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:
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I really need to think long and hard about my next mobile and laptop. Apple is going out of their way to do things that screw their users both in software and hardware. There’s no reason to use proprietary controllers and connectors for SSD. None. They only do that so as to make swapping SSD as painful as possible. Same applies to their app store and iOS browser engine policies. Given how OS quality has slipped and continues to do so I really need to ask myself whether paying Apple’s tax on memory and storage is worth it. How many of the Apple only apps that I have do I really use or need?
The quality of third party software on the mac has slipped as well. There's still a few areas where there are great, high quality native third party apps, but the majority of stuff now is written in Electron, and so it's the same resource hungry non-native experience you'd get in any other OS. And then the apps written in SwiftUI feel like they may as well have been written in Electron given that it encourages bad design and breaks UI conventions due to bugs and being generally half baked. So it really does call into question what the advantage of having a mac is at this point.
I was uncertain from Geerling's video if he'd moved storage from an M4 Pro mini to a M4 mini. That is what is IMPLIED, but what he states in the video; however he could be using "M4 mini" and "M4 Pro mini" interchangeably. I asked in the comments on the video, but didn't get a response. (But haven't read back through the comments more recently to followup.) Because that would be OTHER good news. I've not *seen* that attempted anywhere else, but recall it was pondered when the differences between the M4 an M4 Pro mini teardowns revealed they were different motherboards and storage internally. If M4 Pro storage fits and works in M4 minis, it makes the low-end 265GB even more of a no-brainer buy, as since the M4 Pro comes with 512GB standard, you'd expect to see some supply of those 512GB modules (and even 1TB modules) over the next several years as power-users upgrade… bonus if the M5 models to come use the same modules.
