Apple Perfects The Mac mini Design With An Innovative Thermal Solution And Same SSD Chip As Mac Studio, Reveals Teardown

Apple announced the new Mac mini last month with some major design changes, and the machine is now significantly smaller than the previous version but way more powerful. The M4 Pro chip in the device is quite capable, allowing the mini computer to handle AAA gaming titles from a few years ago, which is an amazing feat considering gaming on a Mac has been a lost cause over the years. Now, the new M4 Mac mini has experienced a teardown, which aims to show what changes the company has implemented on the inside and what modularity we can expect.

Teardown reveals M4 Mac mini has an innovative thermal solution on board with user-upgradable SSD, more

YouTube channel Brandon Geekabit conducted a teardown of the new wM4 Mac mini, showcasing the SSD, M4 chip, and the new heatsink that will keep the device cool. The machine tested was the base model with an M4 chip, 256GB of storage capacity, and 16GB of RAM. On the first appearance, it is amazing to see how small the Mac mini is compared to the previous version. Apple’s website details that the device is 5 inches by 5 inches and comes in a very small package.

It can also be seen in the teardown that Apple has utilized the space inside the M4 Mac mini, whereas the previous version had a lot of free room. However, it remains to be seen how the device’s thermal performance will be given that it utilizes less space. Speaking of thermal performance, the heatsink in the Mac mini is designed in a spiral fashion, which takes the airflow away from the logic board to keep it cool.

iFixit has also shared a video on YouTube showcasing the SSD chip on the Mac mini. The publication noted that SSD is the company’s proprietary storage solution, and it uses the same standard as Mac Studio. It was also stated that the SSD of the Mac Studio is interchangeable with the Mac mini. You can check out the video below.

The bottom metal plate acts as an antenna, but beyond that, you can see the Mac mini’s modular storage chip, which can be removed and is user-upgradable. Apple has learned from its past mistakes and offers dual NAND 128GB storage chips, meaning you will no longer have slower SSD speeds than higher-end versions.

Lastly, you can see the logic board with Apple’s latest M4 chip and the power supply at the bottom. The machine takes air from the bottom and distributes it to the entire system. To keep the package miniature, Apple has implemented a separate board for the WiFi and Bluetooth chips, allowing the company to allocate space more effectively.

It remains to be seen how the company’s new internal design of the Mac mini impacts its repairability, but overall, the device brings an innovative design to the mix, especially the new cooling solution. We have embedded the teardown video so you can also check that out for yourself.