Upgrading an M4 Pro Mac Mini’s Storage for Half the Price
Jeff Geerling (via Hacker News):
I documented the entire upgrade—along with taking my old M4 mini 1TB SSD and putting it in my Dad’s M4 mini—in today’s video[…]
[…]
Speaking of standards… you have to do a full DFU (Device Firmware Update) restore, because unlike conventional M.2 NVMe storage, the M4 uses a proprietary connector, a proprietary-sized slot, and splits up the typical layout—the card that’s user-replaceable is actually just flash chips and supporting power circuits, while the storage controller (the NVMe ‘brains’) is part of the M4 SoC (System on a Chip). Apple could use standard NVMe slots, but they seem to think the controller being part of the SoC brings better security… it certainly doesn’t bring any cost savings, resiliency in terms of quick recovery from failure in the field, or performance advantage!
[…]
The upgraded 4TB module performed noticeably better in writes, likely because it has more flash chips on it to spread out the write activity. Reads were pretty close to the same, with minor variance in performance across different file sizes and access patterns.
[…]
I was provided the $699 M4 Pro 4TB SSD upgrade by M4-SSD. It’s quite expensive (especially compared to normal 4TB NVMe SSDs, which range from $200-400)…
But it’s not nearly as expensive as Apple’s own offering, which at the time of this writing is $1,200!
Note that this particular upgrade doesn’t work with a non-Pro M4.
Previously:
