Third-party SSDs now also for Mac mini with M4 Pro
Apple makes its in-house SSDs expensive and does not offer any retrofitting options. Third-party providers are now also helping – with the M4 Pro.
(Image: M4-SSD.com)
Anyone who owns one of the popular compact Macs from the Mac mini M4 series will be familiar with Apple's price list when it comes to SSDs: for the standard model, which costs 699 euros, you pay an extra 1000 euros to upgrade from 256 GB to 2 TB. Furthermore, the manufacturer makes no provision for subsequent upgrades: according to Apple, you buy the small Mac and then leave it as it was purchased. Fortunately, however, third-party providers now offer their own SSD kits, which (somewhat) experienced hobbyists can use to retrofit more storage space. This can save a lot of money. However, there was one problem: as the SSDs for the standard Mac mini with M4 differ from those for the Mac mini with M4 Pro, two variants had to be developed. This has now been done.
Price halved for 8 TByte compared to Apple
As can be seen from the webshop of the Hong Kong provider M4-SSD, modules for the Mac mini M4 Pro are now also available. Three variants are currently on offer: 2 TByte, 4 TByte and – currently sold out or not yet available – 8 TByte. The prices are 459, 699 and 1400 US dollars – plus delivery costs, which are only 5 euros to Germany. Import sales tax (19 percent) will also be added. For comparison: Apple's Mac mini M4 Pro comes as standard with 512 GByte for 1699 Euro, for 1 TByte an additional 250 Euro, for 2 TByte 750 Euro, for 4 TByte 1500 Euro and for 8 TByte a whole 3000 Euro.
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Expandmacmini.com, the first provider of upgrade SSDs, also wants to offer memory modules for Mac mini M4 Pro machines in the future, but is currently still listing them as "coming soon, stay tuned". The prices for the M4 Pro variants of the SSDs are higher than those for the M4. Here, 1 TByte is offered for 189 dollars and 2 TByte for 299 dollars – also plus shipping and import sales tax.
Accessories and DIY instructions
M4-SSD also sells blank circuit boards for soldering in existing memory modules (25 dollars) as well as a so-called DFU kit. This is a license for Windows software that can also be used with PCs to control the DFU mode of the Mac required to set up the SSD (Device Firmware Update). A Mac is otherwise required for this.
The maximum write and read speeds are 3000 and 3300 MB/s respectively. The chips are said to be "brand new" and have the "same lifespan as Apple components". A video from the manufacturer shows instructions on how to install the chips. It should be noted that M4-SSD operates as an independent company with an address in Hong Kong (which can only be found in the privacy policy). The company offers a one-year warranty on its products. It remains unclear who the supplier of the memory chips is – The modules appear to have been reverse-engineered.
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