M4 Mac mini teardown shows future upgradability in a seriously packed package

iFixit has posted its video teardown of the new M4 Mac mini, and as usual, it’s a fascinating study of how design, engineering, and technology come together–or in this case, taken apart

While a lot of people are interested in the inner workings of Apple’s products, the Mac mini might draw more interest than any other product. There’s a widespread belief that users should be able to perform a certain amount of customization and upgrades with desktop computers, even with Macs. And the Mac mini has been used in unique situations and projects. Teardowns like iFixit’s don’t just satisfy curiosity, they provide useful information.

Watch iFixit’s video, and after that, here are a few takeaways from the teardown.

It’s packed to the gills

The M1 and M2 Mac minis used an old design and left a lot of space inside. With the new design, the Mac mini is immensely packed. It’s an incredible feat of design and engineering, but it also provides a serious hurdle to do-it-yourselfers. Which leads us to…

It’s user upgradeable…but is it, really?

Apple clearly has an idea of what components should be accessible, and it’s obvious in the Mac mini. For example, the CMOS battery is designed for access without diving deeper into the machine. In fact, it’s the only component that’s readily accessible.

We heard early reports about the Mac mini’s SSD being upgradeable and the iFixit video provides more info. The M4 and M4 Pro Mac minis use modules of different sizes and iFixit couldn’t get its Mac mini to work when they tried swapping the SSDs.

iFixit often refers to the Mac mini as being upgradeable, but being “upgradeable” involves the ability to remove a part and replace it with an available part. At this point, there’s no available part for the Mac mini. Apple uses a proprietary SSD module that is nothing like the NVMe SSDs used in Windows PCs and is made by third parties such as Crucial. You can’t buy a NVMe and pop it into the Mac mini.

Could a company make a Mac mini-compatible SSD module? Maybe, but would it be worth the investment for them? It’s hard to say. The Mac mini’s SSD is similar to that of the Mac Studio, and a Kickstarter project to make a third-party Mac Studio SSD upgrade has exceeded its funding goal, but it has only 142 backers. Granted, the Mac Studio is more of a niche than the Mac mini, but it still seems like a low-volume endeavor.

In case you’re wondering, the RAM is incorporated in the M4 chip, as it has since the M1. There is no way to upgrade RAM after purchase.

The fan is big

The ring of vents at the bottom of the Mac mini leads to a fan that takes up a considerable amount of space (and even more space in the M4 Pro model). I can’t help but wonder if smaller cooling units can be used, which could make the Mac mini even more tiny.

For example, Frore System makes “solid-state active cooling chips” that are super thin and effective. Last year, I covered how they modified a MacBook Air with its cooling chips, which allowed it to stop throttling to maintain a proper operating temperature. I don’t know what a system like Frore’s would cost to implement, but I imagine it’s not as cheap as a fan, so it may be too pricey for consideration.