Theoretically, you can upgrade RAM & SSD on your M1 Mac mini, but you shouldn't
It's technically possible to upgrade the RAM and storage on an Apple M1 Mac mini -- but there are several reasons why it's a terrible idea.
Credit: DuanRui
The M1 is Apple's first Apple Silicon chip for the Mac. While it boasts significant advantages in speed and performance, it's also a lot less user upgradeable with integrated memory and storage.
Even though the new Mac devices are less upgradable, swapping some of the components on the chip is still theoretically possible. That's evidenced by Chinese maintenance engineers who successfully expanded the RAM and SSD capacities on an Apple M1 chips.
Reportedly, the engineers completed the feat using a soldering station to install DRAM memory chips and NAND flash memory chips. While the process involved de-soldering the existing chips and adding the new components, it apparently didn't require any firmware modifications.
The exact details about the upgrade are scarce, but roughly translated Chinese text in the post touts the apparent success and claims that "victory belongs to those who adapt."
Of course, just because some engineers managed to pull it off doesn't mean you should try it at home.
For one, it's nearly impossible to purchase the DRAM and NAND chips you'd need for this procedure at the consumer level. You'll also need to shell out money for a soldering station. And, this all assumes that you or somebody you know has the skill to do it.
More importantly, any modifications of this nature will instantly void your warranty. That becomes more of a problem when you consider that de-soldering and soldering the DRAM and NAND chips requires a good amount of skill, precision, and patience.
Make any mistakes here and you'll end up with a dead Mac and no avenue for getting it fixed. Because of that, we'd caution against any sort of modification like this unless you're prepared to waste your money.
Because of the speed and performance benefits of the M1, it's much more advisable just to upgrade the RAM and SSD space at the time of purchase. It's an investment, and probably a wise one.
Credit: DuanRui
The M1 is Apple's first Apple Silicon chip for the Mac. While it boasts significant advantages in speed and performance, it's also a lot less user upgradeable with integrated memory and storage.
Even though the new Mac devices are less upgradable, swapping some of the components on the chip is still theoretically possible. That's evidenced by Chinese maintenance engineers who successfully expanded the RAM and SSD capacities on an Apple M1 chips.
Chinese maintenance engineers can already expand the capacity of the Apple M1. The 8GB memory has been expanded to 16GB, and the 256GB hard drive has been expanded to 1TB. pic.twitter.com/2Fyf8AZfJR
-- DuanRui (@duanrui1205)
Reportedly, the engineers completed the feat using a soldering station to install DRAM memory chips and NAND flash memory chips. While the process involved de-soldering the existing chips and adding the new components, it apparently didn't require any firmware modifications.
The exact details about the upgrade are scarce, but roughly translated Chinese text in the post touts the apparent success and claims that "victory belongs to those who adapt."
Of course, just because some engineers managed to pull it off doesn't mean you should try it at home.
For one, it's nearly impossible to purchase the DRAM and NAND chips you'd need for this procedure at the consumer level. You'll also need to shell out money for a soldering station. And, this all assumes that you or somebody you know has the skill to do it.
More importantly, any modifications of this nature will instantly void your warranty. That becomes more of a problem when you consider that de-soldering and soldering the DRAM and NAND chips requires a good amount of skill, precision, and patience.
Make any mistakes here and you'll end up with a dead Mac and no avenue for getting it fixed. Because of that, we'd caution against any sort of modification like this unless you're prepared to waste your money.
Because of the speed and performance benefits of the M1, it's much more advisable just to upgrade the RAM and SSD space at the time of purchase. It's an investment, and probably a wise one.
Comments
Agree you may be able to change the SSD chips, but the RAM inside M1 ?
there are no memory lanes outside the SOC ...
No thanks.
Anything to get views and clicks. I just happen to know a tiny bit about this kind of surgery. The kind of equipment you need to unsolder these components is very expensive and requires extreme skill to pull it off. You just don’t pull out your 10 watt pencil iron from the local hardware store and have at it. Anyone who tries this will certainly wind up with a pile of useless junk on their hands.
new rules.
Nvidia - the king of this current scene - to their credit knows that their business model is going to soon end. It is why they are trying to buy ARM Holdings and pivot to being a company that provides cloud and edge infrastructure and products. Now Intel on the other hand ... not only are they entering the dying discrete GPU market (which will be hammered by the great integrated GPUs and 5nm and below processes will make possible before cloud and edge GPU products kill it off) but they sold the very division that they should have been using to design 5G and 6G radios to integrate into their CPUs to Apple. Meaning that Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek (and soon Google who is beginning the process of splitting from Qualcomm) will all have this capability where Intel and AMD are the only major players who don't.
So when you stated that Apple was getting out of the upgradeable client game, you might not have been aware of how correct you were. 10 years from now, all upgrades are going to happen in the cloud and edge.
Hot air rework table, pick&place precision machine, smart pencil iron and you’re good to go. I’ve been doing this for some time and it’s much more suceessful than fifty-fifty. I would be more concerned about SMC controller setup.. whether it’s able to use it up without editing prams (how this can be done since T2 anyway?)
Because Apple is screwing up one product doesn't mean they've screwed them all up.
Apple do not have their own special memory and storage modules, the pin layout is quite standard. There might be some difference on how they are controlled (calls for the memory controller to store, read, clear data).
It’s not the same as having something integrated on a same module. But I wouldn’t attempt at it myself even if I had the tools available.
I’d say it’s like scraping off existing paint and repainting something, rather than taking cores from a CPU die.