Mac mini fans recently rejoiced after Apple updated the storied compact Mac after two years without a major overhaul. But for DIY types, the new Mac mini is a mixed bag offering both heartache and promise.
Your BIOS, or Basic Input Output System, is the firmware on your motherboard responsible for initializing your computer's hardware when it is first powered on. It probes for video adapters, RAM, the whole works. The BIOS provides a small library of basic input/output functions used to operate and control the peripherals such as the keyboard, text display functions and so forth, and these. May 30, 2012 I just came across a HP Mini 210-4120ea used on Ebay, the seller has added a 4 GB ram card and even though WIndows 7 starter can't use all 4 Gb, it boots properly - the 4gb was recognised when he/she had windows 7 home premium on it so that's encouraging:smileyvery -happy:- i'll be pressing on with the experiment and keeping this thread posted. Sep 08, 2017 To replace the hard drive on a 2014 Mac mini, you have to disassemble the Mac mini case, carefully disconnect the Wi-Fi antenna, disassemble the fan, remove the main logic board and the power supply. Most of that is pretty straightforward, albeit time consuming, often frustrating work because of the small space and tiny components.
The teardown experts over at iFixit recently took apart the base model 2014 Mac Mini with a 500GB hard drive and 1.4GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 processor. The DIY site found that upgrading the Mac mini’s RAM is now pretty much impossible, but adding an internal SSD at a later date just might be doable.
The impact on you at home: Depending on a company’s design needs, a device’s internals can vary widely between generations. One year, a new smartphone or laptop may be the easiest thing in the world to upgrade, while the next model can end up being very unfriendly to do-it-yourself fixes and tweaks. Apple’s 2014 Mac mini is a perfect example of this, where swapping out or adding common components is now much more difficult—though it also adds the new possibility of PCIe-powered SSD upgrades.
Mini 2014 Ram Upgrade Hack Software
RAM fixation
The first thing iFixit discovered was that Apple switched out easy access to the RAM, which used to sit in slots right underneath the Mac mini’s bottom cover.
Mini 2014 Ram Upgrade Hacker
Making matters worse, once you dig a little deeper iFixit found that there were no pop-out RAM slots at all. Instead, the RAM is soldered directly onto the logic board. In other words, make sure you get enough memory for your potential needs when you’re ordering your computer, because you can’t upgrade it afterwards.
Digging deeper, iFixit found another bummer: The new Mac mini doesn’t come with an empty SATA port, as past models have. That means you can’t add an extra internal hard drive at home as you could have in the past.
But where Apple taketh away, Apple also giveth… probably. The SATA port is gone, but iFixit also found what it thinks is a socket for a PCIe cable that could allow you to add a blade SSD.
Adding to the DIY excitement, iFixit later found a mounting point for a “blade-style PCIe SSD.” To test the mounting point, iFixit took an SSD ripped from a recent iMac teardown and discovered the drive fit nicely inside the Mac mini mount.
The DIY site says it plans on tearing down one of the more expensive models of the new Mac mini packed with a Fusion Drive to confirm their suspicions. Apple’s Fusion Drive technology combines a standard hard drive and an SSD to create a single, user-facing storage system as opposed to two separate drives.
If the new set-up does turn out to be the real thing that’s not only good news for anyone hoping to rip apart their Mac mini at home—it also means iFixit can update its Mac mini Dual Drive upgrade kit.