While this won’t be a concern for a lot of people, if you like the idea of upgrading your PC yourself after a while to keep it performing well, the new Mac mini isn’t for you. However, we should note that because of the new M1 chip, RAM is limited to 16GB, and there’s no way to open up the device to add a larger hard drive (or more RAM). With the Mac mini, you can just plug it in and use it straight away. This is an additional cost, and is added complexity. Meanwhile, compact PCs like the Intel NUC series are slightly cheaper, but they are barebones systems, which means you need to buy and install hard drives and RAM (plus an operating system) as well. While tricky, it is also possible to upgrade the RAM on Intel-based Macs.You can also get a pre-configured model with 8GB of RAM and 512GB storage (and the same M1 chip) for £899, and you can configure the Mac mini to offer up to 16GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. The company only allows users to upgrade the RAM on the iMac, iMac Pro, and Mac Pro. The upgrade to 1TB storage will cost you $400 and a whopping $800 for 2TB.Īpple soldered the RAM and storage on its Intel-based Macs as well, which meant that upgrading their RAM and storage after purchasing them was not possible. However, the company charges quite a lot of money for such simple upgrades, with the bump in RAM from 8GB to 16GB costing $200. It also goes without saying that doing any such modification on your M1 Mac will void its warranty for good.Īpple offers customers the option to increase the RAM and storage on their M1 Macs while buying it. Apple solders the RAM and storage on the M1 Macs, which means the procedure is extremely risky and there’s a high risk of failure. 2Fyf8AZfJRĪ number of M1 Mac owners in China have been able to upgrade the RAM and storage on their machines. The 8GB memory has been expanded to 16GB, and the 256GB hard drive has been expanded to 1TB. The process is applicable for all M1 Macs, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and the Mac mini.Ĭhinese maintenance engineers can already expand the capacity of the Apple M1. The upgraded modules will also be identified by macOS without any issues. Technicians in Guangzhou, China have discovered that it is possible to remove the RAM and SSD from the M1 chip and replace them with a larger capacity module.

However, it looks like technicians in China have managed to find a workaround for this limitation as well. One of the limitations of Apple’s M1 Macs is that they do not come with user-upgradeable RAM or storage.

Mac mini 2020 ram upgrade m1