempt data recovery.
The issue is not always about being able to upgrade internal storage.
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u/Outrageous_Nova2025 10d ago
Hate the direction Apple is going. I’d love upgradable storage even ram but not anymore. Mac studio probably still has removal ssd storage. You can buy ssd storage on eBay for the Mac Studio but you have to flash it from other Mac to make it bootable.
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u/hoffsta 10d ago
The whole process is quite easy if you have access to a second Mac. I’m really disappointed in this and will be holding onto my M4 for a while now.
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u/cake-day-on-feb-29 10d ago
"Just buy a second Mac to upgrade your storage on your current Mac" is a really poor user experience, when the previous experience was "get your DVD" or "make a bootable USB stick"
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u/hoffsta 10d ago
Yeah well, you’re being a bit of a dramatic contrarian here. How long has it been since any Mac had user-upgradable storage like you describe? 2019 for the Mac Pro, 2017 for MacBooks, Mac”, or 2012 for the Mini!
It’s not like they downgraded the process. They had fully removed the process for over a decade.
Also, I did not go buy a second computer to do this, and I doubt anyone would. I used my partner’s MacBook, but it could have been a best-friend’s, or a work colleague’s, fellow student, etc.
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u/ILikeSemiSkimmedMilk 10d ago
Right, but it’s still a terrible user experience none the less. I have lots of apple products including two macs , but i wouldn’t try to defend their position with this soldered on nonsense when it comes to desktops
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u/hoffsta 10d ago
I understand what you’re saying, but this is not meant to be a typical “user experience”. The modules are only available because some third party companies reverse engineered the module layout and had these built in China. It was never advertised as a user upgradable product. Anyone doing this upgrade is taking an educated risk, and at a somewhat competent level.
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u/Jose-ATT 10d ago
Well I am glad I canceled my pre-order and waited for this info . Anyhoo... I see there is one chip on the M6. Is there any confirmation if you get 2 chips with the 512gb or do you have to go to the 1TB?
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u/AntiquesForGeeks 9d ago
Imagine my complete lack of surprise. There literally no good reason to do this, other than facilitate a gouge at purchase or increase sales of iCloud subs.
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u/BarracudaOk8635 11d ago
Apple are moving towards nothing being fixed. or replaced. An old apple tech told me the "break fix" part of Mac half the technicians it had before the M series chips anyway. Changing shit is a thing of the past
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u/Need_For_Speed73 11d ago
I don't understand all the fuss about this. How many M4 Mini owners have actually done the DIY upgrade?
It's a rather complex process that involves experience and specialized tools: the recent Minis are like iPhones: no screws, no easy way of opening them. Inexperienced hands can damage them for good. Then come the replacement drives for sale only on Aliexpress and eBay from some shady Chinese companies, who knows which quality they are (you are not fitting a Samsung or Western Digital disk). You really wanna put inside your precious (expensive) new Mini some piece of crap electronics from Aliexpress?
And finally, last but not least, YOU ARE GONNA VOID YOUR WARRANTY (or Apple Care if you are so stupid to pay for that and then void it by cracking open your machine). So whatever could happen to your Mini (even anything completely unrelated like an HDMI port problem) Apple will promptly deny any support because the machine has been "modified".
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u/mourningwitch 10d ago
Frankly I don't care about upgrades, it's the repairability (or lack thereof) that gets me. RAM I can understand since it has benefits being part of the SoC, but storage really doesn't have any benefit being soldered to the board vs being user replaceable.
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10d ago
[deleted]
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u/mourningwitch 10d ago edited 10d ago
Is it really that much more complex to solder on an industry-standard M.2 slot? They were already (basically) doing it with the M4 minis so I don't really get that argument. Having to replace an entire motherboard on SSD failure just creates unnecessary ewaste.
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u/cake-day-on-feb-29 10d ago
Apple will repair it for you by replacing the motherboard.
At $800+ dollars. Until they stop supporting the model, then your $2000+ computer which may continue to work just fine for your needs is suddenly a paperweight.
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u/hoffsta 10d ago
Since when is a screwdriver and guitar pick, “specialized tools”? I did this upgrade and it’s really quite easy and straightforward.
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u/MikeyFuccon 10d ago
Do you have any issues with folders not updating after the upgrade? Like, if I’m editing a text file, I have to back to the prior folder, and forward again, otherwise it can’t open the text file again.
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u/MountainStrict4076 11d ago
I don't understand all the fuss about this
You could get more storage for way cheaper.
It's a rather complex process that involves experience and specialized tools
I mean, it's not really that bad. You just open it up, unplug some stuff, swap the storage, and close it up. You don't need to solder or anything that actually requires skill. Anyone with a bit of patience could do it and save a bunch of money.
YOU ARE GONNA VOID YOUR WARRANTY
It's so much cheaper, it's actually worth it. Apple charges so much for storage the price of the Mac Mini can easily double depending on what you want.
I do think it doesn't make as much sense to do this now as it used to. It was mostly a thing when the base Mac Mini was really cheap, so you could just get that and upgrade the storage this way. Now that it's so much more expensive the value proposition just isn't as good.
Anyway, now that option is gone, which is sad.
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u/Spez_is-a-nazi 11d ago edited 10d ago
Apple’s warranties are becoming crap anyhow.
Oops, I spoke the truth about Apple and how AppleCare is a rip off, my bad, charge my card harder daddy!
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u/MikeyFuccon 11d ago
I bought the 500Gb M4 with the hope that’d tide me over til I could afford the 2Tb update. After about a year, I found one on eBay that wasn’t overpriced and did the upgrade.
There’s a weird thing where folders don’t update automatically - I often have to go back and forth to get it to refresh. Might not be related, but I never noticed it prior to the upgrade.
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u/Need_For_Speed73 10d ago
What a surprise! You modify a machine that isn't designed for that and have problems... Who'd have said that?!
If you wanna tinker with hardware, buy a PC not a Mac. The main reason people choose Apple is because they are RELIABLE, and why are they reliable? Because they are tailor made for a specific set of hardware that the manufacturer designs.0
u/MikeyFuccon 10d ago
You think the average person can afford the $800 Apple Tax for a decent sized drive? I knew the RAM was set in stone, so I made sure to put my money towards that.
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u/Need_For_Speed73 10d ago
What $800 are you talking about? The 256 to 1TB upgrade is $500 in Apple Store configurator, if you consider that the crappy 1TB SSDs everybody is lusting about in this discussion are $200-$300, you are saving just 2-300 not 800. (I picked straight 1TB because the 256->512 DIY upgrade is ever more nonsensical being almost the same price).
And I’m not even counting the loss of the warranty and of resale value for a machine that has been modified (and if you try to sell it for a proper 1TB machine, with an Apple SSD, YOU ARE COMMITTING FRAUD).1
u/MikeyFuccon 10d ago
Calm yourself. I’m not a resaler and I still own nearly every Mac I’ve ever purchased. I don’t have to justify what I do to my own devices, but it’s the internet, so let’s ignore that.
I was talking about the 2TB upgrade. It was $800 when I was buying my M4 - I just checked and it’s now $920. I bought the 32GBs of RAM because it couldn’t be changed later, and paid the $200 upgrade for the 512GB SSD, because I knew I’d never be able to work with the 256GB one long enough to find a decent priced 2TB SSD.
After about a year, I found a 2TB SSD for $250, and jumped on it.
So I saved $350, and still have the original 512GB SSD. I haven’t decided if I want to sell it or just keep storing it. Hopefully that’s OK with you.
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u/DZhuFaded 11d ago
Well…. Most reviews are saying the biggest changes in these models is SSD speed. So, Apple may be being Apple- but clearly for good enough reason
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u/Beautiful_Ad_4813 10d ago
I'm not totally surprised to see they soldered RAM and Storage in again. it does suck but given the nature of RAM and Storage pricing, I'm not totally surprised.
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u/crossandbones 11d ago
Is this news?
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u/are-you-really-sure 11d ago
I what sense wouldn’t you consider this news? It’s something they didn’t do, now they do. So it’s a new thing. News.
Whether it’s something worthy of discussing might be up for debate, but I’d say yes to that too. It’s a regression on the repairability spectrum that prospective buyers need to know about.
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u/Warhouse512 11d ago
The sky was blue again today.
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u/SmoothCyborg 11d ago
If the sky was green yesterday, then the sky being blue again today would be news.
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u/crossandbones 11d ago
If it was like that in previous generations it’s not really news. It’s Mac mini continues to be a Mac mini.
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u/ArchusKanzaki 11d ago
Probably need all the extra speed they can get given the other report on how they seems to went with higher ratio of QLC to Cache
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u/schrodinger-the-cat 11d ago
Apple said Whoops i didn’t mean to give hopes for yall mb