The RAM is user serviceable on the new Mini. The drive might be soldered this time but even the 2014 still allowed you to replace it so I am cautiously optimistic that the iFixit teardown will reveal it to also be replaceable. Which makes the i7 Mac Mini with base specs quite attractive.

If not you can use an external SSD since it's a desktop computer and doesn't move. An external 1TB Samsung for everything besides applications and OS isn't bad at all.

I hope so. I just upgraded a 2015 11" MBA's 128GB SSD to a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO NVMe drive by using a $14 adapter (ST-NGFF2013-C)[0]. It works perfectly.

[0] http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2...

> The RAM is user serviceable on the new Mini. The drive might be soldered

sure / source?

If so I will order one straight away (not $2000 for 64gb ;)

> external 1TB

how do internal NVME SSDs compare to external ones speed wise?

Update: There are external Thunderbolt 3 NVMe SSD enclosures out there that can read and write in excess of 2000 MB/sec

But they bring you back to the $1000 upgrade cost ? :(

External drives would be based upon Thunderbolt 3 using USB-C compatible physical connections, and those are basically PCI-e 3.0 x4 lanes with a little external sync overhead. Samsung’s T5 drive would go along very well with these new minis. Obviously a drive hanging off a machine is less attractive / practical for business purposes but this is the usual Apple price / market segmentation model at work. Going back to user replaceable RAM is a bit of a shock to me considering other changes that are user-hostile (the T2 chip comes to mind).

Thanks

Any guess how much faster Apples SSDs would be than a T5 like this: ?

https://www.amazon.de/Samsung-MU-PA1T0B-EU-Portable-Kabel/dp...

I‘d expect an NVMe SSD to be about 5 times as fast as a traditional SSD like the T5, at least in theory. However as an owner of the T5 I can assure you it’s still very performant and ideal for large media storage. If peak performance is a real concern, you still have another option I just discovered: Samsung X5 - an external NVMe SSD: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/p...

This should be very close to internal PCI-based SSD performance and benchmarks seem to confirm this: https://9to5mac.com/2018/09/05/review-samsung-x5-thunderbolt...

So there‘s a storage upgrade path if you’re fine with external hardware. I‘m considering this solution myself.

Fantastic!

The new Apple SSDs in the Mac Mini 2018 are unknown so far but bets on being the latest Samsung and Toshiba NVMe SSDs for consumer class wear levels.

There’s a lot of small gotchas and caveats with Thunderbolt 3 and SSDs now but they are getting better slowly https://www.macworld.com/article/3276325/storage/nvme-over-t...

And let’s not forget that this is a 1st run product of a new generation and the Mac Mini 2019 may be significantly better in this area (or worse...)

>An external 1TB Samsung for everything besides applications and OS isn't bad at all.

Yep. 4x TB3 means I don't care at all about the internal storage. I'll take the 128GB internal drive for the OS and be on my way.

So, after further consideration I think the one to buy is the base i5 model with 256GB for 1099. Buy the RAM separately. It looks like it has 2 slots. With my local vendor 2x16GB DDR 2666Mhz comes out at 300 USD or so. I already have an external 1TB SSD, but otherwise a Samsung T5 is available for around 220 USD. That's a 1600ish USD system, which is somewhat reasonable for a mac with those specs IMO. Would be nice if Apple just gave you that for around 1800, but the 2300 they want is just unreasonable IMO.

You sold me on this config. I want to be able to use this computer for a long time, and you hit the nail on the head.

I'd go with a bigger one, just in case. I'm pretty sure future releases of macOS with all its tooling will take more and more of that space and I'd expect the machine to be useful for 3-5 years (usually more, as per Mac tradition - my mini is 6 years old and the only thing I want to upgrade in it is the hard drive).

I believe the i7 upgrade is only available in the higher model, with the base 256GB SSD.

No you can go i7 with the 128GB model as well. I think the 256GB base model makes sense though, to have enough headroom for the OS and such.

Just over a year ago, I bought an iMac, specifically because it was the only model (besides the Pro) that I could upgrade the memory after I bought it (which I've done twice already, nice to have 32GB when you have 4 family members constantly logged in).

If this Mini with up-gradable RAM had come out before then, I would have bought it instead.

Chances they use M.2 sata..... doubtful.

You can always just order it with maxed out RAM. With 4 USB-C ports you don't need to replace the internal storage - you can just add more outside the box (like we used to do with our Suns and SCSI Macs - I still have a pile of 3-drive boxes that connected to my SPARCclassic). With that, 64 gigs can probably carry us for a good 3-5 years without too much of a hassle. The fast network option also makes sharing NAS through the office an attractive option.

The last generation of Mini's had a replaceable drive. I have an office here full of Mac Mini's where I bought the base 5400RPM drive model and swapped them all out to SSD's. Which by the way I have been very happy with as a way to get desktops for my entire team.

It's kind of a nightmare the first time, it took me like an hour, very slowly disassembling the entire thing and replacing the drive with the iFixit tools I ordered. The second time took like 15 minutes and it got easier from there, it's just kind of remembering all these steps.

Needless to say it's ridiculous that they built it that way, it would have been trivial to keep the form factor and make it easy. But whatever, it's no big deal to swap out. And there's a couple places in NYC that'll do it for you for $50 as well.

Hopefully the new one will be the same way, it does look pretty much like the same box. If the RAM is also upgradeable (which it appears to be) then the platform would definitely remain attractive.

> Apple is nickle and diming customers by locking down and soldering everything on Macs, when they should look at the Mac as a gesture of goodwill to the professionals and developers who contribute to the Apple ecosystem and help drive sales of Apple's iOS cash cow.

On the other hand, selling to professionals and businesses usually means much less price sensitivity. I know corporations and startups balk much less at the price of a fully-loaded MacBook Pro than a consumer who just wants a laptop to surf Facebook with.