Mac mini teardowns are underway, with excellent news and dangerous information GL-NEWS

iFixit and MacminiVault have each accomplished their teardowns of the new Mac mini, with Macminicolo planning theirs quickly.

We already knew the primary dangerous information: soldered RAM means you’ll be able to’t improve the reminiscence later, so you need to determine how a lot you need and pay Apple’s pricing for it. Each iFixit and MacminiVault described changing the RAM as “unimaginable.”

Gaining access to the within of the brand new Mac mini is harder than it was once … 

The twist-off backside cowl of the earlier mannequin is gone, with a brand new plastic cap needing to be levered off. Beneath this can be a plate with three tamper-proof screws.

iFixit recognized these as TR6 Torx, and stated it was the primary time it had ever seen these in use. The corporate’s Torx drivers solely went all the way down to T7, in order that they needed to improvise – however can be getting TR6 drivers in inventory.

The WiFi antenna additionally hampers entry, however the excellent news, says iFixit, is there is no such thing as a glue to take care of.

There may be higher information on the drive entrance: it may be changed, albeit solely by just about dismantling all the machine.

iFixit examined this by changing the 5400rpm laborious drive of the bottom mannequin with the SSD it pulled from its earlier Retina iMac teardown. Whereas the brand new Mac mini is single drive solely, iFixit did word an empty socket that it thinks could enable a blade SSD to be added; will probably be investigating this.

You do, after all, have the choice of connecting exterior drives, and Macminicolo‘s view was {that a} second Thunderbolt port is an efficient trade-off the for lacking Firewire 800 one now that the worth of Thunderbolt drives is beginning to fall.

iFixit notes that the AirPort card is now a full PCIe one, supporting WiFi ac, and located that the brand new fan – whereas visually an identical – in actual fact now has contact-free bearings, with fluid lubricant carrying the load.

MacminiVault’s view was that this mannequin is a “transitional” one. Although they described it as strong, they consider subsequent yr’s mannequin is prone to have Broadwell/Skylake microarchitecture, providing a major efficiency leap. It additionally nonetheless holds out hope of a smaller energy provide permitting the scale of the mini to be lowered.

Extra teardown images on the iFixit and MacminiVault websites.

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