Upgrading an M4 Pro Mac mini's storage for half the price

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

DIY SSD Upgrade & Pricing Dynamics

  • Many are impressed the M4 Pro Mac mini’s socketed SSD can be swapped, but see $699 for 4 TB (vs Apple’s $1,200) as still “less robbery, not cheap” compared to $200–400 commodity NVMe drives.
  • Some report early failures and overheating with these aftermarket modules and note limited/no vendor warranty, but expect prices to drop as the ecosystem matures.
  • Debate over warranty: several argue US law and Apple’s own docs mean the presence of a third‑party SSD doesn’t automatically void coverage unless damage is caused; you’d likely have to reinstall the original SSD before service.

External Storage vs Internal Upgrades

  • One camp says external SSDs/RAIDs over USB‑C/Thunderbolt are far better value, reusable across machines, and fast enough for most workloads.
  • Others counter that macOS treats internal storage as special: some features are disabled or fragile when booting from or placing home directories on externals; race conditions at login (e.g., Photos not finding its library) and cable/dock clutter hurt UX.

Apple Configs, Upsell, and Lock‑In

  • Strong criticism of Apple’s storage/RAM pricing and low base configs (historically 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD) that ship with large chunks consumed by the OS, forcing constant space management and upsells (including iCloud).
  • A more sympathetic view: high upgrade prices steer most buyers into a few standard SKUs, greatly simplifying logistics; current 16 GB baselines are seen as adequate for typical users and long‑lived machines.
  • Non‑upgradeable RAM and soldered SSDs are widely seen as anti‑consumer and environmentally suspect, despite Apple’s longevity claims.

Security & Overseas Upgrade Services

  • Mentions of Chinese shops desoldering and upgrading Apple NAND/RAM spark jokes and serious worries about hardware implants from any nation‑state.
  • Some trust Apple’s hardware security enough that a successful physical (“evil‑maid”) attack would be front‑page news; others cite past M‑series debug‑register and remote iOS exploits as evidence Apple is not uniquely secure.

SSD Technology & Reliability

  • Long nostalgic thread on how SSDs replaced massive, failure‑prone HDD RAID sets, plus anecdotes of modern home RAIDs and the need for UPS and SMART/ZFS monitoring.
  • Technical sub‑discussion: many consumer SSDs rely on DRAM/SLC caches and overprovisioning; once caches fill or drives near capacity, write speeds can collapse. TLC/QLC vs SLC trade‑offs and Optane’s exceptional latency/endurance are discussed.

Integrated Controller, APFS, and Data Integrity

  • One line of argument: Apple’s on‑SoC SSD controller (from the Anobit acquisition) exists largely to tightly control ECC, refresh, and error‑handling for higher reliability and performance.
  • Critics respond that all modern controllers do heavy ECC and that real robustness still benefits from filesystem‑level checksums; APFS only checksums metadata, not user data, relying on hardware.
  • Comparisons with ZFS/Btrfs (end‑to‑end checksums) and NTFS/ReFS highlight tension between “solve it in hardware” vs “defense in depth,” especially for external drives.

Alternatives and Miscellaneous Hacks

  • Some prefer simply not buying Apple at all, opting for Linux/Windows mini PCs instead, or running macOS on Intel Hackintoshes while support lasts.
  • Niche projects like powering a Mac mini via USB‑C (“hackbook”) are praised for ergonomics, modularity, and repairability versus MacBooks, though others see all this as needless hassle compared to paying Apple’s “tax.”