New Mac Mini Has Two Storage Downsides, Including Unremovable SSD
As confirmed by the website "Expand Mac mini," NAND storage in the new Mac mini models with the M6 and M5 Pro chips is soldered to the logic board, whereas the previous models with the M4 and M4 Pro chips have removable storage that can be upgraded. In other words, the new Mac mini does not support aftermarket storage upgrades. "Expand Mac mini" offers plug-and-play SSD modules that are…
Apple's new Mac mini models featuring the M6 and M5 Pro chips present two drawbacks related to storage. Firstly, the NAND storage is soldered to the logic board, as opposed to earlier versions with M4 and M4 Pro chips that allowed for removable storage upgrades. Consequently, customers can no longer opt for aftermarket storage enhancements with the latest Mac mini line-up.
Secondly, the new Mac mini configurations with 256GB of storage utilize a single NAND chip, which results in slower SSD read and write speeds compared to models with 512GB of storage or more. These slower speeds are evident in Apple's testing using Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test benchmark tool, where the 256GB model's Disk Speed Test scores were approximately half those of models with 512GB of storage or higher.
While the average consumer may not notice the difference, power users may appreciate the information, indicating that opting for at least 512GB of storage is necessary to achieve the fastest SSD speeds.
Written by urgent.news from MacRumors's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
